Polaris hotel disaster

*This article is about the accident on the orbital hotel. For the space station, see Polaris Orbital Hotel. For the space tourism company, see Polaris Space Tours. For the shuttle, see Polaris shuttle. For the episode of season 3, see Polaris (episode).*

## General Information

### Date

July 17, 1992

The **Polaris hotel disaster** was a disastrous accident happening during the wedding of Danny and Amber Stevens on the Polaris Orbital Hotel. A piece of space debrisW hitting one of the station's thrusters caused it to start spinning faster, increasing the gravity aboard constantly up to dangerous levels. Three people died during repair and evacuation efforts.

## History

### Prelude

On July 17, 1992, the Polaris hotel hosted the wedding of Danny and Amber, along with many guests. The event marked the soft opening of the space station, with the official opening scheduled for just a few weeks later. Earlier that day, a North Korean rocket had exploded in orbit. NASA had tracked this and sent out a bulletin, but Polaris was supposed to be in the clear and outside the debris cloud. However, one piece of debris hit one of the station's main orbital thrusters, causing it to do an uncommanded burn.

### Disaster

Attempts to kill the thrust remotely failed, the valve seemed to be stuck all the way open. The smaller rotational thrusters automatically engaged, but they were not able to overpower the failing main thruster. The station's spin gravityW was starting to rise, slowly, but steady. Station commander Rich LaPorte ordered an EVA and informed the hotel's managers, Sam Cleveland and Karen Baldwin.

Two technicians, Joaquin Asencio and Cy Reed, went for a spacewalk to manually close the thruster's valve. However, during their EVA, one of the stabilizer cables connecting the central hub of the station with the habitation ring broke free and hit both of them, ripping off their tethers and damaging their suits. They were thrown from the station and due to rapid loss of pressure, died floating in open space.

In meantime, gravity had reached close to 2 G. A second cable cut loose and hit several habitation modules while whipping around, cutting holes into some of them. A cable hit the window of Yvonne and Ed Baldwin's room, creating a hole and causing depressurization. While escaping their room, Ed stumbled and fell over a step and Yvonne was falling right over him, which broke Ed's shinbone.

While the situation became more dramatic with every minute, the evacuation of the station was decided. Sam took some of the older guests first and took them up to the central hub, where there was still zero gravity. When he came back down, the elevator malfunctioned due to the higher gravity and the cabin crashed into the lower end of the elevator shaft. Commander LaPorte ordered to hold all other elevators. When Danielle Poole and her husband broke open the door, they found Sam dead in the cabin. At that point, the gravity had reached 2.4 G and people started to be unable to keep standing on their feet or having breathing problems.

Without the elevators running, the only way to get to the hub and the shuttles was through the ladders in the access shafts. Since the evacuation of all the people through ladders with still constantly rising gravity would not going to work, Danny Stevens decided to go for a spacewalk. He climbed up the shaft, got a spacesuit out of a shuttle and exited through an airlock. Gravity reached 3 G.

Danny slowly walked down the hull, secured with a tether on a winch. He reached the malfunctioning thruster, opened the hatch and managed to manually close the thruster's valve while gravity levels exceeded 4 G, the upper limit the station was able to withstand. Then one of the swinging cables hit him, but his tether stayed intact and he was left hanging outside the habitation ring, which started to slow down its rotation as the counter thrusters now could do their work.

### Aftermath

The station was left vastly damaged, with several stabilizer cables broken and cracks or holes in many modules and other parts of the hull. 3 people had died during the disaster, including one of the two managers and owners, Sam Cleveland. The orbital hotel project had to be shut down before it really had started.

After the accident, the station's operating company Polaris Space Tours got into trouble. Its reputation was in tatters, debtors were calling in their loans, and lawsuits would be to expect. Polaris was scheduled to be sold for parts, and it was only a matter of time when the proprietary company would have to be liquidated. While trying to settle the affairs, Karen was invited to meet with Dev Ayesa, CEO of the private aeronautics company Helios Aerospace. He offered to buy Polaris and its infrastructure for a very generous amount, given the current situation of the company. After Karen realized what he wanted the station for, she asked for another 10%, which Ayesa accepted.

The space station, together with the Polaris shuttles, changed ownership and the former hotel converted to the command and habitation module for Helios' spacecraft Phoenix, with which the company was planning to compete in the upcoming race to Mars.

## Gallery

Debris from North Korean rocketDebris hits Polaris thrusterThe malfunctioning thrusterCommander LaPorte informing Sam & KarenGravity over 1.5 GRepair crew swept away from cableVital signs of the repair crewCable cutting hull of modulesCable crashing a windowPressure dropDepressurization alarmEvacuation of the guestsThe access shaft with the ladderGravity at 2.8 GDanny exiting airlockDanny walking down the hullDanny walking down the hullReaching the thrusterAt the hatchDanny hanging on the tether outside the ring

## References

1. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 1: "Polaris"
2. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 2: "Game Changer"
3. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 3: "All In"