Pre-fueling frenzy...
Sep. 2nd, 2005 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpI was the early guy in today and handled the daily status meeting. I couldn't help but notice that the tables in the conference room where the meeting is held had been rearranged in preparation for the government commission that is to meet Sunday night to give the go/no-go for rollout of the space rocket to the launch pad (pretty much a rubber stamp affair, in my book, but a fairly important rubber stamp), and that now, my seat was facing the wall, away from most ears.
(Le sigh.) I made the necessary adjustments and the meeting went on.
Afterward, there was a frenzy of activity as some last-minute changes were incorporated into the launch script (at least the part in which the customer participates), which was immediately followed by folks dispersing to their launch positions to rehearse the countdown. All of this was particularly stressful for the lead interpreter, Sergei Z., and I got involved at the control room end helping to make sense of the four phones, two headsets, and other assorted equipment that had been set up for use during the countdown.
Eventually, I got back to the Fili in time to see the last of the prop team leave, shortly after which the bus for Area 31 showed up, ready to take people to the Soyuz launch.
I guess we must have gotten under way fairly late, because when we got to the site, the access road had been cordoned off and we ended up parked along the road next to a bus of what looked like high school students. (In distinction from the Soyuz launch at the Gagarin area during the Intelsat 10-02 campaign a little over a year ago, there was no socializing between our group and the students.)
I had to search the horizon to find the rocket and then settled down for about 30 minutes, until shortly before launch. Despite having no audible clues as to when the launch is to occur (hearing the Russian equivalent of "One minute to launch!" kinda gives it away), you can still tell when someone is about to light a fire under a Soyuz: the service gantries are pulled back. When this happened, someone yelled "Tally-ho!" and we all looked at the Soyuz.
As the rocket gained altitude over our heads, it occurred to me that - since the start of this campaign - I have seen more things take off vertically (three rockets) than I have seen take off horizontally (two airplanes). In what seemed to be a mere few seconds, the air filled with the roar of the rocket's engines and then the Soyuz was a flaming dot in the sky, which disappeared behind some high cirrus clouds overhead.
Tomorrow, I am the on-call interpreter for propellant loading ops, after first going to the полтинник with the safety engineer early in the morning to support some last-minute stuff. Sunday, my sole assignment will be about 30 minutes of whisper simultaneous work during the government commission meeting in the evening, so I might be able to make it into town one more time before the end of the campaign.
Cheers...
(Le sigh.) I made the necessary adjustments and the meeting went on.
Afterward, there was a frenzy of activity as some last-minute changes were incorporated into the launch script (at least the part in which the customer participates), which was immediately followed by folks dispersing to their launch positions to rehearse the countdown. All of this was particularly stressful for the lead interpreter, Sergei Z., and I got involved at the control room end helping to make sense of the four phones, two headsets, and other assorted equipment that had been set up for use during the countdown.
Eventually, I got back to the Fili in time to see the last of the prop team leave, shortly after which the bus for Area 31 showed up, ready to take people to the Soyuz launch.
I guess we must have gotten under way fairly late, because when we got to the site, the access road had been cordoned off and we ended up parked along the road next to a bus of what looked like high school students. (In distinction from the Soyuz launch at the Gagarin area during the Intelsat 10-02 campaign a little over a year ago, there was no socializing between our group and the students.)
I had to search the horizon to find the rocket and then settled down for about 30 minutes, until shortly before launch. Despite having no audible clues as to when the launch is to occur (hearing the Russian equivalent of "One minute to launch!" kinda gives it away), you can still tell when someone is about to light a fire under a Soyuz: the service gantries are pulled back. When this happened, someone yelled "Tally-ho!" and we all looked at the Soyuz.
As the rocket gained altitude over our heads, it occurred to me that - since the start of this campaign - I have seen more things take off vertically (three rockets) than I have seen take off horizontally (two airplanes). In what seemed to be a mere few seconds, the air filled with the roar of the rocket's engines and then the Soyuz was a flaming dot in the sky, which disappeared behind some high cirrus clouds overhead.
Tomorrow, I am the on-call interpreter for propellant loading ops, after first going to the полтинник with the safety engineer early in the morning to support some last-minute stuff. Sunday, my sole assignment will be about 30 minutes of whisper simultaneous work during the government commission meeting in the evening, so I might be able to make it into town one more time before the end of the campaign.
Cheers...
