Russian Quality Control

摘要

The rough re-entry and landing experienced by three passengers aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA capsule returning from the international space station April 19 is cause for serious concern, regardless of the level of danger actually faced by the crew. On April 24, a spokesman for the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, dismissed as "a black public relations campaign" press reports suggesting the crew members were lucky to walk away from their capsule after it came down 420 kilometers short of its target landing zone.