Brotoro

Nice day for a launch. Let's light this candle.

Just dusted off the pad. No lift.

Go for test!

Eh... Doesn't look too bad.

I guess the cat video was an accurate representation: the object drops with an unsatisfying conclusion.

A lot of times when I see this, they are just comparing the total energy release of the explosion (which may be from either a detonation or deflagration) to the equivalent energy release of a mass of TNT (which is a detonation). So although the energy releases of those explosions may be equivalent, the effects of the explosions will be different.

An explosion can result from either a deflagration or a detonation. Explosion is a general term for an accelerated release of energy generating extreme temperatures, releasing of gases and expanding volume. A detonation involves an explosion wavefront that is supersonic. A deflagration wavefront is subsonic. But both are explosions.

The thing that interested me about the fairing entry video was the plasma streaming through holes in the fairing... since I never realized there were holes in the fairing (four in each half). On images of the fairing on the launch pad, the holes are covered by what look like forward-facing scoops. What is the reason for these holes and scoops?

I don't think they CAN deorbit the sick ones. They said those would deorbit naturally.

The line drawing is correct for Apollo 11. You can look at the Apollo 11 surface EVA photos and see Buzz working at that station (the one labeled quadrant 2) to remove science equipment.

Starship comes in sideways. Skydiver!

Does anybody know about the landing abort modes that a Falcon first stage has? I know about the "aim to the side and require the landing burn to move the trajectory over to the landing point" procedure. But has anybody ever heard that it has a last-second "Oh, crap, I'm not gonna make it! RUN AWAY!" mode? Do they orient the landing ship in the same direction every time? Does the Falcon always approach from the port/starboard/bow/stern? If so, which is it? And what direction on the ship is that standard landing camera view facing?

Ms. Tree has caught a fairing!

Center core failed to land.

Pretty onboard video of sep and boostback.

Side boosters ignite shortly before the core. I did not know this.

Show time!

Those are the droids I was looking for.

Orbit a payload that deploys a gigantic plastic bag that fills with chemicals to create a low-density expanding foam. Small objects will embed themselves in the foam. A really fast object might blast through, but it would get slowed down. And any bits of foam blasted out would have such a low ballistic coefficient that they would decay quickly. Deorbit the bag using rocket motors on the deployment stage once it has swept up enough stuff (or let natural decay deorbit it). The motors can also be used to dodge any satellites you don't want to hit, or which might be too big for the bag to handle. So... like the gas cloud idea, but more substantial and longer lasting.

It's the first RTLS I recall seeing land at Vandenberg. Although they did have a previous first stage that they wanted to land there, but some other rocket company objected (because they had a rocket sitting on some other launch pad), so SpaceX had to land the booster on a drone ship off shore...so almost RTLS.

Eh. I'd prefer a habitat that I could mostly cover in moon dirt.

I would think that the only reason aliens would want to conquer Earth is to live here, as part of an long-term campaign to spread their lifeforms around the Galaxy. In which case it would probably be best to clear out the existing ecosystem and replace everything with your own planet's lifeforms (which must enjoy an Earth-like planet...otherwise you wouldn't choose Earth for this project). And the easiest way to exterminate the local fauna and flora would be biological agents...since there are probably enough differences in biochemistry between us and them to easily find compounds that hurt us but are not harmful to them. Dump in the alien equivalent of bacteria that make the nasty compounds and let them do the work. If the humans look like they will catch on fast enough to combat the bio attack, you could blast their research facilities from orbit to slow them down. You wouldn't need really advanced tech for this... interstellar slow boats controlled by AI (could take centuries to make the trip) and carrying all your lifeforms either frozen or in multigenerational habitats as needed could do the job.

I have watched three passes so far. The first was on Sunday, May 26, at around 9:35 PM. The predicted path was within two degrees of zenith, and I have fairly dark skies. I was using 7x30 binoculars (and my wife was also watching naked eye). The first Starlink satellites I spotted were rising through Eridanus, and they were pretty dim. They also were rapidly changing in brightness, occasionally getting brighter and dimmer erratically. It was hard to track them as they headed toward the handle of the Big Dipper. But then my wife spotted the main pack rising past Denebola in Leo, which was a few minutes behind the dim leaders that I had been following. That big pack had three bright ones easily visible naked eye (which had fairly steady brightness), and with binoculars I could see a lot of dimmer ones in line with them. I counted about 30 in that group. Some stragglers followed after, with only one of them being easily visible naked eye. The second pass I watched was on Monday, May 27. This was earlier in the day (around 8:50 PM), and the sky was still pretty light from twilight. Also, the satellites were not passing as high in the sky (around 50 degrees), so they were further away. I only saw one satellite that was visible naked eye, and the rest were even difficult in the binoculars. So...best to see these things when it is darkest. The third pass I saw was Wednesday, May 29, at around 4:30 AM. The predictions were for the leaders to come over about one degree from zenith, but the trailers weren't going to pass until 20 minutes later and would only reach about 50 degrees from zenith. The sky was partly cloudy, and was getting hazier near the end of the pass (and twilight was creeping in as well by then). I spotted the leaders passing the handle of the Big Dipper with binoculars on time, again quite dim and irregular in brightness. The first large pack passed high overhead through the Summer Triangle, and although it contained three or four that were naked eye brightness, they were only about 4th magnitude (judging from stars in Lyra). The trailing pack had two that were bright and steady, around 2nd magnitude (judging from stars), although they weren't passing as high overhead. I couldn't see other satellites well in that pack because the sky was getting quite hazy as twilight brightened. I guess the thing that surprised me the most in watching these satellites was how fast their orbit path shifts across the sky (one doesn't normally get to see this effect because you don't get to see long strings of satellites in the same orbit). I knew that the Earth rotates beneath the orbital plane at about 15 degrees per hour, so you might expect the path to shift at that sort of rate... But being that these satellites are in low orbit, your angle of view toward the orbit path moves quite fast as the groups pass overhead (shifting about 40 degrees over 20 minutes when it's near zenith). So be aware of this when watching for later satellites...they will not be following the same path across the sky (and the shift will be larger the higher up they are). I found it very useful to have a speaking clock app that would tell me the time every minute while watching the passes (since looking at your phone to see the time can ruin your dark vision). The free app I found for this on my iPhone was called VoiceClock.

I watched the Starlink pass tonight. It was earlier, so the sky was still relatively light. And the altitude was 50 degrees (not 88 degrees like last night). I saw only one satellite that was naked eye brightness, and it was difficult to see the dimmer ones even with binoculars.

Up near Los Alamos. So the satellites already had Tater eye-tracks all over them by the time I got to see 'em.