Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known
Founder: Joseph Barone
Contributors: crookedindifference, bumerangue, propagandery, rocketmagic, rostenbach
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
The launch of Soyuz TMA-08M. According to tradition, the crew sign their room doors and are blessed by a Russian Orthodox priest. The crew then put on their sokol suits, have them checked for leaks and head out to the launch pad. After launch, the crew made the first expedited docking after only six hours, instead of two days.
(Source: GCTC)
Soyuz
Blueprint of a Russian Soyuz rocket. Click here to view big..!
omg this is beautiful
edit: this is BIG
The Soyuz 9 crew, Andriyan Nikolayev and Vitaly Sevastyanov, played the first chess game across space. They played against Earth, a team that consisted of Nikolai Kaminin, head of the Cosmonaut Training Center and cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko. The game was played on a day off for the crew and ended in a draw. You can see how the game was played here. (June 1970)
(Source)
Art by Bob McCall.
some old stamps i bought at the flea market
Soyuz TMA-21 has landed back on earth!
The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft is seen with the Moon in the background as it lands in Kazakhstan.
This is an interesting Soyuz tradition. Before cosmonauts launch they take their last pee on earth on the wheel of the bus. Yup, this is also from Yuri Gagarin’s first flight and has been done ever since.
Guy Lalibertéand Anousheh Ansari, space tourists, mention it in their blogs.
This illustration depicts a configuration of the Soyuz spacecraft for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). The ASTP was the first international docking of the U.S.’s Apollo spacecraft and the U.S.S.R.’s Soyuz spacecraft in space. For this project, the Soviets built another in their continuing series of Soyuz space capsules. The U.S. used the Saturn IB Apollo capsule. A joint engineering team from the two countries met to develop a docking system that permitted the two spacecraft to link in space and allowed the crews to travel from one spacecraft to the other.
Credit: NASA
Launch of Soyuz. It takes some much-needed supplies to the ISS. The craft’s loaded with over two and a half tonnes of cargo, for the 6 people currently aboard the ISS. It’s mostly essential supplies, like food and fuel for the station. But some of the payload’s unique, and even alive. A group of fruit flies - which are considered pests down here on Earth - are being awaited on the ISS for some unique experiments.
Source: Russia Today
Russian rocket Soyuz TMA-21 took off today from Baikonur taking cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyayev and Andrei Borisenko and American astronaut Ron Garan to the ISS.
Russia Honors First Man in Space With Rocket Launch
Fifty years ago this month, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human ever to fly in space. And he’s about to go back — if in name only.
Today (April 4), Russia will launch three spaceflyers aboard a Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft that has been christened the “Yuri Gagarin” to honor the cosmonaut and his historic flight, which took place on April 12, 1961. The Soyuz is slated to blast off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:18 p.m. EDT (4:18 a.m. April 5 local time).
The “Yuri Gagarin” will carry two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut to the International Space Station, where they will join three spaceflyers already there, rounding out the orbiting lab’s Expedition 27.
On image above, NASA astronaut Ron Garan poses in front of the booster for the “Yuri Gagarin” Soyuz spacecraft.
A Thin Blue Line
A docked Russian Soyuz spacecraft (right) backdropped by the thin line of Earth’s atmosphere and the blackness of space is featured in this image, which was taken by the STS-133 crew. The image also features a portion of the International Space Station’s Quest airlock and solar array panels.
Source: NASA.
