Free falling from the sky

Being an editor in these hectic days when analysts and journalists so much love „internet-kills-the-press” talk isn’t easy. Have you ever thought people in other industries may feel worse than you?

If you have not, please take a look at this short interview published in August issue of „Wired” magazine.

Adam Rogers talks to the NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson who took a ride home from the International Space Station.

Her Soyuz descent module failed to separate properly, forcing it into a ballistic path - a fast, steep entry that caused the craft to miss the landing site by 295 miles.

What was it like?

Wired: Were you scared?

Whitson: No. I was too busy to be scared. I knew what was happening was not strictly nominal, but we train for these scenarios.

Wired: Uh-huh. You astronauts always say that.

Whitson: Sorry. I guess it’s a cliche, but it’s true. Of course, there’s not much you can do in 8 gs. But that was probably a minute or less, and then it dropped to 4.5 gs and we could breathe again. Then we felt the big yank of the parachute deploying.
Wired: Again, scary.

Whitson: Oh, we also had smoke coming from under the control panel, so we shut it off. That meant we had no altitude data aside from a less reliable wrist gauge and looking out the window.

Wired: And the actual touchdown?

Whitson: We bounced about 10 meters and rolled. When we stopped, I was on top, hanging in my seat.

Wired: Which is when you got out of the capsule?

Whitson: Well, when Yuri opened the hatch there was a grass fire outside, so we recommended he close the hatch for a little bit. It was desert grass, so it burned out relatively quickly. And then we managed to crawl out.

Wired: Any landing you can crawl away from is a good one, I guess.

Whitson: Obviously it wasn’t totally nominal.

Are you too busy to be scared, either?

More recent stories

Integration is a neverending process

Agora’s (Poland) Sport.pl Group is one of the leaders of the Polish Internet ‘Sports’ category. After merging its various sports newsrooms into one, Sport.pl attracts 3.5 million users monthly. Marcin Gadzinski, the editor-in-chief of... 

Agora will support innovative internet entrepreneurs

12,5 thousand Euro in cash plus advertising campaign worth 25 thousand Euro – this is the main prize in Startup Fest – a competition for independent internet entrepreneurs organized by Agora. The publisher of the largest Polish daily “Gazeta... 

Photography in the age of tablets

Two editors went to Arles in France not only to watch pictures at the famous photography festival, but also to talk with the world’s best photographers about their pictures. Les Rencontres (“Encounters”) is one of the most important... 

How to monetize online niches, local sites and blogs

Poland’s Agora partners with two European entrepreneurs to take the middle man out of buying advertising, selling simple ads directly through web sites. Is AdTaily.com the future of online advertising? In August issue of the INMA Ideas magazine... 

Newspapers can help schools to enter the digital age

Today’s pupils are the first generation that does not remember the world before the Internet revolution. But our schools got stuck in the “chalk age”. What newspapers can do about it? This May twenty five reporters of Gazeta Wyborcza,... 

What drives Daily Telegraph, El Pais, Le Monde and New York Times to Krakow?

80+ delegates from 35 different European newsmedia companies have already registered to the INMA/OPA Europe Conference in Krakow, Poland (Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2010). Among those who took advantage of the first deadline for early bird rates and registered... 

Newspaper challenged by an amateur blogger

Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza believes it helps to build an open society by providing platforms for debates and inspiring readers concerned with a common good. Sometimes readers take an opportunity and start competing with their own newspaper. That morning...