International Space Station fires rockets to dodge chunk of destroyed Chinese satellite The International Space Station performed a short engine burn on Wednesday to avoid potentially hitting a chunk of space junk. At 2315 Moscow Time (2015 UTC), the thrusters on Russia's Progress MS-18 transport cargo vehicle, which is docked to the ISS, fired for 361 seconds to perform the small nudge, Roscosmos said. The …
No, you're thinking of Zheng He, eunuch and Admiral who commanded extensive expeditions as far as Africa, some people even claim America, in the 15th Century.
You're correct in suggesting that Zheng Yi Sao didn't have a dick, but that was no obstacle to her giving birth to three sons and a daughter in the 19th Century. Her first husband was pirate chief Zheng Yi, after his death she married her step-son, Cheung Po Tsai. Together, they commanded hundreds of ships and thousands of men. After surrendering to the Qing authorities, Cheng Po Tsai became an Admiral and Zheng Yi Sao led a quiet life running an infamous gambling house.
However, the names can be confusing, they each had several, and they can be transliterated in various ways:
鄭和: Zheng He, Ma He, Ma Sanbao, Cheng Ho.
鄭一嫂: Cheng I Sao, Zheng Yi Sao, 鄭氏: Ching Shih, 石陽:Shih Yang, 石香菇: Shih Heang Koo.
張保仔: Cheung Po Tsai, 張保: Cheung Po, 鄭保養: Zheng Baoyang.
鄭一: Zheng Yi, 鄭文顯: Zheng Wenxia, 耀一: Youyi, 鄭一郎: Zheng Yilang, Trịnh Nhất
Very active around Hong Kong and Macau, there is a well-known cave called Cheng Po Tsai Cave on Chueng Chau that the stories say the pirates hid in, but it is far too small for thousands.
..are expected to lift off for the station from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2103 ET on November 11 (0203 UTC the next day)
I.. don't think they're expecting that. Especially as they're already on their way to the ISS, having successfully launched at 2103ET on November 10th. And I was watching it live, unless the movie leaked and was released a day early..
Kinda neat given it was an instantaneous launch, ie had to go off on time and to energy budget to dock with the ISS. Which I guess is also complicated if the ISS had to move.
Indeed, this taken from SpaceX's website:
On Wednesday, November 10 at 9:03 p.m. EST, 2:03 UTC on November 11, SpaceX and NASA launched Dragon’s third long-duration operational crew mission (Crew-3) to the International Space Station from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage landed on the “A Shortfall of Gravitas" droneship.
On Thursday, November 11 at approximately 7:10 p.m. EST, 00:10 UTC on November 12, Dragon will autonomously dock with the space station. Follow Dragon and the Crew-3 astronauts during their flight to the International Space Station on the tracker below.
<blockquote>I.. don't think they're expecting that. Especially as they're already on their way to the ISS</blockquote>
Quite right, It'll be a real shock when they find a rocket on the pad, ready to go, hours after their prior launch.
Also: Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition...
Or should that be "Spamish"?
Yes, ~550 km vs 400 km.
The original Starlink plan was an orbit of 350 km, but the plan changed.
From wikipedia the currently being-executed plan is
First shell: 1,440 in a 550 km (340 mi) altitude shell at 53.0° inclination
Second shell: 1,440 in a 540 km (340 mi) shell at 53.2° inclination
Third shell: 720 in a 570 km (350 mi) shell at 70° inclination
Fourth shell: 336 in a 560 km (350 mi) shell at 97.6°
Fifth shell: 172 satellites in a 560 km (350 mi) shell at 97.6°
Just a few week ago Elon Musk said that we should be putting our garbage in space. At the time it seemed to me the dumbest thing I've ever heard as if space is somehow unfillable. Yet, here today we had to move the Space Station to avoid a situation that could have ended like the movie Gravity. Relative to earth's garbage space is still mostly space but it's already becoming a problem and to even consider Musk's idea because he's seen as someone who's forward thinking, although I'd dispute that, would be a bad choice and we didn't even need this to happen to realize he's not the brightest bulb.
Actually thats not a terrible idea.
Using electromagnetic grapplers or my idea of an electromagnetic field pulse generator, one could knock a given piece of space
debris out of the way.
Better still, slow it down using a series of these satellites to steer its trajectory away from anything important.
Thinking something like "Threading the Needle" here, with a set of superconducting toroids on the satellites about 50 metres in diameter.
that the debris flies through, and each one slows down the object by a percentage due to Lorenz forces.
Once captured, simply store it or better still reprocess into something useful.
High grade Ti and other components are somewhat useful for future colonization.
Thinking a reverse coilgun here, basically.
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