Another Astronaut Waltz

Well, violin cancelled again today, but that's OK since now it's raining and we wouldn't be able to record anyway since the rain is so loud on the roof. Such are the hazards of home recording. For instance, I live in the flight path to the airport and it's harder to record without picking up airplane noises in the winter since sound travels farther in colder air. (On my last home recorded album there are a few times you can airplane noises in the background if you're listening on headphones, but I figured it was OK since it's an album about travel.)

Anyway, to today's post. Here's part 2 of the Astronaut Waltz series (part one, Velocity, was written in 1998 so we can expect part three by 2020.) Call of the Waters takes it's name from an affliction of sailors who would mysteriously cast themselves off their ships to drown. The same compulsion apparently also affects astronauts. Here's a description from the always handy Medical Emergencies in Space page from the Ohio chapter of the Mars Society.

In the days of sailing ships, physically sound young men would occasionally throw themselves from the boat and drown, overcome by fascination with the sea. This "Call of the Waters", as it was named, may have a latter-day equivalent in spaceflight. Just as some are compelled to stand on the edge of precipices or stare off bridges into the void below, some astronauts are fascinated by the free-falling view of space afforded by spacewalking. Valeri Ryumin's diary from his 1979 stay aboard Salyut-6 described his August 15 spacewalk: "You're out of your mind, I was telling myself - hanging on to a ship in space, and to your life, and getting ready to admire a sunset."

In fact, right from the start some spacewalkers have been reluctant to return to the safety of the ship. America's first spacewalker, Ed White, had to be ordered back into the capsule by Mission Control. When McDivitt had to tell him it was time to come back inside, White sighed, "It's the saddest moment of my life."

But this compulsion to stare into the void almost turned deadly for rookie cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko. During his 1977 stay on-board Salyut-6 with Georgi Grechko, a 20 December spacewalk was scheduled; Grechko would spacewalk, and Romanenko was to stay inside the airlock, monitoring medical readings. But Romanenko's curiosity got the better of him; he stuck his head out of the hatch, then drifted further and further out. When he started thrashing wildly, Grechko realized his friend's safety line wasn't attached, and Romanenko was drifting off into space! By leaning over as Romanenko drifted by, Grechko was able to grab hold of the safety line and pull him back in. Had Romanenko been further out, he would have drifted off and eventually suffocated.

Anyway, here's Call of the Waters. One day it'll have violin on it...