It appears that Yi So-yeon’s trip into space really was even closer to being a disaster then orginally suspected:

But Korea has not made an issue of the incident. A KARI astronaut program official merely said, “We agreed with Russia to make efforts to prevent negative news reports.” A university professor of aviation and space critically said, “Such remarks are not the kind of statement expected from a customer who has paid a whopping W20 billion (US$1=W996). The country’s astronaut program has turned into an ugly monstrosity, as our government was denied proper status in the bilateral contract as a result of its lack of negotiation ability.”

In an interview in Moscow last Tuesday, Yi said although the retro rocket engine operated, she felt “enormous gravity pull on my body because the spaceship was descending at a great speed. I thought this may be the way a human being dies.”

Quoting an anonymous Russian official, the Interfax news agency reported that during re-entry into the atmosphere, the spaceship was flying upside down, forcing its heat sink panel to be placed at the back and its hatch to hit the atmosphere directly. This suggested that the astronauts’ safety was in danger because the hatch could have melted. [Chosun Ilbo]

It does sound like this was a close call for the people in the capsule, but fortunately they all made the landing safely.

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