DDE

The arc of history is long, but inevitably it bends towards Wh40k.

And those who have given it are the government themselves. Does that not you make you even the slightest bit suspicious? Assuming our assessments of their size/distance to them are correct, and those are all too often difficult to verify in a narrow-angle shot. Indeed, I'm not egotistical enough to assume an advanced race would stick around to study us, while repeatedly getting caught - as opposed to making open contact, or eradicating us like roaches. Which is consistent with reflector balloons, one of the countless suggestions you've apparently dismissed. I can assure you skunk works egineers have done that and then some. [snip] I'm phoning home.

You have some safety in numbers. https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/ufos-arent-real I don't think there's much more to add to that, other than slightly more on how they likely began as a mixture of genuine sightings and coverups. e.g. Area 51 does have secret excrements going on in it, and that's just one step removed from "anomalous" and "alien".

Amy Shira Teitel argues that the entire BLUE BOOK was a U-2 coverup effort.

Relevant to our discussion. X-37B is labelled as "Low-orbit and inter-media spacecraft".

Well, not if it's attempting a single-orbit mission, which is very likely under wartime conditions. But since low orbit is in the exosphere, some (admittedly low-quality) slurces mentioned appreciable inclination effects from the Shuttle's wings even up there. Of course, all of you are missing the bigger picture. Do you remember what the previous CEO of Almaz-Antei is at? https://asgardia.space/en/

One word: Vandenberg. Also, from what I've heard the Shuttle could use its wings for aerodynamic plane change maneuvers. Anyway, the people behind the study that justified Buran never recanted their opinion that the Shuttle was a bomber. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3855/1 https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3873/1 https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3876/1 This contributes to certain... "alternative facts" circulating in the Russian defence community.

Most NERVA scenarios are classic, Apollo-style, non-reusable trailblaser missions assembled from parts launched using, again, non-reusable Saturn V derivatives.

AFAIK the doctrine is to ensure it's autonomously steered away from the pad. Everything else is secondary.

Not entirely. A true NERVA would have a staging event and jettison the Earth departure engine(s).

I really need to get back into that. Sadly, the aforementioned issue with me unable to pay for Nemesis. And I'm still obssessed with creating my own stable of custom races and flavor text.

Blame the salesman, not the car. But anyway, behold Midgetman's cousin.

*sigh*

Soyuz MS-08 RV on sale https://trade.glavkosmos.com/ru/news/3344/

Ah, yes, F-35, the starter of many a flame war. The program's tall costs and significant overruns do make it a big fat target, and sniping at it has turned into a genre in itself.

Mynoks? I used to rely on an extender myself. I'm guessing the kid is now whining about long ping and whatnot.

Candidate image for thread header.

On the flipside, missiles would be using a more strictly-defined fuel type, potentially JP-10. General-issue JP-4/JP-8 and JP-5 are notorious for their utterly unpredictable composition, leading to the splitting-off of RP-1 spacegrade fuel. And that's before we consider commercial maritime diesel.

Spektr was partially salvaged by performing an indoors EVA and replacing its bulkhead door with one that could admit power cables, since its four solar arrays were of considerable value. Add to it any externally-mounted consumables stores (e.g. TKS-style fuel tanks) and a vented module can have its uses.

LIN Industrial have been around for some years. They can into Kerbal engineering:

By accident, today I've determined the origin of this footage: an eight-minute-long deepfake Gagarin: Lieutenant of the Sky shown at Zaryadie. https://www.zaryadyepark.ru/schedule/114639/ Anatoly Zak still hasn't deleted his tweets falling for this thing, BTW.

Nobody: Absolutely nobody: [culprit behind paywall]:

4.6x energy expenditure to push it, significant losses (20-30%). But sinze it's a Gazprom study they still deem it acceptable )

In the wake of April's climate summit, the Russian oil and gas bigwigs have discovered the existence of the gas "hydrogen", and are plugging it everywhere. One of the several ideas they've had thus far is using the piplines currently exporting (effectively) methane to export hydrogen, produced through environmentally palatable means (e.g. pyrolysis and carbon capture using nuclear heat). My question is mostly a physics one: given the ridiculously low density of gaseous hydrogen (LH is likely out) can a sufficient amount of it be conveyed using extant infrastructure to provode for the same amount of joules per annum?

Well, it's not strictly necessary to concentrate it - you can just shine it at an ordinary solar powerplant.