#Russia's Mir Space Station.

[xtruss]

SHUTTLE FERRY! If weather conditions are favorable, returning Space Shuttles land at Kennedy Space Center. Florida storms, however, frequently divert the shuttle to Edwards Air Force Base in California. The shuttle then hitches a ride back to Florida on one of two commercial Boeing 747 airplanes modified for space shuttle piggybacking. Officially called shuttle carrier aircraft, the planes are bolstered with struts, stabilizers, and electronic monitors. Photograph courtesy NASA/Carla Thomas

DISCOVERY LIFTOFF! U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, heading for the International Space Station. The world's first reusable spacecraft, the space shuttle launches like a rocket, maneuvers in orbit like a spacecraft, and lands like an airplane. There are three shuttles now in operation: Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. Photograph courtesy NASA

ATLANTIS LIFTOFF! Observers watch as Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on a mission to deliver a new segment of the International Space Station's backbone, known as the truss, to the orbiting laboratory. The shuttle has the most reliable launch record of any rocket now in operation. Since 1981, it has boosted more than 3 million pounds (1.36 million kilograms) of cargo into orbit. Photograph courtesy NASA/Jim Grossmann

SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS! Space Shuttle Atlantis takes flight on December 2, 1988, reaching a speed of over 17,000 miles an hour (27,000 kilometers an hour) in just 8.5 minutes. It will need such a velocity to defeat gravity and stay within the launch window—the time or set of times during a given day that the shuttle can launch, still meet mission objectives, and stay within safety guidelines. Photograph courtesy NASA

CHALLENGER EXPLOSION! On January 28, 1986, about 76 seconds into its launch, fragments of Space Shuttle Challenger are seen tumbling against a background of fire, smoke, and vaporized propellants. The left solid rocket booster continues to fly, still thrusting. Later investigations found that faulty O-rings were to blame for the accident, in which all seven crew members died. It was the first such tragedy in shuttle history. Photograph courtesy NASA

ATLANTIS AND MIR! On June 29, 1995, Atlantis became the First Space Shuttle to dock at Russia's Mir space station. A Russian Mir-19 cosmonaut snapped this photo on July 4 after a brief scientific joyride on the Soyuz Spacecraft. This mission, STS-71, had a number of additional historic firsts: It was the hundredth U.S. human space launch conducted from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and it included the largest spacewalk ever undertaken in orbit and the first on-orbit change of shuttle crew. Photograph courtesy NASA

DISCOVERY ROLL-OUT! Carrying Discovery, NASA's crawler transporter creeps along at 1 mile an hour (1.6 kilometers an hour). The trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launchpad takes about five hours, and the crawler burns about 150 gallons (570 liters) of diesel fuel every mile. Photograph courtesy NASA

SHUTTLE LANDING! Space Shuttle Discovery touches down at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The runway is 15,000 feet (4,600 meters) long and 300 feet (90 meters) wide, about twice the size of the average commercial runway. The pavement is made of 16-inch-thick (41-centimeter-thick), high-friction concrete grooved to drain water and add extra friction. Scientists went a little overboard with the friction at first and had to grind down the pavement a bit after several complicated landings. Photograph courtesy NASA

COLUMBIA LAUNCH! Space Shuttle Columbia, seen here launching in 1993, paved a brilliant legacy before its tragic end. The shuttle disintegrated over east Texas on its landing descent to Kennedy Space Center on February 1, 2003, at the conclusion of a microgravity research mission. Columbia was the oldest orbiter in the fleet and the first shuttle to orbit Earth. It was also the heaviest, weighing 178,000 pounds (80,800 kilograms). Photograph courtesy NASA

ENDEAVOUR LAUNCH! Framed by billowing clouds of smoke, the Space Shuttle Endeavour launches at night on March 11, 2008, headed for the International Space Station. During the more than two-week trip, astronauts conducted spacewalks and started the installation of a modular laboratory. The mission, STS-123, was NASA's 122nd space shuttle mission. Photograph by Susan Poulton

[whats-in-a-sentence]

"Orphans of Apollo" (2008), a documentary by Michael Potter which first brought that phrase to an audience, tells the story of a failed attempt to take Mir into private ownership in part as a way of making this service available. That did not happen – but from 2001 to 2009 various rich men paid to be taken up to the International Space Station in Russian capsules.*

* The Russians also charge their partners from NASA and ESA for these transport services.

