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Two NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut will launch to the International Space Station later today, and astronauts Douglas Wheelock has been able to get up close and personal with the Soyuz rocket that will take them there. He’s taken a few pictures of his rocket from unusual vantage points and posted them on Twitter, and is sharing his prelaunch experiences, too (@Astro_Wheels). Wheelock has big shoes to fill in the Twitter and picture-taking department, as JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi set a new standard in making his time on board the ISS a shared experience through images and social media. More pics below, plus a newly released video by NASA of the landing of the Soyuz that brought the Noguchi, Soyuz Commander Oleg Kotov and TJ Creamer back home. It’s a view of the landing not normally seen.
For the next crew heading to the ISS, which will bring the crew size back to six at the space station, veteran cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, Wheelock and Shannon Walker are scheduled for liftoff aboard the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:35:19 p.m. EDT (9:35 pm GMT) (3:35:19 a.m. June 16 local time Kazakhstan).
Including manned and unmanned missions, this will be the 100th launch supporting space station operations since assembly began in 1998.
That is no way for men to return to earth.
“You’re right. Beam me down, Scotty.”
tripleclean:
The Japanese dude, Soichi Noguchi, is probably used to it because of the capsule hotels they have back home in Japan. The Russian dude, Oleg Kotov, is probably used to it because he was brought up during the Soviet Union era where ‘comfort’ was only for Yankee imperialist wimps. Whereas the American dude… 😛
How about this view?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D26xtDrhTs
If the soyuz exploded she would be showered with debris. That’s way too close.
Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, no?
As for the pretty lady, if you look at how big she is in comparison to the rocket, you’ll see it is a lens effect, like an impossibly large moon background, only backwards.
oh – and you can also count the seconds from liftoff till the major sound blast hits. Breath easy, I think she’s safe.
@ND,
The photography technique used in that video is known as perspective distortion; that “special effect” has been used in movies (such as Stand By Me) to make far away objects look as close as a much nearer object(s) — like people running along train tracks to escape an oncoming train.
Yeah I was starting to think about that after I posted. I think you guys are right.