New Falcon 9 photos

wrote:
Ah, thanks for correcting that... I'll be sure to disregard and
discard those KH-4 Corona satellite photos we have of giant rockets
at Baikonur that are then shown later to have blown up on said non-
existent launchpads. ;-)


What launchpads?
Those were simply waste sludge pits built as part of the Baikonur
Sanitation System Improvement Program (BSSIP) under the 9th Five-Year Plan.
It is not the fault of the Central Committee or The Chief Designer that
the Hero-Cosmonauts over-indulged in vodka and pickled eggs during the
celebration of the two sludge pit's completion, or that they produced
excess methane gas as a after-effect of such a celebration during a
lightning storm while trying out one of the new sanitation facilities.
Such a unfortunate event occurred once before - due to smoking near the
rocket. Just hours before the first launch attempt of the R-16 ICBM in
1960; this resulting in mild burns to one ground crew member, and caused
such shame among the rest of them that over 100 of them and their
commander could no longer bear to live with their failure before the
Soviet Dream due to their hooligan flatulence and smoking, and committed
suicide inside of a minute's time.
From that moment forward, a strict ban on smoking ground crew was put
into effect during any launch attempt at Baikonur.
To insure this safety measure's gravity, signs were incorporated near
the launchpads, stating: "Comrades! Make sure you do not end up smoking,
as those unfortunate men did!"
All today's ground crew have taken this thoughtful warning most seriously.
That is a fact.
That is a _Soviet_ fact - which makes it truer than most.

Patsky

On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:13:55 GMT, (Derek Lyons)
wrote:

Brian Thorn wrote:

On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:12:55 GMT, (Derek Lyons)
wrote:

Griffin is currently driving the US manned space program into a
brick wall and I expect the Obama administration to take notice and force
NASA to change course.

Folks said the same thing when G.W. Bush was elected.

Bush got ISS back under relative budgetary control (until the 107
accident ruined all plans) and then established VSE. He failed to
significantly back VSE later, but he did change NASA's course.

Sure Bush changed NASA's course, but didn't change it into a space
fanboi's wet dream as many hoped he might.

Neither will Obama.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Too bad I can't get myself appointed NASA Administrator. You space
guys would be knocked over by the shock wave of my shutting down most
of the space program and putting the money into Aeronautics.

Mary "High performance aircraft rule OK"
--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer
We didn't just do weird stuff at Dryden, we wrote reports about it.
or
Visit my blog at http://thedigitalknitter.blogspot.com/

"Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)" wrote in
message news

Too bad I can't get myself appointed NASA Administrator. You space
guys would be knocked over by the shock wave of my shutting down most
of the space program and putting the money into Aeronautics.

Mary "High performance aircraft rule OK"

Well if you ran it more like the mythical NACA days many of us might
appreciate that :-)





--
Greg Moore
Ask me about lily, an RPI based CMC.

Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer) wrote:
On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:13:55 GMT, (Derek Lyons)
wrote:

Brian Thorn wrote:

On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:12:55 GMT, (Derek Lyons)
wrote:

Griffin is currently driving the US manned space program into a
brick wall and I expect the Obama administration to take notice and force
NASA to change course.
Folks said the same thing when G.W. Bush was elected.
Bush got ISS back under relative budgetary control (until the 107
accident ruined all plans) and then established VSE. He failed to
significantly back VSE later, but he did change NASA's course.
Sure Bush changed NASA's course, but didn't change it into a space
fanboi's wet dream as many hoped he might.

Neither will Obama.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Too bad I can't get myself appointed NASA Administrator. You space
guys would be knocked over by the shock wave of my shutting down most
of the space program and putting the money into Aeronautics.

Mary "High performance aircraft rule OK"

Au contra ire, I want to remove aeronautics from NASA's name by changing
it to the National Atmospheric and Space Administration, to give it
straight overlap with NOAA, and put them both in charge of science,
engineering and technology eduction in America, the post-Bush era.

That Falcon 9 looks great. I want to use two of the new flyback versions
as boosters for my spaceship. All I need now is $1.74 billion dollars.

On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:06:28 -0800, in a place far, far away, "Reunite
Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)" made the
phosphor on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:


Sure Bush changed NASA's course, but didn't change it into a space
fanboi's wet dream as many hoped he might.

Neither will Obama.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Too bad I can't get myself appointed NASA Administrator. You space
guys would be knocked over by the shock wave of my shutting down most
of the space program and putting the money into Aeronautics.

That's not the agency's primary charter. Just one of many reasons why
you wouldn't get the appointment...

(Hint: the third letter. The fact that the second one comes before it
doesn't change the emphasis of the charter. NSAA doesn't work as well
as a nym...)

"Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)"
wrote:
:
:Too bad I can't get myself appointed NASA Administrator. You space
:guys would be knocked over by the shock wave of my shutting down most
f the space program and putting the money into Aeronautics.
:
:Mary "High performance aircraft rule OK"
:

I wouldn't even argue much with that. The old NACA was the only part
of NASA that seemed to actually understand things like budget and
accomplishments being roughly commensurate.

Personally, I'd like to break NASA up. one of the pieces would be a
reconstituted NACA.


--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw

Greg D. Moore (Strider) wrote:
Too bad I can't get myself appointed NASA Administrator. You space
guys would be knocked over by the shock wave of my shutting down most
of the space program and putting the money into Aeronautics.

Mary "High performance aircraft rule OK"


Well if you ran it more like the mythical NACA days many of us might
appreciate that :-)


Cut to NACA wind tunnel test, circa 1935; as over 100 Civilian
Conservation Corps volunteers begin to run on the giant treadmill, the
fan blades in the wind tunnel begin to rotate. The model wing section in
the tunnel strains against the chewing gum holding it in place.
"Okay, that's NACA wing profile 2,749....now take a breather while we
put number 2,750 in place."
"Is it like this every day?"
"Yes, but you get used to it after a while... and it's steady work."
"How long have you been doing this?"
"Since late 1929. I used to be a stockbroker, and running all day on a
treadmill really isn't all that different...except here your ass hardly
ever gets sucked into the blades."

Pat

On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:53:30 -0700, Fred J. McCall
wrote:


Personally, I'd like to break NASA up. one of the pieces would be a
reconstituted NACA.

Japan tried that and failed. It will just result in more bureaucracy
and is unlikely to result in more money for aeronautics (look at the
FAA.)

Brian