Peggy Whitson has spent more time in space than any other U.S. astronaut and commanded the latest mission (Expedition 16) onboard the International Space Station. Here she describes the wild ride of the Soyuz capsule on last month's return flight.
...over the next probably minute or so we built up to 8.2 Gs... after six months in zero gravity, that felt like a pretty long minute! ...I could feel my face being pulled back and it was pretty hard to breathe. The ground indicates that we hit once and then bounced and then rolled after that. My sensation was that we hit the ground and rolled.
I guess the old pilot's saying of 'any landing you can walk away from was a good one' probably applies here.
I think Soyuz is a very reliable spacecraft and I'm sure that the Russians will get to the bottom of the potential causes of why we were downmoding to the ballistic mode in an unexpected manner.
