• 2 months ago
On Sept. 26, 1983, a Russian Soyuz rocket exploded on the launchpad.

Two cosmonauts were inside the spacecraft, and they barely made it out alive. About 90 seconds before the rocket was supposed to launch, a fire erupted. Thankfully the emergency escape system ejected their space capsule from the top of the rocket just two seconds before the fire caused the explosion. So far this has been the only time that a launch escape system had to be used.
Transcript
00:00On this day in space.
00:04In 1983, a Russian Soyuz rocket exploded on the launch pad.
00:08Two cosmonauts were inside the spacecraft, and they barely made it out alive.
00:12About 90 seconds before the rocket was supposed to launch, a fire erupted.
00:16Thankfully, the emergency escape system ejected their space capsule from the top of the rocket
00:20just two seconds before the fire caused the explosion. So far, this has been the only
00:24time that a launch escape system had to be used. And that's what happened
00:28on this day in space.
00:32NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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