The Sky Thief: Beebo Russell's Last Flight
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rollingstone.com
https://space.stackexchange.com/a/2109
They're used in the launch facilities on the ground, not the spacecraft itself.
It's not as funny that the key is on the ground (I guess like the launch keys on the nuclear missiles) but that makes sense.
Soyuz rockets. In english, "spacecraft" usually only means the bit that actually reaches and travels in space. The closest Russian word refers to the entire launch vehicle and so often gets mistranslated.
Spacecraft don't have keys for the same reason as aircraft: People will die if someone looses the key in flight.
> Spacecraft don't have keys for the same reason as aircraft: People will die if someone looses the key in flight.
Before steering column locks were required (steering wheel doesn't turn unless key is engaged) the automotive key really often was merely an ignition key; you could remove the and the car would continue to operate. In fact this happened to me once with my late 60s Chevy Malibu - I got out of the car in a noisy place, locked the car, and came back to discover the engine had been running the whole time.
So in that case the only risk of losing track of the key in flight is that it might hit something, not that the device would cease to operate. It would suck to be on the moon and unable to take off because someone lost the key thought!
(of course it's complicated enough to launch a rocket that a joyrider isn't really an issue).