J.Random

Let's see. We're a mumbo-jumbo clan living on a single small island in a vast ocean. Suddenly, there's an aircraft carrier on a horizon. What are we going to do? What can we do? We can throw spears at it, I guess. But there won't even be a conflict. The only reasonable thing we could do is to shout very loud so that they don't accidentally step on us while passing by.

I hope the "next SpaceX" will finally concentrate on CLSS problems instead of trying to make yet another space cabbie.

The answer would probably depend on where the respondent worked at the moment. Imagine if you worked in MiG design bureau on something as elegant as MiG-105 (Spiral) and then were suddenly told to go work on Buran behemoth, you'd probably be sad. But military loved Buran. I've read in memoirs that every high-ranking idiot coming with some sort of inspection tried to touch the black insulation/ablation cover of the Buran itself, even when there was an identical plate just lying nearby for this very purpose. In the end, security officers decided to tell them something in line with "Of course, comrade general, you may touch it, but it's new compound, we didn't test if it can contaminate skin, so we may have to cut off your hand in a week or two if you become poisoned".

Beautiful.

Vehicular manslaughter up to 4 years of jail time by law (she's got 2.5 because she committed the crime unwittingly, first time, admitted her crime and was pregnant). Amnesty isn't discriminative, it's applied to the whole class of cases (low and medium severity, up to 5yrs of jail time, and so on), and her case falls under it. Emotionally, I would also like her to be put in jail, but in reality, that's the law, and it's applied blindly and indiscriminately in this case, to the letter. But hey, instead of switching your brain on and doing a quick research, it's easier to cry corruption, sure. Examples, please. I, personally, have never had to bribe anyone. My employers have never had to bribe anyone. Come to think of it, I've never met a person which would participate in a bribe, be it on a giving or receiving end. It may depend on social circle, and if that's the case, I'm sorry you've had to deal with such things. Politicians wiring budget funds into their own accounts? You believe this, seriously? Politicians appointing judges is just a blatant lie, simple as that, as there's a procedure for that, including exams and a committee of judges, except for the highest arbitrage, afaik. Yeah, I will have to disengage from this discussion: my bear is asking for vodka, I have to do a checkup on nukular warhead in my basement and I can find neither my ushanka nor balalaika - Putin has stolen it, no doubt.

Right off the top of my head? Bank bailout, $700 billions taken from citizens' pockets and given to banks which has started the crisis, 2008. Short google search - "RBS reaches $669 million settlement with US Department of Justice & Federal Reserve", a week ago. In Russia, DoJ doesn't "settle" with criminals to stop investigation.

Wow. By the same logic, Space Shuttle was built with "substandard" materials. O-rings? Insulation foam strike? Were bearing "disintegrated", the turbopump would probably explode. Instead, it just lead to rotor balance issues, vibration and engine shutting off. Now, if anyone can solve this issue, it's russians. Try googling US engineers' first reactions when they were presented with russian rocket motors. Next, google "gas-generator cycle vs closed cycle". So yeah, I believe our engineers can and will solve the issue. Last but not least, and I'm really sorry I have to tell this, it infuriates me when every technical or administrative problem, if it affects Russia, is greeted with badly concealed joy and talk about how "understandable" it is, because russians are barbarians, and the country is corrupt and all. Yes, we, russians, often consider our officials corrupt. You know why? Because what we call "corruption", you call "lobbying". This kind of argument is just disgusting. I understand that the degree of anti-russian propaganda goes off the scale in your mass media, but you guys don't even give it a second thought, ever. "Friendly KSP community", right.

First, there is no "substandard materials" in rocket science. Second, try to troubleshoot a problem when you don't know about it, it doesn't manifest itself, and when it does, it happens 100km up (probably, with an explosion).

Back on topic, kinda weird update on the root cause. Surprisingly, it's a design failure, not assembly: 3rd stage burn was aborted because of a malfunctioning steering (vernier) motor, specifically, because of a violent vibration caused by destruction of a bearing in its turbopump. Material of the bearing degraded under high temperatures. Planned actions: material change for the turbopump bearings/rotor assembly, improvement in turbopump's bracing to the main motor's chassis and modification of the balancing methods for the turbopump rotor.

Did I say "broken landing gear"? No, I've said "broken [...] models". Model consists of mesh and animations. Missing animation is exactly this: broken model, like it or not. And yes, I want my wheels spinning. Who doesn't?

I don't see a devnote from Porkjet. Are we left with broken medium/large landing gear models?

Isn't it more logical to make asteroids procedural a bit, building them from multiple parts, each having a convex collider? It could affect performance a bit, but it could also add a bonus feature of partial/gradual destruction on impacts or reentry.

EVE 7.4 works just as it always did. Overhaul is a WIP.

We don't know if this increase in quota (if there is one) was forced or not. Let's see: 2012 - 70 students. 2013 - 135. 2014 - 445. 2015 - 1200(?). Some sources say that some students are actually qualified for specific jobs, like geodesists, so this project is like a paid internship for them. They also aren't strictly russian-only, there are students from Belarus as well. I understand your worries, but I think it's actually a great initiative. Good one.

Looks like usual stock reentry effects. I thought you were talking about, I don't know, particle effects or something stupid like nyan cat mod.

OK. First, it's not like this thousand will be working there at the same time. They're working in shifts, and as I remember, no longer than a month, maybe even less. I remember recruiters inviting students for two-week shifts, but that was more than 10 years ago, they could change it. There's 130 students at the moment. Compare it to 8000 permanent workforce. Doesn't look like 15% to me. Second, students are working on Vostochny since 2012. The whole organized student workforce movement has started back in 2004. It's not like it's unpaid labor. It's not like management stopped paying workers and started to replace them with students, it's two completely different matters. Students do not replace regular workforce, they extend it, doing finishing work, for example, or helping where qualified labor isn't needed. I think that you mistake construction workers for some unqualified grunts who can be replaced by students from anywhere. It may look like that to a particle theory physicist, but it's not true.

K^2, I know you read Russian. http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/russia/2015/05/150518_vostochny_students

"Replace"? I would really like to know where you get all this bull*.

I checked it as well. "Uncalled for" reentry? "Free of charge" reentry? Still don't get what OP's talking about. Maybe, it actually should be "gratitious", maybe it's some urban slang, but I wasn't able to find the definition.

My guess is noone understands what you're talking about. Is "gratitious" even a word?

To be more speculative, that is.

No, he heard right, just not the whole story. There were issues with paycheck delays (and significant at that), made possible by a subcontractor's management (the one who also stopped the work because all the money became yachts and such). There's an investigation under way, and the payment issues are getting fixed.

That's what happens when you only listen to bad news. They're finishing the power station and cooling station at the moment. Railway is almost finished, the final checkup block (kinda VAB-looking building which splits in half) is coming into shape. Launchpad itself should be finished in July. Regarding the payment - management is fixing the issues, slowly but surely (there's still 10mil unpaid for 100 workers, but money is already wired, not sure why the local management is lagging). Some fatcats are under investigation, which some people may also consider good.

There's a difference: sanity checks/self checks before launch. If software feels that something is wrong with the rocket, it scrubs the launch without human intervention. Hopefully, it will greatly reduce the "sensors are upside down" factor.

Proton has to survive 5 more years, give or take. Then there will be Vostochny and Angara. Hopefully.