Apparently, the Boeing Starliner and SpaceX CrewDragon can't come soon enough. Former astronaut (and high altitude balloon pilot) Ron Garan gave a little preview of what Scott Kelly may be in for on his return from space next week in an interview with Forbes. Returning from space in a Soyuz sounds like absolute hell.
"When the drogue chutes opened, we got thrown around, like three guys on the end of a towel being whipped in every direction," Garan told Forbes. "There were a lot of Gs in there, building up to the point where you're wavering to breathe. When the main parachutes opened, you got thrown all over the place again."
Garan went on to tell Clash that the experience was like "going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, on fire, then crashing really hard," and that it was more violent than ejecting from an F-16 at high speeds. Sounds like a few cliches about the Spartan cosmonaut experience may be true.
Kelly returns from his year in space on March 1. Sounds like his first return to gravity in more than 300 days will be a quite abrupt welcome back.
Source: Forbes
