The Russian launch site Baikonur has posted several 360 degree panorama shots - two of Soyuz launches and two of monuments to prior achievements on the base.
Is it just me or are these photos all the more intriguing for the unkempt, overgrown and run down nature of infrastructure?
There's an interesting fisheye version of the main pano shot here.
Also fresh from the interwebz today is this extended video clip of the latest Soyuz rocket being taken from the hanger out to the launch pad and tipped up ready for launch. And that launch will take the next crew of astronauts to the International Space Station, with the launch date on 15 May.
I have always wondered about the Russian practice of assembling and transporting their rockets horizontally and then tilting them up on the pad itself. Isn't this worrying with regard to extra stresses and risks? And in this clip I found it a bit disturbing to see an absence of checklists, ordinary screwdrivers being used rather than torque drivers, hydraulic lifters than jerked, bumped and banged, and rough handling by the locomotive. Watch for bits on the side of the rocket covered with gaffer tape! And at 13:40 when an unsecured cover hatch on the gantry bangs closed as the the gantry it tilted into place. As for the security around the transfer - ha! Barely present...
I asked Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, currently training as Commander of Expedition 35 about this today. This is what he tweeted back:
Soyuz launches all-weather, -40 to +40. Rugged, built on experience, it is not delicate. I trust it with my life.
On the subject of Soyuz launches - The Big Bang Theory's Howard Wolowitz finally gets to go into space on the Soyuz Expedition 31 - this next one! - accompanied by real-life astronaut Mike Massimino. Read this interesting article on the series finale.
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