Space Data Center: 24 hours before launch

    Friends, tomorrow, on Cosmonautics Day, at 15 o’clock our small server will go to pre-space - to the stratosphere. As long as our equipment passes the last tests, we are nervous whether everything will go well, whether it will malfunction, whether everything is correctly calculated.



    Flying into space is one of the most difficult journeys in the history of mankind. The complexity of technology and the scientific apparatus, thanks to which a person can fly away from the planet, live at an altitude of 450 km and return back, few people can realize even among those for whom astronautics is part of life. The reasons why the flight may be unsuccessful and even tragic are countless. And it is not surprising that almost all astronauts are very superstitious and believe in signs. And not only them: for many decades there has developed a whole set of rituals that every astronaut must observe in order for the flight to go successfully.

    And now that we have exactly one day left before our launch, we want to talk about the signs that are prevalent among astronauts.

    Firstly, in the national space program it is almost officially forbidden to fly on Monday. This tradition arose back in the 1960s, when 11 accidents occurred during Monday launches. Of course, the increased accident rate on the first day of the week can be explained much more prosaically. There is no mysticism, a banal human factor: Monday is the beginning of the working week after the weekend, when hundreds and thousands of people, who depend on the dependability of the most complex equipment, enter the working rhythm, return to the team, and again face the stress of high responsibility. Against this background, the likelihood of errors increases, and errors in astronautics are much more expensive than in aviation.

    Also, they don’t fly into space on October 24th - on this day in 1960 and 1963, disasters with human casualties occurred on Baikonur.

    Before being sent to the cosmodrome, the crew must bring flowers to the memorial in honor of Yuri Gagarin and the first dead astronauts: Vladimir Komarov (died on April 24, 1967), as well as George Dobrovolsky, Viktor Patsaev and Vladislav Volkov (they died on the whole crew when they returned July 30, 1971 )

    Then the astronauts come to the memorial “ceremonial” office of Gagarin, which they retain in the form that it was 60 years ago.



    Two weeks before the launch, the astronauts arrive at Baikonur and settle in a hotel with the very resourceful name Cosmonaut. There, each of them plants a name tree. Previously, it was customary to plant them after the flight, and now before. Today, more than 100 trees are already growing in the alley (not all have taken root).



    Two days before launch, a rocket with a spaceship is taken out of the assembly and test building to the launch pad. Accompanying techniques - it is allowed only to them - put coins on the rails “for good luck”. And the astronauts on this day are not allowed to come near: a bad sign, to see the ship before the launch day.


    The day before the launch, the crew watches the film "The White Sun of the Desert" without fail. This tradition was born thanks to the successful flight that took place after the tragic death of Dobrovolsky, Patsaev and Volkov. Allegedly, the crew watched this film before departure and safely returned to Earth. Since then, a joint viewing of the “White Sun of the Desert” has become a ritual.

    On the day of launch, the astronauts drink a sip of carbonated mineral water, and the backup crew must take 100 g of technical alcohol to the chest. There is a bike that when they didn’t do it, accidents happened. That they just won’t come up with just to justify the libation :)

    Then the astronauts on the doors of their rooms in the hotel leave their autographs, which are carefully preserved.



    Finally, astronauts in spacesuits to the sound of the immortal song “Grass by the House” are loaded onto the bus and sent to the launch pad. Arriving at the place, the crew performs another ritual, which, according to legend, began with Gagarin himself: before flying for many hours into orbit, you need to "let the jet" onto the bus wheel. After that, the spacesuits are tightly screwed up.

    Then the time comes for a solemn readiness report, wave to reporters and other mourning hands and board.

    And already inside the ship, lying in the anti-loading seats, the astronauts hang a soft toy on a rope, which is usually called "Boris". This is the mascot that the crew commander chooses. On the one hand, tradition, on the other - a mascot is hung in the field of view of a video camera through which astronauts are observed from the Mission Control Center. And when the toy "floats", then zero gravity has come.

    Let me finish this story, it’s time to prepare the stratostat and equipment. The last countdown begins.

    And we invite you to participate in our competition"Guess the landing site of the stratospheric balloon." The main prize for the one who guesses the most is the summer trip to Baikonur to launch the Soyuz MS-13 manned spacecraft. Perhaps luck will smile at you, and you will personally see the elm planted by Gagarin on Baikonur.


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