Saturday, October 29, 2011

Space FYI

The next grocery truck Progress cargo launch to ISS will be Sunday. This is the first one since the "anomaly" (read, crash-and-burn) last August. If it works, hooray, we're all still in the Space Station business!

If it doesn't, this may be the last crew. (Frustratingly, SpaceX is about two launches away from being cleared to make cargo flights to ISS and ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle has already made a couple of runs; but that's not quite enough yet.)

...In a totally unrelated development, the PRC's space station has been in orbit, awaiting a crew, since the end of September. A nifty little video animation of the station was released with an...interesting...choice of musical soundtrack: America the Beautiful.

Make of it what you will.
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2 comments:

  1. Standard MischiefOctober 29, 2011 at 11:10 AM

    Much like the "The Star-Spangled Banner" or "Yankee Doodle", I'll bet they borrowed the melody* and made up their own words ;-)


    *Wait, this is China, they stole the sheet music, filed off the serial numbers and mass-produce counterfeits in the very same factory built to make legitimate copies, except during the second and third shifts using cheaper materials.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BorepatchOctober 29, 2011 at 4:40 PM

    "America The Beautiful?" WTF?

    ReplyDelete

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