Flying Saucer

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ƒ/3.2

35 mm

1/30

1000

Flown recovery beacon antenna cover, flown aboard the first Soyuz TMA mission, and scorched from reentry. This cover was jettisoned after the successful landing of the spacecraft, allowing an antenna to pop out to signal the recovery crew. (as seen below)

TMA-1 was the first flight of the new TMA-class Soyuz spacecraft. A technical malfunction caused the Soyuz control system to abandon the gentler aerodynamic reenrty, and instead, it reverted to a harsher ballistic free-fall descent. This resulted in a steep and off-target landing 300 miles short of the planned area, and the crew was subjected to severe gravitational loads. Communication with the Soyuz was lost because one antenna was ripped off during descent, and two more did not deploy. The crew regained communications through an emergency transmitter after landing. (from Wikipedia)

This may be why this cover was retained for inspection and analysis. Due to this event, future crews would be provided with a satellite phone to establish contact with recovery forces.

The cover measures approximately 15″ in diameter and is composed of ebonite and carbon fiberglass.

4 responses to “Flying Saucer”

jurvetson

Feb 2, 2013 at 8:30 pm

The cover is on the ground near his feet (the inside is white, as seen below):

A clearer view of how the antenna pops out from the circular opening:

I also have that TMA-1 panel with the yaw thrusters, which you can see at the rear of the capsule.

Here is the backside…

and how it looks on the metal stand:

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linux-works

Feb 2, 2013 at 11:35 pm

I want to attend the garage sales are that you seem to know about 😉

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LateApexer

Feb 24, 2013 at 3:02 am

Steve, you got that!? I was bidding against you. It looks even better than I thought it was. Great job displaying it.

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jurvetson

Dec 31, 2014 at 7:35 am

At a recent B612 event at DFJ, astronaut Ed Lu saw the thruster panel from this same mission:…and he remembered sending them off from the ISS:

"I looked through my photos and I found this picture I took of Soyuz TMA-1 as it pulled away after undocking. If you look on the left hand side you can see my hand and the camera lens reflected in the porthole window. We normally went to an inertial attitude hold before undocking, so unfortunately the Sun is almost in the window making the photo less than ideal, but that’s how it goes sometimes. About 2 hours after this photo was taken, Soyuz TMA-1 (with Expedition 6 onboard) had the sensor failure that forced a downmode to ballistic entry. The thruster panel you have was used to spin up the Soyuz to gyro-stabilize the vehicle (rifle bullet style) so it could make an unguided reentry."

Ed Lu’s photo, close up:

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Flying Saucer

4 responses to “Flying Saucer”

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