"The Moon: A History for the Future" - Oliver Morton

[humanoidhistory]

Russia's Mir space station, photographed from the approaching space shuttle Atlantis on June 29, 1995. (NASA)

[yesnearme]

Point Nemo: The Earth's Most Remote and Mysterious Location

Point Nemo, located in the South Pacific Ocean, is the most isolated point on Earth, situated over 2,688 kilometers from the nearest land. Known as the "Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility," it has become infamous for its extreme remoteness. This desolate spot is also a “spacecraft cemetery,” where over 260 defunct satellites and space stations have been sent to rest, including Russia’s Mir space station. Reaching Point Nemo is a daunting task, requiring specialized ships and equipment, as it is far from any rescue services. Its eerie isolation has inspired fiction, with H.P. Lovecraft using it as the setting for Cthulhu's lair. Point Nemo continues to captivate the imagination, remaining one of the most mysterious and unreachable locations on Earth. Visit more :- Point Nemo

[un-ionizetheradlab]

MIR!!

Mir Over New Zealand - October 26th, 1996.

"The Russian space station Mir was photographed in September, 1996, high above New Zealand. Before returning with record-breaking astronaut Shannon Lucid, the space shuttle Atlantis crew took this breathtaking view from the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Atlantis had just undocked from Mir and was preparing to return to Earth."

[bobmccullochny]

History

March 26

March 26, 1979 - The Camp David Accord ended 30 years of warfare between Israel and Egypt. Prime Minster Menachem Begin of Israel and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the treaty of mutual recognition and peace, fostered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

March 26, 1992 - Soviet Cosmonaut Serge Krikalev returned to a new country (Russia) after spending 313 days on board the Mir Space Station. During his stay in space, the Soviet Union (USSR) collapsed and became the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Birthday - American playwright Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was born in Columbus, Mississippi. His works featured Southern settings and include; The Glass Menagerie, Night of the Iguana, and two Pulitzer Prize winning plays, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof .

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 3.23 (after 1940)

1940 – The Lahore Resolution (Qarardad-e-Pakistan or Qarardad-e-Lahore) is put forward at the Annual General Convention of the All-India Muslim League. 1956 – Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic in the world. This date is now celebrated as Republic Day in Pakistan. 1965 – NASA launches Gemini 3, the United States' first two-man space flight (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young). 1977 – The first of The Nixon Interviews (12 will be recorded over four weeks) is videotaped with British journalist David Frost interviewing former United States President Richard Nixon about the Watergate scandal and the Nixon tapes. 1978 – The first UNIFIL troops arrived in Lebanon for peacekeeping mission along the Blue Line. 1980 – Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador gives his famous speech appealing to men of the El Salvadoran armed forces to stop killing the Salvadorans. 1982 – Guatemala's government, headed by Fernando Romeo Lucas García is overthrown in a military coup by right-wing General Efraín Ríos Montt. 1983 – Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. 1988 – Angolan and Cuban forces defeat South Africa in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. 1991 – The Revolutionary United Front, with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia, invades Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow Joseph Saidu Momoh, sparking the 11-year Sierra Leone Civil War. 1994 – At an election rally in Tijuana, Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated by Mario Aburto Martínez. 1994 – A United States Air Force (USAF) F-16 aircraft collides with a USAF C-130 at Pope Air Force Base and then crashes, killing 24 United States Army soldiers on the ground. This later became known as the Green Ramp disaster. 1994 – Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed into the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain, Kemerovo Oblast, Russia, killing 75. 1996 – Taiwan holds its first direct elections and chooses Lee Teng-hui as President. 1999 – Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis María Argaña. 2001 – The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji. 2003 – Battle of Nasiriyah, first major conflict during the invasion of Iraq. 2008 – Official opening of Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, India 2009 – FedEx Express Flight 80: A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 flying from Guangzhou, China crashes at Tokyo's Narita International Airport, killing both the captain and the co-pilot. 2010 – The Affordable Care Act becomes law in the United States. 2018 – President of Peru Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigns from the presidency amid a mass corruption scandal before certain impeachment by the opposition-majority Congress of Peru. 2019 – The Kazakh capital of Astana was renamed to Nur-Sultan. 2019 – The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces capture the town of Baghuz in Eastern Syria, declaring military victory over the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant after four years of fighting, although the group maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells across Syria and Iraq. 2020 – Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the United Kingdom into its first national lockdown in response to COVID-19. 2021 – A container ship runs aground and obstructs the Suez Canal for six days.

