cubinator

I haven't heard anything yet. It can't be too long now if they're still on track to do it by the end of the year...

I had been solving Rubik's Cube for about a year, and averaged 50 seconds. I might have gotten my first 4x4 and 5x5 around that time, I'm not sure. I was into entomology, and knew more about arthropods than any of my peers, on top of my already extensive knowledge of astronomy. During winter, when it was clear at night I would go outside and lay in the snow looking up at the stars, planets, and Moon. I watched the Space Shuttle launches, and I wanted to ride one. I knew that NASA was planning to venture out to Mars, but two years away from Earth was too long for me; the farthest I would go was the Moon. (Now my standards are quite a bit broader - if somebody can offer me less than a year in transit to Jupiter or Saturn, I'll probably take it )

Apparently it's possible to beat Portal without moving the mouse, so naturally I decided to try it. It's a great new challenge. I bound the portal keys to left and right arrow, and I don't move the mouse at all. The only way I can change the direction I'm looking is by going through portals or standing on the occasional spinning object. I've reached chamber 15 since starting a couple of days ago.

Decided to try a proper coastline today, one which isn't just a boring line: I'll elaborate on this drawing later, give it more detail and more color. Maybe even a little green?

The first stage stays pretty close to the second stage for a while.

Each satellite gives itself a tiny push in the appropriate direction, and slowly they spread out within the orbital plane.

I think they find it unlikely enough that the car will hit any planets (~1,000,000,000 y) before we go out and spread ourselves anyway (~50-100 y) that it's ok.

Was a landing burn ever announced? As far as I remember there was video of a boostback burn, announcement of an entry burn, some jabber right around S2 cutoff that was drowned out by the announcer, and a splashdown confirmation.

I expected this to be locked really quickly. I was mistaken.

Ok, that does look like it's inside the fuel tank. You can see the fuel start to float just as the engine cuts out.

There was also a moment just after the blackout where some odd camera view was showing...what was that?

Did the interstage actually disconnect during descent?

"Stage 1 has splashed down" What for?

First stage did a boostback burn... Are they going to land on clamps?

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/22/h2a-f37-launch-coverage/

Official or not, that's the most absurd thing I've ever seen on an interstage.

Working on it. Get back to me in 6-10 years.

I will only consider retiring after I've flown a replica mission of a real mission I'm flying on, in-flight.

Right. I'm also taking into account the acceleration from the retrorockets prior to touchdown, which provides most of the final acceleration. Overall, it seems pretty smooth. I would ride it given the opportunity.

And the acceleration seems to be spread over at least a second, so it may be as smooth as falling on your back into a foam pit. Overall, the ride looks exceptionally comfortable in terms of spaceflight.

Maybe the lightspeed ramming is just something that nobody had ever thought of doing before. It's a big galaxy, but you never know. After this event, somebody might have an idea to weaponize it.

It was a little more philosophical than that... This guy lived on a tiny metal moon in a corner of a vast galaxy: He was metallic, tarnished and bluish gray, and had been living on that moon for a very, very long time. He pulled that giant sword out of the ground with a very calculated, robotic movement. But after he found it, he and the other robots across the galaxy started moving more naturally, and very quickly became capable of love and emotion. They even transformed physically to resemble humans, becoming biological beings rather than cybernetic ones. I feel like it's a reflection on the fact that I was able to find Earth from outside the galaxy without clicking in Space Engine that day. Moreover, it is a story about machines suddenly achieving sentience and living across the galaxy long after humans are gone. The sword is like the monolith in 2001, although rather than apes being enlightened by it it is a robot who by chance has the idea to pull this sword from the ground - he does it because he is struck by a sense of curiosity. He had spent an extremely long time (possibly millions of years) living on that tiny, barren moon without wondering about anything. His spark of curiosity changed his kind forever - it caused him to become a person.

That's good, at least you have something fun to do!

More likely he literally could not get them out.

The crystal foxes are cuter than the Porgs.