Launch failure. It's a dirty word, and it's been even more of a dirty word since 1986, when the Challenger disintegrated right after separation.
Amazingly, this is the only instance of a fatality caused by an aborted launch. But one was enough to get people to think about abort systems.
Ironically, the more primitive Soyuz has always done better. There have now been three cases of a launch failure involving a manned Soyuz capsule.
Soyuz T-10-1 exploded on the pad and Soyuz 18-1 blew up at a high altitude...149km...after a separation failure.
And last week, Soyuz MS-10 experienced a booster failure.
The big thing?
No astronauts were killed or even seriously injured in these accidents. (Hey, Space X, why don't you get a copy of their abort system to study? Might save you some time).
Which demonstrates that it is, yes, quite possible to make launch safe for astronauts and ultimately passengers.
(I'm trying not to conspiracy theory about the fact that this comes right on the heels of the mysterious drill hole...)
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