Who'd a thunk it?

[alexpgp]

If you've been following the news (and assuming the news has been paying attention to the ongoing ISS flight), you probably know that there have been a number of failures during this flight that will likely cause the flight to go over by a day or two (the smart money on the third floor says they're going to try for two, but may have to settle for one).

One thing, at least, is clear: by and large all of the schedules I've been translating have been reduced to shreds by all of the problems. But that's my job, so it's a case of grin and bear it.

People like to think that space explorers are hard, calculating, realistic people. In fact, somewhere in the next day or so, the crew that's going to bring the replacement Soyuz up to the station (commanded by Talgat Musabaev and including Dennis Tito, the California "space tourist") will sit down and watch a film called (in English) White Sun of the Desert (in Russian, Белое солнце пустыни)

Why?

Because back in 1961, on the night before his flight, Yuri Gagarin is supposed to have watched this movie. (Kinda hard, though, since the movie was shot in 1969.)

Nonetheless, pretty much every Soviet cosmonaut crew watches it on the night before liftoff. It helps that the movie is very good (some people might even say it is the best movie of the Soviet era), but the key here is that pilots - and by extension cosmonauts - are both highly technically skilled people and superstitious by nature, and so I'm sure there will be an audience for this movie for as long as people fly into space from Russia.

The line between tradition and superstition can sometimes be rather thin. In addition to watching the movie, I am reliably informed that just before their flights, cosmonauts visit a reconstruction of Gagarin's office at the museum located at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. The reconstruction uses all of the original furniture from Gagarin's office, down to to his wall clock that is eternally set to his liftoff time (what time that is escapes me at the moment). The visit, I am told, includes sitting down at the desk and signing a log book of some kind, and provides an opportunity to leave behind any "to be opened in case..." letters, though I am told, as a rule, this is never done.

I am also reliably informed that the vehicle that takes cosmonauts out to the launch pad stops on the way to allow the travelers to relieve themselves against the right rear tire (if memory serves). This "tradition," too, is based on the historical precedent of Yuri G. having done so on the way to his historic flight. Go figure.

A one-day extension of the ISS flight will delay the Soyuz launch by a day. While it would be quite an event to have a Soyuz arrive for docking while the Shuttle was at the station, there is probably an unacceptable level of risk in performing such a stunt, with very little justifiable payoff. I suspect the Russian side will go along with a one-day extension with no problem; getting agreement on a two-day extension is going to be more difficult, as I understand there are some launch window constraints on the Soyuz...but those are dependent on the ability of Endeavour to raise the orbit of the station anyway.

Hopefully, Drew and Shannon will make it safely back to Pagosa tomorrow. Lee will then start to think seriously about doing a handover with them and then coming down to Houston. I am told that Ming was turned in to the local Humane Society, from where he was bailed out by the appropriate monetary contribution. I am glad for that, because I really am attached to that little smelly ball of fluff. I was thinking that maybe he had met up with a bobcat or something similar, but it turns out my worries were in vain.

Time to go to sleep, I guess...maybe do a little reading first. At least I do not have a telecon tomorrow morning...hoorah!

Cheers...

Comments

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I suppose a little computer excitement is more interesting to work than a routine no-problems flight. It's just a good thing NASA isn't running LIvejournal on the station ;)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I think I understand what you're getting at, but the level of "interesting" brought about by recent events is a little too high, over too long a time.

It reminds me of a joke...

A fellow goes into a bank to cash a check and, as he's opening his wallet, the cashier notices all sorts of different currencies there...francs, marks, rubles, yen.

The cashier says, "That's a lot of different kinds of money. What do you do for a living?"

"I'm an airline pilot. I fly all over the world."

"Wow," says the cashier, "that must be awfully exciting."

"Not if I do my job right," says the pilot.

Cheers...

Re:

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

Someone pointed out that the computer problems stem from the fact that NASA is using Windows NT on Alpha and that they should know better ;)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I'd say that someone is mistaken. The problems with the computers on the station have to do with so-called MDMs, which are more like custom industrial controllers. They sure as heck don't run NT; if I had to put money on it, I'd say the systems are Solaris-based.

There are Windows boxes on the ISS, mostly for the immediate use of the crew for more pedestrian ends, such as displaying procedures, sending and receiving e-mail, etc.

Cheers...