Thank you KSP

[Nickel AP]

Just a fun little post here thanking the game and community for the added enjoyment of last night’s space x launch. 

I got a phone call from my fiancé asking if I saw the weird plane in the sky. I turned to look and was struck with awe and fear as I saw a massive light with an even bigger tail. My brain quickly raced through the possibilities of what it could be. Was it a returning space shuttle? No, NASA hasn’t launched a shuttle in years. A meteor? No, we would have heard of it’s approach. Oh god could it be a missile? My fears grew as I saw something detach from the craft. “Oh no, it’s a warhead” I thought. Then after that 10 seconds of confusion and fear, my 500+ hours of KSP experience kicked in. It was a rocket!!! I quickly ran through what I was seeing: The contrail due to it reaching the colder upper atmosphere, the gap in the contrail due to throttle down, the throttle up once it had gained enough altitude to not have atmospheric resistance, the separation of the main stage, the ignition of the secondary engine, and the spinning of the main stage in space and it’s eventual reentry into earths atmosphere. I called my friends and family, most of whom were scared it was a UFO or missile themselves, and explained to them exactly what was going on, all thanks to an indie video game. Since then I have been obsessed with watching footage on social media, the space X stream of the launch (link below) and KSP videos.

 

It was truly an awesome thing to see but even more awesome to scientifically understand what I was seeing. To be able to break down each step in the process but also to understand why it was happening. Thanks to this game a cool experience turned into an amazing one. 

Thank you Kerbal Space Program for being such a great game that I was able to take experience from a game and turn it into understanding of an actual rocket launch. This is my favorite game I have ever played and now, thanks to Space x, I love it even more. 

See you in the skies!

[Vanamonde]

I grew up in southern California, and when the weather conditions were right, launches from Vandenberg would cause these clouds once every 2-3 years. Does that not happen anymore? Why did the locals not recognize it for what it was? 

Also, thread moved to Science and Spaceflight, since it's not about KSP itself. 

[Scotius]

I wanted to like your story, but it actually saddened me It clearly shows how big and profound (and nasty) impact Cold War and recent shenanigans of a certain hermit country had and still does have on our minds. Your reaction to this phenomenon wasn't "Oh, hey! What a view. Is it a rocket launch? Cool." It was "Oh God, is it a missile?!? And warhead???" Things improved on our blue planet, but not nearly enough to be back to... well - normal. As far as it goes for humanity

[DDE]

On 12/24/2017 at 11:06 AM, Scotius said:

It was "Oh God, is it a missile?!? And warhead???" Things improved on our blue planet, but not nearly enough to be back to... well - normal. As far as it goes for humanity

Still better than “secret aliens”.

Also, that’s clearly a missile launch. The ride down is much more subtle.

 

[Nickel AP]

On 12/24/2017 at 12:06 AM, Scotius said:

I wanted to like your story, but it actually saddened me It clearly shows how big and profound (and nasty) impact Cold War and recent shenanigans of a certain hermit country had and still does have on our minds. Your reaction to this phenomenon wasn't "Oh, hey! What a view. Is it a rocket launch? Cool." It was "Oh God, is it a missile?!? And warhead???" Things improved on our blue planet, but not nearly enough to be back to... well - normal. As far as it goes for humanity

After about 10 seconds (or less) it was "COOL!" but yeah, it could also be my mostly from my personality also. I have a tendency to worry about things more than most. To be honest, I knew it was a rocket in my head but I hadn't seen one like that before. I've lived in so cal my entire life and have seen maybe 2-3 launched from vandenberg AFB, but 2 things were unique for this launch: 1. The direction, most launches head out over the ocean and continue west, this one went south. 2. The size and look of this one was much different. I know its due to atmospheric conditions and the twilight effect but the contrail was massive. Its hard to tell from pictures, but this contrail was probably 100x larger than anything I have seen before. Additionally, most rocket launches I have seen stop the show once the main engine cuts off, this one the secondary engine had a contrail too. I had never seen that before. That's why it wasn't until stage 2 that my fear it was maybe something nefarious.

