The Space Thread - Launches, Events, Live Streams, Governments, Corporations, drama in Spaaaaaaaaaaaace

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People act like this is all impressive, but like SpaceX flew people around the moon like 3 years ago. Remember Dear Moon?

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Artemis II crew currently behind the moon.

Orion passes behind the Moon and loses line-of-sight communication with Earth at 6:44 PM EDT. The crew relies on onboard systems during this approximately 41-minute blackout, the most isolated point of the mission.
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Orion reaches its closest point to the Moon at approximately 6,549 km (4,070 miles) above the lunar surface at 7:02 PM EDT, while behind the Moon. The crew becomes the first humans to see the lunar far side with their own eyes since Apollo 17 in 1972.
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Communication with Earth is re-established at 7:25 PM EDT as Orion emerges from behind the Moon. Earthrise is visible from the crew windows. The crew reports on their experience and confirms all systems are nominal.
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Everyone wave

Edit for search: Orion, Moon, & Earth in one shot minutes before signal loss
 
MerelyAPlateOfSpaghetti said:
It's been a mixed bag for me. On one extreme, we had a coworker who very seriously considered taking launch day off to focus on the mission 100%. On the other extreme. I've had multiple people ask "Why are we even doing this, it's a lot of money. What do we get out of this?" and the people who don't like the monetary cost get even more wary when you answer "It will help us get to Mars." From their perspective, we are spending a lot of money now for the opportunity to spend a lot more money later while not getting any tangible benefit for society beyond bragging rights.

On the other hand, "we're going back to the moon" is less compelling for modern overwhelmed people. We've done it once before so it's not new and exciting thing, especially when the other question I get from people is "Why didn't we just use the Apollo stuff again?" Not a bad question, but I wouldn't be surprised if nobody who worked on or designed Apollo is at NASA anymore. That's not even mentioning the lack of modern telemetry and computing devices in Apollo, which already makes it a non-starter.

With as much as America spends on random nonsense that benefits very few people, there's an incalculable benefit to morale when we see intensely complex projects like this proving that humanity is still reaching for the stars. Go Artemis!
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We've spent $20 trillion in the last century to enable niggers to never work and to discourage them from burning down society and murdering us all.

$12.3 billion to see new HD footage of the surface of the moon seems like chump change comparatively.
 
Wahgonga said:
Communications depend on line of sight. When they're around the far side of the moon, the moon blocks signals to and from Earth. They'll still be narrating and taking pictures where there's sufficient light. We'll get to listen and see it all later on when it's downloaded to Houston.
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Well I wanna know now. Next time they should take a tin can on a string with them to avoid this problem.

If I were an astronaut, I'd end the communication with "WTF was that?! Did you just see...!" *dead air*
Probably for the best that I stay on Earth.
 
Got a preview of the Earthrise (technically Earthset) shots the Artemis II crew took. They're going to look spectacular.

If you want an open bet for the future: I suspect the SLS-focused Centaur V is going to recycle Vulcan tooling for tank strength and a stretch and bring in Centaur V engines and avionics. Would be a hell of a kludge if it goes through, but seems vaguely doable.
 
It's good to know Buzz is still in a good mood. I mean, it seems to be in pretty good spirits for a guy who's. Almost 100 years old.
'He's absolutely amazed that they used a lot of his ideas through the years. He's giddy about it all and kept saying: 'Now it's time to occupy Mars!'
Now what could Buzz Aldrin mean by this? Does he know something about the Void Dragon?
 
The way the solar eclipse is being described, it has got to be one of the most spectacular things any human has ever witnessed. I cannot even begin to imagine the awe such a view inspires - though not for a lack of trying. I actually closed my eyes to try and imagine what the scene must be like and even in my mind's eye, it was fantastic. Imagine being able to make out details on the lunar surface (from Earthshine) on an absolutely massive dark disk right in front of you, while also being able to see the solar corona surround said disk and also seeing all the stars and planets around you - not to mention the fact that they also reported witnessing impact flashes from meteors hitting the moon. I love it.
 
You really are modern-day pioneers, all of you - and one of them happens to be a neighbor. You know who that is, right? You have a special person over there. A neighbor and we like our neighbor.
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- Donald J. Trump, addressing the crew just now. I fucking can't.

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Edit: Local archive

Apologies for the bad audio quality. Screen recorder spazzing out.
 
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