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Stand by to... stand by!
Jan. 28th, 2005 11:09 amThe scene just outside the Fili hotel this morning:
For those having trouble reading the tree-mounted rotary dial, the temperature reads just a hair above -20°F. That's equivalent to a hair less than -28°C, and most decidedly in the cold category. (The white paint on the trees is not a consequence of the cold; the locals use the paint as a form of insect control, I am told.)
The strategy for dealing with the cold is pretty much the same, in principle, as dealing with unusually hot weather: one darts between islands of tolerable environments. Here in Baikonur, that means dressing warmly and scurrying between the hotel and the vans (the front gate has been opened to allow the vans to drive pretty much up to within a yard or two of the door) and between the vans and the ILS office at the полтинник.
Where the fly gets in the ointment is when you absolutely have to remain in the hostile environment for any length of time. That's when - in extreme cold - it becomes important to have several layers of clothing and to keep exposed surfaces to a minimum. Extreme cold is easier to deal with than extreme heat, in my ignorant, uninformed opinion, because it would appear that, as long as you've got enough clothing, you can remain comfortable, and should you suffer some discomfort, you can take countermeasures. Heat, on the other hand, requires you to consume water to survive, and can harvest your soul without so much as a how-do-you-do or any painful preliminaries. But I digress in an unpleasant direction...
The assembled space rocket (ракета космического назначения) was lifted onto the erector-transporter yesterday, and I supported a small group of managers who were on hand to witness the event. Here's a shot of the hardware some minutes before the start of the operation, with the front of the rocket rigged for lifting.
Today, I am on "standby" status, while Maya is at the полтинник supporting the so called "dynamic flow" associated with oxidizer loading of the upper stage.
I should probably digress to note that the propellant loading that occurred... it seems a long time ago... ten days?... anyway, the entries I wrote recently about propellant loading had to do with loading of the satellite that we're here launching. This loading operation is for the so-called "upper stage," a model "Breeze-M" (Бриз-М in Russian), whose job it is - in distinction from the lower stages whose job is simply to ignite and provide what amounts to a controlled explosion to push the space head unit off the planet - to ignite several times at planned times for specified intervals. The result of these burns delivers the satellite to a specified position in space, and upon separation of the satellite from the upper stage, our work here is finished.
There is one more propellant loading operation after this one for the Breeze-M concludes tomorrow, with the loading of fuel (and which I will support), and that is loading of the bottom three stages with oxidizer and fuel, which occurs in the several hours between the government commission signing off on the launch and the launch itself. As has been the case in the previous two launches, I'll be in the Polyot hotel with the Teleport Luch people, doing the "play-by-play" coverage of the launch, after which I'll be joining the spacecraft integration manager as she waits for confirmation of upper stage performance.
Six days and a wakeup to launch.
Cheers...
For those having trouble reading the tree-mounted rotary dial, the temperature reads just a hair above -20°F. That's equivalent to a hair less than -28°C, and most decidedly in the cold category. (The white paint on the trees is not a consequence of the cold; the locals use the paint as a form of insect control, I am told.)
The strategy for dealing with the cold is pretty much the same, in principle, as dealing with unusually hot weather: one darts between islands of tolerable environments. Here in Baikonur, that means dressing warmly and scurrying between the hotel and the vans (the front gate has been opened to allow the vans to drive pretty much up to within a yard or two of the door) and between the vans and the ILS office at the полтинник.
Where the fly gets in the ointment is when you absolutely have to remain in the hostile environment for any length of time. That's when - in extreme cold - it becomes important to have several layers of clothing and to keep exposed surfaces to a minimum. Extreme cold is easier to deal with than extreme heat, in my ignorant, uninformed opinion, because it would appear that, as long as you've got enough clothing, you can remain comfortable, and should you suffer some discomfort, you can take countermeasures. Heat, on the other hand, requires you to consume water to survive, and can harvest your soul without so much as a how-do-you-do or any painful preliminaries. But I digress in an unpleasant direction...
The assembled space rocket (ракета космического назначения) was lifted onto the erector-transporter yesterday, and I supported a small group of managers who were on hand to witness the event. Here's a shot of the hardware some minutes before the start of the operation, with the front of the rocket rigged for lifting.
Today, I am on "standby" status, while Maya is at the полтинник supporting the so called "dynamic flow" associated with oxidizer loading of the upper stage.
I should probably digress to note that the propellant loading that occurred... it seems a long time ago... ten days?... anyway, the entries I wrote recently about propellant loading had to do with loading of the satellite that we're here launching. This loading operation is for the so-called "upper stage," a model "Breeze-M" (Бриз-М in Russian), whose job it is - in distinction from the lower stages whose job is simply to ignite and provide what amounts to a controlled explosion to push the space head unit off the planet - to ignite several times at planned times for specified intervals. The result of these burns delivers the satellite to a specified position in space, and upon separation of the satellite from the upper stage, our work here is finished.
There is one more propellant loading operation after this one for the Breeze-M concludes tomorrow, with the loading of fuel (and which I will support), and that is loading of the bottom three stages with oxidizer and fuel, which occurs in the several hours between the government commission signing off on the launch and the launch itself. As has been the case in the previous two launches, I'll be in the Polyot hotel with the Teleport Luch people, doing the "play-by-play" coverage of the launch, after which I'll be joining the spacecraft integration manager as she waits for confirmation of upper stage performance.
Six days and a wakeup to launch.
Cheers...