[cellarspider]

"French astronaut Jean-Pierre Haignere snapped this picture of the moon’s shadow passing over Europe from Russia’s Mir space station during the eclipse of Aug. 11, 1999." (https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna11763975)

The right image is not real. It appears to be an altered version of a previously viral digital art piece that was distributed without the artist's permission, originally by Japanese artist A4size-ska in the terrain modeling program Terragen 2. Here's a Web Archive link to Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog explaining how you could tell the original was faked: someone seems to have taken his analysis and used it for irritating purposes, removing the most obvious sign that it wasn't real and distributing it onward.

Solar eclipses seen from space

[jose-a-heredia-investiga-blog]

Secret Space - The Illuminati's Conquest of Space - Espacio Secreto-Conquista Illuminati del Espacio

Table of contents in the description with time links.

Índice de contenidos con vínculos de tiempo y la descripción en Español, bajo la Inglesa.

The images that you will be able to see, or have never seen or if you have, will be pieces out of context and many of you will have considered them incredible, therefore, here, being in their context and being images filmed by NASA or its namesake in the USSR, you will verify its veracity. This documentary by Chris Everad brings up several questions about the secret space program: what it is, who is behind it and why Is there a human civilization living off-world with highly advanced technology and knowledge about the existence of aliens. It reveals the hidden history of NASA and its connection to the network of Illuminati secret societies. It exposes how the Nazis were a crucial part in the development of the American space program, anomalies in the Apollo missions and UFO sightings recorded before World War II, until 2006 and during space missions.

 Index of contents:

• Prologue and Secret Space ………………...………….00:00:00

• Part 1 - The beginnings and their protagonists……00:11:28

• Brief contextualization of David Ike………….…….00:15:28

• Part 2 The beginning of the revelations……00:22:00

• Radiation………………………………………………………00:28:41

• Suppressed Inventions…………………….…….…..00:32:27

• Tests; videos of contacts with Aliens and Governments….….00:37:51

• NASA's Biggest Secret (Expansion of the previous videos)..00:42:01

• Space Snakes……………………………………………...00:43:21

• Where is the MIR Space Station?..................................00:47:42

• STS80 Space Shuttle mission very, very strange…………………00:51:40

• NASA and the Pentagon in the Secret Space War……………….00:57:56

• Mission STS-75 E.M. Tether full video…………………………..01:02:13

• NASA expenses and how to justify them………………….……..01:04:51

• Report of the President Elect of the AD HOC Space Committee..01:14:32

• NASA astronauts & UFOs………………………………..……...01:15:25

• 1.5 km long "Sperm Creature" filmed 1991…………………..….01:22:02

• Are there alien abductions in Russia?..........................................01:24:52

• Masonic Moon………………………………………..………….01:28:47

 --------------------------------------------

Las imágenes que podrán ver, o jamás habrán visto o si lo han hecho, serán trozos fuera de contexto y muchos los habréis dado por increíbles, por eso, aquí al estar en su contexto y al ser imágenes filmadas por la NASA o su igual en la URSS, comprobareis su veracidad. Este documental de Chris Everad plantea varias preguntas sobre el Programa Secreto Espacial: qué es, quién está detrás de él y por qué hay una civilización humana que vive fuera del mundo con tecnología altamente avanzada y conocimiento sobre la existencia de los extraterrestres. Así mismo, revela la historia oculta de la NASA y su conexión con la red de sociedades secretas illuminati. Se expone como los Nazis formaron parte crucial en el desarrollo del programa espacial estadounidense, las anomalías en las misiones Apollo y los avistamientos de OVNIs registrados desde antes de la 2da. Guerra Mundial, hasta el 2006 y las misiones espaciales.

