L-358: Soyuz acceptance verification

Pretty exciting start of my three-week training session in Star City! Together with my Commander Anton, I got to do an acceptance verification of the Soyuz 713. That’s the spaceship of fellow Shenanigan Alex on his Soyuz TMA-13M flight to ISS in May next year, together with Max and Reid.

It was an unexpected treat to be able to go! More often than not only Russian cosmonauts get to go, because the manufacturing schedule and our training trip schedule don’t necessarily harmonize.

But they did in this case and so Anton and I spent the morning inside the orbital module and the descent module, which are stacked on top of each other at the Energia facilities in Korolev, on the outskirts of Moscow. With the help of the specialists, we worked our way through a long checklist of things to verify, from cargo straps to valve controls to accessibility of the CO2 scrubbing cartridges under the right seat. Anton is of course a veteran Soyuz commander, but for me it was the first chance to “feel” a real, brand-new, space-bound Soyuz!

Later in the morning we were joined by specialists for Svezda, the seat manufacturer. They secured the pyrocharges of the seats and connected an external supply of pressurized air, so that we could experience the extension of the seat from the usual low position to the upper “armed” position. On an actual flight profile, seats are extended before landing to provide dampening of the impact.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos, but on the Energia website I found these two pictures from a similar verification last year. Notice the fashionable headwear!