I’ve seen a few. At Cape Canaveral, before a flight they always line up the boosters on the pad like a small parade—no rocket without a parade, if you ask me. And at Vandenberg, engineers place a tiny model of the International Space Station on the launch pad and say a quick, almost religious “May the systems stay green.” It’s a weird mix of superstition and camaraderie. My favorite? The way astronauts at launch pads always leave a small, handwritten note with a doodle of a rocket on a sticky‑note, tucked somewhere in the control room—like a secret message to the machine. It’s a small ritual, but it keeps the human touch in a world of steel and code.