Soyuz launch
Here’s the launch of a manned Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur a few years back. The viewing area for Soyuz launches is fascinating. It’s way closer than for any other launch vehicle I’ve ever seen – so close that the nerves jump a little. You can kind of see the launch vehicle from the where you’re standing, but it’s completely encapsulated by the tower until just before launch and it’s over a slight hill, so you don’t realize how close it is until it starts to lift off. The first clue that something is odd is that you hear the sound at pretty much the exact moment you see the flame. That’s too close. I found myself looking around for a hiding place in case of a failure near the pad. In the absence of a problem, though, the view is awesome.
I wrote a nice, long post this morning while I was waiting for my laptop to update itself and tried to email it to myself from my Palm. I must have turned off the email function, however, because it’s not here.
And I stayed at work until 7:30 tonight, so there’s no time to write something new. If I can find today’s post, I’ll use it tomorrow. See you then.