CatastrophicFailure

January 10, 2018

The real question is, as all these pens are traveling Otherspace, are the passing the missing socks from the clothes dryer going the other way?

The mind boggles. :confused:

January 10, 2018

6 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

Wait what? I can't find anything about that.

I second that “wait, what?!” :0.0:

January 10, 2018

Static fire pushed back till tomorrow, same time

Interesting aside, I see the Delta IV launch out of Vandy has been pushed back to tomorrow, hmm...

Maybe there’s a national oxygen shortage? :confused:

January 10, 2018

So, is this thread dead?

Here’s a stylistic question: when beginning a sentence with a large number, a sentence that cannot be greacefully rephrased, should the number be written out or in digits? ie:

81,512 people did the hokey-pokey.

Eighty-one thousand, five hundred and twelve people did the hokey pokey.

“The hokey pokey was done by 81,512 people” just sounds awkward, as does, “done by 81,512 people, the hokey pokey was,” unless your speaker is short and green, that is.

Which, come to think of it, actually does include most of our speakers... :confused:

January 9, 2018

8 minutes ago, cubinator said:

"Blue2D2"...I sense a theme here...

But what is it doing?

Watching for Jawas to shock?

January 9, 2018

Apparently they have their own landing pad drone now. Looks marginally more functional than those other guy's giant roomba...

January 9, 2018

Aw, man. Just found this and it was getting really interesting with all the weirdness. Are your hard drives still ok from the old machine, so you can eventually continue? You'll want to be sure and add a good surge protector or even voltage regulator/battery backup when you get up and running again. They can be found pretty reasonably these days.

January 9, 2018

20 minutes ago, TheEpicSquared said:

And of course it happens at 1am where I live so I can’t see it... dammit.

I'd be very surprised if they livestream it at all. It's a 6 hour window, so could be any time within that. If they go ahead with it.

5 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

How Fake News and Elon Musk Sent South Africa's Currency Haywire

Coincidence? I don’t think so!

Half-Life 4 confirmed! Wake up, sheeple! (I'm out of likes again... )

January 9, 2018

Holey minor earthquake, Batman! This says to expect a fifteen second firing!

January 9, 2018

6 minutes ago, Nibb31 said:

Not likely. The UK does have a decent-sized space industry, including major satellite and defence firms like Thales and Airbus, so they would be unlikely to use a foreign contractor like Northrop Grumman.

Making a great way to hide what they did. :wink: All we really know for sure about NG Anyway is that they procured the launch and maybe provided the decoupler.

”hey Northrop Grumman, we need some plausible deniability for one of our trusted allies can to loft a secret bird, will y’all take one for the team? No? Ok, then, here’s some money from all those $40,000 hammers we bought way back when, and next time we have a contract bid yours just might end up on the top of the stack...”

January 9, 2018

Some new (here) info on Wednesday’s FH test, as per NasaSpaceFlight:

Test window opens at 1300 EST, 1100PST, 0000 UTC. It’s planned to be a wet dress rehearsal, first time the monster has actually been fully fueled. If everything goes well with that, they may proceed directly to a static fire. If everything goes well with the static fire, which may last as long as seven seconds (), launch could be as soon as the 25th.

Tho even if everything goes perfectly, static fire or launch may be delayed for further testing.

January 9, 2018

3 hours ago, KSK said:

That can't be right - F9 has no wheels.

I think we now know what ZUMA is... <_<

January 9, 2018

42 minutes ago, PB666 said:

They are tracking it in the same way we track theirs and Chinese satellites, probably lower tech, but still.

Which, as far as I know, is chiefly through radar. We’ve known how to make things “invisible” to radar for a long time. Hiding the other potential tells of a satellite, at least long enough for it to make a significant inclination change, remains very plausible. Heck, maybe the other space-tracking nations are even in on the secret. Y’know, because reasons. @Nibb31‘s made some very good points, the sheer level of secrecy about this bird means everything’s on the table.

January 9, 2018

1 minute ago, sh1pman said:

if you coat it with vantablack, disable all communications and come up with some kind of active cooling to CMB temperature, then you can probably hide a satellite pretty well.

And these are just the ways we know about. How about laser communication? I know that's been tested in space before, seems a pretty un-interceptable way to talk to a black bird...

