monophonic

More like do you save enough by having GPS? It does not give attitude for starters. Sure you can approximate it from successive locations but the latency will be too high to properly control a high acceleration rocket, and you still won't get roll angle from it. Which is kinda important if you want to know which way your turn command will turn the rocket. So you absolutely need one gyroscope at least, and preferably three. GPS possibly could replace the accelerometers, but for that you need a special low latency chip. You'll need an ITAR clearance too to source one that does not have any pesky altitude and velocity limits in its firmware. Pi in the Sky is cleared to 50km altitude, that won't cut it in an orbital rocket. Much less paperwork to add an accelerometer and integrate your speed and distance travelled. Now you are still accumulating sideways error, especially from turning in the lower atmosphere. And wind. Just add the last two accelerometers. They work the same as the first two, just on different directions, so you'll reuse the setup. Well who am I to say how much paperwork you are willing to go through? The electronics is not very heavy these days, although for an amateur launch the mass may still turn out significant. So is a rotation sensor+GPS setup lighter or heavier than a 6 degree of freedom inertial positioning system? That is one question you need to answer in that white paper. Also the most accurate choice is to have both, of course. INS will serve to fix GPS's latency issues while GPS will keep INS's drift error in check.

I see you two are having a terminology confusion. "Light rail" in today's Europe basically means trams running into the suburbs. Light rail systems like the US of old never really caught on here. I am only aware of one comparable network, forgot which benelux country it was in but even that withered away around the world wars.

This happens near the (northern) summer solstice.

Sorry to interrupt, but did you know napalm can be made to a consistency of rubber? Of course I only know this because towards the end of my service a warrant officer ordered me to help him train the rookies to handle themselves with the stuff. He got a phone call while a batch was cooking and it was on for quite some time. I have no idea what the ratio of gas to other ingredients was in the end though, but the blob did burn just as well as the runny stuff and much longer. Clearly that's no good for weapon use, but as hybrid rocket fuel it might work. Oh, here's my coat, bye!

Correct. But, it costs extra, and if the relay breaks so does contact with the lander and crew. Also potential landing sites could be better mapped on the seen side of the Moon. Finally since none of Moon's surface was explored there was little to gain for that extra expense and risk. Same amount of new knowledge was available on the visible side. Today; sure, why not? We have a working relay set (maybe not enough to call a network just yet) around Mars; the moon is a cakewalk with that experience. Also we have samples from the visible side; comparisons to the back side could yield new insight even if they just confirmed it's made of the same stuff. The craft can be much more independent - my laptop has more processing capability than the entire Apollo program had. But it will still cost more than landing on visible side with line of sight communications only.

Really? I haven't seen more than the ads, didn't even know there was an old movie, it's all new and original to me. Thanks for staying with it.

Shows just fine here, though the glyph is quite screwy all right. Maybe because it was "only used in the Abkhaz and Chuvash languages." I wonder where does that place Val's birthplace in the Ussari Union... It has only been in the unicode standard for almost 10 years. Apparently that is too short a time for computer makers to update their fonts... All you could ever want to know (and subsequently forget) about the cyrillic capital letter el with middle hook here: https://codepoints.net/U+0520

Great news! I must come back to like this when my next 25 like allowance is open.

"Eww yuck, I am Just Another Victim Of The Ambient Morality to you!" (Culture ships choose their own names you see.)

That was nice and interesting, thanks! For the record I was wondering whether that was from a static test or actual launch until after I recovered from the scary thrust termination at the end.

A bit of a revelation, I say. Some really nice and fun few chapters, again. Thanks!

Yeah, very much so. But I'll fly another spaceline please. Btw. never noticed before but the logo is a face that seems to be kissing the sun... kinda foreshadowing, isn't it?

It was originally scheduled to go up on a Falcon 9 with Formosat-5, but the LC-40 explosion changed that. The PLSV was the earliest free slot they could find and/or afford on scheduled launches. Ironically that also meant the first orbiting satellite fully built in Finland was Aalto-2 which was sent to the ISS aboard a Cygnus on 18 Apr 17 (timezone not indicated). It was released on May 25th and ceased to answer on June 12th. All Aalto series satellites are student projects of Aalto university. Their primary mission is to teach spacecraft manufacture. Aalto-3 is already being made and slated for launch in 2019. http://spacecraft.aalto.fi/en/

I use it after I unlock RCS thrusters. Those are IMO very inconveniently placed in the tech tree though, so mostly I just drain it to save mass.

Your parents may not be very understanding of mirror making, but they do sound rather understanding of the frustration you are going through. They have offered you three ways forward, some of them less workable than others but nevertheless they are willing to go through it with you any way they can think of. Plus there may be one more option no one seems to have mentioned yet. First sleep on it though and let the immediate frustration wash over. You have put immense emotional effort into that mirror in addition to the physical work and money. Its breaking is giving you a big backslash on that. You will make better decisions after you let the emotions calm down some. Then go check the blank and tool. I suspect you still have two almost pristine glass surfaces on their back sides. You can grind either one into another mirror with a plaster and tile tool - google will find you good instructions on those. The page I read never mentioned any need for pitch either, which should greatly reduce the chances of getting the tool stuck on the blank. Of course you probably have to have the parts sawed apart and sanded smooth to prevent cuts from the broken surfaces. Any glass shop should manage that at least. And you need to get more grit, some plaster and epoxy, I hope those aren't very expensive where you live.

5 years to shave a third off from the "first launch in" figure. At this rate it'll happen in... ten years? Did I do the math right?

Man that thing was fast off the pad! Like a hound! Looks like they have some growth margin for upper stages and more payload in it.

I can answer this one at least - certainly. If no other way then create your own "translation" that's just English - or whatever language you choose - but the word for "Funds" replaced with whatever you want. I don't think you need to do anything that drastic though - the text is probably easily modded just for that one word. Perhaps with MM even.

Is it the movie or the book? If its the movie you can keep it... but of its the book, GIMME!

Self-driving Teslas? On topic, awesome launch and awesome cameras!

I don't think the control surfaces are actually missing. Just without hydraulic power they are hanging down and thus mostly invisible from this angle. Oh, and it should be pretty complete given that they are about to test putting fuel in it. You need not only the fuel tanks and lines but their control systems in place too if you are to do many meaningful tests with them.

"No, that was not Zathras Ivan, that was Zathras Ivan. There are 10 of us, all of family Zathras Ivan, each one named Zathras Ivan. Slight differences in how you pronounce. Zathras Ivan, Zathras Ivan, Zathras Ivan.. You are seeing now?"

Magic modelling dough? You can even make it yourself, there are many recipes online but all of them are basically flour, salt and water.

Too late here for me to check which way Jupiter tilts, but I'm willing to hazard a guess that that blue and black center is polar night. Only the highest clouds get good light and some lower ones receive scattered blue rays, but deeper down there is darkness until Jupiter reaches its spring equinox.

Soo... was it Vlad who "sourced" the paint for these decals?