Comments on: He must not be a space booster

By: hrad

hrad — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:56:47 +0000

you cannot just give him money for having the right garden in the right place. can and worms springs to mind.

By: Melusine

Melusine — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:18:42 +0000

Calli Arcale, that’s interesting. It’s like the gleaners in France.

By: Calli Arcale

Calli Arcale — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:30:17 +0000

Personally, I’m a little surprised the government is giving him the time of day. This is certainly not the first time rocket bits have fallen in a farmer’s backyard. It is standard operating practice, in fact. Soyuz strap-on boosters, and the first stages of nearly all rockets, usually wind up on the steppes, mostly in Kazakhstan but some in eastern Russia. I have a copy of Space Illustrated with an article showing a Russian farmer with a titanium sledge and a titanium shovel, which he crafted out of the parts of a rocket stage which landed on his property.

The stages which fall on Kazakhstan are typically first stripped by government agencies, and then left to the tender mercies of the “rocket mafia” — loose collections of metal scavengers who fight to be the first to get to the site of the spent stage or strap-on booster. Rocket scavengers are so good at their job that they typically beat the military to the site; the unwritten agreement is that they then allow the military first dibs, and the military will make sure that no other scavengers come in and claim the stage in the meanwhile. Indeed, scavengers are likely the reason why an experimental reusable rocket vanished after it landed a couple of years ago. They know what they’re doing, and they are very efficient. Scrap metal sells well in Russia.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:48:02 +0000

“enormous metal casing, as smooth as an egg. The uncovered part had the appearance of a huge cylinder, caked over and its outline softened by a thick scaly dun-coloured incrustation. It had a diameter of about thirty yards. He approached the mass, surprised at the size and more so at the shape, since most meteorites are rounded more or less completely. It was, however, still so hot from its flight through the air as to forbid his near approach. A stirring noise within its cylinder he ascribed to the unequal cooling of its surface; for at that time it had not occurred to him that it might be hollow.”

Fixed.

By: The Ridger

The Ridger — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:30:22 +0000

Oh, look. The error message about an “illegal mix” didn’t mean “I can’t post this because it has Cyrillic” it only meant “I can’t post this WELL.” Sorry for the double post.

By: The Ridger

The Ridger — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:29:01 +0000

FWIW, I searched the Russian Internet for this and couldn’t find the Vorobyov quote anywhere. It’s not in any of the articles about Urmatov. From the English version, it’s hard to tell how many sources they used. Izvestiya’s piece on Urmatov didn’t quote Vorobyov (the Roskosmos press spokesman) by name, or have that quote unattributed. Vorobyov is in 3000+ hits that mention Roskosmos (there are lots of people with that name, including an actor and a politician, so there are over 51000 hits just on his name), so I’m not searching to see if this is some canned statement. I tried searching on his name and letayut and padayut, the most common words for “they fly” and “they fall”, but found nothing. So I can’t help you linguistically. All I can find from him is:”Perhaps this is our fragment off the Proton, but perhaps it’s American. We have to investigate. Our experts will get there in mid-March and check out what kind of fragment it is. Thank God, as I understand it, the shepherd is alive and even ready to go to court. It’s of course possible that compensation will be paid to everyone, but it still needs to be proved that this is a fragment from a Russian launch.”

By: The Ridger

The Ridger — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:28:24 +0000

FWIW, I searched the Russian Internet for this and couldn’t find the Vorobyov quote anywhere. It’s not in any of the articles about Urmatov. From the English version, it’s hard to tell how many sources they used. Izvestiya’s piece on Urmatov didn’t quote Vorobyov (the Roskosmos press spokesman) by name, or have that quote unattributed. Vorobyov is in 3000+ hits that mention Roskosmos (there are lots of people with that name, including an actor and a politician, so there are over 51000 hits just on his name), so I’m not searching to see if this is some canned statement. I tried searching on his name and ?????? and ??????, the most common words for “they fly” and “they fall”, but found nothing. So I can’t help you linguistically. All I can find from him is:”????? ????, ??? ??? ??????? ?? “???????”, ? ????? ???? – ?? ?????????????. ??? ???? ???????????. ???? ??????????? ??? ????? ?????????? ? ???????? ????? ? ?????????, ??? ??? ?? ???????. ????? ????, ??? ? ?????, ?????? ????? ? ???? ????? ? ??? ????????. ??? ??? ?????, ???????, ??????????? ???? ???????????, ?? ???? ??? ????????, ??? ??? ??????? ?????????? ??????-????????” which is “Perhaps this is our fragment off the Proton, but perhaps it’s American. We have to investigate. Our experts will get there in mid-March and check out what kind of fragment it is. Thank God, as I understand it, the shepherd is alive and even ready to go to court. It’s of course possible that compensation will be paid to everyone, but it still needs to be proved that this is a fragment from a Russian launch.”