Leaving Hall 111...

[alexpgp]

As I expected, I missed the lifting operation where the complete launch vehicle is hoisted and mounted onto the transport railcar. That's no big deal, as I've seen this done during the campaign last year, albeit in a different building.

At 6 pm or so, folks converged on Hall 111 in the Proton Processing Facility (the formal name for the полтинник) to watch the railcar with the launch vehicle and the attached air conditioning car get hauled out of the building and then pushed backinto a siding that leads to a propellant loading area run by the Russian Space Forces (космические войска).

Here's what the launch vehicle looks like in daylight, with a thermal insulating blanket installed around the payload fairing:



Along the track, people positioned themselves strategically to take pictures of this giant device that will hurl 6 tons of mass completely clear of our planet in just a few days time. They also placed 5-ruble coins on the track, which were duly flattened by the passing consist, for luck. (I cannot imagine something like this happening at KSC, for example.) One of the hands in this photo, by the way, belongs to the general designer at the facility:



While everyone appeared to be having a good time, at least one person was hard at work making sure the train moved, albeit not too quickly: the engineer, who looked in my direction long enough for me to snap this picture:



It's been a long day. I left for dinner with the rollout nearly complete, only to return 45 minutes later prepared to support another battery charging session. At around 9:30 pm, it became apparent that the battery folks had started their work and that my services would not be required unless something went haywire, so I was released back to the hotel.

Tomorrow's schedule is supposed to start at 1 pm for me, but so was Raphael's today, and he was 'activated' shortly after 9 am, so anything can happen. After two days spent loading oxidizer and fuel, the launch vehicle will be ready for a 4-hour rollout to the pad. Rumor has it that the pad rollout will start at some unwelcome hour, but I've learned not to rely on (or care about) such whisperings. It's not as if I have anyplace else to be, y'know.

Cheers...

Comments

[drugoi.livejournal.com]

>I cannot imagine something like this happening at KSC, for example.

Why? :-)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Americans have an tendency to be absolutist with regard to safety issues and typically respond with solutions that reek of "overkill." That would translate into: nobody within a mile of the rail line (we don't want to be picking pieces out from under the train) and most certainly no "foreign objects" on the rails (lest one of them -- somehow -- derails the transporter).

Cheers...

[drugoi.livejournal.com]

OK, thank you. Very similar to Norwegians way of work. :-)

Father of my wife was a chief of engines testing stend on Baikonur in 50-60s. Im very proud about him.

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

There's a certain childish glee in putting coins on a track and recovering the flattened results. As a kid in Jr. High, I did it in South Dakota before two Ringling Bros & Barnum and Baily circus trains were due to pass on their way to set up in Watertown. They didn't have those trains much longer, either. I lost track of the flattened coins over the years, though.