Yeah, I’d be reasonably confident the locomotive isn’t going anywhere, but I’d be less confident in the strength of the windows.

I don’t know why your comment doesn’t have more stars, but may my star help fix that.

Lake freighters have unusually long lifespans compared to sea vessels. St Mary’s Challenger has the advantage of operating exclusively in freshwater, which gives those vessels amazing longevity. Lake freighters often operate over 50 years, but ocean going vessels rarely last over 30 years unless they’re particularly…

You can, of course, define an industry as narrowly as you like in order to make a desired point. However, that is not the only industry they’re in. They’re spacecraft manufacturers are well, with crewed spacecraft and a pretty aggressive satellite telecommunications business that also builds the ground stations and…

They’re referring to the aerospace industry. They are most certainly not the only players.

I’m not sure the injury rate scales to the launch cadence in any meaningful way. It could scale to the number of employees, possibly, but if it scales to the cadence, that would imply they’re moving too fast to get the job done safely — which makes one wonder whether they are moving too fast to get the job done…

Well, I know it makes a great slogan, but the truth is, NASA has always contracted out most of its work. If not SpaceX, then Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, etc. There were more, but those three have been eating the competition. Case in point: Orbital Sciences was a major supplier to NASA and a direct SpaceX…

Quasi-satellite orbit diagrams are mind blowing to me.

“So, of course, because it’s Tesla, instead of a massive sell-off this morning from investors who are done with Musk’s bullshit, the stock is already up about 12 percent today. Make it make sense.”

By obtaining permission from the country where they’ll be landing in advance of actually doing so. They’ll need to issue a NOTAM at the very least, so they’re not going to be just randomly doing this.

One quibble: the Biblical description is more of a religious ritual than a practical method, and it’s not really about reducing maternal mortality. It’s more about reducing the impact of cuckoldry. Yeah, when folks want to quote the Old Testament to support their anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ beliefs, there is some…

It might have something to do with how everything’s installed, although if they designed this so you can’t replace a sunvisor without removing the windshield, that’s just another example of completely ignoring design-for-maintainability (which, frankly, is a sign of a prototype being released into production).

The lack of inclusions that makes them so difficult to place is also what makes them so valuable, ironically.  For a colored stone to be so flawless, especially at that huge size, is truly exceptional.

I know in my state, the DNR is definitely spending resources on CWD detection. For instance, they have a program for hunters to turn in deer heads so they can test them to get a handle on disease prevalance. (Bonus treat for participating in the program: they will absolutely tell you right away if the deer tests…

Not just the brains.  The entire CNS.

They might actually end up doing something along those lines.  They have to first make sure they’re selecting the right tape and that they can apply it accurately while wearing pressurized gloves.

Is it really ever as short as 0 minutes?  I would think that would be pretty brutal for the thermal systems on the ISS.

30 FEET??!?!?!  That is absolutely brown-trousers-time.  We very nearly lost TIMED.  Holy moly.

Scientific and possibly military applications, though I have to agree that the scientific data is more significant. I could definitely also see engineering value. Varda Space is already looking into space manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, and they have their own reentry system. But if their project proves economically…

I just wish they’d put that on the passenger mat too, since that thing just will NOT stay put.