Ultimate Steve

"The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"

They also updated their graphics recently! I think this is only the second or third Soyuz I've seen the updated graphics on. Glad they switched!

LIFTOFF! I've been playing too much KSP, I reached for the screenshot key. And, Koreleev cross! I totally spelled that wrong!

Looks like T-3 hours, if all goes well!

Wat.

YESH!!!!! @FEAR AGENT EDIT: Considering he joined in 2012 and hasn't posted once, how about @CatastrophicFailure?

I'm a bit late to the whole "BFR" thing, but today I decided I wanted to try to make one. BFR 001 - Spectre The crewed version. Launch of BFR-002 "Faded." The tanker version. The first stage uses five vectors, with only one used for landing. RTLS boostback burn. Both the crewed and refueler upper stages use two aerospikes and two thuds. The aerospikes have an efficiency of 345s, so they are used for vacuum burns. The thuds have gimbal, so they are used for landing on Duna or whatever other planet you wish. For landing on Kerbin, you can get away with just thuds on the refueler, but you have to use all four engines on the spaceship because it is way heavier. First stage booster has landed! Not quite on the pad, but I promise I'll make up for that later! Spectre and Faded docked together end to end, like the BFR would. The tank is not filled all the way, but considering it is KSP, 2/5 fuel is enough to get to Duna. Re-entry of the refueler. Pretty tame. Landed (in the middle of nowhere). Leaving Kerbin. Landing on Duna after aerobraking. On Duna, showing off the ISRU! Unlike the real planned BFR, this one doesn't have any real cargo capacity. Although, if you made the ISRU part of a Duna base and filled the fuel tanks all the way, you could take a few tons (maybe even a dozen or two if you're a great pilot) to Duna. Leaving Duna. Decided to stop at Ike. Duna on the horizon looks pretty nice! Going home. Aerocapture. The two solar panels exploded, but other than that nothing broke. After 3 or 4 braking passes, I realized I was in the right spot to try landing at KSC. Taking "Return to Launch Site" literally. ALMOST! Ran out of fuel and tipped over. The margins for landing were pretty slim (although I could have saved a ton of fuel if I didn't try to land at KSC) and with my available quicksaves this was as close as I could get without running out of fuel and exploding. At this landing I had 21m/s of fuel left, which was really only 4m/s because I had a 1.25 TWR. I'm satisfied with that, though, not bad for coming back from Duna! Where should I go and what should I do with this system next?

I heard they Japanese are doing another attempt with that rocket sometime in this December (although it will probably be pushed to January).

Largely exists but has not been flown yet.

Experience. By the time they got the licence to RTLS, they had tested landing at a fixed spot of ocean a few times, tried barge landings, and had done grasshopper/F9Rdev1 tests. With the exception of the final flight of F9Rdev1, one of the first ocean landing attempts where they spun out of control, and CRS-7, all of those tests landed or crashed at a subsonic velocity within a few dozen meters of the target location. F9Rdev1 and CRS-7 had problems not related to landing, and that first ocean landing was the first attempt. Every other attempt hit the target. Meaning that there was an incredibly low chance of them hitting anything other than LZ-1 during an RTLS.

This. I don't own a phone, unfortunately. But I agree if I had more time to think things would be way easier. I'll make a joke, she'll say something, I'll process what the funniest response would be, and open my mouth to say it only to see she's already walked away.

I already was! I was going through severe withdrawl this month so far, delays, aborts after engine ignition, top secret launches, normal launches during school so I can't watch them... I have yet to see a live launch this month. Let's hope for Electron tonight!

It appears the launch has been scrubbed due to a problem with a ground electrical system. Poor Rocket Lab, what's this, attempt four?

So true. I mean, err, Goat.

On Twitter they're saying that upper level winds are making liftoff time questionable. I hope the wind stops for a while, wind is becoming their greatest enemy...

I'd expect there to be fewer creepy noises, but WOAH THAT VIEW!

My very first time playing KSP was on a very bad and laggy computer back in 0.19. The rocket went like this: Mk16 parachute, Mk1 command pod, TR-18A decuopler, RT-10 SRB. The flight went well. Jebediah survived an atmospheric flight. Next, I made a pretty terrible rover powered by two gigantors that pretty much immediately snapped off.

I'll trade you! We had one significant snow (less than a quarter of an inch, though) and it's melted by now.

I've also found out that he worked at NASA from 1958 through 1988, that's quite a long time, so he almost definitely did other stuff as well! I find it amazing to know that my grandfather was at NASA from basically the very beginning. I did not know that at all, I had always assumed he came in later...

I'm not exactly sure what he did, but he worked at Lewis Research Center in Ohio. I'm guessing more towards the experimental engineering/design side of things. Reading through this binder, it looks like he was really involved with the SP-100 project, which was about future applications of nuclear power in space for electrical power, though, not propulsion. Unfortunately it did not advance to flight hardware, but it did produce several neat designs. He also appears to have been involved in alloy development.

STS-3, the first one with an unpainted ET and the only one to land at White Sands. Also appears to be signed by both astronauts and the NASA administrator, although I can't tell if that was printed or if they're actual signatures. The latter would be really cool!

I was going through my grandfather's old binders from the time he worked at NASA. And - well, see for yourself! *Sound of me geeking out*

A long time ago, around the time of the early shuttle era (and probably before and after that), my grandfather worked for NASA, specifically at the Lewis Research Center. My family was going through some of his old papers and binders and such, and, well, a picture is worth a thousand words. I am geeking out so much right now I have no words to explain how much I am geeking out. I've always wanted to own (or at least have the family own) something that has been in space, and all those years, this was sitting in our basement! It appears that a number of these were flown on STS-3 (although that does not make this one any less special to me at all!). STS-3 was the only shuttle flight to land at White Sands, the first shuttle launch with an unpainted external tank, extensively tested the Canadarm, and carried several experiments in its payload bay. Plus the flags. You know, the important stuff!

I also read somewhere that Blue Origin programmed the landing so that if it was inside a circle it would just land, if you're already on the landing pad, why waste fuel trying to get exactly in the center?

I find it hard to believe that this: Fit in this: I mean, Protons are huge. I'm thinking we might have gotten some Electrons stuck instead. Meanwhile in New Zealand... Rocket Lab: Hey, I'd like to report a missing Electron. Authorities: Okay, are you absolutely sure you lost an Electron? Rocket Lab: Yeah, I'm positive!