I sooooo want to see that thing fly finally!

As a heavy sleeper myself, I completely believe that part to be plausible, especially with alcoholic assistance.  :-)

*ba-dum-pish*

Same. Just show up and take a car.  Of course, you *do* see an actual human when you leave the lot, and that’s why they look at your id and offer you upgrades like a transponder for the tollways.

Actually, as I look at it a little closer, it’s not a copy of the X-37B. It’s got a lot in common, but it’s also got a lot that’s different. For instance, this has a vertical stabilizer, like the Space Shuttle did. The X-37 doesn’t. But unlike *either* vehicle, it has extremely oversized winglets — so large they’re…

How exactly do you propose stopping them? It’s not like the external shape of the X-37 is particularly obscure.

There’s not one specific shape that is exactly perfect for a spaceplane. As it happens there have been only two orbital spaceplanes so far, and one was based on the design of the other. It’s tempting to conclude that this must be the only reasonable shape for a spaceplane, but this would not be accurate.

“Sadly, it appears the lesson here is that waiting for rewards is better for your brain, which no one wants to hear.”

I know we all want to focus on the poor monkey, but let’s not gloss over this other crazy actual part of the story:

It’s very likely true, but it’d take more than that to prove liability, that’s my point. What I’d like is to see a thorough investigation to conclusively prove it so that the government gets off its butt and actually does something about this sort of idiotic design choice. But with our incoming administration actually…

No matter what you’re anecdotal experience is, there is no doubt at all that these people died because of this stupid design.

Reminds me of the protagonists of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” trying to get the sundiving ship to stop its fatal sundive, and discovering how frustrating its cool black-on-black color scheme is, because all the text is written in black and the buttons are black and when you get it right, a little light lights…

Oh very much. In weaponry, a huge amount of requirements specification revolves around when the device *doesn’t* do things, because you want it to become lethal only in the extremely specific circumstance that it’s supposed to be. It kills exactly when you want it to. No other time.

This is fantastic. Wildland firefighting is some of the most dangerous peacetime flying there is, so being able to remove the pilot from it would be enormously helpful. And being able to automate such a heavy aircraft, and one that already exists, is a huge bonus.

THEY’RE ALL IN IT AGAINST US!!!11!!!ELEVENTY!!!!

They’re just using a lithobraking maneuver.

Yep!  If the US government had found evidence of aliens, he would 100% have blabbed it publicly by now.  Ergo, there ain’t any such evidence.

In their defense, there is an awful lot of news right now involving Musk and/or Trump.  I hear ya, though.  I could use a break from all of that.

Low orbit’s one thing, but Mars is a great deal further away. Heck, even the Moon is a great deal further way. The signal loss is the real problem. The reason the DSN antennas have such huge dishes is similar to why optical telescopes like to have big mirrors — aperture is king when you want to observe very faint…

YES!!!!!