CatastrophicFailure

Life is cyclical. Just wait till you’re old like me and look forward to those naps.

Chlorine trifluoride FTW!

Check out a local amateur rocketry club, there are folks who build these and they could probably steer ya in the right direction. And your rocket, as well, because them laws, y'know...

So it would appear. And I'm not even at the "good" part yet. Easily another 2000 words left before all's said that needs to be said. Maybe @Ten Key really is starting to rub off on me...

About to cross the 7,000 work mark at this point, words been flowin' like a bottle of Drain-O. Yeah, I think I'll be splitting this one. But that means I might make that weekend update after all.

Oh, I use the Bon Voyage background-roving mod for that. Rald is beautiful, but even with MechJeb driving there's only so much of that I can take at 12 FPS. BV has allowed the RaldBase to drive pretty much all the way around the planet at this point, I'll try to remember to grab a screen cap of that map...

Jiminy flarping fracas, the nose opens!

Ah, so apparently the secret to rapid, efficient reuse is to plant the old boosters and grow new ones.

IIRC, their emanenetly practical solution to extended weightlessness is simply to (at least eventually) burn more fuel for a much faster transit, getting the time to Mars down from six-plus months to only a few weeks.

Soooo... still a slim hope for an update this weekend, trouble is, current chapter is already sitting a touch under 5000 words, and may only be half done. I may have to split this one, I really don’t want to as it’s the change of pace that’s been so long in coming. Will have to see what I get done tomorrow.

Ah, what can I say here? So much good stuff! Lodan strikes me as a pretty severe pragmatist, one not easily taken to flights of fancy. If he can see the light at the end... And the whole segment with Jonton and Joenie traveling, the scenes of the building conflict, the deserted town... expertly written, like a fellow who’s got a few hundred thousand or so words under his belt. Joenie is really starting to come in to her own as a character, and has grown up quite a bit I think, in more ways than one. Also: More meals should include flatbread!

*cough*ULA*coughcough* So, in light of recent discussions, this: Despite his insistence that a pod bay door override button will also be included, I think this might be settings a bad precedent...

#1 Helicopters are expensive. #2 Helicopters have horrible fuel economy, and therefore range. The fairings come down hundreds of clicks from shore, even farther than the booster. It’s logistically impractical to have a helicopter fly out, loiter, then return at those kinds of distances, and that’s not even figuring the weather. To operate not just one, but a pair of helicopters (and bloody big ones, too) like that, you’d need... well, a small aircraft carrier, or... a big barge. And if you’ve got a big sea vessel there anyway... Yes, it could be done, but not efficiently. “They” have done helicopter retrieval of space-returning things before, but there’s a reason said things were always small, high-value objects that came down over a vast expanse of land right close to an airbase. ULA and Vulcan... yeah... I’ll beleive they have serious plans to recover anything once I see some flight hardware. It’s Boeing, after all... they can just make themselves a helicopter and write it off.

?

Must’ve been a real interesting conversation the first time they pitched the idea to a naval architect... “you want to attach what to the boat?!” So, doubling the reach of the arms and you’re talking about a spread of possibly 80 meters. The width of the flight deck of the largest aircraft carrier ever, currently under construction, is “only” about 77 meters... I can see the headline now... BIZARRE SPACEX BOAT MISSES FAIRING, CATCHES WAYWARD F/A-18

Promptly lost in the æther...

They're worth twice that, new. Hence why SpaceX is spending all this fuss to try and reuse them.

Can't. Something about "contributing to the delinquency..." being a violation of my probation, or something like that...

Done. Dare you to go jump the fence and scrawl your name on one.

Los Cinco Krakones. ...or however many there are...

Well... at least they got something back...

Don’t feel bad. I probably nagged @KSK the most yet I’m still not done giving these a proper read. But yay, numbers! crap, did I just say that? So, for comparison, First Flight surpassed the longest Dark Tower novel many and many-a, (TDT @ 272k), beats all but the top four Wheel of Time books, has pulled ahead of Anna Karenina (349k) but not quite reached The Brothers Karamozov (364k), towers over The Fountainhead (311k), and is right smack in the middle of George R. R. Martin territory (please don’t start killing everyone and for Kerm’s sake, no weddings!). The Lord of the Rings, the One Epic to Rule Them All, looms ahead at 455,125. That’s some respectable peers right there. For further comparison, the title of longest novel ever remains with A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth @ 591,554 words. You’re more than halfway there. Now, back to reading...

And now begins the long wait. Next mission is CRS-15, now June 29. Telstar 19v now July, and that poor thing that used to be Sherpa pushed back from July to September. C’mon, guys, this cadence would be ok for everyone but SpaceX! via SpaceFlightNow

Linkies no work bruh.

When a couple of the greatest pilots ever just flat out refuse to even try it...