I am curious what is the purpose of the dark/light semi-circle areas on the main face?
Looks like a simple day/night (A.M./P.M. tilted at right angle) parts of the dial separator.
---------- Post added at 09:18 ---------- Previous post was at 07:41 ----------
In addition to the pictures, I can add that Perminov said that Roscosmos will consider regular delaying of transportation of just landed crews to Moscow, giving them a day to recover when they are still in Kazakhstan. Such a request was made by the TMA-15's crew who have landed the past week and was made delay due to bad weather conditions preventing their flight. They actually liked the opportunity not to travel far away and stay in a local hotel instead. This practice was in effect before early 80's, but had later been cancelled.
As example of the case when the crewmember had better stayed rather than departed immediately, he mentioned the "hard" landing of the TMA-11 with the 1st Korean Astronaut Yi So-Yeon aboard: after her having departed to Korea she had to spend quite a long time in hospital. Her problems could have been addressed by our personnel early, had she stayed around for a while.
However, according to the head of Roscosmos, making such a stay a rule will require certain investment in the local infrastructure to provide better accomodations and having an adequate medical equipment in place to safe proof against adverse possibilities, so it's up for discussion yet.
---------- Post added at 09:58 ---------- Previous post was at 09:18 ----------
Oh, and, btw, I've shaken hands of every one of them.
