Hello, Baikonour!
The cast of characters of our Soyuz mission gradually gathered in Moscow. We were a group of scientists and engineers assembled from Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States. In addition to our T cell project, which was an international collaboration with investigators from Italy and Switzerland, there was a core group of European Space Agency (ESA) engineers and two other research teams from Belgium. As we slowly got acquainted, we were also given a timeline of the order in which we were to prepare our experiments. Because laboratory equipment was limited at the Baikonour Cosmodrome, we all had very rigid time constraints. Blood draw of our donors would occur at launch minus 60 hours, the sterile laminar flow bench turned over to us at launch minus 48 hours, and the packaged experiment due for loading on the Soyuz at launch minus 21 hours. We inhaled deeply and started to cold sweat. This wasn’t very much time and left no room for error. As researchers, we knew that laboratory work, even for tried and true protocols, could be filled with unexpected complications; these were not allowed with this timeline. But it didn’t compare to our alarm when we heard that the other two research groups were working with yeast and bacteria and we would be sharing the same lab space. Yeast and bacteria were two of the worst feared contaminants for a cell biologist working with tissue culture. We now had to work side-by-side with them!
The morning of launch minus 5 days, we flew to Baikonour, Kazakhstan, on a private plane owned by Energia, the Russian company that approved and coordinated all Soyuz launches. Baikonour was a major launch site for the Soviet Space Program. When the Soviet Union dissolved, Baikonour became part of Kazakhstan, outside of Russian controlled territory. As the solution, Russia leased the area immediately around the Cosmodrome and recently extended the contract to 2050.
After a 3-hour flight, we touched down on a flat arid desert. There were no trees and only the rare thorny shrub. Even monotonous clay-colored land stretched as far as the eye could see. We saw no nearby buildings or surrounding cities to suggest human civilization. We squinted toward the distance and thought we may have spotted the launch pad. The Baikonour Cosmodrome was an oasis created by the Soviet Space Program, and now Energia, in a place where there was nothing. To facilitate travel, Energia not only had their own airplane, but also a private airport in Moscow and in Baikonour. One set of train tracks led directly to the Cosmodrome complex for supplies. They even had their own internet connection beamed from their own satellite. But the Cosmodrome was also still a military base for Russia. Our group had to stay together and be escorted everywhere. One must ask permission for almost everything, including the privilege of taking pictures. (There will be no accompanying photo with this entry.)
After a short rest in our hotel comfortably converted from barracks, all the scientists were eager to check out the lab facilities. There were a couple of surprises, both bad and good. We had no vacuum suction and the carriages for the centrifuge could only spin 50ml tubes. But there were now also two separate laboratory rooms instead of one! We quickly suggested that the yeast and bacteria groups be in the other lab away from us. No offense, of course. Regardless, one Belgian investigator told me that the facilities were much improved from before. When she was here for a previous flight experiment several years ago, she prepared her experiment in the bathroom underneath a tent using an oil lamp as a Bunsen burner. The conditions may not be ideal, but our Russian hosts really try to get us what we need, she said.
Our diverse group of international scientists and engineers have in common a passion for our work and a fascination with space. (The general level of excitement was demonstrated by the fact that whenever we were told to be somewhere, everyone would be there 10 minutes early. If you were on time, you were late.) And we are all dreamers. We dream that our discoveries and the fruits of our labor would one day help extend our human presence into space.
The morning of launch minus 5 days, we flew to Baikonour, Kazakhstan, on a private plane owned by Energia, the Russian company that approved and coordinated all Soyuz launches. Baikonour was a major launch site for the Soviet Space Program. When the Soviet Union dissolved, Baikonour became part of Kazakhstan, outside of Russian controlled territory. As the solution, Russia leased the area immediately around the Cosmodrome and recently extended the contract to 2050.
After a 3-hour flight, we touched down on a flat arid desert. There were no trees and only the rare thorny shrub. Even monotonous clay-colored land stretched as far as the eye could see. We saw no nearby buildings or surrounding cities to suggest human civilization. We squinted toward the distance and thought we may have spotted the launch pad. The Baikonour Cosmodrome was an oasis created by the Soviet Space Program, and now Energia, in a place where there was nothing. To facilitate travel, Energia not only had their own airplane, but also a private airport in Moscow and in Baikonour. One set of train tracks led directly to the Cosmodrome complex for supplies. They even had their own internet connection beamed from their own satellite. But the Cosmodrome was also still a military base for Russia. Our group had to stay together and be escorted everywhere. One must ask permission for almost everything, including the privilege of taking pictures. (There will be no accompanying photo with this entry.)
After a short rest in our hotel comfortably converted from barracks, all the scientists were eager to check out the lab facilities. There were a couple of surprises, both bad and good. We had no vacuum suction and the carriages for the centrifuge could only spin 50ml tubes. But there were now also two separate laboratory rooms instead of one! We quickly suggested that the yeast and bacteria groups be in the other lab away from us. No offense, of course. Regardless, one Belgian investigator told me that the facilities were much improved from before. When she was here for a previous flight experiment several years ago, she prepared her experiment in the bathroom underneath a tent using an oil lamp as a Bunsen burner. The conditions may not be ideal, but our Russian hosts really try to get us what we need, she said.
Our diverse group of international scientists and engineers have in common a passion for our work and a fascination with space. (The general level of excitement was demonstrated by the fact that whenever we were told to be somewhere, everyone would be there 10 minutes early. If you were on time, you were late.) And we are all dreamers. We dream that our discoveries and the fruits of our labor would one day help extend our human presence into space.
posted by Tammy Chang at 9:48 PM
1 Comments:
I'm so excited about tomorrow's launch! I can't wait for the next entry.
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