Выведение! #2

What could I said about today launch that I didn't already said 6 months ago when TMA-8 was launched? ... Not much ... Soyuz launch are still somewhat rather dull ... In any case it's still worth watching it, and in case you missed it, there's an high quality video on space-multimedia.nl.eu.org. In contrary to the Space Shuttle which is launched over the Atlantic ocean, the Soyuz are launched over land and all components of the rocket but the 3rd stage (Block I) which enter orbit with the spacecraft, drop back somewhere over the steppes of Kazakhstan. After 45 years of space launch, that's quiet a lot of junk laying around, and more junk falling down every so often.

The spaceflight participant slot was occupied for this launch by Anousheh Ansari, I'll be monitoring her blog and web page over the coming week for any thing of interest ... so far she haven't blogged from orbit yet.

Meanwhile, the NASA SpaceFlight gallery is been slow to be updated with High-res pictures from the launch ... darn.