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Today promised to be mostly a repeat of yesterday's activity, this time with a different aircraft loaded with the container holding the spacecraft. I got out to the Yubileniy airport with the advance team that was going to make sure everything was set up for the transport's arrival.
Yesterday, I took along a lot of stuff I ended up not needing, including my windbreaker. Since it gets pretty hot around these parts, it turned out I didn't need it at all. So of course, I didn't take it along this morning.
So of course, I ended up suffering wind that was bitingly cold (though not quite stabbing like Robert W. Service's "driven nail") until the sun got up somewhat higher in the sky, leaving just the wind... more about which in a moment.
The aircraft delivering the satellite is nicknamed the "Beluga," owing to the rather unusual shape of the fuselage (for comparison, check out this page at seaworld.org). Watching the aircraft touch down was like watching a Shuttle landing. After its rollout, it taxied into position close to a platform that would be used to slide the container out of the aircraft, which in turn was positioned next to a rail-mounted crane (125 metric ton capacity) that would deposit the unloaded container onto a railcar for the trip to the processing facility.
After a few minutes, the pilot opened the cargo door and everyone started to get ready for unloading operations.
The wind, which had been quite noticeable upon our arrival this morning, had picked up by now. A sign on the side of the platform warned that it was not to be used at wind speeds of above 40 knots, and one of the techs I was working with said there were even more stringent constraints on the cargo door, which made sense. (You don't want that thing to rip off!)
While everyone was milling around, I managed to get photographed with the young man who directed the aircraft to its parking location, whose first name escapes me at the moment, but whose last name is Tutkushev. He was in the process of asking me if I'd ask the crew for a decal for his office.
Notice how the aircraft kinda makes us look small?
At about that time, the techs started to do the fine adjustments to bring the platform into perfect alignment with the aircraft. A "before" picture:
A few minutes later, with several people taking wind speed readings (and doing the conversions from meters per second - which is the conventional unit of measure in Russia (and since Russia leases Baikonur from Kazakhstan, we are in Russia, sort of) - to knots, the unloading game was called on account of wind.
Upon return to the hotel, I had lunch and took a nap. We're going to go back again tonight to try unloading the Beluga, if the wind allows us to.
Cheers...
Yesterday, I took along a lot of stuff I ended up not needing, including my windbreaker. Since it gets pretty hot around these parts, it turned out I didn't need it at all. So of course, I didn't take it along this morning.
So of course, I ended up suffering wind that was bitingly cold (though not quite stabbing like Robert W. Service's "driven nail") until the sun got up somewhat higher in the sky, leaving just the wind... more about which in a moment.
The aircraft delivering the satellite is nicknamed the "Beluga," owing to the rather unusual shape of the fuselage (for comparison, check out this page at seaworld.org). Watching the aircraft touch down was like watching a Shuttle landing. After its rollout, it taxied into position close to a platform that would be used to slide the container out of the aircraft, which in turn was positioned next to a rail-mounted crane (125 metric ton capacity) that would deposit the unloaded container onto a railcar for the trip to the processing facility.
After a few minutes, the pilot opened the cargo door and everyone started to get ready for unloading operations.
The wind, which had been quite noticeable upon our arrival this morning, had picked up by now. A sign on the side of the platform warned that it was not to be used at wind speeds of above 40 knots, and one of the techs I was working with said there were even more stringent constraints on the cargo door, which made sense. (You don't want that thing to rip off!)
While everyone was milling around, I managed to get photographed with the young man who directed the aircraft to its parking location, whose first name escapes me at the moment, but whose last name is Tutkushev. He was in the process of asking me if I'd ask the crew for a decal for his office.
Notice how the aircraft kinda makes us look small?
At about that time, the techs started to do the fine adjustments to bring the platform into perfect alignment with the aircraft. A "before" picture:
A few minutes later, with several people taking wind speed readings (and doing the conversions from meters per second - which is the conventional unit of measure in Russia (and since Russia leases Baikonur from Kazakhstan, we are in Russia, sort of) - to knots, the unloading game was called on account of wind.
Upon return to the hotel, I had lunch and took a nap. We're going to go back again tonight to try unloading the Beluga, if the wind allows us to.
Cheers...
