Topic: Soyuz TMA-22

[rickl]

I hope everybody got to watch the launch Sunday night.  It was the first manned launch since the last Shuttle flight in July.  I watched the live coverage on a Russian website and thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was snowing heavily, but that didn't faze the Russians a bit.  About two hours before liftoff, they had the ground crew out shoveling the launch pad.  When the cosmonauts and astronaut arrived, they were wearing hooded ponchos over their space suits to keep the snow off.





I suspect they've done this before.  It was new to me, though, since most of the launches I've seen originated in Florida.

Here are two videos of the launch.  The first video is from the Russian website where I watched it live.  Of course it's all in Russian.  When nobody is talking, you can hear the snow hitting the outdoor microphone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct-Ai8n2MpY&feature=player_embedded#!


The second video is NASA TV coverage with English narration.  It shows a different angle of the launch, but I think the Russian video is better.

NASA Feed: Soyuz TMA-22 launch

[charlesoakwood]

Nobody said anything about the launch.
Glad you brought info.
Their plumb bob, cool.

[rickl]

They're about to dock with the ISS in the next few minutes.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

[Libertas]

Didn't know anything about it.

So, an American, a Russian and a Japanese guy go into a Soyuz capsule...

(There's a joke there waiting to be written, but somebody else will have to finish it!)

All I read recent is the scheduled launch of the next Mars rover later this month, 25th I think.  Curiosity.  Really, who names these things?  Blarney Fwank?  

Spirit?  Opportunity?  

Why can't we ever have a rover named something a little more manly like "Max" and have a little ceremony where a US flag pops out and is driven into the soil of Mars and a little banner unfurls beneath the flag announcing this planet has been claimed by the United States of America and the little rover salutes?!

 

Now that I would pay to watch!