[X] My Assistant

[dvandorn]

As I have mentioned before, I'm lucky enough to have a cable TV system that offers NASA TV as part of its basic service. Today is the second day of my weekend (shift work... *sigh*...), and being a little loopy on the Vicodin I got after an unplanned root canal yesterday... well, let's just say I've been sitting like a vegetable watching NASA TV all day.

I was lucky enough to see two full replays of this morning's Soyuz launch of the Expedition 16 crew. I have to say, I don't recall seeing such high-quality tracking camera views of earlier Soyuz launches as I saw today.

The dynamics of the launch were interesting. It was just dusk at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and of course the rocket was launched to the east, into the rapidly darkening sky. For the first minute and a half of flight, it was a night launch, with the exhaust of the Soyuz booster gleaming brightly against a dark sky.

Then, about 30 seconds before the outboard strap-on boosters burned out and were dropped, the vehicle flew up and out of the Earth's shadow. Highlighted for a moment in the golden hues of sunset, the vapor trail suddenly glowed brightly, which dramatically highlighted the pyrotechnics when the boosters flared out and dropped away, followed by the core stage.

The quality of the telephoto tracking camera system was very, very good. All stage separation events were clearly visible. It caught fantastic details in the plumes of the engines as the vehicle gained altitude and the plumes spread widely.

Does anyone know if the Russians recently upgraded their tracking cameras? Or, perhaps, has NASA lent the Russians a few tracking camera systems in the spirit of good PR?

In any event, it was a very satisfying bit of launch coverage. Though, as someone who remembers Mercury and Gemini launches and the Cold War "space race," it is still very odd for me to turn on my TV and watch a Soyuz launch live, on which an American is a passenger.

I'm not complaining, mind you. It's just a very strange feeling.

-the other Doug