Wisconsin astronaut in quarantine as Soyuz is rolled out

• Soyuz rocket

The Soyuz rocket is rolled out to the launch pad on Monday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz is scheduled to launch the crew of Expedition 21 and a spaceflight participant on Wednesday. Bill Ingalls/NASA

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BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — It’s L minus 3 meaning it’s three days until lift-off of a Russian Soyuz rocket bound for the International Space Station. Colonel Jeffrey Williams of Winter, Wis., is a member of the three-man crew.

On L minus 3, there’s a little-known but venerable Soviet/Russian tradition called a “roll-out” that takes place at the cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

More than 100 people speaking Russian, French, Kazakh and English, many laughing and excited — all pointing to a large white-tipped rocket moving at 3 mph on a rail line — making its way to the launch pad. A handful of Russian guards in over-sized Soviet-style military caps stand, keeping watch on a tradition started in 1957 when the Soviets rolled out Sputnik one, christening humankind’s entry into space.

The rocket has 20 red thrusters. Its tail is a dull orange to go with the body’s dull green. That leads to the white top section, where the crew of three will reach the International Space Station two days after launch.

Since Soviet space architect Sergey Korolyov’s roll-out 52 years ago, another tradition has sprung up: setting rubles, coins, on the railroad track to be crushed by the rocket’s train and saved as souvenirs.

It is this Soyuz rocket that will propel Col. Williams, celebrity astronaut Guy Laliberte and cosmonaut Maxime Surayev into orbit Wednesday.

About a dozen friends and family of Wisconsin astronaut Jeffrey Williams arrived at the Russian Space Center in Kazakhstan Sunday.

The crew of Soyuz Expedition 21 is in quarantine now, accompanied by a NASA physician affectionately nicknamed “Dr. No.” So Williams stands on one side of a wrought-iron gate, with friends and family on the other.

“Welcome to the penitentiary,” he said. “You can’t even reach through the fence because this guillotine comes out.”

His wife, Anna-Marie, and their two grown sons join about 10 friends to say hello — at arm’s-length. They traveled across 11 time zones, mostly neighbors from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Williams is the flight engineer in this crew of three. It includes a cosmonaut and Laliberte of the Cirque du Soleil. All three remain in semi-isolation for their final days of training.

“We all came here at the same time,” Williams said. “We have rooms in the crew quarters adjacent to each other. We eat three meals a day on schedule together. We sit at the same table. We go to all our training together.”

Williams’ six-month mission will span Expedition 21 and 22. It will finish the International Space Station after 10 years of work. He’ll lift off Wednesday afternoon from the Russian Space Center in Baikonur, an outpost of 70,000 people on the desert steppes of Kazakhstan.

Photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto

Tags: wisconsin, astronaut, soyuz, kazakhstan, quarantine