This picture sums up Puerto Rico's general condition. What a sad few years they've had.
I was technically there once -- stuck in the airport for several hours en route to someplace else. The flights were all delayed for hours, if not canceled outright, and a lot of vacationers were upset...including Will Arnett, whom I watched give an airline representative a hard time until his wife came and calmed him down. His wife was Amy Poehler.
Since they were both stars, this counts as random space stuff.
I was able to go see the telescope in person as part of the nerd cruise I go on every year. It was a custom excursion, and by far the biggest excursion the ship did that year. Four busloads of nerds went to Arecibo rather than going to a beach or touring the town. It was awesome.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
Are you following Chang'e-5? China has lunar samples on the way to Earth following the first-ever (I think?) rendezvous between two robotic spacecraft. They're the third nation to retrieve moondust, and the first in 44 years. Chang'e-5 couldn't survive a lunar night and so only had a couple of weeks to land, collect samples, and launch them. Next up: re-entry and recovery.
The "chang" is pronounced as "chahng," and the "e" as it is in "her." You can stress the first syllable. The apostrophe is there to show that there are two syllables, as you probably guessed
Reminder, SpaceX will attempt to send a rocket full of supplies to the International Space Station on Saturday morning at 11:39 a.m. If the launch doesn't happen, the next day available is Sunday at 11:17 a.m.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
The "chang" is pronounced as "chahng," and the "e" as it is in "her." You can stress the first syllable. The apostrophe is there to show that there are two syllables, as you probably guessed
The NASA Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida is prepared to continue integration of the vehicle for the Artemis 1 lunar mission, but space agency and contractor management for the EGS, Orion, and Space Launch System (SLS) programs are monitoring the status of hardware elements that will be needed to complete the process for a launch scheduled for November 2021.
EGS and prime test and operations contractor Jacobs started the integration process during Thanksgiving week by placing the two foundational pieces of the vehicle, the SLS aft booster assemblies, on Mobile Launcher-1 (ML-1) in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).
With the base of the launch vehicle standing on the Mobile Launcher, the next step is to begin stacking the other eight motor segments of the Boosters on top of them, but uncertainty about the availability of the SLS Core Stage and the Orion spacecraft elements for stacking means that the schedule is still fluid. EGS Operations is keeping tabs on the Core Stage Green Run and a reported avionics box issue with Orion, but plans were still in place to continue with booster stacking next week.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
jztemple2 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 12:47 am
Reminder, SpaceX will attempt to send a rocket full of supplies to the International Space Station on Saturday morning at 11:39 a.m. If the launch doesn't happen, the next day available is Sunday at 11:17 a.m.
jztemple2 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 12:47 am
Reminder, SpaceX will attempt to send a rocket full of supplies to the International Space Station on Saturday morning at 11:39 a.m. If the launch doesn't happen, the next day available is Sunday at 11:17 a.m.
Going to be double dragon time at the ISS.
The controls were always a bit floaty, but that's just ridiculous.
jztemple2 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 12:47 am
Reminder, SpaceX will attempt to send a rocket full of supplies to the International Space Station on Saturday morning at 11:39 a.m. If the launch doesn't happen, the next day available is Sunday at 11:17 a.m.
Going to be double dragon time at the ISS.
The controls were always a bit floaty, but that's just ridiculous.
It's all autopilot these days, so should be fine...
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos heralded progress on the development of the rocket engine that’s destined for use on the lunar lander that his Blue Origin space venture is building — but he also offered a glimpse into his crystal ball for future moon missions.
“This is the engine that will take the first woman to the surface of the moon,” he wrote in an Instagram posting about the hydrogen-fueled BE-7 engine.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
Chuck Yeager, the U.S. Air Force Pilot who became the first person to break the sound barrier, died Monday (Dec. 7) at the age of 97.
Yeager's wife, Victoria, shared the news on Twitter, writing: "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET. An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever."
Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier on Oct. 14, 1947, while flying the Bell X-1 rocket plane 45,000 feet (13,700 meters) over the Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. During the flight, Yeager reached Mach 1.05, or 1.05 times the speed of sound. The aircraft, which he dubbed Glamorous Glennis after his first wife Glennis Yeager, who died in 1990. The Bell X-1 now hangs on display in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Yeager would go on to fly even faster aircraft, including the Lockheed XF-104, which flew more than twice the speed of sound. His daring test flights were featured in Tom Wolfe's 1979 book "The Right Stuff" as well as the film adaptation and new Disney Plus series by the same name.
Yeager's flying career in the U.S. Air Force began during World War II in 1941, where he served as a private and later an aircraft mechanic. He began pilot training in 1942 and became a test pilot after the war. Yeager flew a variety of experimental aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base.
In 1960, Yeager served as director of the Space School at Edwards and later would serve as a wing commander in the Vietnam War, where he flew over 130 combat missions, according to a NASA biography. Yeager also served on the Presidential commission that investigated NASA's space shuttle Challenger disaster, which killed seven astronauts, in 1986.
