#rocket launch

[without-ado]

Falcon 9 launching/landing back l long exposure l John Kraus

#nasa #spacex #falcon 9 #rocket launch #astrophotography #astronomy #stars #sky #solar system #space #universe #planets #galaxy

[theofficialastronomy101]

Imagine being millions of miles away and looking back to your home planet. This is earth and our moon.

#moon #astronomy #nasa #astronomers #universe #astrophotography #nasa photos #astrophysics #outer space #nasawebb #hubble space telescope #space travel #international space station #rocket launch #i love astronomy #astronomy facts #astrography #astro notes #astro community #astro observations #planetary science #science facts #space science #science #galaxies #galaxy #cosmos #space exploration #space #spacecraft

[fox-bright]

OKAY SO I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THE WHOLE SENDING CREMAINS TO THE MOON THING If you haven't heard about it, a bunch'a dead people (cremated) (just a teaspoon or less of each) are going to the Moon, where they will stay forever. They left this morning, riding up on a United Launch Alliance rocket for Peregine Mission One, technically out of Pittsburgh, PA but launched as usual from Florida. There are five NASA payloads on the mission, so Science is Happening. That’s cool, I’m all for it. But I, and it turns out the Navajo Nation, are not very cool with the Elysium and Celestis parts of the deal, which is sending a hundred something dead people’s remains up there. I’m against it because while I’m all for scattering cremains in nature—returning your carbon to the cycle—and I’m all for cemeteries and tombs, this won’t be either; there’s not any breaking down, there’s not any cycle, and there’s no hallowed ground. The Navajo Nation, in the letter they wrote to NASA in December, is against it because to them the Moon is sacred. You don’t just drop corpses on sacred things, basically. They weren’t asking to stop the mission, just to be consulted about how to handle it with grace; their request was denied. NASA couldn’t have done anything for them, anyway, because this isn’t a NASA mission even if they’re sending payloads up. So the Magical Flying Husband and I good-naturedly Got Into It on the topic, on Saturday, and we still don’t quite agree. To my mind, it’s gross and tacky to throw a Space Rubbermaid full’a cremains up there. There were already the remains of one single person on the moon, as Eugene Shoemaker’s ashes went up with the Lunar Prospector thirty-something years ago. He was a scientist who trained Apollo astronauts about what to expect when they reached the Moon; a geologist with his eyes on the stars. Having him up there doesn’t oog me out. Having a bunch of randos who only get to go there because their families have the money for it, that oogs me out. And then there’s just the pure metaphysical aspect; we put gates around our cemeteries for a reason. We make specific places out to be the resting places of the dead, so that we can say here are the dead and here the dead are not. Most of the religions or belief systems which have the dead remain in the home, on altars or in special (holy!) rooms within the building, also have requirements for attendance on those lost relatives. Incense, prayer, attention. You can’t do that if you lawn-dart Grandma onto the Moon. So throwing a bunch of bodies into a place where they will never degrade, without marking out land as “this specific place is where our dead go,” is either a hugely expensive method of littering, or it makes the whole Moon into a cemetery.

So the MFH and I have this discussion, back and forth, and then we realize we don’t really have any data. How many people are going up? Who are they? What’s the deal? So I looked it up. There are two companies sending cremains on this trip, Celestis and Elysium. Both of them have (frankly, tacky) websites selling you the ability to send Grandma to the Moon.

Celestis starts you at about three thousand US dollars to put some ashes onto a payload that goes up, and then comes down again; the equivalent of tying her to an Estes rocket that you launch from the park, only this is a proper spacegoing rocket that gets up there. She just doesn't get to take the whole ride.

Further Celestis packages allow you to put Grandma into orbit, send Grandma to the Moon, or send Grandma out into Deep Space.

(Reading that aloud is the point where the MFH's ears really quirked. It is very difficult and very expensive to get something properly into Deep Space. That offering is bullshit, and can't not be bullshit, and this is where the MFH decided probably this whole thing was more than a little scammy.)

The Orbit Grandma package is particularly romantic; the orbit she'll be put into is a degrading one, so that after some time spinning around our gorgeous blue marble, she'll reenter the atmosphere and become a visible shooting star.

(The MFH said "Is there going to be a big enough payload to be visible with the naked eye? What amount of matter is required for that?" and then we had to do Math about it. Of course, it's not just Grandma who would be on that bus, it's another hundred people or whatever; the image appears to show a hundred or more thimbles of cremains stored separately in basically a large cube container. So maybe the size of a soccer ball? I think it would be visible. It is, however, impossible to say "look there, and you'll see Grandma!" so while it would be visible to someone, it's not going to be something you can make sure to see.)

Elysium offers all the same packages, with slightly different names. But unlike Celestis, Elysium has a little row at the bottom of the page with photographs of previous launches. They've done this before, they're saying, and Grandma is safe with them.

So I looked up the launches, and found a Wikipedia page on them. And oh my god. That's where my ears quirked, and then I started cackling, and the whole slightly-fractious discussion with the MFH absolutely dissolved into macabre jokes.

