Today in Space History - The Tower That Fired
Stardate 1181.2057 (SEPTEMBER 26, 1983)
About ninety seconds before a planned night launch to Salyut 7, a valve on the Soyuz-U failed. Pressurant gas spun an empty fuel pump until it ruptured, and kerosene spilled across the pad at Baikonur and caught fire. The cables that should have carried an abort command burned through. Inside the spacecraft, Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov could only tighten their harnesses and wait.
A radio command, requiring two operators to act within seconds of each other, finally fired the launch escape system at 19:37 UTC. The tower drew the capsule clear at fourteen to seventeen g. Moments later the rocket toppled and exploded, damaging the pad that had sent Sputnik and Gagarin on their way. The capsule landed about four kilometres off, five minutes and thirteen seconds after the abort. It was the first time, and remains the only time, a launch escape system has carried a crew off the pad. They were bruised. They were alive.