Gagarin Monument

Gagarin is likely the most celebrated hero of Baikonur. Among all of sculptures, paintings, pins, posters, plates, flags, etc... there is one representation in particular which draws our attention: the Gagarin Monument located between the Town Hall and the Parc of Peace.

The sculpture, about seven meters high, shows a standing man with his arms raised to the sky as a sign of victory or greeting. As a simple rule of body language, he invites us to do the same.


The very sober appearance of the gray mat painted concrete, reminding the pachyderm skin, reinforces the massive aspect of the sculpture.

At the opposite of the usual former soviet propaganda (e.g. a statue of Lenin few meters away) , this Gagarin representation breaks with academical sculptural postures. The cosmonaut does not wear military uniform or pressurised space suits. His head is free of the helmet (traditionally captured on almost all other Gagarin icons). This suggests more a humanistic intention than a political message. This impression seems confirmed when getting closer by the friendly Gagarin's smiling face.


The artist was likely not seeking the secret of man ideal proportions as L. di Vinci did, but surely demonstrated that despite the tallest position a man can have, he remains ridiculously small compared to the world he tries to reach.

With his feet on the ground, his stretched arms and the palm facing the sky, Gagarin ideally represents "the Man" as a fragile and harmonious link between Earth and the Cosmos.

His eyes are staring at Восток (Vostok meaning "East" in Russian), refers to the name of the spaceship that brought him to space.

Another detail: when the "sky calendar" is favorable, if one sits in the front of the sculpture, it is possible to see Gagarin "carrying" the sun at sunset or the full moon at night between his hands.

The sculpture becomes then a natural player of the cosmic clock.

Credits: Acem (via Raphael)

After spending some time admiring all the facets of this monument, one will realise that after a certain 12th April 1961, somewhere in the kazakh steppe near Baikonur, Homo Erectus has definitely started his evolution towards "Homo Cosmicus"...

The wall

Since the superb celebration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall in 2009, we sometime forget that walls are still erected around the world.
The last one to date has been built in MIK site 31 around Cryosat-2 storage area. What a (good) surprise we had when it was discovered that instead of the safety chord we have asked for to protect CS-2 hardware, the Russians had put in place a solid wall completely surrounding the area! Not easy to enter the place this morning for the first "baby sitting'' checks, no "check points", we just had to move temporarily a piece of the wall!
The device on the right of the SHM is not an "observation tower" but the usual Mechanical Ground Support Equipment to service the SHM :-)


Beyond the MIK, the "wall" is a reality in Baikonur: it circles the city and we cross it every day, with the support of a dedicated escort, to reach the cosmodrome.
This wall materialises the border between the Russian enclave of Baikonur in the Кызылорда (Kyzylorda) region of Kazakhstan.
Our Russian visas give us access to this enclave, the city of Baikonur and the Cosmodrome, but we are not allowed to go to Kazakhstan (i.e. on the other side of the city wall). The Kyzylorda region seems to be forbidden to foreigners; most of it is semi or completely desertic (?)
Behind the wall stands the Kazakh village of Tyuratam.
Determining what is the best side of the wall is a complex question.

Credits: Raphael

Some other sections are poorly maintained or not tight at all and it is frequent to see people crossing them over, by-passing the regular check points.


Finally inside the city, long sections of walls are used for space or popular art expression.

Credits: Raphael

In the same way, the East Side Gallery in Berlin showed how wall painting has become recently an extraordinary mean to express a mixture of art, political satire and hope...


It is not sure that after its removal, the "Cryosat-2 wall" will ends its life in a museum and will inspire many artists :-(

25th is dead, long life to the 25th!

25th of February was originally known as the CryoSat-2 (CS-2) launch date. As everybody knows now, due a problem on the launcher side, the launch date had to be postponed.

The latest news we have today is that the new launch date is now set for March 25th.

This new date consolidates decisions made earlier this week concerning the spacecraft storage period up to February the 12th and the logistic to reduce the team in Baikonur to this date.

Overall schedule is being presently updated for when the campaign will resume.

Not easy to illustrate the message of today with a picture but the one below may show that CS-2 team despite this delay and the work still to be done before launch .... is well on track!


This is the railways track we cross every morning with the bus just before entering the MIK site 31 on the Cosmodrome. This rail track is used to bring heavy equipment by train onto site 31 as well as Soyuz-2 rocket in the future on launch pad 31 (less than 500m from the assembly hall!).

On June 15th 2007, some of the TerraSar launch team were standing on the right side of this rail track to observe the launch from Launch pad 109: the same place from where CryoSat-2 will take off on the 25th of March ...2010 :-)

No passengers allowed in the SHM

One aspect to be taken care during the "abnormally quiet" period of the CryoSat-2 (CS-2) storage is that no little animals will visit or take the Space Head Module (SHM) as a natural "home''. This could have dramatic consequences.

Insects and or small rodents like mice are the best candidates as we observed them several time at the MIK.


Russians are taking the issue very seriously. For the fairing part

• the cones on the legs of the jig normally prevent small rodents to climb up the hardware.

• As a second precaution, a plastic foil under the fairing has been installed this morning. This will also help for preventing conventional contamination.
  

As far the SHM (where CS-2 is encapsulated) is concerned, it is tight sealed on the bottom side with large filtering areas enabling air circulation.
Note: the hole for connectors (bottom side middle of the picture) is also sealed from the inside.


The ideal solution would be to use one (or two) good old tomcat(s) from the vicinity (there are some), but as you can imagine they are not allowed in clean or equivalent integration halls!

