DDE

Now you're thinking with portals.

Space windshield not included

Progress MS-22, deorbited as planned https://ria.ru/20230821/gruzovik-1891187415.html

No more or less than any other space mission. It's been thoroughly forgotten until about two years back. PR limelight is PR limelight.

To quote a certain sniper on Telegram, Luna-25 wasn't just built by people who'd never built a planetary lander, the people who taught those people never built a lander either. They would've just barely caught the builders of Luna-24 and the various Marses retiring. A two-generation gap is combined with the desire to make every mission an overcomplicated Flagship-class because anything less wouldn't safisfy even formal funding criteria. And I bet they also face a similar problem to the defense industry, who have such strict price controls for cost-plus comtracts that they have to either fudge the books to operate at above costs, or invent endless R&D that isn't as tightly scrutinized...

Don't worry, one is a striped Kurilian bobtail, the other is some sort of generic Siberian cat with an utterly uniform coat and a fluffy tail with a white tip.

Unfortunately, Luna-25 was the lunar landing demonstrator. Given that Luna-27 is supposed to land as well, preferably not as an impactor, Luna-25's failure creates a rather stark problem.

Luna-26 is supposed to be* an orbiter, I don't see how Luna-25's failure should affect it, as opposed to Luna-27. * given the effect on Luna-27, it would be logical to expect a Luna-25 redux, potentially scratched together from the more sophisticated test stands and spares, to be inserted into the program schedule, which would upset the number scheme "Move fast and break things". You'll at least manage 14 times out of 45.

Essentially, confirmed a minute ago. Complete loss of comms, presumed crash. https://t.me/roscosmos_gk/10540 [Snip]

Indeterminate failure during braking burn to pre-landing grazing orbit (180x10 km). No further details available https://t.me/roscosmos_gk/10535

Are the problems with SRB-based LVs and human rating fundamental or particular? Is it possible to build a crew LV using chiefly solid-propellant rockets?

NovelAI has recently introduced a nice feature which allows you to click on each world to see the weight/probability (?) of it and major alternative options AI was picking from. This makes me wonder if it's possible for an image transformer to have an "Inspect" mode that allows you to see the keywords influencing the part of an image.

OK, this is officially getting as good as an alarm clock...

The Russian press is absolutely illiterate: "Luna-25 enters the orbit of Earth's satellite" https://iz.ru/1559881/2023-08-16/stantciia-luna-25-vyshla-na-orbitu-sputnika-zemli?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=mobile

Lunar orbital insertion successful https://t.me/roscosmos_gk/10492

AFAIK most if not all of the barrage is being generated by the two comic book cinematic universes. I think it's commercial and administrative concerns spilling into worldbuilding (nothing new there, really) amidst a creative crisis befalling both of them; multiverses help broaden opportunities for recycling past plot points and dangling keys before the fans' eyes. The Dr Strange movie provides a particularly poignant case, introducing a whole ensemble cast including one crossover and one fan-favored casting appearing for the first time on-screen... and promptly kills them in a rather gruesome manner.

Phraseologism of the day: administrative rapture. The state of an individual in a position of power (often minor and/or recently installed) who excitedly imposes and/or enforces rules in order to showcase said power and boost their self-importance. Defined by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1872. ed.: a quarter of the above was in French rather than in Russian; the character speaking is continuously urged to be laconic throughout the dialogue, to absolutely no avail

I think I saw the diagram for the Westinghouse design, and they outright had a pool in there.

Oleg Platonov flunks medical and is off the backup crew for MS-24. No replacement, Ovchinin now acts as backup for both Kononenko and Chub. Flight still on for September 15. https://t.me/roscosmos_gk/10472

Got woken up at 7 AM sharp by a woodpecker having a go at the verge of the roof just outside my window. Well, probably not the bird itself, but the utter feline pandemonium that ensued. I've realized I'd heard the sound at least once yesterday, too.

The first practical propfan was built at the wrong place at the wrong time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_D-27 I also get the feeling that we're at the downturn of the airliner desogn cycle and there's just no market for a new generation of engines.

The supreme conspiracy theory peddlers from REN-TV break new ground: their CGI rendering of Luna-9 lands on the Moon complete with the retrorocket, and the museum stand. https://t.me/space78125/1950 Check your staging...

That octopus thing atop the domed containment structure of a VVER-1200 reactor is a draft-based passive cooling array (SPOT). Should last a couple decades if the reactor is scrambled. Looks suitably sci-fi. Better footage from Rooppur: https://t.me/syndromA3/1877