Stay Home and Talk to Space Rather Than Go

[Wire Weasel]

Russia's spacey superstitions – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs


Like the article relates, the only ride into space these days is with the Russians. And their rocket launching results have always been kind of iffy with stuff blowing up and things. Even their astronauts have found it wise to invoke extra precautions when going for a blast. The article mentions three things while there are numerous others that didn't make the list.

The three published "precautions" were:

1) Get haircut 2 days before launch
2) Drink glass of champagne on launch day
3) Piss on the wheels of the bus that took them to the launch pad. (popular with Russian dogs)

Here are some other things they do

1) Add 1,000,000 Euros to life insurance policy at Lloyd's of London
2) Reach around from behind and underneath - scratch balls 4 times with left hand.
3) Pray to Stalin
4) Kiss Communist Party Cards with 2 ounces Beluga Caviar in mouth
5) Pray to Lenin
6) Call NASA on cell phone and ask them if they think everything's okay
7) 4 hours before launch pull all tubes out of consoles and test with trusty 1971 Ray O Vac surplus tube tester from Rexall Drug store from Cleveland.
8) Look out side of cockpit and make sure rocket is pointed up

This is stuff I could google on yahoo. Maybe you know of some more things they do.

 

[Se7en]

So what are the traditions and superstitions of the three astronaut corps that have grown up since the first rockets entered space half a century ago: Russian, American and most recently, Chinese? The Russians have an impressive number of them, some from the officially-atheist Soviet era, and some from the years since the collapse of the USSR which incorporate the Orthodox faith.

First, Soyuz flight crews observe a number of ceremonies before they leave the Star City training complex outside Moscow. They leave red carnations at the Memorial Wall, which commemorates Yuri Gagarin (who died in a training accident) and the four cosmonauts who have died in the course of space missions (Komarov in Soyuz 1; Dobrovolski, Patsayev, and Volkov in Soyuz 11). Then they visit Yuri Gagarin’s office at Zvyozdniy Gorodok, which is preserved as a shrine, untouched since his death, and sign his guest book. It is said that they also ask Gagarin’s ghost for permission to fly during this visit. This ghost will be with them too at other points during the mission’s preparations.

On arrival at the launch center in Baikonur, the crew are lodged in the Cosmonaut Hotel, a place which is so saturated in folklore and tradition that if the Russian space program ever relocates manned operations to another center, this building will almost certainly go with them. An avenue of trees stretches behind it, each planted by a safely returning cosmonaut, and the crew take care to walk among them and soak up the spirit of success that they exude.

No launch may be scheduled for October 24, a black date in the annals of Russian spaceflight because of two accidents that occurred on that date, separated by three years. First, on October 24, 1960, an R-16 missile blew up on the pad, killing 92 ground staff including the air force general whose imprudent haste had provoked the disaster; on the same date in 1963 an R-9 missile rocket blew up in its silo, killing seven technicians. Following this bizarre coincidence, no further launches were to be allowed on this day of evil omen.

On the day before launch, the crew are blessed by a priest of the Orthodox faith and sprinkled with holy water. That night the 1969 movie White Sun of the Desert, an exotic tale of adventure in the Caspian Sea during the Russian Civil War, and one of the most popular films of the Soviet era, is shown at the hotel. Attendance at this screening is compulsory.