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\nThere is both a science and a tradition to spaceflight.\n<\/p>\n
\nAll space farers journeying aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft perform a series of traditions following in the footsteps of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin.\n<\/p>\n
\nStarting from their arrival at Baikonur about two weeks before launch, Soyuz astronauts rehearse their launch, inspect their spacecraft, and complete a series of traditions in honour of Gagarin.\n<\/p>\n
\nToday ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and fellow Expedition 56\/57 cosmonaut Sergei Prokopev and NASA astronaut Serena Au\u00f1\u00f3n-Chancellor completed their tree-planting ceremony.\n<\/p>\n
\nBehind the hotel buildings, leading to banks of the Syr Darya River, there is an avenue of trees. A tree is planted here by each person who has flown from the Baikonur cosmodrome into space.\n<\/p>\n
\nCrews walk in this avenue, now expanded into a park, and plant their own trees.\n<\/p>\n
\nAs Alexander has already flown before in 2014, he did not plant a new tree. The backup crew observed but did not plant their own trees. They will do so when it is their turn to fly.\n<\/p>\n
\nAfterwards, the crews paused to take this photo next to a model Soyuz rocket located at the end of Cosmonauts Alley. \n<\/p>\n
\nThe actual Soyuz launcher, with the Soyuz spacecraft inside, is rolled to the launchpad on a special railway carriage exactly 48 hours before launch, at 7:00 local time in Kazakhstan.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe primary crew will not see the roll-out of the Soyuz rocket on the launchpad, as this is considered bad luck.\n<\/p>\n
\nWith just a little over a week to go before the 6 June launch, Alexander and his colleagues will participate in more traditions such visiting the Cosmodrome museum, watching the film White Sun of the Desert<\/i>, and more traditions on the actual launch date such as a blessing by a Russian orthodox priest. \n<\/p>\n