In many movies and media that depict real-life spacecraft, or near-future spacecraft that are logical progressions of real-life spacecraft, they show the abort handle or button or switch. What would happen in real-life if this handle was pulled during any given moment during space flight; takeoff, orbit, halfway to the moon, etc.?
In: Technology
The classic “abort handle” is for the launch abort, which obviously only works while you’re still connected to your carrier rocket. In that case, it activates a dedicated launch abort rocket and separates the spacecraft from the rocket. The small, but powerful abort rocket then pulls away the spacecraft from the rocket (and the imminent explosion which is usually the cause to use it). Then it usually activates the descent systems (e.g. attitude control so you’re right side up, and parachutes once you reach the correct altitude for them.
Couple videos from those systems in use:
[Soyuz pad abort](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwtSWaHV_-4)
[Soyuz in-flight abort](https://youtu.be/c0l5QBmqQoI?t=223) (these 2 were real accidents with people on board!)
[Crew Dragon pad abort test](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcHD9AmkxA0)
[Crew Dragon in-flight abort test](https://youtu.be/mhrkdHshb3E?t=1148)
[Apollo abort test](https://youtu.be/AqeJzItldSQ?t=93)
However, the handle isn’t the only way the abort can be activated, and it’s more likely that it’s activated by the flight computer sensing a failure.
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