Baikonur space launch tour, Soyuz MS-08
A group of our tourists has returned back from Baikonur cosmodrome where they took part in a rocket launch tour. We had a chance to see of the crew of Soyuz MS-08 comprised of commander Oleg Artemyev and flight engineers Andrew Fuestel and Richard Arnold at the way to space.
As it happens, international crews fly not only in space – our team of tourists also was international. Guests from Russia, United States, Germany, Great Britain and Australia visited all important stages of Soyuz prelaunch preparations.
We witnessed booster roll-out of the test-and-integration facility, carrying and erection on the launch pad, farewell event near the “Cosmonaut” hotel, crew report to the state commission chairman and finally in the apex of the program we watched the incredible night launch of the space rocket.
In between of those prelaunch activities our guests had a very eventful program with lots of excursions to the launch site facilities and sightseeing in the city of Baikonur.
Our “space” tourists took with them not just bright impressions but also a sense of belonging to the space exploration with a huge bundle of knowledge about space in general and russian space program in particular. For them space is really closer today!
You can also join our team of “space explorers” – processing of documents for launch tour in June is already in progress. On June 6th 2018 the next group of space fans will watch the launch of Soyuz MS-09 to the International Space Station.