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Just about all wrapped up...
Aug. 6th, 2006 12:32 pmYesterday's launch activites started around 1:30 am for me as I walked from the Fili over to the Polyot. At the Fili entrance, I tried to take a shot of the pad, which is brightly lit - with the service tower resembling an oversized lit-up Christmas tree standing in the middle distance - but between camera jiggle and the inherent difficulty of taking photos of distant objects at night, nothing really came out well.
Upon arrival at the Polyot, I went to the fifth floor and checked out the setup for my narration gig, which is simple and straightforward. My window on the world was the monitor in the photo below:
During the launch, I wear a microphone and use a metal transport case (similar to the one on which the television in the photo is resting) for my notes. My part went well, and after the noise of the launch vehicle faded away, I could even hear the faint echo of my voice on our feed back from the US, delayed by about 4-5 seconds to allow the signal to bounce to the East Coast and back again.
As I had arrived around two hours prior to launch, I took the opportunity to visit the comm center on the fourth floor, which is the nerve center through which all information regarding the launch and the all-important upper stage burns passes up until the satellite separates from the spent upper stage. We took the opportunity to take a photo:
As I've probably made clear in previous posts, everything went well with the launch. The customer's faith in the launch vehicle was vindicated, as was the Breeze-M's 'return to flight' and all the hard work everyone had put in on the project. As you might expect, the success was marked by a celebratory dinner.
Such dinners are, of course, opportunities for interpreters to work (not complaining, just observing). After an initial spate of toasts from all sides (wherein Olga F. and I again did "chained consecutive interpretation" for the toast pronounced in French), a toast was proposed by one of the technical specialists at the Salyut Design Bureau, which is one of many organizations that takes part in enterprises such as ours.
As he did for the Anik-F1R campaign of about a year ago, Leonid composed a ballad called "Hot Bird," which was the name of our satellite, and sang it as a toast. Here's a stanza, with my translation beneath, and a photo of the performer:
Time for lunch, after which I must pack.
Cheers...
Upon arrival at the Polyot, I went to the fifth floor and checked out the setup for my narration gig, which is simple and straightforward. My window on the world was the monitor in the photo below:
During the launch, I wear a microphone and use a metal transport case (similar to the one on which the television in the photo is resting) for my notes. My part went well, and after the noise of the launch vehicle faded away, I could even hear the faint echo of my voice on our feed back from the US, delayed by about 4-5 seconds to allow the signal to bounce to the East Coast and back again.
As I had arrived around two hours prior to launch, I took the opportunity to visit the comm center on the fourth floor, which is the nerve center through which all information regarding the launch and the all-important upper stage burns passes up until the satellite separates from the spent upper stage. We took the opportunity to take a photo:
As I've probably made clear in previous posts, everything went well with the launch. The customer's faith in the launch vehicle was vindicated, as was the Breeze-M's 'return to flight' and all the hard work everyone had put in on the project. As you might expect, the success was marked by a celebratory dinner.
Such dinners are, of course, opportunities for interpreters to work (not complaining, just observing). After an initial spate of toasts from all sides (wherein Olga F. and I again did "chained consecutive interpretation" for the toast pronounced in French), a toast was proposed by one of the technical specialists at the Salyut Design Bureau, which is one of many organizations that takes part in enterprises such as ours.
As he did for the Anik-F1R campaign of about a year ago, Leonid composed a ballad called "Hot Bird," which was the name of our satellite, and sang it as a toast. Here's a stanza, with my translation beneath, and a photo of the performer:
Но вот уже заправлена ракета.
Теперь летим, почти наверняка.
В который раз, мой друг, ты видешь это,
Но, все равно, волнуешься слегка.
So now, the rocket stands completely ready.
We're going to launch, now, almost certainly.
You've done this many times, your nerves are steady,
Though there's still a hint of weakness in your knees.
Time for lunch, after which I must pack.
Cheers...
