2012-08-11

anthimeria: Stars in space (Starscape)
2012-08-11 12:27 am
Entry tags:

Research is stranger than fiction

So I'm researching space and spaceflight related accidents and disasters for Horizons.  And I come accross this gem on wikipedia (yes, I know, but when you know nothing/very little it's a place to start.  Next stop is the NASA website and the library, promise):

"Apart from actual disasters, a number of missions resulted in some very near misses and also some training accidents that nearly resulted in deaths. In-flight near misses have included various reentry mishaps (in particular on Soyuz 5), the sinking of the Mercury 4 capsule, and the Voskhad 2 crew spending a night in dense forest surrounded by wolves."

Seriously.*  Yes.  WOLVES.  Okay, the wiki-wording is overly dramatic, but still.  Wolves are a danger of spaceflight!

. . . if a writer put that in a novel it would be laughed up and down the length of the internet.  AND YET.


*The relevant bit is on page three, though the whole article is neat.  First spacewalk!