But again, it was probably mostly my fear prone personality. A few of my friends were positive it was a UFO (until I explained it to them), so it probably tends to be interpreted differently based on peoples predisposed notions.

 

@Vanamonde I also grew up in SoCal, As i mentioned above, i have only ever seen maybe 2-3 launches. It doesn't happen as much anymore, or I am just not lucky enough to see it. The only other odd looking launch I have seen was one maybe 12 years ago. My mom swore the rocket put a hole in the atmosphere. You could see the trail and where the rocket went there was a dark hole where you could see into space. I am not scientific enough to know what caused this effect, but my guess is it was a shadow allowing you to see the dark of space. Anyway, lots of people did know about the launch but apparently I am not one of them. If I remember correctly, they did a launch a week earlier as well. The difference with this one was the atmospheric conditions. It looked like a trail of fire against the (getting darker) twilight sky.

[NSEP]

On 24/12/2017 at 5:50 AM, Vanamonde said:

Does that not happen anymore? Why did the locals not recognize it for what it was? 

I think the visitors are unfamiliar with sunset rocket launches. Last time this happend someone recorded this was on an airport (seems suspicious right?). This absolutely freaks out the internet and that might also be a reason why people want to intentionally misinform people for views and likes.

It surprises me that people still think its a UFO. Heck, they streamed it live.

[DDE]

2 hours ago, NSEP said:

It surprises me that people still think its a UFO. Heck, they streamed it live.

I'm afraid that for most people it is a much, much easier and obvious explanation.

[NSEP]

14 minutes ago, DDE said:

I'm afraid that for most people it is a much, much easier and obvious explanation.

Conspiracy boys always go for the most absurd and unlikely answers. Those people believe the Pyramids of Giza where built by aliens but when someone pruposes a plausible and realistic explantions they seem to throw it in the trash because it destroys their dream fantasy sci-fi world. They fear the boring truth.

 

[DDE]

16 hours ago, NSEP said:

Conspiracy boys always go for the most absurd and unlikely answers. Those people believe the Pyramids of Giza where built by aliens but when someone pruposes a plausible and realistic explantions they seem to throw it in the trash because it destroys their dream fantasy sci-fi world. They fear the boring truth.

Unfortunately, I don't mean conspiracy theorists.

I mean the average Joe.

[Zeiss Ikon]

21 hours ago, DDE said:

I mean the average Joe.

I grew up thinking it was P.T. Barnum who said "No one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

Just looked up the quote, to verify, and found that no only was it not Barnum, the common version is a paraphrase (though, in this case, at least faithful to the meaning of the original).  It was actually H.L. Mencken, and the full quote is “No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”  A more correct paraphrase would be "No one in this world...has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses..."

Regardless of source or correctness, the thrust of the quote stands: the Average Joe really has about all he can handle keeping up with the mortgage (or the rent, since home ownership has been in decline for a good while), feeding his family, and trying to figure out how to get through to next payday (if he thinks even that far ahead).  Anything that saves effort and time (like accepting something exciting over something mundane, without bothering to check whether either one is correct) makes this easier, and for most humans, easier is always better.

Edited December 28, 2017 by Zeiss Ikon

[DDE]

2 hours ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

(like accepting something exciting over something mundane, without bothering to check whether either one is correct)

This isn't even a result of decision fatigue. Extraordinary events crave extraordinary explanations.

[tater]

In general, people are stupid. Look at "man on the street" interviews on virtually any issue that matters. Rural goon in a pickup, or hip urbanite. Both equally dim on average.

[DDE]

52 minutes ago, tater said:

In general, people are stupid. Look at "man on the street" interviews on virtually any issue that matters. Rural goon in a pickup, or hip urbanite. Both equally dim on average.