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Three astronauts launched to ISS on Soyuz

After a month’s delay in order to replace a burnt cable in their Soyuz capsule, caused by damaged insulation, Russia today successfully placed three astronauts in orbit.

They are taking the slower two day route to ISS this time in order to test the Soyuz capsule, which is a new upgraded version, and will dock on Friday.

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9 comments

  • wayne

    some launch video is at–
    https://youtu.be/ke_E4QZoKCw
    (2:30)

    Interestingly, they have cabin-cam view & one of the astronauts (bottom left seat) is using a (hi-tech) stick, to reach some of the controls.

    –Is this a Bug or a Feature, of Russian hardware?

    Completely.. just an interested-civilian as far as rocket-science, but I was under the (nebulous) impression–“all the controls are actually, ideally, within physical reach of the astronauts.”

  • C Cecil

    At 4.5 G force, it is hard to raise your arm and hand. I imagine the pressure suite is a bit of a hindrance as well.

  • wayne

    C Cecil–

    Absolutely.

    -I’ve just never seen (or don’t recall seeing) astronauts reaching for controls with a miniature stick. (It makes perfect sense.)

    on a more humorous note…
    The Big Bang Theory – Howard goes to Space
    https://youtu.be/gMZNx7bxZes

  • wodun

    @wayne

    Talk about cool, calm, and collected. No emotion shown. Not a grimace, nor a smile. It would tough to tell if he was struggling to hit one button or if he hit a series of buttons effortlessly.

  • wayne

    wodun–
    yeah, –calm, cool, and collected. Barely a hint of vibration.

    Longer clip (10:45) is here
    https://youtu.be/vVDwg23JcFY

  • Edward

    wayne asked: “–Is this a Bug or a Feature, of Russian hardware?”

    I’m going to call it a bug, because the panel is too far away for him to reach with his arm. Notice how straightened his arm is, when he is poking the button, and how much farther he would have to reach without the stick. The other two cosmonauts (actually, out of sight below the first camera is astronaut Kimbrough) have a shorter reach to their parts of the panel, so they do not need sticks, as can be seen in the longer video clip.

    It may be a feature, however. I do not know, but there is the possibility that for egress and ingress reasons the panel is far away from the commander — the middle seat.

  • wayne

    Edward–
    Thanks.
    (I was actually wondering which seat the commander sat in.)
    That longer clip does give a better perspective of how the seats are laid out, and how much volume there actually is in the capsule.
    >I’ve just never seen the stick-thing, used before.

    Yo– the “debate” just started streaming live on
    Louder with Crowder
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAm7Rm0Agxs

  • Robert Pratt

    Looks a fine low cost, low tech solution to me. We’d build a 35,000,000 chair to move forward for just those few minutes. Reminds of the pencil versus pressurized ink pen story.

  • wayne

    Robert Pratt–
    Most excellent!

    I’m dying to make fun of The Stick, but I can’t, ‘cuz it is a good idea. (I have just never seen The Stick in action, before this launch.)

    Don’t tell the folks over at the NTSB, they’ll draft legislation to control sticks-in-space. “If we could save just one astronaut from poking their eye out, it would be worth $35 million.”

    TBBT “It’s a Shelf”
    https://youtu.be/jPDG7EdZowg

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