Has any astronaut or cosmonaut personally performed experiments, that could only be done by a human in flight, during the ascent phase of a flight. If so, what kind of experiment(s) did they perform?
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I think this question is a bit too broad. The ultimate answer is "yes" in the sense that just about every crewed launch is still experimental (as the recent Soyuz failure has taught us, even after some 60 years launches can and do still go awry). – Michael Stachowsky Jul 30 '19 at 13:52
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Are you asking about experiments performed during the ascent phase of a flight? – Organic Marble Jul 30 '19 at 15:43
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One example might be these swinging objects present in many (most?) Soyuz launches, but we'd need more evidence that a proper experiment was done. Puzzler: What acceleration are these astronauts experiencing? – uhoh Jul 30 '19 at 16:02
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Follow-up question, based on uhoh's example: https://space.stackexchange.com/q/37815/26446 – DrSheldon Jul 31 '19 at 01:55
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Aren't sounding rockets fitted for such experiments? (no need to go to orbit to make an experience during launch) – Manu H Jul 31 '19 at 08:20
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Edited the question to clarify why sounding rockets would not fit what I was hoping to learn about such experiments. – Bob516 Jul 31 '19 at 15:46
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Ascents don't last very long and if you're piloting or monitoring the ship, you are not going to be doing experiments. For the US, that pretty much limits any possible source of such experiments to Space Shuttle middeck crewmembers. I don't know of any official investigations done by these crewmembers. – Organic Marble Jul 31 '19 at 18:28