Voyager 2 gets back to sciencing while 'unstoppable' Iran promises world more 'Great Iranian Satellites'

There was good news and bad news for space fans last week as a veteran probe lived to transmit for another day while issues with a new spacecraft became all too clear. Voyager 2 back in business As the 30th anniversary of the famous "Blue Dot" image of Earth approaches, engineers confirmed last week that Voyager 2 had resumed …

[Shadow Systems]

18.5 billion kilometres? Is that all?

Hell, I've stood in lines at the post office longer than that!

Bah. You young whippersnappers whinging over a mere few billion klicks.

*Shakes a palsied fist*

I had to travel that far every day each way uphill in the snow & 1T degree heat to school each day, and that's the way we LIKED it dagnabbit!

Now get off my LawnGnome!

=-)p

I'll get my coat, it's the one filled with dried frog pills...

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

"Far be it from us to nitpick"

I thought nitpicking was am El Reg all-time favourite pastime.

[Korev]

Re: "Far be it from us to nitpick"

I thought it was being ignored by Apple

[phuzz]

Re: "Far be it from us to nitpick"

Ok, their two favourite things are nitpicking and being ignored by Apple, ok?

[Claptrap314]

Re: "Far be it from us to nitpick"

And being snarky.

[Alister]

Re: "Far be it from us to nitpick"

Ok, our three favourite things are... Oh forget it, I'll come in again...

[Rameses Niblick the Third Kerplunk Kerplunk Whoops Where's My Thribble?]

Iran is UNSTOPPABLE... except when it comes to putting satellites in orbit

Has someone been taking Twitter lessons from the Great Orange Cheeto of America™?

[lglethal]

Za close, Za far....

[lglethal]

In addition, he said, OneWeb has been in dialogue with both the Royal Astronomical Society in London and the American Astronomical Society.

Did that dialogue included "Waah, Waah, Waa! Nothing you can do!! Hahaha... We're going to spoil your photos, we're going to spoil your photos... hahahahaha!!!"?

Just saying...

[EarthCitizen]

Cheap shots at Iran's expense. Expect if any other country was subject to draconian sanctions it would also struggle with its space program.

As for Iran using Russian technology - so has the US, it was the only way it could service the ISS. That and theft of Nazi technology and German scientists after WW2.

[phuzz]

To be fair, everyone stole Nazi tech and scientists. All the cool kids were doing it.

[lglethal]

Most reasonable regimes when put under crippling sanctions would willingly put on hold their space and nuclear weapons programs in order to spend the millions alleviating the sufferingof their ordinary citizenry, wouldnt they?

Ahhh, sorry, I forgot a nations "prestige" takes precedence over the people having medical care...

[Fred Dibnah]

"Ahhh, sorry, I forgot a nations "prestige" takes precedence over the people having medical care..."

That's certainly the case in the USA, yes.

[Tom 7]

Theft of Nazi technology and German Scientists? I think the paper clip gang practically jumped into the Americans arms.

[IGotOut]

"I think the paper clip gang practically jumped into the Americans arms."

Yes I think the line "Come work with us and get US citizenship or hang from the galllows" was only a minor thought in the back of their minds.

[Claptrap314]

That Twitter feed

About the Iranian "space suits" is priceless--without being able to read a word.

[Paul Crawford]

Re: That Twitter feed

Seems to have been taken down now. Wonder why?

[notyetanotherid]

Re: That Twitter feed

It is a shame that the tweet now seems to have mysteriously disappeared, and that el Reg didn't post a screengrab. The Wayback Machine, on the other hand, has archived that page lots of times over the last few days, so it is still possible to view in all its glory!

[John Brown (no body)]

Oh FFS! Stop it already!

"My twin is back to taking science data"

Fine, have a dedicated Twitface account for inanimate objects, it's a reasonable way for mere humans to follow their progress, but please, PLEASE stop with the pretense that the inanimate object is "speaking" to us.

[Brangdon]

does not plan a constellation of multiple thousands

"at least Brit-based OneWeb does not plan a constellation of multiple thousands of spacecraft"-- and then "grow to 1,980 satellites in later phases", which sounds like multiple thousands to me. No doubt if they are successful they will add more. They are higher, so harder to see for the naked human eye, but I believe that doesn't make much difference to telescopes. They will also not naturally de-orbit in reasonable time if they malfunction.

That said, I am becoming a bit of a fan of OneWeb. They are like Blue Origin in that the cool stuff they do tends to be eclipsed by the even cooler stuff SpaceX does. Unlike Blue Origin, they have working hardware in orbit. They can provide service over the oceans and poles without inter-satellite links, so they may get to the marine and airline markets first.