<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/b613e6f7-1457-473a-9fb6-92884c00942b/947F25BE-8C8C-411D-91E7-8372FF979715/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/09/29/cosmonaut-traditions.html" href="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/09/29/cosmonaut-traditions.html" style="font-size: 11px;">dsc.discovery.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/09/29/cosmonaut-traditions.html"><H1 class="headline">Odd Rituals Surround Russian Space Flights</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/09/29/cosmonaut-traditions.html"><P><STRONG>Sept. 29, 2009</STRONG> -- The launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket Wednesday that will carry Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte and two other crew members to the International Space Station will be marked by rituals dating back to the pioneering Soviet space missions of the 1960s.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/09/29/cosmonaut-traditions.html"><P>The activities of the astronauts in the days leading up to the launch from Baikonur, located in the bleak Central Asian steppes, are carefully choreographed, with crews repeating many of the mundane activities of their predecessors.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/09/29/cosmonaut-traditions.html"><P>These rituals are thought to bring good luck to missions launched from Baikonur, home of the world's oldest manned space program.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/09/29/cosmonaut-traditions.html"><P>Among the traditions witnessed over the years by reporters for The Associated Press, or reported in the Russian media, are the following:</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/09/29/cosmonaut-traditions.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/dsc.discovery.com/img/795FA5EC-1233-4513-954D-6517DDFBC03E" alt="Ready, With T-Shirts" /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/947F25BE-8C8C-411D-91E7-8372FF979715/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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