Today was an exciting day in the world of space exploration! Here in Vancouver, it was day two of DeepWorker training with Chris and Stan, who searched through the murky waters of Burrard Inlet for sonar targets – but – halfway around the world, in Kazakhstan, the Russian space capsule Soyuz was preparing to blast off for the International Space Station with three astro/cosmonauts aboard! You can guess which event was more exciting to watch…
Soyuz blasts off in Kazakhstan (as viewed from the surface) - Photo: Scott Andrews/NASA
Deepworker in Action (as viewed from the surface) - Photo: Ben Cowie
After dinner in West Vancouver, we gathered around Chris’ laptop in the hotel to watch the Soyuz launch on NASA TV. American astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson (who is Chris’ neighbor in Houston!), was aboard with two Russian cosmonauts: Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko. Watching a human spaceflight with astronauts provides a very unique perspective about the procedures, nuances and stresses experienced during the flight. They could almost predict to the second when the booster rockets were to detach, when camera angles would switch, and when various communications with Moscow would occur – including a conversation with the Roscosmos presdient! Chris was also quick to point out the toy duck hanging above the pilot’s position that belongs to Alexander’s daughter. The duck acts as a gravity sensor, indicating when the vehicle has left Earth’s gravitational pull by floating away on its tether!
Tomorrow, Stan and Chris will become fully-certified as DeepWorker pilots, and I will depart from Vancouver. But, I will be back soon – the field season countdown clock is T-minus 122,942 minutes and counting!
- Ben
