Johannesburg: Three crew members of the International Space Station (ISS), who came back to Earth this week, had to fly blindly after their height sensors failed, a Russian cosmonaut has revealed.
According to Pavel Vinogradov, he and his fellow Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and Nasa astronaut Chris Cassidy of the Soyuz capsule, which landed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, flew blind after undocking from ISS after losing all data about their height from the ground, News24.com reported.
He said at the Star City cosmonaut training centre outside Moscow that the only data they were able to receive about their approach to the earth came from the salvage team on the ground.
Vinogradov asserted that the rescue teams radioed the crew that they were 300m and then 100m from the ground in the Soyuz capsule.
He added that he managed to count eight seconds before touching down softly.
ANI