January 9, 2018

8 minutes ago, PB666 said:

Which means that it is trackable by the Russians, which means its not a secret as you think it is.

Is it? We've had the tech to avoid radar detection for a long time now. Only natural that sooner or later it would be applied to satellites...

January 9, 2018

32 minutes ago, tater said:

We're gonna have to be content to not know, unless some sat tracker people find the thing, and suggest ideas. It might have been designed to reenter, as well.

I read it’s not going to be trackable by amatures in the northern hemisphere for two weeks. Now if it’s a “spacecraft” capable of significantly changing its own orbit in that time...

January 9, 2018

4 hours ago, KSK said:

Edit: It also helps that I'm pretty sure my tax pounds didn't fund said super-sekrit payload.

Sure about that? :wink: No US gov’t agency has claimed the thing, only that the gov’t arranged the launch thru subcontractor SpaceX. IIRC, the UK gave up on its own orbital launcher once upon a time cuz it was cheaper to buy launches from America, so wouldn’t be the first time the US has launched a payload for an ally...

2 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

Someone is still going to find out about it at some point.

I think, whatever the truth is, this whole thing comes down to two words:

Plausible deniability.

...more red flags here than an old Soviet parade...

January 9, 2018

13 minutes ago, PB666 said:

It was less than that or they would not have been spotted close to Khourtum. Try 40N 127E. Remember that from a satellites point of view the best orbit is one that flattens out on the Z axis over its target.

50 degrees puts it right in that area on the upper stage's second pass, as it deorbits:

ZUMA_50deg_400km_Traject_hazardzones_JAN

January 9, 2018

1 hour ago, qzgy said:

Umm.. IDK. I've only watched one so far, and thats the episode Serenity. I was unaware there was an alternate order.

The (completely bass-ackwards) original broadcast order was:

"The Train Job"
"Bushwhacked"
"Our Mrs. Reynolds"
"Jaynestown"
"Out of Gas"
"Shindig"
"Safe"
"Ariel"
"War Stories"
"Objects in Space"
"Serenity"

With "Trash", "The Message", and "Heart of Gold" unaired in the United States during the series original run.¹ It sucks you in much better this way. Especially Our Mrs. Reynolds. :wub: I'll be in my bunk...

January 9, 2018

1 hour ago, qzgy said:

@CatastrophicFailure pointed me to the show 'Firefly'. Watched the first episode of it today. My impressions? "Ehhhh its quite slow"

Maybe it gets better later.

@Just Jim beat me to it. Also, what episode are you starting with? They were broadcast out of order, and that’s usually the preferred way of watching them. But make sure you watch The Message last. Because.... reasons.... ;.;

January 9, 2018

3 hours ago, PB666 said:

Its in orbit and the government doesn't want you to know its in orbit. The more confusion there is about its orbital status, the happier they are.

Just saying... but if the estimates of 50* inclination are correct, that’s useless for overflying most of Russia, however...

”Why, hello there, Mr. Uncooperative Dictator! My, that’s a very nice thing-we-don’t-want-you-to-have you’ve got there, be a shame if someone... dropped a malfunctioning satellite on it... <_< “

darn shame about those solid tungsten rods, too. There was this really big light bub, y’see...

January 9, 2018

1 hour ago, tater said:

w00t w00t! :cool:

January 8, 2018

2 minutes ago, Mitchz95 said:

Uh oh...

Suuuuuure the extra-double-secret-super-black-you-saw-nothing!-satellite is DOA, I absolutely believe that. :rolleyes: Crying shame, it is. Guess all those amateur satellite trackers can just stop bothering to track it, as well as all our international rivals. Nothing more to see, here, folks. Move along... move along...

And of course, this... we do not speak of...

January 8, 2018

Demosat... that’s the first pair of test satellites for SpaceX’s planned Internet constellation. :cool:

January 8, 2018

10 minutes ago, CastleKSide said:

Is FH human-rated? I remember hearing it was able to launch D2 way back, but that was before a lot of the delays/redesigns

It’s not even machine-rated at this point :wink: , that’s what all these tests are for. But yes, the flight around the moon in a D2 is still on the agenda, so it’s still slated for man rating, probably along with the F9B5.

Profiles

Forums

Developer Articles

KSP2 Release Notes

Posts posted by CatastrophicFailure