Because, yeah, there have been two previous launches. One of them failed to reach orbit. A payload of Grandmas was put onto the next one, to make up for the failure.

The second launch, which was to be a Shooting Star trip for the god knows how many people that the first launch failed? That one made it to orbit! All good, right? Now Grandma can orbit for a while, and then immolate for a second time, this one much more spectacular and high-velocity than the first?

ABSOLUTELY not.

Because of licensing issues.

(image: two columns of text describing Elysium launches: ORS-4 Elysium Star I, launched on a Super Strypi, was destined for reentry failed to reach orbit.

SSO-A Elysium STar II, launched on a Falcon 9, was destined for reentry and made orbit successfully. "Orbit was to decay in 2 years, but satellite was locked into the Lower Free-Flyer dispenser due to license timing issues." )

Grandma is stuck in the dispenser. Grandma's in a gacha-gacha that just spins around and around and around and around, never releasing its prize to her glorious conflagration.

Because of licensing issues.

I'm siding with the Navajo Nation with this one, either way, but I have to wonder if those folks are actually getting to the Moon as planned.

#space #people are stupid as fuck #bad science #moon #Luna #rocket launch #NASA #how the fuck do I even tag this dystopian nightmare

[lionfloss]

source

#rocket launch #dark #night #glow #green #rockets #sky #purple #clouds #science #photography #green glow #curators on tumblr

[samtheviking]

#Northern Lights #aurora borealis #Aurora #Alaska #space x #rocket launch

[lostsoulsparadise]

Cocoa Beach, Florida | Todd Trapani | Lost Souls Paradise | Instagram

#lost souls paradise #lost souls #nature #explore #exploring #adventure #get lost #cocoa beach #florida #spacex #rocket launch #ocean #ocean views #sunset #waves #ocean waves #landscape

[bexx1things]

#moon #rocket launch

[semioticapocalypse]

Josef Koudelka. Untitled (Rocket Launch, Guadix). Andalusia, Spain. 1971

I Am Collective Memories   •    Follow me, — says Visual Ratatosk

#BW #Black and White #Preto e Branco #Noir et Blanc #黒と白 #Schwarzweiß #retro #vintage #Josef Koudelka #Rocket Launch #Guadix #Andalusia #Spain #1971 #1970s #70s #Street photography #photographie de rue #Straßenfotografie #fotografia de rua #fotografia uliczna #ストリートフォトグラフィー #fotografía callejera #길거리 사진촬영

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Withstanding Rocket Launches

It takes a lot of power to lift a giant rocket's payload all the way to orbit, and in the first moments of a rocket launch, all that energy is directed downward at a concrete pad. How do engineers design and protect launch pads?  (Video and image credit: Practical Engineering) Read the full article

#civil engineering #fluid dynamics #physics #rocket launch #rockets #science #shock wave

[without-ado]

Liftoff of ULA Vulcan l John Kraus

l First U.S. commercial robotic launch to the Moon l ULA(United Launch Alliance) l more info at NASA

#rocket launch #vulcan #ULA #astrophotography #nasa #artemis mission #moon #science #stars #solar system #astronomy #galaxy #planet #cosmos #universe #sky

[gorrus]

#rocket launch #nasa #space

[theofficialastronomy101]

Crazy insanity photo taken of Artemis launch

#astronomy #nasa #astronomers #universe #astrophotography #nasa photos #nasawebb #astrophysics #outer space #hubble space telescope #artemis #launch #team rocket #astronomy photography #astro notes #astrography #rocket launch #planetary nebula #nasaastronaut #space station #space science #space exploration #space #astro community #astro observations #galaxies #galaxy #our universe #nasa picture of the day #space travel

[catsonsynthesizersinspace]

#cats on synthesizers in space #catsonsynthesizersinspace #cosis #cat #cats #synthesizers #synth #synths #synthesizer #space #cosmos #scifi #caturday #cute #epic #lolz #nasa #spacex #rocket launch #catsofinstagram #cats of tumblr

[aspaceinthecosmos]

the european space agency (ESA) is launching its newest probe tomorrow!

the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission is a space probe designed to make detailed observations of jupiter, as well as its three largest, icy moons: europa, ganymede, and callisto (the other galilean moon, io, isn’t included as it isn’t an ice world, and has zero potential for life).

JUICE will be searching for signs of habitability on these moons, as well as gaining more information on the largest planet in our solar system.

be sure to tune into ESAs youtube channel to watch the launch live at 1pm BST!

#just jupiter #aspaceinthecosmos #JUICE #jupiter icy moons explorer #esa #jupiter #europa #ganymede #callisto #galilean moons #space #outer space #astronomy #rockets #rocket launch

[lies]

What this looked like from my front yard.

#rocket launch #space x #falcon 9

[nocternalrandomness]

Soyuz TMA-9 Launch

The Soyz TMA-9 spacecraft atop a Soyuz FG Launch Vehicle launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhistan to deliver a crew to the International Space Station - 18 Sep 2003

#Spaceflight #Soyuz #TMA-9 #spacecraft #rocket launch #blast off #space mission #rocket #launch vehicle #Soyuz mission