MinimumSky5

Yes, the RS-25 was never designed to be restarted during a mission, only after refurbishment between missions. The OMS was used for all major maneuvers after launch.

Its probably an effect called "Opposition Surge/Brightening", which is frequently observed on rough surfaces, and commonly seen around the solar system. It simply means that the area of the surface directly in front of the camera appears much brighter than the areas at a slight angle to the observer. It's not fully understood, but you see it a lot in extraterrestrial images. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_surge

The bone is already way past mouldy, there's nothing left on it to smell. I'd personally say cow bone, but the cut confuses me. That's not cut down the midline, and I see no culinary reason why you would cut the bone like that. Most likely, its an erosion surface, they can be that smooth after a few decades in turbulent water.

No, insects don't have red blood cells, and only a few have any oxygen carrying pigments in their blood. Those that do have it simply dissolved throughout the hemolymph.

The new access arm looks gorgeous, but it also seems a little out of place attached to the industrial monstrosity of the launch tower!

How long is the bullet in the air for? That low pressure zone may get so rarefied, that the fly would suffocate before the bullet impacted the target.

My and my parents just dug out my old telescope that went missing when I moved to university, but I cannot remember much about using it! I want to get a good look at Mars tonight, but I can't remember if the telescope is really suited to it. It's a Celestron 9 1/4 inch Cassegrain-Schmidt.

They used drills initially, to get samples of lake water that had frozen onto the underside of the glacier, but then they used high pressure, hot water mixed with ammonia and kerosene (to form an antifreeze agent) to melt down into the lake itself.

Lake Vostok is buried beneath 4Km of ice in Antarctica, but we have collected living bacteria from it.

My personal odds of finding life on Mars just went up from ~25% to a good 95%,because we know that life can survive in subglacial lakes here on Earth (Lake Vostok, as an example), even when it seemingly lacks a source of energy.

I'm getting a bad feeling about PSP, I get the impression that the launch may slip to the window, in May.

I thought that with Iridium going into LEO, that SpaceX would do an RTLS landing? Isn't JRTI only used for GEO payloads?

Well, time to beg the Russians for more Soyuz seats.

Nooooo....! I just realised this, and was about to post it!

Is it possible to randomize orbital elements without generating a specific orbit? I'm wanting to set up a contract for getting a satellite into an orbit that matches certain parameters, but isn't fussy about things like LAN or argument of periapsis, so that provided that the eccentricity, inclination and SMA are within the range, the contract will complete.

It's nice to see Kodiak getting some love, I know that they've been repairing damage from the AHW test back in 2014, but they seem to have been forgotten by the commercial sector since then.

Err, no. That boat sailed nearly two years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Lab_Launch_Complex_1

Yes, technically the Harrier is in a stalled state, but it's still landing horizontally, and hasn't had to perform a flip in order to land on it's tail, and it's not had to endure Mach 25+ speeds in the upper atmosphere, and it hasn't done all of that hundreds of times.

@CobaltWolf Is there a reason why the Ruby and Sapphire boosters have an ISP curve of 245 - 274, but the Emeralds are doing their own thing with ISP's of 272 - 274? Its having the odd effect of making the solid boosters more efficient than the Darkah engine at liftoff! Looking at the real engine stats, the sea level ISP of the Emeralds should be 242.

Some really interesting news about Long March 8 + 9: LM9 will be comparable to Saturn 5, 140 tons to LEO, 50 tons to TLI, 44 tons to TMI It will have a hydrolox core stage and kerolox boosters. LM8 will be a new, partially reusable booster, both the core stage and the lateral boosters will be VTVL designs. No word if this is an RTLS system, or if new landing zones will be built. Also, its going to have a hydrolox upper stage, and will have tankage based on the LM3. Oddly, its boosters are solid fueled, so I'm assuming parachute recovery for them. LM8 will first launch in 2021, with LM9 in 2030 Also, CALT has confirmed that by 2035, they want to have all of their boosters be reusable. https://www.space.com/41102-china-reveals-details-for-super-heavy-lift-long-march-9-and-reusable-long-march-8-rockets.html Edit: They also want to use LM9 to attempt a direct sample return... from Mars!

Quickly looking at the Wikipedia page seems encouraging, they look like they allow most of their subsidiaries to continue. The only ones that they shut down tend to be the non profitable ones, which I doubt that Orbital ATK will fall into.

Mission Success!

Still, even then the moon could still be overexposed. Remember, it's so bright that if your eyes have become completely dark adapted, it can still hurt a little to suddenly look at it.

I love how there are lights in the spacecraft, just so we can get beauty shots!