I've never witnessed a launch into space live. Fascinating!
You're missing out, personally I love them and find them so inspirational. Perhaps you've already seen some of the stuff I'm going to ramble about below, but maybe others will find it interesting. :) Some of the final shuttle launches almost brought me to tears, even though I think it was right to retire it and move onto something else, and long over due. It was just kind of sad, because the space shuttle was such a huge focus of my whole life, and is what got me into space/astronomy as a hobby. Last Shuttle Launch: STS-135 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v... Did you watch the Curiosity rover landing? While not a launch, it was pretty amazing, and they broadcasted it live in the middle of the night. The night of the Curiosity rover landing, no joke, I teared up a bit and had to choke back some tears. When they finally announced the landing was successful and said "Wheels down on Mars", and everyone in the control room lost it, I couldn't help but feel happy for them and humans in general. An Overview of the landing, so that the second video make sense, and you can get an understanding of how complicated a landing this was. Atmospheric breaking, parachute deploy, powered flight, sky crane dropping it onto the surface... just so many things that could have failed but didn't. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2I8AoB1xgU The Landing: A little dry at first, but keep in mind every thing they are seeing is 14 minutes behind. So the probe had already landed and was safe before they even got confirmation it was entering the atmosphere. It goes through cruise stage separation, atmospheric breaking, parachute deploy, powered flight, and then the sky crane landing, and then they even got pictures right away, which they weren't expecting because they weren't sure if the other probe in orbit would still be in line of site to transmit (they use it like a relay). I linked to a point in the video that starts at the atmosphere entry phase. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v... Depending on how old you are, you'll get to see NASA/SpaceX or SOMEONE land people on Mars. The things these people do, from launches, to landings, it just amazes and inspires me. Just imagine what it's going to take to put people, supplies, and vehicles onto Mars. Personally, I'm going to completely lose my shit. I <3 space exploration.
You forgot one of the greatest launches mankind has ever bore witness to.
I must have missed this, and thank you so much for posting this. Wow, lol. Awesome thing to do, and the post was an entertaining read. So much for future Hubski manned missions.Two days before the launch, I purchased a goldfish and put it in a running aquarium that I have. The next morning he was dead.
We would never send a man to space without first putting humanodon in an aquarium with running water to see if a human could hack it. We have a stringent testing process. Seriously though, we plan on doing it again. I'll shout-out to you when we are in the planning process. Maybe you could be involved? Minnesota isn't too far away from MI.
Hey, I know we mentioned this in IRC, but the answer is "no". We think it landed in Lake Michigan. My guess is that even if they found it, the marker that mk scrawled the contact number on would have been unreadable.