Russian cosmonauts strictly adhere to a bizarre pre-flight tradition where they must stop the transport bus taking them to the launchpad, unzip their spacesuits, and urinate on the right rear tire.

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Russian cosmonauts strictly adhere to a bizarre pre-flight tradition where they must stop the transport bus taking them to the launchpad, unzip their spacesuits, and urinate on the right rear tire. This incredibly specific ritual started in 1961 when Yuri Gagarin famously relieved himself on the way to becoming the first human in space, and it has been treated as an essential good luck charm ever since. Even female cosmonauts participate by bringing vials of their own urine to splash on the rubber. Decades of cutting-edge aerospace engineering, billions of rubles in funding, and humanity's absolute peak scientific achievements all culminate in highly trained professionals essentially marking their territory on a vehicle like a pack of anxious golden retrievers before voluntarily strapping themselves to a massive, controlled explosion aimed at the unforgiving void of the cosmos