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News & ArtsThursday, October 1, 2009
Science / International Today in Kazakhstan/Outer Space
Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 3:41 PM
I'm not sure I'd want to get into a rocket ship built in Kazakhstan, but apparently Jeffrey Williams and Maxim Suraev did yesterday when they launched off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in this Soyuz TMA-16.
(click to enlarge)
2
Oh Grant. I hope in your history lesson you learned that Kazakhstan used to be a part of the USSR. AND, it just so happens that USSR were the first to launch a human into space. So you go ahead and get into a shuttle, i'll launch from Kazakhstan
5
On behalf of all the other attendees at Boreal 87, I wish you well, mon cher. Laissez les bons temps au ciel.
6
Er, the Soyuz has a much better safety and reliability record than the Space Shuttle. It's not built in Kazakhstan, but has always been launched from there. In fact, that launch yesterday was off the same pad that launched Yuri Gagarin in 1961. And it was from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (in Kazakhstan), not Plesetsk.
7
Our astronauts are going to have to get accustomed to riding in Soviet craft from Baikonur, since the Shuttle fleet is currently slated to be grounded next year, and there's no spacecraft ready to replace it, nor may there be for a good long while.
8
@6: Exactly. They haven't killed anyone in a Soyuz since the early 70s. Simple and reliable. I'd take a ride in one over the Shuttle any day.
...not that I'd actually turn down an STS ticket, mind you.
...not that I'd actually turn down an STS ticket, mind you.
11
But if an American astronaut winds up forced to ride on a Russian rocket, won't that be blamed on Obama as part of the socialist takeover? Like letting the Olympics go to even-more-socialist Lula's Brazil?
I just checked, the Jeffrey in question is an American astronaut, a West Point gradu... OMG! Socialists in our military!! Riding Russian rockets!! Time for a coup! Communospacexplorofascism!
Geometry (probably based on work by the Greek mathematicians... who were probably gayish... and either way, swarthy, and not proper Christians from the heartland) dictates that Russia keep using Kazakh launch bases. Closer to the equator, easier to fling things into space. Just like we use FL and the French use French Guyana.
I just checked, the Jeffrey in question is an American astronaut, a West Point gradu... OMG! Socialists in our military!! Riding Russian rockets!! Time for a coup! Communospacexplorofascism!
Geometry (probably based on work by the Greek mathematicians... who were probably gayish... and either way, swarthy, and not proper Christians from the heartland) dictates that Russia keep using Kazakh launch bases. Closer to the equator, easier to fling things into space. Just like we use FL and the French use French Guyana.
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