CatastrophicFailure

Not trying thread jack, I swear! It just sort of came up...

Hm. Is it a national holiday there or do the crazies come out?

Erm... you're not in Seattleish, are you?

To verify they're not in Kansas.

Well, bugger that for a box of bananas. This stinks, no way I can get up/stay up this early tomorrow to watch. Poop. *snore*

Just be sure you don't get stuck in the "beaten and dragged off" section, usually right across from the "non-stop crying baby" row.

Or maybe it's because... this time, it's the people who are being watched... ...and... ...they see you when you're sleeping, they know when you're awake...

...stock hinges continue to weird me out.

Random: apparently, without ever having seen the movie (at least as far as I remember), the Hole is yanked right from the Bond flick You Only Live Twice. Will have to go watch that now eventually.

Ah yes, I was thinking it was one of the Bonds, couldn't remember which one. Now someone seriously needs to make that for KSP!

What... is that...?

@tater said that NSF said that it's gonna be the shortest 1st stage burn ever, and I also read the second stage is going to re-enter "right away" over the Indian ocean, so I'm guessing the payload has its own boost stage and the whole thing is very light, lighter than a Dragon. We won't get to see separation, so..... Maybe the fairing IS the payload....

Hello? Hello? Hello? Is there anybody in here? ...Moar?

North Korea is at about the same latitude of northern California, no need for a Molniya orbit, those are for high-latitude locations like a big chunk of Russia and the poles. I'm quite NK already has it's own dedicated satellite in GSO run by the NSA and the rest of the security alphabet soup. Which also happens to be a good place to watch Russia, China, etc. Whatever this bird is, it's been in the pipes for quite a while, probably long before Lil' Kim popped up and started waving his big rubber sabre around. Most of the articles I've seen say it's probably just a high-latitude comm relay, anyway. There was video of the rocket being raised this morning, so this payload was definitely the standard horizontal integration. IIRC SpaceX actually has plans to modify 39A (b?) specifically for vertical integration of future NRO payloads.

@JadeOfMaar: /threadjack

Nein! Nyet! Noodles! this thread needs more purple. I call @JadeOfMaar

Denied. Because it's 11:30 at night out in the country and I'm stuck in traffic. Recalling @KSK, he's up at this unKermly hour.

Hmm, where'd you see that? Could the payload just be that light?

First! no seriously, this whole mess was just an elaborate plot hatched by Jeff Bezos after Amazon once again posted higher than expected profits. "Hello, Mr. Accountant? I'd like to sell another billion $ in stock to fund my space program..."

Fancy that, in after the lock... Getting back on track here, NROL-76 launch this Sunday at waytooflarpingearly:00 AM PDT, your timezone may vary.

Noted, thanx, out of likes for the day.

They're trying to figure out how it got merged with the SpaceX and Orion threads. Apparently, there really is something mysterious going on with the forum.

At the moment, I think they have their hands full with the shenanigans over at the Blue Origin thread.

Was? snore... snore... snort wha? Huh? I'm awake! Who disturbs my slumber?! is it @vsully?

No, don't you see?? The SpaceX thread has been assimilated by Blue Origin! It's a vast conspiracy run by Jeff Bezos! no seriously, hope this doesn't take too long to sort out. We've got a launch in a couple days.