Team on site will reduce

After Cryosat-2 was safely brought back to the MIK, a couple of days were needed to reconnect all Electrical Ground Segment Equipment (EGSE) and to check the health status of the spacecraft (SC).
This is the set up as it presently looks:


The same type of activities had to be done on the Yuzhnoe side for the Space head Module (SHM).
To date these activities is almost completed (no anomalies reported) and on 25/02 the unexpected storage period will formally start.

Storage is planned at the moment to last till 12th of March with a daily monitoring of:

• Battery voltage (and measurement of the thermistor resistance)
• Area C environmental parameters (T and H2o)
  
• Visibly clean environment
• External activities in area C
  

A reduced team will support the coming "Babysitting" phase of the campaign.

As some team members will fly back home as from next Friday, it was decided to take a group picture. The 2 "happy few'' to stay to support the baby sitting are the 2 from the right side: Klaus and Kirill.


One could say : An almost complete team for a remake of the movie 3 men and a cradle. This movie demonstrated how versatile and creative in baby sitting related tasks men can be when they have no other choice :-)

More seriously, let's wish that this storage won't be a pain but just be a piece of cake!

23rd February in Russia

This date is a non working day for Russians and the people working on the Cosmodrome enjoy a long week end which started already last Saturday.
It reminds the historical date of the first involvement of the Red Army during the Civil War in Moscow and Petrograd.
It is interesting to see how the name of this commemoration changed over the time:

• 1918 Red Army Day (День Красной Армии /Dyen' Krasnoy Armii)
• 1949 Soviet Army and Nay day (День Советской Армии и Военно-Морского флота / Dyen' Sovyetskoy Armii i Voyenno-Morskogo flota)
• 1991 Defender of the Fatherland day (День защитника Отечества, Dyen' zashchitnika Otechestva)

Whatever the name is, it does suggest the celebration of all people who served or are serving in the army.
Recently by a kind of extension or deformation, it also covered the celebration of "Men" in general (this date becoming the counterpart of the Women’s day celebrated on March 8^th in Russia).
As a consequence it is also currently known today as:

• Men’s day (День Мужчин, Dyen' Muzhchin)

The cards below on sale in Baikonur last Sunday reflect even few more free interpretations of this celebration:


But one thing is sure, don't try to find a crane operator on this very day at MIK site 31! :-)
May be also a relevant celebration for the happy few men that will soon start to baby sit CryoSat-2.

Whatever, let's wish all our Russian colleagues:
C Празником ! (C Praznikom!, or Happy Celebration!)

Sunday 21th February Postcard

Dear all,

After a long working Saturday (back at the hotel at 21:00, see previous note), we were kindly invited by the Russians in the yurt restaurant of Baikonur for diner.

On the right side of the table: (from right to left):

• the Kosmotras team: Yuri, Vladimir (the interpreter), Alexander,
  
• and the 2 doctors: the new one, and Andrei (who leaves Turyatam tomorrow by train to Moscow - a 48 hours trip!).

During his stay, Andrei has been an essential link between the "Russian culture" and the team. He has been highly appreciated for his culture, his open mind, his friendship by the whole CS-2 team. We shall certainly miss him.
I take this opportunity to warmly welcome our new Doctor, Igor.

Not visible on the picture (above) , and sat on the Yuri's right was Dimitri Ivanovitch Chistjakov, Deputy Director Baikonur Cosmodrome (ex director of FKC). It was a big honour to have such a high ranking Russian figure within us.

On the other side of the table: the ESA and Astrium team.


We got a mixture of kazakh food

• Баурса́ки, Bayrsaki (or Boorstog)
  
• Плов, plov (or Pilav)
  
• Казы́ , Kazy (horse meat with sausage shape, served cold)
• Ма́нты Manti (large ravioi stuffed with horse meat)

.. this being served, it goes without saying, with vodka.

The picture below shows a bit in more details how the yurt is decorated


Today, Sunday, was a beautiful sunny day with a slightly positive temperature at noon. Ice was slowly melting and some streets and paths became muddy and slippery.

Many people were staying outside and the Baikonur market busy as usual.

Ice scream selling on the market does not seem anymore a desperate activity (and as you can see, despite partial warming the container still does not need power supply :-)


But the winter is not over as it is reminded to us by these nice wool handcraft items.
How to resist not to buy a pair of these sexy socks! :-)


Take care as we do here,

From Russia with love!

Kirill B.

"We do it twice"

After the launch delay was announced, CryoSat-2 (CS-2) had to return from the Silo to the MIK till the modification of the 2nd stage engine software gives enough confidence that the best injection in orbit of the spacecraft can be achieved.

The CS-2 and Russian teams worked very hard last Saturday to get the Spacecraft out of the Silo and the heavy EGSE racks out of the bunker.
Due to long holiday week end on the Russian side (23/02 is a national day), this activity had absolutely to be done on Saturday February 2oth.

This is one of the picture reflecting this activity on Saturday 20/02.


As you see above, all the ingredients could have been there for the shot of a new nice James Bond movie but forget it today, it is just CS-2 safely loaded on he Jolly Green Giant leaving the Silo under escort and returning to the MIK for an unexpected "baby sitting"phase of the campaign.

This is a short movie of the last phase of this trip back: the crocodile entering backwards the site 31 area C of the MIK.


This trip to the Silo will have to be repeated when the campaign will resume, then the CryoSat-2 mission slogan "we do it twice'' may applied in this case unless " We only live twice!" could also be appropriate (?)

Anyway... let's wish that next one will be the good one!