DDE

Nani?

Fun fact: "USSR" on Gagarin's helmet was added impromptu on launch day. It's not present in most of the official press photos. https://t.me/sashakots/46066

I'd disagree. The alternative often starts grassroots, although it can be a product of misaligned incentives; the root of collectivism is self-dehumanization, including a disinterest in the products and outcomes of one's labor. Usually such people just wallow in nihilistic misery, but in turmoil or a bureaucracy they may be able to seize power and subject others to the quest for an impossible utopia. The problem with collectivist societies - true collectivist societies, rather than tight-knit ones, where seeming altruism is actually a very utilitarian investment for one's own rainy day - is that they rarely get much done. When everyone is a cog in a machine, no-one can be Gagarin, no-one can be allowed to be Gagarin... and no-one wants to be Gagarin. Contrary to their "marketing", collectivist societies are inert, stale and very atomized, even when everyone wears bright colors, makes worries go away with... pharmaceutical methods, constantly lovebombs each other, and forces a smile on their face.

Maybe apocryphal, ascribed to cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev: "And why is Gagarin a hero anyway?" "Ever seen a ten-storey house. Imagine it's full of jet fuel. Imagine you're locked up in a tiny ball on top. Imagine they tell you that, if their calculations are correct, you're coming back alive, and then they set fire to the ground floor."

Eyes on Orion https://t.me/kiam_ison_network/195

My 2 cents: capital doesn't necessarily take the form of money. Political and social capital are also things that exist.

Nominal, nominal, nominal, nominal. Orbit achieved, payloads away. https://t.me/space78125/2603

Launch!

That stuff is basically drugs, if we judge by feline behavior.

Borisov: this time it was an engine controller fault https://t.me/roscosmos_press/1968 And they're probably targeting tomorrow noon

Scrub again. Might be the weather. All the cameras vibrated pretty violently.

* took control of freedom and democratically convinced

Borisov: central stage odixizer tank pressurization failure https://t.me/space78125/2569 Tomorrow launch still in the cards.

Abort was called right after this bang: https://t.me/roscosmos_press/1961

24-hour hold command at T-2m, right after oxidizer started venting. Source says they had a pad fire safety system issue

I believe some of you like this gal. Now I see why. What a ride...

Well, he won't have much of a chance to see the truth later. *ba-dum-tss*

Angara-A5 cleared for fueling, launch expected tomorrow noon MSK.

IIRC Sagan once formulated that a purported alien would have to have features not found in any terrestrial creatures, otherwise it would likely be made up. European explorers imagined all manners of weird creatures, but they weren't prepared for what they found in Australia. Like, what the heck is that!?

The humble Tatra T3 ended up being used in Moscow for sixty eight years. (this is not a Cities: Skylines: Snowfall ad, but!)

Found some TEM Nuklon functional testing hardware now on display at VDNKh. Wide angle Also, a TEM model. Yes, it's conspicuously different from the rest of the hardware @nyrath, as per usual, I have a nuclear rocket to share.

Rosatom's hagiographic exposition at VDNKh is quite awesome for its level. Unfortunately, it ate the Onion. It has a stand about the Nuclear Volga. The Nuclear Volga was a 2015 April Fools by Popular Mechanics. And I'm hardly the first to notice the slip-ups. BTW, don't name your museum design studio Lorem Ipsum... Posted from the cafeterium over at pavilion 34 "Aviation and space exploration". Gonna moonshine as an unpaid tour guide again

I used to call simulation theory "creationism for the anti-religious". Then I learnt about gnostic esotericism and realized that this is just another permutation of it. Simulation theory proponents are ensnared by a millenia-old cult. And it can take pretty extreme forms. I know of a small but noisy group of Russian internet coaches eho think they're the player characters in a game and they promise to share the secret how to level up. And everyone else is a mindless NPC, of course.

Soyuz MS-24 landing nominal https://t.me/roscosmos_gk/13092

Meanwhile I'm seeing someone basically cry in the Detroit: Become Human forums about how profound a warning a small fluff article about the extinction of bees is.