SpaceX to try reusing both rocket and spacecraft for historic ISS mission In a first for the company, SpaceX is planning to launch a supply mission to the International Space Station using both a pre-flown first stage rocket and a Dragon capsule that has already been in orbit. The mission, which will carry 4,800 lbs of food, water, and science experiments to the astronauts in low-Earth orbit, was …
Well having an optical link to my new amp, I am keen to upgrade and match my 'direction oriented' (I believe it is the way they pull their wires plus a small prayer - one per cable c/o a Buddhist monk - is cables). That and a little feng shui and careful marking of the CDs to balance them in the listening room and I will be the envy of the neighbourhood.
I'm on to wax cylinders now. I can even make my own recordings through the horn. Storage space is the problem, they could do with making the cylinders a bit smaller. I have to say though that the oxygen free 99.99999% pure copper wires do improve the sound quality significantly
"But don't expect SX prices to NASA to fall just because it's a "re-flown" booster and capsule."
Mainly because SpaceX (and Orbital Sciences) are on a fixed price contract, (unlike the 'cost plus' contracts of old that Boeing and Lockheed Martin got fat on.)
If SpaceX can reduce their costs whilst still delivering the cargo they're contracted for, then they can make more profit. If their costs are higher than the price they're contracted at then that's thier problem, NASA doesn't have to pay out any more money.
> "Might that deform the exceptionally well made fibre optic from space?"
Well, unlike low-O copper, fibre optics made in microgravity actually need to be 'pulled' at high gees, and it's just serendipity that re-entry provides exactly that.
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I used to share a house with some Ghanaian dudes and after a red-hot meat stew with foo-foo and okra you may well have explosive decompression in the morning. Not a good choice for space food!
I'd like to go into space but only for a few days, the cuisine must be very bland.
Well, with one third of the crew being Russian at the moment...
Though, last time I heard Russia celebrates Xmas on the 8th of January, but you never know. There may always be another reason for: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/07/drunk_developers_delay_software_vendors_release/
After all, it is the only country where getting sh*tfaced is part of a nursery rime:
Для пьянства есть такие поводы:
Поминки, праздник, встреча, проводы,
Крестины, свадьба и развод,
Мороз, охота, Новый год,
Выздоровленье, новоселье,
Печаль, раскаянье, веселье,
Успех, награда, новый чин
И просто пьянство - без причин!
"nursery rime"
Ahem - that's an uncommon homonym. "rime" is hoar frost on an object. A type of poem is a "rhyme".
The UK Victorian temperance societies' children's "Band of Hope" had modified nursery rhymes about the effects of alcohol.
Little Tommy Dun, the piper’s son
Drank some beer and tried to run.
He tripped his toes and broke his nose
And went to jail in ragged clothes.
"unless you're Samuel Taylor Coleridge"
Indeed - mea culpa - "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
I had a niggle about that possible prior usage when I went to bed. In my defence I plead that the Oxford dictionary web page had that meaning tucked away below the scroll line: "archaic spelling of rhyme".
I should have known better as that poem was one we had to learn off by heart in our GCE "O" Level curriculum.
If the launch goes off on schedule it ought to be possible to see the Dragon, second stage and solar panel covers go over the UK about 20 minutes later, weather permitting. There's an ISS pass about half an hour before launch that will give you an idea of where to look. On CRS-11, the first flight of this booster, the pass was videoed.
That video is very cool.
So much so that I have set my classes some homework to watch the launch then nip outside to watch the flyby of the CRS 13 and the ISS,
(They could even watch the live ISS feed as it flies by the UK at the same time as they watch the it cross the sky.)
"If the launch goes off on schedule it ought to be possible to see the Dragon, second stage and solar panel covers go over the UK about 20 minutes later, weather permitting."
Apart from a couple of light snow showers, we've had gorgeous sunny days and clear nights. At least now we know there's going to be 100% cloud cover on that day now.
When asked whether he or Musk will get there first, Muilenberg responded: “Eventually we’re going to go to Mars and I firmly believe the first person that sets foot on Mars will get there on a Boeing rocket”
These Americans.
"You make ONE velly small mistake!"
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