 Índice:

• Prologo y Espacio secreto ………………...………………….00:00:00

• Parte 1 - Los comienzos y sus protagonistas…….00:11:28

• Breve puesta en contexto de David Ike…….00:15:28

• Parte 2 El comienzo de las revelaciones……00:22:00

• Radiación………………………………………………………00:28:41

• Inventos Suprimidos…………………………………..00:32:27

• Las pruebas; vídeos de contactos con Aliens y Gobiernos…….00:37:51

• El Mayor Secreto de la NASA (Ampliación de los vídeos anteriores)..00:42:01

• Serpientes Espaciales…………………………………………..00:43:21

• ¿Dónde está La Estación Espacial MIR?........................00:47:42

• STS80 misión Espacial Shuttle muy, muy Extraña………00:51:40

• La NASA y El Pentágono en la Guerra Secreta Espacial…….00:57:56

• Misión STS-75 Incidente E.M. Tether vídeo completo…..…..01:02:13

• Gastos de NASA y como Justificarlos………………….……..01:04:51

• Informe del Presidente Electo del AD HOC Comité del Espacio…01:14:32

• Astronautas de la NASA & OVNIs…………………………...01:15:25

• "Criatura Esperma" de 1,5 Km de largo filmada 1991……….01:22:02

• ¿Hay abducciones Alienígenas en Rusia?...........................01:24:52

• Luna Masónica……………………………………………….01:28:47

 #secret #space #program #horizonte #paperclip #moon #UFOs #UFO #majestic12 #shuttle #parallel #paralelo #serpientesespaciales #spacesnakes #MIR #estacion #espacial #internacional #internationalSpaceStation #ISS #Apollo #nazi #nazis #Proyecto #proyect #davidicke #ike #area51 #OVNIS #WernerVonBraun #HermanOberth #AllanShepard #JohnGlen #notaloneinuniverse #vida #life #extraterrestre #extraterrestrial #Station #alienships #spaceship #evidence #flyingaliensnakes #evidencias #SSP #programa #secreto #serpientesextraterrestres #MJ12 #Illuminati #conquista #conquest  #tecnología #technology #altamenteavanzada #highlyadvancedtechnology #highlyadvanced #Shuttle

[iomadachd]

4.

Russian Superstition

All of the below are sourced from here. Cut for length.

Superstitions in Russia

Russians are considered very superstitious. Their lives are filled with superstition which most non-Russian are unfamiliar with. Soothsaying on New Years’s has traditionally been important. Most Russians claim they are not superstitious; they are only recognizing superstition as a way of hedging their bets by not tempting fate. [Source: Carol Williams, Los Angeles Times, Yelena Minnok Encyclopedia of Superstitions in Russia]

There has traditionally been a strong interest in parapsychology, some of which is regarded as “scientific,” in Russia. There are numerous folk stories involving vampires and witches. In 2001, Putin signed a bill outlawing “electromagnetic, infrasound…radiators” and others weapons of “psychotronic influence.”

Superstition experienced a rebirth after the collapse of Communism. Olga Miserva, a parapsychologist at Moscow’s Open Spiritual Center, told the Los Angeles Times. “Reliance on superstition shows up the inadequacy of our internal knowledge and self-confidence problems that have been intensified by the insecurity inflicted on people by the complete change of the world hey know…There are a lot of problems and a lot of reason for people to be fearful. People want to fill these voids with a little something they can believe in. They look to the stars for guidance and put their faith in these old superstitions to feel they have control over the future.”

Common Russian Superstitions

The Russian equivalent of knocking on wood is spitting over one’s shoulder three times after making a careless remark about possible danger or presumed good. The superstition is based on the belief that the devil lives on one’s left shoulder and an angel loves on the right shoulder, and spitting on the devil is a way of preventing him from causing mischief. Pretending to spit three times over one’s shoulder and then knocking on wood is a superstition for good health.

Many Russian superstitions trace their origins back to pre-Orthodox pagan times. To ward off evil spirits one must touch the floor with the right foot first after waking up in the morning. If a person accidently puts on their shirt inside out he or she must place it on the floor and step on it before putting it on the correct way.

Other common Russian superstitions: 1) A dropped butter knife means that a member of the opposite sex will visit. 2) If you want to have a son wear a hat during the moment of conception. 3) If you have a bad dream and you don’t want it come true you must retell the dream in the morning while running water from a faucet so the dream goes down the drain. 4) Before embarking on a journey, one must “sit for the road,” or sit silent on one’s luggage or bed before leaving.