Yeager retired from the Air Force in 1975 at the rank of brigadier general after 33 years of service. He received numerous awards and commendations throughout his career, including the Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star, according to the New York Times. Yeager also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985 from President Ronald Reagan, the Times added.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
By chance, the day that Jupiter and Saturn will appear closest for Earth-based stargazers is Dec. 21, the winter solstice, which is the longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
It wasn't quite the flawless finale rocket scientists at SpaceX were hoping for, but they're not walking away completely disappointed from a landing pad along the Texas Gulf Coast.
The company's 9-story Starship rocket soared to 40,000 feet before attempting to land. That's where the trouble started.
Company founder Elon Musk explained what went so explosively wrong.
"Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD, but we got all the data we needed! Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!," the eccentric entrepreneur tweeted.
In case you're wondering, "RUD" stands for "Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly"
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
The press is lampooning Musk for calling it a success. As usual they are wrong and just being too cynical. It was a flight test. Did they hope to land it? Of course, but it did everything they wanted but land. And that was the case for every one of their previous prototypes before they worked out the bugs. You almost want to ask these jackals how many rockets did anyone else land at all? NASA usually threw their prototypes into the ocean in comparison.
Last edited by malchior on Thu Dec 10, 2020 1:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
malchior wrote: ↑Thu Dec 10, 2020 1:05 am
The press is lampooning Musk for calling it a success. As usual they are wrong and just being too cynical. It was a flight test. Did they hope to land it? Of course, but it did everything they wanted but land. And that was the case for every one of their previous prototypes before they worked out the bugs. You almost want to ask these jackals how many rockets did anyone else land at all? NASA usually threw their prototypes into the ocean in comparison.
This. It was a success beyond what anyone was expecting. Further, the issue that caused the RUD (low pressure in the header tanks) is likely a pretty straightforward fix for SpaceX. SN9 is virtually ready to go already. They'll be moving forward in short order, I'd bet.
In case you missed it...aliens have a base on Mars, there's a galactic federation that we're too primitive to join, and trump knows about it, says a former Israeli space security chief.
Eshed said cooperation agreements had been signed between species, including an "underground base in the depths of Mars" where there are American astronauts and alien representatives.
"There is an agreement between the U.S. government and the aliens. They signed a contract with us to do experiments here," he said.
Eshed added that President Donald Trump was aware of the extraterrestrials' existence and had been "on the verge of revealing" information but was asked not to in order to prevent "mass hysteria."
"They have been waiting until today for humanity to develop and reach a stage where we will understand, in general, what space and spaceships are," Eshed said, referring to the galactic federation.
The White House and Israeli officials did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. Sue Gough, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, declined to comment.
Kudos to trump for keeping it quiet; mass hysteria is obviously the last thing he'd want to foment.
SpaceX shared amazing footage of its Starship rocket as it belly flopped through the atmosphere and exploded upon touchdown.
The rocket — a Starship prototype called SN8 — launched on an epic high-altitude test flight from SpaceX's facility near the South Texas village of Boca Chica Wednesday (Dec. 9). SN8 took off at 5:45 p.m. EST (2245 GMT) and soared 7.8 miles (12.5 kilometers) into the air before heading back to Earth.
Video footage captured by a tracking camera on the landing pad shows the final moments of the test flight, including the rocket careening back to Earth in a wild belly flop-like maneuver.
There are two videos on the page, but they are not YouTube ones so I don't know how to embed them here. The video near the top of the article is the amazing view of the last few seconds of flight taken by a camera near the landing, while the one near the bottom of the article covers the whole near nine minute flight. That latter video is pretty amazing too, it has multiple views and shows the in-flight shutdown and start up of the engines and also the actuation of the control surfaces as the vehicle maintains its "belly flop" attitude. Pretty damn cool stuff
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
2 engines center mass seems a terrible placement for control and maneuvering.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
The capsule of the Chang’e 5 probe and its cargo of samples were flown to the space program’s Beijing campus after landing just before 2 a.m. on Thursday.
The mission achieved firsts for China’s lunar exploration program in collecting samples, launching a vehicle from the moon’s surface and docking it with the capsule to transfer the samples for their voyage to Earth, the China National Space Administration said in a statement issued following the landing.
...
Two of Chang’e 5’s four modules set down on the moon on Dec. 1 and collected about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of samples by scooping them from the surface and drilling 2 meters (about 6 feet) into the moon’s crust. The samples were deposited in a sealed container that was carried back to the return module by an ascent vehicle.
The newly collected rocks are thought to be billions of years younger than those obtained earlier by the U.S. and former Soviet Union, offering new insights into the history of the moon and other bodies in the solar system. They come from a part of the moon known as the Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms, near a site called the Mons Rumker that was believed to have been volcanic in ancient times.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
If you thought the U.S. Space Force sounded pretty sci-fi before, well, the ante has been upped.
