Launch Escape System

A launch escape system is a rocket-powered device, usually a small tower mounted above a crewed space capsule, designed to quickly pull the capsule and its crew away from the rocket beneath it in the event of a failure during launch. NASA's Mercury program, whose first crewed flight took place in 1961, was designed from the start with a launch escape tower for this purpose, and the Soviet Union's Soyuz spacecraft, first flown in 1967, has carried a similar system that has been used successfully in real launch failures. A launch escape system is typically jettisoned once a rocket has climbed high enough that its remaining ascent poses little danger to the crew.