Domovoi and Shaking Hands at Thresholds

A common Russian superstition is that one must never shake hands, kiss, sleep or sit near a threshold such as a door. Thresholds are where brownie-like creatures known as domovoi dwell and kissing or shaking hands is regarded as an offensive invasion of their space.

Non-Russians visiting the home of Russian friends often violate this superstition by greeting their hosts with handshakes or embrace at the doorway. Some Russian believe that the misfortunes on the MIR space station began after arriving American astronauts shook hands with Russian cosmonauts when they entered the station.

Domovoi are believed to follow the head of the household when a family moves. There are elaborate rituals to attract domovoi when a new household is established after marriage. A newlywed groom, for example, does not carry his bride over the threshold, but rather lets loose a cat call which is supposed to summon a domovoi. Cats are the only creatures that can communicate with domovoi.

Mirror Superstitions

In order not to obstruct the journey of departed spirits to the afterlife, Russians believe, one must not obstruct the view of a mirror. Broken mirrors are considered an omen of misfortune for a friend and looking at your own reflection in a broken mirrors is regarded as very dangerous.

People are not supposed to eat in front of mirrors or look at an image of a candle reflected in a mirror. Many superstitions involve mirrors because they are regarded as the threshold between the world we know and the world of spirits.

One of Russia’s most widely held superstitions is when someone returns home to pick up something left behind he or she must look in a mirror before leaving again. Some people say that you have to stick out your tongue or make an ugly face when looking in the mirror. The idea behind this belief is that when a person leaves the house the first they accompanied by a guardian angel. If they return from outside the guardian angel is left behind and is recalled with a look in the mirror.

Bad Luck and the Evil Eye

Whistling indoors, yellow flowers, red hair are all considered bad luck. If you whistle indoors, all your money will fly out the window. Yellow is associated with sadness. Redheads are regarded with suspicion because there are so few of them.

Returning a borrowed item after sunset or mending a hem or button while wearing a damaged garment, spilling salt on a table are also considered bad luck. If you spill salt you must throw it over your left shoulder.

One should never celebrate a holiday, birthday, anniversary or other happy event in advance. Don’t look at a baby if you have black eyes. Don’t light a cigarette from a candle. The number 13 it is not an unlucky number in Russia. An even number of roses or any other flower is considered appropriate only at a funeral.

Evil eye superstitions are very much alive in Russia. The Cossacks have traditionally worn black fur hats with a red and black “god’s eye” to ward off bullets. Many Russians believe that that some people have the power to cast the “evil eye”. A babka, an old woman faith healer, told the New York Times, she can recognize the “evil eye” but she never uses it. “I cast only good spells,” she said. “I never use the evil eye.” To “disinfect” oneself from a curse cast by the evil eye pass a candle three times in front of an icon.

Supernatural Beliefs

The collapse of Communism brought about a resurgence in astrology, ESP and fortunetelling. Respected newspapers contain advertisements offering the services of witches, warlocks and clairvoyants. Doctors regularly advise their patients to see faith healers. Lilia Voroneheza, a popular psychic and faith healer, told the Los Angeles Times in the 1990s she was so busy she had to turn away customers. Another psychic, Anatoly Kashpirovsky, was elected to Parliament in 1993.

The Third Eye, a television show about the supernatural, was one of the most popular shows in Russia. A government report issued in 2001 said that Russian scientists were trying to create “effective methods to influence of humans at a distance.” The KGB investigated paranormal occurrences.

A Russian woman named Rosa Kulehova demonstrated her ability of eyeless sight at the Moscow Academy of Science. After being blindfolded she read material placed in front of her using the third and forth finger on her right hand.

Astrology

Astrology has became quite popular in Russia since the fall of Communism. Astrology columns are a fixture in almost every magazine and newspaper. Callers can receive personalized astrology accounts using their phones. The Kremlin used to have a staff of astrologers, whose job was to advise the late Present Boris Yeltsin.

Russian horoscopes tend to be gloomier than their American counterparts. Negative days usually outnumber “fortunate” days by a two to one margin (the ratio is reversed in most American horoscopes). The alignments of planets are viewed as inauspicious days in which it better to stay home and not make decisions. In the U.S. these days are viewed as obstacles that can be overcome.

