Posted 4/23/2008 05:09:00 PM by Douglas

Keep in mind when it comes to Russian space travel, a successful landing is one that you can walk be carried away from. All that aside, this doesn't sound good.

NASA isn't too worried about the Soyuz space capsule's wayward ride home over the weekend, saying Tuesday that the Russians have got a handle on it.

This was the second straight off-course landing for a Soyuz capsule returning from the international space station. A Russian space official told the Russian news agency Interfax that the crew of three_ including American Peggy Whitson — was in serious danger during the descent.

But NASA associate administrator for space operations William H. Gerstenmaier downplayed such alarm. NASA wasn't aware of any danger for the crew although it didn't ask if the crew was at risk, Gerstenmaier said in a Tuesday news teleconference.

"I don't see this as a major problem," Gerstenmaier said in NASA's first comments about the landing. "But it's clearly something that should not have occurred."

Not a "major problem?" What kind of problem does it sound like?

After the landing, it took a half hour before Soyuz flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko called Moscow on a satellite phone to say they were OK. But no one was worried because it often takes an entire hour for this to occur, he said.

Malenchenko "detected some smoke in the cabin," Gerstenmaier said. Then the NASA official added that it was "maybe not smoke, but actually the smell of burning materials" and that is not uncommon.

The crew was subjected to gravity forces of about eight times Earth's gravity for up to two minutes, he said. Normal Soyuz returns have G-forces of about five, NASA said.

Imagine for a moment what eight Gs would feel like. Now imagine what 8 Gs would feel like after a year of Zero G. I imagine you'd be crapping your pants like Louis Farrakhan at a Toby Keith concert. But let's get the rookie for the real scoop:

Yi said that despite the fire she saw outside, she realized that it was not even warm inside the capsule. "I looked at the others and I pretended to be OK," said Yi, a 29-year-old bioengineer.

Well that's one way to deal with it.

When's that CEV gonna be ready to launch?