Soyuz T-10-1
A launch to Salyut 7 aborted by a pad fire on 26 September 1983; the only case of a launch escape system saving a crew before liftoff.
Contents
living encyclopedia entrySoyuz T-10-1 was to carry Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov to the Salyut 7 station on 26 September 1983. Less than two minutes before the planned liftoff, a fire broke out at the base of the Soyuz-U launcher. Ground control activated the SAS escape system, which tore the descent module with the crew away from the burning rocket seconds before it exploded.
The cause was a faulty valve in the propulsion system of one of the strap-on boosters: a turbopump spun up without propellant, ruptured, and the leaking kerosene ignited. After the escape motors fired, the capsule reached an altitude of under a kilometre and landed by parachute a few kilometres from the pad; the crew briefly endured more than 14 g but were unhurt. It remains the only known case of a launch escape system being used with a crew aboard before liftoff.
- Date: 26 September 1983, Baikonur Cosmodrome.
- Crew: Vladimir Titov (commander), Gennady Strekalov (flight engineer).
- Launcher: Soyuz-U; destination: Salyut 7 station.
- Escape system commanded from the ground roughly two seconds before the launcher exploded.
ARTICLE ON THE TIMELINE
FULL TIMELINE →The date falls outside the main 1957–1975 period and is included here to illustrate the theme of launch escape systems. Two seconds before the launcher exploded on the pad, mission control activated the launch escape system (SAS, the Soviet counterpart to the LES). The crew, Vladimir Titov and Gennadi Strekalov, survived accelerations of roughly 15–17 g without serious injury — still the only real-world use of this type of system in the Soviet/Russian program.
Open the entry →