Cosmonauts arrive at space station in yellow and blue | Hacker News Reader

Cosmonauts arrive at space station in yellow and blue

cp24.com

83 pointsmyth_drannon32 comments

When the cosmonauts were able to talk to family back on Earth, Artemyev was asked about the suits. He said every crew chooses their own.

“It became our turn to pick a color. But in fact, we had accumulated a lot of yellow material so we needed to use it. So that's why we had to wear yellow,” he said.

That seems... implausible.

There may be a mundane explanation: https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1504953365196943367

If "they're our university colours" was the reason, they likely would've said so when asked. Even if that was the reason when the outfits were chosen originally, that isn't the reason they gave when asked.

Or they just don't want to violate laws back home and made up an excuse

I think it’s more plausible than the number of people who’d have to be involved making custom jumpsuits and sneaking them onboard.

According to a follow-up article by the same news outlet this tweet is the correct explanation. I'm not going to make judgement because I don't have enough information to decide either way

https://www.cp24.com/mobile/world/russian-cosmonauts-suits-a...

I choose to see that as plausible deniability.

But then there's also a great big russian flag worked into the suit.

But then there's the 'why didn't they say it was college colours?"

Who knows?

Personally I'm rather skeptical that this was intentional. I could obviously be wrong, but I feel it's probably more of a coincidence than anything else.

You don't exactly sneak something like this aboard unless you have a lot of people in the flight prep chain who will turn a blind eye.

Of course it was arranged before the war, and some of them used similar color before.

Not news

> people in the flight prep chain

I have a feeling the people working on space centers are more educated and worldly than the average Putin supporter, and a lot of them are probably against the invasion.

Indeed if there was a Putin apparatchik paying attention in faraway (from Moscow) Baikonur, Kazakhstan, he would've probably noticed the yellow and blue suits, realized how it would look, and ordered them to be changed, even though it's "last minute".

Cosmonauts are wearing almost entirely yellow uniforms and the media is twisting that as support for ukraine? If that doesn't show you that media is all propaganda and how desperate they are to latch onto anything, nothing will. Maybe yellow is zelensky's favorite color and they did it to honor zelensky. Left out of the article was any mention of the cosmonauts building an altar to zelensky on the space station. Maybe that'll be in tomorrow's news.

The propaganda during the iraq, afghanistan, libya, syria, etc wars was ridiculous. But the over the top absurd ukraine propaganda takes the cake. Everything from using video game footage as war footage to this. Unbelievable. And so many people just blindly accepting it.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

I'm not saying there's not propaganda from both sides, there obviously is. But this and the video game footage are readily attributable to the shoddy state of ad-funded clickbait journalism today, which is a separate issue from intentional propaganda.

> "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

But when the "stupidity" always leans in one particular political direction, it's difficult not to attribut malice to it.

> But this and the video game footage are readily attributable to the shoddy state of ad-funded clickbait journalism today, which is a separate issue from intentional propaganda.

Not seeing how it is separate from intentional propaganda when it was done intentionally for propaganda purposes and it was spread all over news and social media for propaganda purposes.

You say obviously there is propaganda on both sides ( which I agree with ), but then you excuse this away...

I'm starting to like this aphorism better ...

"Never attribute to stupidity that which is adequately explained by malice".

>But when the "stupidity" always leans in one particular political direction, it's difficult not to attribut malice to it.

Does it really though? There is plenty of stupidity to go around.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=815

Has links to what to do if a Soyuz capsule lands in the US, and I'd assume would be useful if one lands in Europe.

Just in case.

They look pretty pleased with themselves. Whether it was random or intentional it worked out.

Imagine if you live in a autocrat country.

You want to protest something and yet not get shot.

Oh that is the color of uniforms we had left...

Its not a lie and does not support any direct protest of anything

And yet...it is the colors of Ukraine's flag.

>You want to protest something and yet not get shot.

I wouldn't be so sure. Didn't some people get arrested for protesting with a blank sign? I also saw a video of protester with a sign "two words" getting hauled away.

Astronauts are expensive government assets relative to random people with a sign.

Can you apply for political asylum aboard the International Space Station?

I would love to see this playing out: Cosmonaut applying for asylum. Obviously Russia can't arrest him in space, but where do they land? There is material for a nice movie in there.

Check out "For All Mankind" on Apple TV. Although now it might hit a little too close to home.

> Obviously Russia can't arrest him in space, but where do they land?

Depending on whether it's a US or Russian vehicle, either in the ocean or Kazakhstan (which, while generally aligned with Russia, is a whole separate country and disappointed Putin by refusing a request to supply troops to support the invasion of Ukraine.)

They could get a ride back on the spaceX vehicle

> Astronauts are expensive government assets relative to random people with a sign.

Among those arrested in the recent purges are, ISTR, 8 army generals, the head and first deputy at FSB, and a bunch of other “expensive government assets”.

Good for them. Good for all the people who are fighting for democracy.

>"But in fact, we had accumulated a lot of yellow material so we needed to use it. So that's why we had to wear yellow,”

Sure, sure ;)

>"Despite all of that, up in space, we can have a cooperation with our Russian friends, our colleagues"

They're just being professional. I am pretty sure they would sanction them out in no time if it was not presenting big problems.

In case you didn't know: Putin had his long-planned "Mission Accomplished" rally about Ukraine yesterday, intended to have been a major propaganda moment, only that they didn't have a victory to celebrate. It was the anniversary of the Anschluss of Crimea, so they focused on that and a "Support our troops" message instead.

My suspicion is that the style of the flight suits had been chosen for propaganda in connection with that event: supposed to have been a reference to a victory they didn't had.

Now that strikes me as the most plausible - bright yellow suits with a russian flag, do seem both a 'little planned' and a 'little Ukraine related'

Given that's not gone to plan, the 'erm we had a lot of yellow material' strikes me as what you might say when you have to say something, anything else.

I wouldn't read too much into it. It may have even been allowed by Putin. Putin has always done these gesture politics that involved little effort but achieve a lot for Russia.

The continuation of the joint Russia-USA/World Space Station is good for Russia. Say the USA called the end of the ISS it would look bad for the USA, not for Russia.

I'd say this rather signals the opposite. Three of the nation's top heroes are blatantly violating the new totalitarian anti-protest laws and Putin is completely impotent to do anything about it. Russia doesn't have a secret space police.

You have no evidence this was a decision by the Cosmonauts. None.

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