It’s gone ! The young French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, accompanied by American Peggy Whitson and Russian Oleg Novitsky, is now in orbit, en route to the international space station (ISS). In two days, that is to say Saturday, November 20, in the evening, they are expected to dock with the station. The benjamin of the astronaut corps and his teammates will spend six months. A half-year of science and discovery in weightlessness. Back on an extraordinary evening, which started in the garden of the hotel of the cosmonauts, in the mythical city of Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
Orchestra, and flags to salute the departure of the astronauts
When we arrive, around 20: 00 (15: 00 French time), the trees of the garden are lit as in full day. The staff, dressed in white and mask on the face, a patient in the hall for a last farewell. The pope, of the city, the same one who threw the holy water on the Soyuz rocket (and all the people round about…) runs along the building, hastening in the chilly night for a ceremony of blessing of the crew. In the garden, young girls from Ekaterinenbourg in Siberia waving their flags, singing in the choir. Long minutes pass. Families, friends, photographers, cameramen, groupies jumping to warm up and to hurry along the path that will take the crew up to two buses whose engines roar already. Has 20: 20, a orchestra fate. He sings a song that all the Russians will resume immediately. A few hours later, during conversations with friends – through a window -, Thomas Pesquet confided to his family that he had been surprised, touched, by this episode. Has 20h25 The door of the hotel opens up in the great and Thomas Pesquet, his cronies and their proxies in the required blue king walk together to a not decided in the crackling of the flashes and applause. They rush into the two buses, the crew from one side, the inner linings of the other. Signs of the hand, the faces full of emotions and smiles, but already the bus to start up and disappear. The scene lasted less than 5 minutes.
Under the red Moon, emotions at the cosmodrome
On the cosmodrome, the sky is clear, as it has never been the preceding nights. The moon is red – it whiten with the hours. Small patches of snow cling to the steppe, which reflect the lights of the cottages of Yuri Gagarin and Sergei Korolev, lit for the occasion. Since the success of the first man in space, the Russians became superstitious : what worked for one should work for his / her heirs, even 55 years later. Around 22: 00, we find Thomas Pesquet and the crew of the mission Proxima within an austere building of the Baikonur cosmodrome. Behind glass, the tenth French to go into space is sitting quietly on a chair with Oleg, while Peggy is currently testing a replica of the comfortable armchairs in the Soyuz to verify that his suit, which has just been adjusted, will conform to the constraints of the volume and Then, all three join the desk near the window, to a latest communication in face-to-face with their loved ones. Thomas Pesquet talks at length with his brother, vis ibly very moved by the circumstances. His girlfriend, Anne M., is more serene, playful, almost, taking the time to take out the picture of a child that she immortalizes with the face of Thomas as a counterpoint. Peggy and Oleg are experiencing equivalent situations, each in their native language. The stage, moving, is blurred by a hubbub of language. In the room, there is also Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of CNES, the French space Agency, and Thierry Mandon, ssecretary of State from the minister of national Education, higher Education and Research and other officials of the agencies involved.
Scene outside. The crowd waits, hold still in spite of a cold that is unbearable – felt to -27°. The young girls of Ekaterinenbourg are there, with their flags Russian. The three flags, French, Russian and american, have been deployed in front of the building massive. The three outfits with white go up to the control box by the “state commission”, two men, including the head of the Russian space agency – responsible for verifying that the crew is perfectly equipped. A denial on their part, and the flight is cancelled ! Thomas, Peggy and Oleg lend themselves quietly to the inspection. An assent of the mind, and the crew turns around, made a stop for the photographers and then quickly back on the path of the bus. There is of haste. Desired or imposed ? We’ll know maybe in six months…
21h20 : firing
20h20 (French time) : we are located in the steppe of kazakhstan, while the crew, installed in the capsule, with a review of procedures. The rocket is in front of us, only two kilometres away. Everything seems to be motionless, even if the close call in the middle of the night freezing. Stand still cost. A dog, indifferent to the tension that settles in, takes place in front of the cameras.
21h18 : the crowd is suddenly silent. The imminent departure makes it serious. 21h20 : firing. The steppe, the whole seems to glow, illuminated by the extraordinary fire engines and quickly swept away by immense clouds of smoke. The four boosters raise first the launcher seems to freeze for a moment above the ground, before the main motor turns on and makes fuser the launcher straight up to the sky in a roar powerful that tears the night and vibrates the ground. For long minutes, the crowd follows eye this comet tail of fire, which gradually reduced to the size of an orange star, then to a halo, which fades, and disappears. A slight cloud of smoke floating in the sky as a witness of the extraordinary spectacle, which still holds the power supply to the people present.
Ten minutes later, we are witnessing on the big screen installed in the steppe, a simulation of the insertion in orbit. It is safe, it’s official : Thomas, Peggy, and Oleg are in the area, Cheers, applause. The teams of ESA, embrace, welcome. A beautiful page of the history of space comes to turn. In the meantime the following chapters…
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