By Western standards, Russian astrology reports are very blunt. One report in the Kommersant newspaper read: “Today is a largely dangerous day. You may end up broke…This day is entirely unsuitable for an undertaking of any sort…The risks of accidents is high. You shouldn’t expect anything good from your family life today…It’s better not to gamble on a day like this, whole fortunes are lost.” The following day the paper reported: “Fraud, cheating and crooked deals are only a small fraction of the troubles that threaten to disrupt all your plans today.” [Source: Washington Post]

Typical Russian horoscope entries read, “don’t get frantic when you find all your life savings are gone,” “your deliveries will not arrive on time, or will never arrive,” foreigners will cause you a lot of trouble today,“ "on Tuesday the shady deals that you made earlier become known to the broad public,” and “You should intensify the guard on your apartment; representatives of criminal structures are not dozing.” 

Fortunetellers and Mystics

Russia has a long history with mystics and fortunetellers. Brezhnev consulted a Bulgarian clairvoyant. Yeltsin hired a special consultant to protect him from “external pyschophysical influence.” See Rasputin Under History.

By one estimate there are over 100,000 fee-charging mystics in Russia and the services they offer is a multi-million -dollar business. They advertise on television and in newspapers. Many fortunetellers in Russian are Abkhazians from the Caucasus and Roma (Gypsies). Abkhazian women read coffee grounds; Roma often use cards. On Roma fortune teller told the Washington Post,“All sorts come here for advise—doctors, procurators, Mafia—it’s a good business.”

The chess player Garry Kasparov credited the Azerbaijani psychic Tofik Dadashev with helping him won his first world championship in 1985 against Anatoly Karpov, who employed a psychologist trained in hypnotism. Dadashev told the Los Angeles Times, “What I was doing there was not hypnosis in the scientific sense of the word.” He said he “created the positive energetic background which would make it easier for him and more difficult for opponent to play.”

The use of mystics and fortunetellers soared after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian sociologists said that among the reasons for this were tough economic times and pent up interest in the supernatural after years of Soviet rule. “Many people now live on the verge of despair, given their economic situation, which humiliates and destroy their families,” one Russian sociologist told the Los Angeles Times. “They are attracted to psychics, to magicians to witches…out of fragility and desperation.”

Wise Women and Witches

Faith healing, paganism and witchcraft were not stamped by the Communists. Since the break up of the Soviet Union they have experienced a rebirth. One Belarusian anthropologist told Newsweek, “The Communists were strongly atheistic, but they could not destroy people’s belief in miracles.”

Almost every village has some kind of witch or warlock. Many people, when given the choice, say they would rather go to a faith healer than a doctor. Cures for cancer offered by witch doctors include drinking kerosene, spitting at the moon and peeing through a wedding ring into a saucepans.

Vedma ("wise women”)—usually matronly babushkas in their 60s—in small villages in Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine treat childhood diseases by writing magic words on water and attempt to cure cows by whispering secret spells in the wind. For payment they accept chicken, eggs and homemade vodka.

“Ivan Kupla” is a pagan festival tolerated by the Orthodox Church in which revelers celebrate the beginning of spring by bathing naked together in running water and jumping over greenwood fires with crowns of birch twigs. Some parish priests keep busy doing exorcisms on people reportedly victimized by witchcraft. These exorcisms often feature a lot of moaning, screaming and shuddering from crucifixes.

Urban Witches

The belief in witchcraft in Russia is said to be stronger in the cities than in rural areas because, one Orthodox priest told the New York Times, “in villages the old attitudes toward the church are still alive and the immunity against evil is better preserved.”

In the cities witches work as fortunetellers. Most of their business comes from women who have bad luck and want to have a curse removed and men who want to seduce women. One customer who sought a witch in Moscow told the Time of London her boyfriend had left her because a neighbor had sprinkled pine needles across the threshold of her family house when her mother was pregnant. “We told the witch about it and she lifted the curse,” the woman explained.

In the early 2000s, Larisa Teterina operated the upscale “External Help Center.” She typically treated six patients a day in an office filled with candles, crystals, and fertility symbols. She charges about $25 for an initial consultation and prices varied depending on the ritual, spell or curse that was sought. A charm that mended a broken marriage cost $300. A spell to make a man more sexy cost $150. Teterina told the Times of London: “Magic can’t be cheap because you’d argue with your spouse all the time and then go to witch to get it fixed.