The nation's newest military branch, which was officially established on Dec. 20, 2019, has decided to call its personnel "Guardians," a move that will doubtless usher in a flood of "Guardians of the Galaxy" references and jokes.
"Henceforth, the men and women of the United States Space Force will be known as Guardians," U.S. Vice President Mike Pence announced today (Dec. 18) during a ceremony marking the branch's impending first anniversary.
"Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Guardians will be defending our nation for generations to come," Pence added, also invoking the terms that refer to people who serve in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. (Service members in the nation's other military branch, the Coast Guard, are called "Coast Guardsmen.")
President Donald Trump directed the Department of Defense to create the Space Force when he signed Space Policy Directive-4 in February 2019. The Space Force was officially stood up 10 months later, becoming the nation's first new military branch since the Air Force in 1947.
The Space Force is officially part of the Air Force, just as the Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy.
The Space Force "organizes, trains, and equips space forces in order to protect U.S. and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force," the new branch's mission statement reads. "USSF responsibilities include developing military space professionals, acquiring military space systems, maturing the military doctrine for space power and organizing space forces to present to our Combatant Commands."
The Space Force's creation aligns with the Trump administration's broader space priorities, which have focused on strengthening the United States' leadership position in space. That position is under increasing threat from China and Russia, White House and military officials have said repeatedly over the past few years.
Pence's speech wasn't the only Space Force action on tap today: NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins officially transferred from the Air Force to the Space Force during a ceremony aboard the International Space Station.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
Remember you can view the Christmas 'Star' at 6:30pm...30 min...in the SW just at the horizon. Jupiter and Saturn will be within 1 degree viewing to us and look bright as a star. I doubt I can see it that low and Im surrounded by hills.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 7:00 pm
Remember you can view the Christmas 'Star' at 6:30pm...30 min...in the SW just at the horizon. Jupiter and Saturn will be within 1 degree viewing to us and look bright as a star. I doubt I can see it that low and Im surrounded by hills.
I just looked at it. They are still a distinct distance apart. And Jupiter always looks as bright as a star, while Saturn looks as bright as a fairly dim star. In fact they always look like stars. I think the media as usual tried to hype us about this. Even if they were so close as to be unsolvable as separate objects to the naked eye the combo would look like Jupiter, except maybe a tad brighter.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 7:00 pm
Remember you can view the Christmas 'Star' at 6:30pm...30 min...in the SW just at the horizon. Jupiter and Saturn will be within 1 degree viewing to us and look bright as a star. I doubt I can see it that low and Im surrounded by hills.
I just looked at it. They are still a distinct distance apart. And Jupiter always looks as bright as a star, while Saturn looks as bright as a fairly dim star. In fact they always look like stars. I think the media as usual tried to hype us about this. Even if they were so close as to be unsolvable as separate objects to the naked eye the combo would look like Jupiter, except maybe a tad brighter.
I agree. Jupiter has been dominating the sky and hard to say that it looked extremely brighter to my naked eye.
Im surprised Griffith sees anything being right above LA and the city lights.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 7:00 pm
Remember you can view the Christmas 'Star' at 6:30pm...30 min...in the SW just at the horizon. Jupiter and Saturn will be within 1 degree viewing to us and look bright as a star. I doubt I can see it that low and Im surrounded by hills.
I just looked at it. They are still a distinct distance apart. And Jupiter always looks as bright as a star, while Saturn looks as bright as a fairly dim star. In fact they always look like stars. I think the media as usual tried to hype us about this. Even if they were so close as to be unsolvable as separate objects to the naked eye the combo would look like Jupiter, except maybe a tad brighter.
I agree. Jupiter has been dominating the sky and hard to say that it looked extremely brighter to my naked eye.
As a fellow Floridian, I have noted your perceptiveness and obvious intellectual grasp of the subject
Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 10:38 pm
Im surprised Griffith sees anything being right above LA and the city lights.
I thought they just used that telescope to stare into Scarlett Johansson's bedroom
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
Astronomers have spotted what may be the strongest candidate yet for an alien signal. Researchers with the Breakthrough Listen project have found an unusual beam of radio light coming from around our nearest star, Proxima Centauri, according to a report in The Guardian on 18 December.
Any purported discovery of aliens always has to be taken with skepticism. That’s especially true in cases where a signal appears to be a possible technosignature, a sign of alien technology rather than simply life. The Breakthrough Listen team has been extremely cautious about their find. “No one is claiming it’s a technosignature,” tweeted Pete Worden, chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation.
In fact, the researchers are not claiming much about it at all. News of the signal came to light by a researcher speaking to The Guardian before the scientific paper has been published – the data analysis is not yet complete, so nobody can be sure exactly what this strange radio beam is. All we know so far is that it’s peculiar.
The planets in the habitable zone of Proxima are bathed in radiation and probably tidal-locked, so not exactly vacation destinations as far as humans are concerned. If the Proximans feel otherwise we'd love to hear about it.
Theres only one planet I think..B. But the star is dying. So perhaps it once had a civ and they either died or left because the star is a crapshoot.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"