Chapter 89 - 86: Dangerous Situation_1

At this moment, the Alliance Spaceship was still accelerating, but because the structure was destroyed and the center of gravity had changed, the acceleration altered and it was no longer possible to enter the predetermined orbit.

The reason why ground control reacted so late was that the Alliance Spaceship was composed of an orbital module, a descent module, and a service module in sequence, with the service module responsible for communications, power, and propulsion. Having been seriously damaged, it resulted in the loss of most data, and ground control had no idea what had happened.

A fire was now breaking out in the service module, and the three astronauts inside the descent module watched as the malfunction lights on the panel lit up one by one while alarms blared intermittently, as if it were the end of the world.

Keimei Arii and Lindgren were in space for the first time, and Oleg could no longer make out what these two frightened fools were saying, so he manually turned off the alarm.

He attempted to communicate with ground control to confirm the status of the spaceship and to find out the specifics, when the spaceship gently shook again, followed by the cabin lights dimming and the cacophony in his headset vanishing.

A secondary explosion had occurred in the service module, and all of the spaceship’s electrical power and communications were now completely dead.

Oleg tried calling out several more times, but all he could hear was white noise.

"Mom... Mom..."

"Oleg, how’s the situation?"

Keimei Arii was sobbing, and Lindgren had also lost all hope.

Feeling his body enter a state of weightlessness, Oleg fumbled for the descent module’s backup battery switch while responding to Lindgren.

"We haven’t entered orbit, so we’ll re-enter the atmosphere in a few hours, or perhaps in a dozen hours, and then crash. That’s it."

"But we are still in the descent module, which can withstand the friction of the atmosphere."

"And then what? The orbital module is above the descent module. Now that the electrical system is down, we can’t separate, the parachutes won’t deploy, and there’s a whole piece of wreckage behind us. I’d rather burn to ashes in the atmosphere than be scooped out bit by bit as a paste of flesh."

Lindgren fell silent too; he hadn’t imagined his first mission would be the end of his space career.

After an unknown amount of time, perhaps a minute or several minutes later, power was restored to the descent module, and the lights came on again.

The backup power source finally kicked in, and the frantic calls from the ground instantly filled the headset.

"Konoenko, are you there Konoenko, this is Baikonur, I am the launch director Solovskiy."

"Oleg here. The backup power has finally started. I want to try to manually separate."

Solovskiy: "I now authorize you to use any means necessary to ensure your safety and return to Earth. The spaceship has a manual operation mode, and you, as the commander, have that authority."

Oleg, guided by the lights, quickly set up the separation program.

The descent module was connected to the orbital and service modules by explosive bolts, which needed to be ignited in sequence when separating.

"Lindgren, Keimei Arii, check the seals on your spacesuits!"

Oleg loudly reminded them, because decades ago there had been an incident with an Alliance Spaceship where the explosive bolts for the module separation were detonated simultaneously instead of sequentially, causing a strong vibration that deformed the connecting hatch and created a gap. The air in the descent module was sucked out in an instant, and the three astronauts who were not wearing spacesuits died immediately from the cold and asphyxiation.

After triple-checking, Oleg gave the command to detonate.

The descent module felt a slight shake at both ends, but then they could hear the sound of loose parts colliding with each other.

The four bolts in the service module successfully blew open, and it separated along with the second-stage rocket.

But the orbital module in front did not.

Oleg tried several more times, then finally confirmed that only two or three bolts exploded out of the four connecting to the service module, failing to detach successfully.

It was the worst situation imaginable; the last glimmer of hope was completely shattered.

Lindgren had also recovered by then. Coming from an engineering background, he regained his composure and looked to Oleg:

"The service module is still a bit loose; is there any chance we could climb outside and pry it open?"

"I don’t think that’s possible, unless you’re an alien with eight arms."

Oleg was very aware of the explosive bolts’ strength; they were not something they could pry open by themselves. He made this point while still managing to insert a small joke.

"Is there a rescue spacecraft coming for us?"

The little man, Keimei Arii, finally spoke up with a complete sentence.

"I’m sorry. Although there is another Union spaceship, preparation for launch takes time... You..." Director Solovski paused,

"have 14 hours. You will briefly enter Earth orbit in about 3 hours, start descending in about 4 hours, and will hit the atmosphere in 14 hours; rescuing you would require launching a spacecraft within 10 hours, but the Union needs at least 23 hours to launch. I am sorry, it’s our fault for not checking the orbit properly. I bear a significant responsibility."

Inside the re-entry capsule of the Union TMA-17M, the three astronauts fell silent.

They had received professional training before going into space and knew how difficult it was to be rescued given the current situation.

The biggest problem was, where is there a spacecraft that could launch within 10 hours and also rendezvous with them? The conditions were too demanding.

Lindgren looked despondently out of the porthole:

"It’s too soon. What if it were later? After we enter orbit, we could last a few days without eating or drinking, and by then, surely a spacecraft could come.

Director Solovski, can I still contact my family?"

Oleg, on the other hand, was much more at ease, arms spread wide, eyes looking straight ahead:

"The cosmos is our fate; dying in space is a perfect ending for a Russian Astronaut."

"I want to sing," said Keimei Arii, followed by his husky voice resonating through the earphones:

"By the turbulent waters of the Miluo River, the clouds over Mount Wu scatter in disarray.

(Where Miluo’s depths slash and foam, clouds tumble over lofty Mount Wu).

As I stand in this turbid world..."

The three astronauts—Russia giving in, America longing for loved ones, and the singer from the Island Country—Baikonur continued its relentless search for rescue plans, amidst the chaos unfolding in the heavens above.

First and foremost, self-rescue was not an option. Ground control speculated that a fire in the service module and collision had deformed the connecting structure, an intensity that could not be rectified by the three astronauts.

Exit the capsule? Although they wore suits for inside the capsule, these could sustain them for 125 minutes outside as well, but no longer. Beyond that, they’d need a rescue spacecraft.

Besides the problem of oxygen supply, the biggest issue with the inner-capsule spacesuits was heat dissipation. The human body temperature is much higher than that of space, and without a way to dissipate heat promptly, the astronauts would be literally cooked alive.

Other aspects were manageable; the inner-capsule spacesuits had a two-hour oxygen supply and were adequate for radiation protection. A brief exit from the capsule was not too problematic in itself.

But the next Union spacecraft, regardless of how you looked at it, would arrive too late. They had to look elsewhere for solutions.

Firstly, they thought of the International Space Station, where another Union TMA-16M spacecraft was docked, sent up on the previous manned mission and scheduled to bring three astronauts back to Earth in September. Perhaps it could now be dispatched to rescue the Union TMA-17M.

But after a brief assessment, they concluded it wouldn’t work. TMA-16M didn’t have enough fuel; while it could return to Earth, pursuing and rescuing TMA-17M would offer only a few minutes’ window, not even enough to adjust its position. It was like dancing on the edge of a knife, with high risk and low chances of success.

Moreover, TMA-17M was very likely to enter an uncontrollable spin, making docking impossible.

In their lack of capability, Director Yuri of the Rusia Space Agency had no choice but to request international assistance.