Teterina said she learned her craft from her grandmother and has a 85 percent success rate. She attributed her high success rate as much to commons sense advice as magic. Still there are those who consider Teterina and others like her to be swindlers and charlatans. Witches have become so common that the Moscow city council proposed legislation to ban “occult services.”

[livingforstars]

Welcome Home Shannon Lucid - September 27th, 1996.

"September 27th, 1996, marked Shannon Lucid's first day on planet Earth after six months. Her stay aboard Russia's Mir Space Station was of record length - the longest stay of any American in space ever. During her time in orbit around the Earth, Lucid, a biochemist, did many things, including experiments on the effect of weightlessness on the human body. Pictured above, Lucid greets the astronaut that would replace her on Mir, John Blaha."

[piratesexmachine420]

Water deluge systems are used by all kinds of launch vehicles to protect them and launchpad infrastructure from damage -- they're really important.

This was most notably demonstrated by the first Integrated Flight Test (IFT) of SpaceX's Starship/Superheavy. For whatever reason, the decision was made to not install a water deluge system for the vehicle. (I've heard it was mainly Elon's idea, but this is like third hand unsourced information) As a consequence, the exhaust dug a hole through solid concrete and spewed debris across the Texas landscape -- up to ten kilometers away. Some of this debris struck the vehicle's first stage engines and caused their in-flight failure.

The Space Shuttle is also notable for learning the hard way. On STS-1, the first flight of Space Shuttle Columbia and the first launch of the Shuttle program, engineers completely underestimated how powerful the vehicle's shockwaves would be. The undersized deluge system failed to fully damp the shockwaves produced by solid rocket motors, and this (among other things) bent the orbiter's body flap (a big control surface located under the engines and flush with the vehicle's belly) to the point it very nearly broke entirely. If it had, Columbia would've been effectively unflyable on re-entry. Fortunately, it wasn't, and just as fortunately, the crew weren't even aware it had happened. Even the potential for damage to the body flap necessitated an abort and a crew ejection -- dooming both Columbia and the program as a whole to an early grave.

No space shuttle would mean no Canadarms, Spacelab, Shuttle-Mir or International Space Station, and very different space programs for Russia, Europe, Japan, Canada and the United States. Roscosmos, the state corporation behind the Russian Federation's space program and the main successor to the Soviet space program arguably only exists today because NASA gave them cash in exchange for Shuttle flights to their Mir space station.

So yeah, huge respect to the water deluge systems for making it all possible. And always remember, especially if you're Elon Musk, sometimes things are standard practice for a reason.

[thewriterkb]

An image of Soviet Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, known as the “Space Victim”, who was stranded on the Mir space station during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Soviet Union’s Cosmodrome, or space complex, was located in the now independent Kazakhstan – who were expecting Moscow to pay huge sums of money to use these sites. With the monumental decrease in value of the Russian Ruble due to the political instability, it was becoming impossible for the Russians to retrieve Sergei from space. This devaluation of currency was made worse by the fact that Sergei’s wages became worthless, hardly being enough for his family to survive.

Eventually, after Sergei spent months longer in space than originally planned, he returned back to Earth after deals between the Kazakhs and Russians for use of the Cosmodrome in exchange for sending a Kazakh astronaut to space. Upon return, Sergei was reported as being “as pale as flour and sweaty, like a lump of wet dough”. Sergei suffered physically an mentally from the length of the journey, but returned to space two years later.

The hearts and minds of Russians were with Sergei, with the ‘Komsomolskaya Pravda’ reporting: “A human race sent its son off to the stars to fulfill a concrete set of tasks. But hardly had he left Earth than it lost interest in those tasks, for worldly and completely explicable reasons”. During Sergei’s time in space, his country changed to Russia, a new president was instated and his home town of Leningrad had now changed to St. Petersburg. 

[un-ionizetheradlab]

me: i don’t talk about Sergei Krikalev that much, I swear

also me:

[humanoidhistory]

Russia’s Mir space station, photographed from the departing Shuttle Atlantis on this day in 1996.