Category: Fun & Curios

(What? Yeah, more easily entertained than you can imagine)

Imagine you’re an alien ship captain about to invade Earth,
and you detect all this near-Earth satellite traffic.
Would you chance it or assume that this is a planetary defense system?

https://twitter.com/fasc1nate/status/1627047472773345285

I wonder if the astronomers looking for extra-terrestrial planets
hosting advanced, intelligent life are looking for a dense sphere of
satellites surrounding those planets. Seems like that would be a phase
of development that advanced technical civilizations must pass through.

(What? Well, yeah, satellites as we know ’em would be too small to detect from here,
but the thought still applies)

Starlink from Vandenberg
beautiful sunny daytime launch
nice landing vid

Inmarsat from the Cape

Happy Valentine’s Day.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/jKkFKmO6Fq

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) February 14, 2023

It’s the final 3sec

"Canadia?" pic.twitter.com/urocHH5xBf

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 12, 2023

______
Ol’ Dad immigrated from Canadia and loved to make that joke.
Heck, I’ve made it here a handful of times, over the years, too.

Another textbook night launch

(What? Yeah, I know. Just humor me. Re-living a career here)

Big Day for Mankind’s Ambitions
Records for most engines and for most thrust (2 of the 33 shut down)
UPDATE: engines ran at half-throttle

[uncovers eyes]
Hey! It didn’t blow up or fall over! It didn’t blow up or fall over!
[dances around in glee, trips over cane, wipes up sloshed coffee and cigar ashes]
Locker room pats on the ass for Elon Musk, Gwynne Shotwell, and their SpaceX team

Note: the flames after shutdown are normal.
I’m guessin’ fuel (methane) vents through the engines after the Ox valves close
to avoid a super-hot lean-mixture situation in the combustion chamber & throat.
(Operative word: guessin’, i.e. too lazy to look it up)
UPDATE: Just occurred to me that the fuel used to cool the engine bells has to vent after shutdown.

Views from drone of Booster 7's static fire test pic.twitter.com/KN4sk1nohf

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 9, 2023

Clear night launch
Different narration for a change
Also, their ground camera captures a nifty Moon-lit “jellyfish” as Stg-2 moves on

Satellite deployment

Falcon9 Mission 200
Night launch from the Cape

(What? Hey, they don’t hafta watch. Just entertainin’ myself, here.)

Another flawless mission in the unusually bright, clear sky of ol’ Vindanfog

Hey, you can see my ol’ crew room building and blockhouse from here!
…but I wish somebody had explained a launch to me like this, back in the day