A distant launch...
Jul. 28th, 2013 03:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpI set the alarm late yesterday evening for 2:35 am local time, ten minutes before the scheduled launch of a Progress cargo vehicle on top of a Soyuz rocket. I figured I had a pretty good view from up here on the third floor of the Fili, and I was right—at least for the first ninety seconds or so of the launch.
At that point, the Soyuz was almost out of the field of view from my window location, and by the time I got dressed and downstairs to join Sergey K. and a member of the French team out in front of the hotel's main gate, the night sky had gone back to being bone-achingly clear, albeit with a half-moon hanging overhead. I did make it downstairs in time, however, to catch just the slightest rumble of the Soyuz engines as the sound finished racing over the distance from the pad to my ear.
The time since has been spent on Google Earth, determining for certain that the launch pad was over at area 31, almost 30 miles away from here.
Now the trick is going to be to get back to sleep (not that I have any pressing engagements tomorrow morning).
At that point, the Soyuz was almost out of the field of view from my window location, and by the time I got dressed and downstairs to join Sergey K. and a member of the French team out in front of the hotel's main gate, the night sky had gone back to being bone-achingly clear, albeit with a half-moon hanging overhead. I did make it downstairs in time, however, to catch just the slightest rumble of the Soyuz engines as the sound finished racing over the distance from the pad to my ear.
The time since has been spent on Google Earth, determining for certain that the launch pad was over at area 31, almost 30 miles away from here.
Now the trick is going to be to get back to sleep (not that I have any pressing engagements tomorrow morning).
