'Secrets' of astronauts

Before and after each historic flight, astronauts have strange actions and they believe it will bring good luck in their careers.

What do astronauts bring and not bring to orbit?

  Is the Apollo (US) explosion because of the fate of 13? (Photo: NASA) On March 30, 2006, the ' Soyuz TMA-8 ' spacecraft crew made the 13th expedition to the International Space Station departing from Baikonur Cosmodrome. In normal Brazil, even ads do not disrupt live broadcast of football matches. But this time, people broke that rule.

The TV channels here stopped the live broadcast of the Football Cup final, so the audience could follow Brazil's first citizen scene into space. A few minutes before the spacecraft departed, on the television screen across Brazil a small corner window appeared, so that the audience could both watch the rocket take off and watch the football. And when the rocket left the launch pad, the television immediately stopped playing the football match and transmitted the images at Baikonur space airport.

Composition of the 13th expedition includes astronaut Russian Pavel Vinogradov; astronaut of the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jeffrey Williams and the first Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes, who is called ' Gagarin of Brazil ' by his country.

Pontes will perform eight experiments in the universe with devices made by Brazilian scientific researchers to study plant growth in weak gravitational conditions. Before departing all members of the 13th expedition said that they did not believe in the 'unhappy numbers ' alluding to their 13th flight.

(Photo: chinadaily.com.cn)

The Russian astronaut Pavel Vinogradov said: 'I am not a superstitious person: the number 13 for me is a lucky number.' American astronaut Jeffrey Williams also said: 'There is nothing ominous in the 13'. As for Brazil's 'Gagarin', there is absolutely no number 13 issue. Pontes also remarked wryly: 'I am an astronaut with a number of 13 and a half, because' I flew up with the 13th expedition, but returned to the earth with the 12th group '.

The 13th expedition said so but still put on unusual traits of ' goods ' in the hope that they would be a bode of good luck during the expedition. The Russian astronaut Pavel Vinogradov brought with him a golden cross of the Patriarch Orthodox to welcome Easter in orbit in the hope that it would be his talisman.

There was a special item of tiger worms that had been cut into space by the astronauts. Bringing tiger worms into the universe in the hope that if the flight had any problems in orbit, it would also be able to " restore itself " just like the ability of tiger worms. Marcos Pontes also brought up orbit the Brazilian flag, the Brazilian Football Team shirt, as well as Yuri Gagarin's printed shirt, the yellow-green ball with the aim of representing the victory.

But one thing that has become the tradition of most astronauts carrying them is a wormwood branch , because this plant retains a longer odor than other plants and reminds them of the fruit. land. Astronauts never use the word ' last' when talking about a ship's departure: For example, 'the last flight to Mir Station .' will use the word 'summation'. Astronauts also never bid farewell to the mourners. At the Plesetsk space airport before launching the rocket, people will definitely write the word 'Tanhia' on the rocket. The reason for this is because it was said that an officer wrote his lover's name - Tanhia first launched the rocket. Then, once, when people forgot to write that lucky name, the rocket exploded before departure. Before departing astronauts will definitely watch the movie ' Desert White Sun '. Or they often receive a friendly kick from their superior before starting.

The number 13 alone is not associated with any special features for astronauts and Russian rocket experts. Of course, not many people like this number, but none of the Russian experts are not abstaining from ' June 13th '. At NASA people disliked the 13th because the Apollo-13 spacecraft departed on the moon on April 11, and on April 13 an oxygen tank explosion occurred .

Marcos Pontes - Brazil's first astronaut
(Photo: people.com.cn)

Second day and ' unlucky ' days

' Cosmic superstitions ' was started by the famed architect Sergei Koroliov. He did not like rocket launch on the second day. The reason why so far is still unknown. However, Koroliov defends its stance both at the highest levels, and so sometimes non-simple clashes occur. As a result, the spacecraft did not depart the second day during the first three years of the cosmic era. Then began to depart, and there were 11 significant incidents. From 1965 onwards the second day was considered as the day of almost no official departure in the former Soviet space industry and the Russian space industry today.

In Baikonur there are other ' unlucky ' days. Never here is again planning to start rockets on October 24 . That day was generally not for Baikonur for important work. On October 24, 1960, in Baikonur, there was an explosion of MBR R-16 rocket boosters that killed dozens of people. On October 24, 1963, the R-9A rocket was on fire again, killing eight people. Another unusual thing about the famous master builder is the "lucky mechanic " - Captain Smirnhitsky, who always presses the ' Start ' button under the command.

There was no missile launch without Smirnhitsky. Even when Smirnhitsky suffered from eczema, he still pressed this button, because Koroliov said that Smirnhitsky was ' cool '. It was Koroliov who had banned one of his monks absolutely from allowing him to appear on the launch pad when launching the rocket, for one reason this person had an unforeseen incident. . And Koroliov sent a watchman carefully so that this engineer could not launch.

Astronauts never sign autographs before the first flight . Some decided not to sign autographs in black ink. But the entire crew will definitely sign on the vodka bottle, which will be drunk on earth, in the Kazakhstan steppe, after the flight has successfully ended. Astronauts also happily left their signatures on the hotel room door, where they stayed the night before the flight. And there is a strict ban on painting or washing these signatures.

One thing that was once absolutely taboo for women on board spacecraft. It is said that it was only because of those superstitions that many people were afraid to take Valentina Tereshkova into the universe, because they deduced the case of women on ships in the maritime industry. But the leader of the Soviet State did not believe it.

So in 1963, during the International Women's Conference in Moscow, there was a struggle and a definitive claim for a woman to fly into space. Before flying into the mustache universe is also one of the things that astronauts are very interested in. For a long time among astronauts there was no one to mustache. During V.Zholobov's flight, a person who had a mustache had many problems, and the flight program was forced to shorten it.

Hung Son