razark

And still we wait. The only official update we've gotten is that we're waiting for the people that make decisions to finish waiting and make a decision. Word from other Centers is that people have been sent home and told not to do any work until further notice. New update:

Which computer?

Depending on what contractors are doing, they may be considered essential. Our department shares the office with the Engineering Drawing Control Center. They have all the technical drawings for both facilities (building floor plans, wiring, plumbing, etc.) and flight operations (spacecraft, components, hatches, wiring, cargo packing, etc.). They have a three person staff. During the last shutdown, they were reduced to a single person in the office, rotating who was on duty, because it was considered critical that such drawings be available on short notice, just in case. Our department was not considered essential, since our work was not time-sensitive. We were able to continue working on some of our activities at home, using personal or company equipment, with no use of government resources. This time, we don't have the same sort of workload, so we are not sure what will happen with us. Last time, the company allowed us to use vacation time, and reimbursed us after the shutdown ended. This time, it's a new company on a new contract, so we don't yet know what will happen. Our contract/company is receiving instruction from the agency, and we will report to work Monday to receive our instructions. Astronauts on ISS, iirc, are not allowed to perform experiments. Operations are limited to keeping the station in stable condition, and anything needed to preserve life and safety. MCC staff is also operating to ensure safety. Ongoing missions with probes on planets or in space are able to send data back, but once the data is received, there's no analysis allowed until the shutdown is over. New missions are not started, however special exemption may be given to time-critical missions, since planetary alignments don't give a rat's posterior about toddlers fighting over pennies.

Let's not apply real-world rules to a completely and utterly fictional universe! Or shall we discuss why letters of transit signed by a French general would be unquestionable by German soldiers in northern Africa?

Because that's the way the stories/books/scripts are written?

@CodyTheJoker: As long as we're asking for free stuff, I want a pony.

I'm starting to get a strange feeling that you might not have been that happy with the film.

I just rewatched the episode of From the Earth to the Moon that covered this. I can't help but wonder how Apollo would have gone if LOR had not shown up. I'd love to discuss the technology of the later half of the 20th century with Jules Verne.

Agreed with this. Further, you can also back up your entire KSP install, including installed mods.

Most of the ice seems to be condensation that has frozen, or rain/sleet that has refrozen. Everything's just covered with a layer of ice glazing. They closed the center and sent us home at 10:30. About 5:00, I had to get into my truck. The door was frozen shut. Haven't seen it like that in a long while.

What can I say. I guess I just have a strange love for the drink.

Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water? I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol, to replenish my precious bodily fluids. (I would have a Coca-Cola, but someone seems to have damaged the vending machine.)

Houston is currently in the midst of its second blizzard of this winter, once again bringing the city to a standstill. While the snow isn't really sticking, it's not melting as soon as it hits the ground either.

Employers that don't bother to close the center due to weather until two hours after we get there.

Coffee or bourbon. (Kind of depends on how seriously I'm playing at the time.) Pretty much what I drink while doing most things.

Zork.

See the bit at the bottom of his signature: Read this BEFORE asking for support: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/83212-how-to-get-support-read-first/

So it's a rocket, then? Then the Space Shuttle's out, too? Pegasus, too.

Sorry, my mistake. I thought this was the "Favorite bicycle" thread. How is the X-15 not a rocket? Because it's air launched, like a Pegasus? It's sub-orbital like a Mercury Redstone? Is it the fact that it has wings and lands on a runway, like a Space Shuttle Orbiter? Or that it's reusable, like a Falcon? Is it the fact that its engine breathes air like a fish?

X-15

Looking at what, exactly?

Two Gemini flights, two Apollo flights, and two shuttle flights. Flew four different kinds of spacecraft, including the maiden flights of two of them. Even the first corned beef sandwich in orbit. Farewell, sir! You were a legend.

Two Gemini flights (one with a sandwich), two Apollo flights, and two shuttle flights. Flew four different kinds of spacecraft, including the maiden flights of two of them. Farewell, sir! You were a legend.

Oh, I quite agree. But that doesn't change that the person in charge is the person in charge, and that their vision is the one that prevails. If that person chooses a direction we don't like, we're either stuck with that choice or we can completely divorce our acceptance of the story from the canon that builds upon that it. We can only hope that a later person will make better choices. But when all is said and done, the canon is still the canon, and it is at the whim of the current writer.

Seriously, that doesn't give me any data points to work with. I could honestly say the same thing, and I was around to see Empire in the theater.