Crew En Route To Station After Launch-Day Rituals

BLOGGER UPDATE, 3:30 AM: The Soyuz blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on time at 3:14 a.m. and then made a flawless climb away from the central Asian spaceport. "A perfect climb to orbit," said NASA Flight Commentator Rob Navias of Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Coming up next: Live coverage beginning at 4 a.m. Friday of the Soyuz arrival at the international outpost.

Our previous post follows:

Halfway around the world, a crew that includes the world's first space clown is preparing to blast off on a two-day trip to the International Space Station. And you can watch the action live here in The Flame Trench.

A Russian Soyuz rocket is slated to blast off at 3:14 a.m. EDT with a crew that includes Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, American astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte.

Live NASA TV coverage of the launch will be carried live here in The Flame Trench beginning at 2:30 a.m. EDT. The NASA TV viewer above will start-up automatically.

You can also see B-roll of pre-launch activities and the crew's arrival at Launch Pad A-1 at Baikonur Cosmodrome will start at 1:45 a.m. EDT.

The lead-up to launch will be marked with rituals and superstitions dating back to the April 1961 launch of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human to orbit Earth, a flight that lifted off from the same pad.

Mansur Mirovalev, an Associated Press Writer based in Moscow, filed the following report on the subject:

MOSCOW (AP) -- The launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket Wednesday that will carry Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte and two other crew members to the International Space Station will be marked by rituals dating back to the pioneering Soviet space missions of the 1960s.

The activities of the astronauts in the days leading up to the launch from Baikonur, located in the bleak Central Asian steppes, are carefully choreographed, with crews repeating many of the mundane activities of their predecessors.

These rituals are thought to bring good luck to missions launched from Baikonur, home of the world's oldest manned space program.

Among the traditions witnessed over the years by reporters for The Associated Press, or reported in the Russian media, are the following:

CARNATIONS FOR YURI: Before leaving for Baikonur, crew members lay red carnations at the monuments of the first Soviet cosmonauts in Star City outside Moscow and visit the office of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, and write their names in the visitors' book.

ARRIVAL: Cosmonauts arrive in Baikonur on different planes and without their spouses. They check into the Kosmonavt hotel and walk down the alley where every tree was planted by cosmonauts who successfully returned from space.

MOVIE NIGHT: On the night before the launch, the cosmonauts watch "The White Sun of the Desert," a 1969 comedy about a Russian soldier fighting in Central Asia. On Tuesday, Laliberte and his crew mates posed for journalists in T-shirts with images of the film's main characters.

MUSIC: Before leaving for the launch, the cosmonauts sip champagne and leave their signatures on the doors of their hotel rooms. Then they ride aboard a minibus to the launch pad listening to "Grass Near Home," a 1983 hit of Soviet rock band The Earthlings.

BLESSING: After the Soviet era, black-robed Orthodox priests began to bless each rocket before launch.

SOAKING THE STAND-INS: Thirty minutes before the launch, when the main crew is sealed in the spaceship, the cosmonaut's stand-ins, who act as backup for the regular crew, are "soaked" by gulping vodka shots with journalists at a shabby cafeteria near the launch pad.

SOILING THE WHEEL: The cosmonauts get out of the bus near the rocket and urinate on its right rear wheel. The rite dates back to Gagarin himself, who reportedly did not want to soil his space suit during the takeoff.

MASCOT: A mascot, usually a stuffed animal named "Boris," hangs in front of the crew. When the toy begins to float, the cosmonauts know they are approaching near zero gravity.

LANDING: After the landing in Kazakh steppe, the cosmonauts sign their capsule, which is charred by the heat of re-entry, and drink a bottle of vodka stashed before the launch. After a helicopter ride to Baikonur, they plant a tree near the Kosmonavt hotel.

RETURN TO MOSCOW: Upon their return to Star City outside Moscow, they pay a final visit to Gagarin's monument and go to the church of St. Prince Daniil of Moscow, where they kiss the saint's relics.

ABOUT THE IMAGES: Click to enlarge the Associated Press image of a Russian Orthodox priest blessing the Soyuz rocket and spacecraft ar Baikonur Cosmodrome on Tuesday. The ritual is one of many followed prior to Russian Federal Space Agency launches. Photo Credit: Associated Press/Shamil Zhumatov, Pool. You can also click to enlarge the second AP Photo showing Guy Laliberte signing the door of his hotel room before departing for the launch pad. Photo Credit: Associated Press/ Sergei Remezov, Pool.