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SpaceX and other space stuff
- Thread starter bholder
- Start date
This can only end well.
"The boys are in a fighting mood" says a space official.
I'd rather be called a paranoid fool than have to deal with yet another bad Sci-Fi come to life.
There was some friction on the Mir space station, resulting in the U.S. and Russian crews having a somewhat frosty relationship, and apparently occupying different compartments of the station, mixing as little as possible.
That was a different era, and whilst the Russian crews will undoubtedly be under certain political pressure, they're unlikely to have orders to sabotage experiments, or systems - and assuming they aren't already fully clued in, they're going to be exposed to a version of the truth that isn't manipulated by the Putin propaganda machine.
Well, now the Russians have arrived at the ISS, it's been observed that they seem to be wearing the colours of Ukraine in solidarity...
Wow. Very good.
This does need appear to be the case...
Russian cosmonauts board ISS wearing colours of Ukraine flag
Time will tell. Meanwhile, I'm happy to be thought the paranoid fool.
Another boring successful Starlink launch and landing last night, Ho hum, I didn't stay up for it lol. 12th time up and back for this booster, new record,
Not exactly surprised by this, but some level-headed analysis seems to indicate this was not a protest or show of support, but either a reference to their old school, or a flopped propaganda move. Details at the ArsTechnica article here:
So how do Russian cosmonauts feel about Russia’s war on Ukraine?
Here are three possible explanations for the flight suits:
- Coincidence: The official explanation from the Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, is that "sometimes yellow is just yellow." Roscosmos noted that the three cosmonauts had all attended Bauman Moscow State Technical University, which has school colors similar to the flight suits. This is the simplest explanation and therefore the most likely. Working against this theory is that the color of the flight suits is much closer to the yellow and blue of the Ukraine flag than the technical school.
- Protest: If the cosmonauts were truly trying to send a signal to the Russian people, wearing the colors of Ukraine would be a powerful way to show solidarity. During the post-docking news conference with Russian media, Oleg Artemyev was asked about the color of the suits. In response, he joked about surplus yellow fabric. He did not mention the Bauman connection. However, orchestrating the recent fabrication of these flight suits and getting them surreptitiously packed on board Soyuz during a late-load process would have required a lot of traceable activity in Baikonur.
- Failed propaganda: Finally, there is a darker theory. It's possible that the yellow flight suits were a failed propaganda effort by the Russian government. As a Twitter user noted Friday, the launch date for this Soyuz mission was March 18, the day when Russia "celebrates" its annexation of the Crimean peninsula. It seems possible that a ceremony had been planned to celebrate the Russian "de-Nazification" of Ukraine or some other nonsense, but due to the failure of the Russian military to quickly install a puppet government, this "celebration" could not take place on March 18.
Not that doing things legally and legitimately means much to certain offices these days, but...
Legally, Russia can’t just take its Space Station and go home
Legally, Russia can’t just take its Space Station and go home
Legally, they can’t do a lot of things…
Mars helo completed flight 22 this past weekend, no problems.
The rover's atmospheric reentry components (heat shield, descent stage, backshell/parachute) impacted near-ish to the rover's landing spot.
Would be neat if the helo and/or rover would check out some of these components. Yeah, I'm a geek like that LOL. Backshell/parachute and descent stage would be likely targets.
Here you can track the current locations of the helo and rover. Sometimes a couple of days lag. Location Map for Perseverance Rover
Here's an overhead shot showing the impact points and rover landing spot. Red dots and text are mine, referenced from the 'where is the rover' link above. Helo dot is flight 22.
The rover's atmospheric reentry components (heat shield, descent stage, backshell/parachute) impacted near-ish to the rover's landing spot.
Would be neat if the helo and/or rover would check out some of these components. Yeah, I'm a geek like that LOL. Backshell/parachute and descent stage would be likely targets.
Here you can track the current locations of the helo and rover. Sometimes a couple of days lag. Location Map for Perseverance Rover
Here's an overhead shot showing the impact points and rover landing spot. Red dots and text are mine, referenced from the 'where is the rover' link above. Helo dot is flight 22.
