Dave's Kazahkstan adventure

[triangleforge]

Let's put a bomb on it, drive it over to the other, bomb, see what happens.

The Russians have a special way of doing things, alright.

Thanks for sharing this tale - and the R. Crumb avatar!

[DuciD03]

Wa-ow; a real live rocket scientist  ! I didn't know. I hope all is well for you and the whole dam family in Ks.

For some strange reason I wanted to travel Kazakhstan and Mongolia (in a land curser or a comfy dual sport) ... but now know to avoid staying at a Russian rocket launch sites ... (but where would one stay?)

Can I ask, is it "legal" to be helping Russians launch a satellite?

[ducpainter]

Wa-ow; a real live rocket scientist  ! I didn't know. I hope all is well for you and the whole dam family in Ks.

For some strange reason I wanted to travel Kazakhstan and Mongolia (in a land curser or a comfy dual sport) ... but now know to avoid staying at a Russian rocket launch sites ... (but where would one stay?)

Can I ask, is it "legal" to be helping Russians launch a satellite?

Nope...you can't ask.

If you read the first post, however, you'd realize it was the Russians helping his company...not the other way around.

[Popeye the Sailor]

Nope...you can't ask.

If you read the first post, however, you'd realize it was the Russians helping his company...not the other way around.

And we had 24/7 security around it. No one was allowed to look inside-not even the customer, who owned it.

There's a reason I've used basically nothing but layman terms and only publicly available video.

And publicly available video someone else has posted at that. Telling someone how to put a satellite works is a major no-no.

[DuciD03]

And we had 24/7 security around it. No one was allowed to look inside-not even the customer, who owned it.

There's a reason I've used basically nothing but layman terms and only publicly available video.

And publicly available video someone else has posted at that. Telling someone how to put a satellite works is a major no-no.

I see ... said the blind man as he picked up the hammer ... and saw ...or is it saw?

I kind-a scanned through the thread this morning; amazing what you do and where you end up. ..funny-not / so lol-ing.

Interesting to see what people get up to in work and trips.

[Popeye the Sailor]

So I have my best guy on the transporter-I had made him practice on it during the week-the controls were wonky. The steering was a toggle switch. I think it had pedals. I suggested we not use the brake pedal-we'll just go at .01 miles per hour and let it coast to a stop. It's more weight than that thing probably should have seen, and mounted as high up as was inadvisable.

I wasn't willing to do it the first time I was there, but the last time, I knew I was leaving that particular job. with that in mind, I borroed a portable boobmbox, and cranked this up as we went.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro4yhp9L6Ok


So, we get to the room with the rocket, park the transporter, pick up the satellite. We put it on a special stand that gets launched with it, and a bunch of Swiss guys hook up a special band with more explosive charges in it that will let the satellite separate from everything else when the time comes. At this point I'm trying to direct a procedure with three languages involved, two of which I don't know any words in. It was not smooth.

Huge volumes of engineering experience on all sides, gesticulating.

We're just hanging it from the ceiling this whole time, watching the crane scale to make sure nothing goes amiss. When the Swiss were done what they were doing the next thing is to put it on the rocket base which is enclosed in this large gantry-the same one I mentioned earlier that had minimal guards on it, and plenty of blood from some dude who fell off of it. This very much helped my dire fear of heights.

The gantry can be seen in this video at about the :16 second mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_YT0P3BSy4

See the huge metal ring at :30 seconds in? Right above the yellow bit-the parts below are rocket-that's where out satellite would sit.

So, we'd casually plop our bomb onto their bomb, making sure it was facing the right way, etc. The Russians would hook it up to their base, we'd disconnect our sling, and move it away.

Now, I don't...like heights at all. Turns out I needed to be all the way at the top of that gantry, and I had to move around a lot. Up down, round and round. I discovered a couple things while doing this 1) if I'm busy, I don't care that I'm up high. I was stressed and very much occupied-I just wandered around like a high steel worker. 2) When the sling was removed and I no longer had anything to occupy me, reality set in.


I crawled off that thing.

All seven stories.

[Popeye the Sailor]

So, we're in the yellow gantry and we do our final checks, paperwork etc. Once we're happy, we need to encapsulate it in the faring.

So the entire mess gets tilted down like so:



And then one half of the faring is rolled up under it, and the other half is dropped on with a pair of linked cranes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvdoR-LclIQ

I was horrified at the craning process. They had a pair of 50 ton cranes because it was too heavy for either one. They needed to move in sync as they're both connected to the same thing. How did the Russians solve this delicate process? One of the crane operators would watch the other crane operator and just....do what they did. Somehow, this worked.

[Speeddog]

Two 50 ton cranes for one half of a fairing?

What does that fairing weigh, 100 lbs?

WTFBBQ?

[Popeye the Sailor]

It's the top of the rocket.

[DanTheMan]

And then?!?!?!

[lethe]

And then?!?!?!

3: profit!

[JohnEE]

The transporter was old. WWII vintage. Someone had modified some old troop truck, put a flatbed on it and a small satellite fixture. It looked solid enough, but if I climbed on it and gently bounced on the balls of my feet, the entire thing would vibrate violently. All. Of. It. I wouldn't have trusted it to support a half yard of dry mulch. Let's put a bomb on it, drive it over to the other, bomb, see what happens.

I'm hooked. Keep any non-confidential info coming. Great story/read

[Monsterlover]

And then?!?!?!

NO AND THEN!!