DDE

That requires a minor modification previously done on a flown Gemini capsule.

*laughs in Stalinist Gothic*

Not at all. Soviet tradition of multiple names for multiple aspects of development.

If we go with that evidence, there will be exactly nine nascent interstellar civs by 2200. My settings slider in Stellaris says so. The apes or angels argument.

It’s the same epitome of solipsism as the Simulation Theory, where the absense of evodemce is justified by raising the bar for the other side’s evidence-hiding ability. The two are ultimate conspiracy theories.

I disagree. It’s the same superheavy, just with a cargo fairing. Why would there be a second superheavy?

Well, I still dream of Roscosmos going pants-on-head and falconizing Soyuz-2.1v, since it’s the red-headed stepchild of the cirrent line-up. It may be structurally incapable of supporting legs. Which leaves is with only one option: make a couple tune-ups to the Tulip.

They’re going to run out of river names by the end of the decade.

Hold the presses, we’ve got a rename!

Should it? Most civilization-ender scenarios are overhyped, whereas economics of space settlement in general are disfavourable. The one inevitable scenario means the to-do list is a couple million years long.

Define "Starship". The payload section doesn't seem to exist even as a napkin study.

Imagine the fuel storage that can cope with the oft-touted scenario of emergency delivery. Standard Soviet hydrocarbon tankers would fit 45 m3 or so. An 8G513 tanker used at Baikonur fits 36 tons of lOx.

Interestingly, there’s this dome design in Surviving Mars. Can’t find any images online, unsurprisingly. Slaps some horizontal “blinds” onto the the usual plastic bubble to blot out most of the direct sunlight. Soft sci-fi game, but not a bad idea. Well, what also suits them is ignoble failure, as it did the first Occupy... movement.

Judging by your comment, I’ve suceeded in telepathic transfer already.

Russia will, most definitely, maintain unmanned orbital launch capability for natsec reasons. That capability need not be competitive economically. On the economic angle, even geography is against us - as is the ‘state capitalism’ economic paradigm that end up having to borrow its economic growth slogans from Stalin, a system of neither free enterprise not central control. Under these conditions, one should not expect the Russian space industry to be competitive. Indeed, direct state ownership may have benefited it - I think Roscosmos struggles (in a way) with its schizoid position of a taxpayer-backed for-profit corporation, and ends up getting the worst of both worlds. So, you can clearly see just how deep the problems run. Nor do I think Rogozin’s comments about space being Russia’s religion are in any way off the reservation - maintaining this Soviet-era prestige program is a part of the continuity that provides legitimacy to the current iteration of the Kremlin. Thus, ending the manned (politically incorrect term appropriate) space program would be another shot in the foot over limited financial gain. A way to make this acceptable is for everyone else to do it - the hypothesized Inwards Turn. A pessimistic scenario I find reasonable is a world population of tens of billions by mid-XXIst century, with even the titular ethnicities of developed nations beginning to grow explosively, while global warming continues mostly unabated. In this situation, Russia’s going to need every rouble and every bullet to fight off the unsavory contenders for its vast, underpopulated by increasingly habitable territory on a planet descending into fratricidal idiocracy. In this context, dropping the High Frontier for the Northern Frontier sounds quite prudent. OneWeb has been declared a natsec hazard. The FSB will likely veto any launches.

More like Arsenal of Bolshevik Democratic Centralism, amirite?

An optimistic estimate, and it’s still not enough. http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/transport/publication/air-freight-study The later bit showcases another nice aspect: the Grounded Starship would have to seek stable two-way traffic, or face a doubling of the price per kg.

And before the day is out, S7 says it will take up the route.

Still younger than the RL-10. Nevertheless, I like Rogozin’s new look.

Technically it bombards your own stomach lining to escape an environmental hazard, but yeah.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190206091345.htm TL;DR: nanoparticle coating of magnesium substrate decomposes water to produce thrust, allowing the oral vaccine to reach the target site before the acid can kill it.

Well, as those quarters of the Web say, [Video Redacted]

Water landing does start to sound more plausible for such applications, yeah - the engineering problems end up on the side of the rocket and not the landing area.

I dunno, NASA booking flights on the Federatsya/Yenisei stack while pretending Starship doesn’t exist would be... hilarious.

Alrosa’s Moscow-Baikonur airline has been cancelled; there are no more regular direct flights to and fro, they haven’t survived competion with Aeroflot operating from Kyzyl-Orda. I am shocked, shocked I say!