The Astronomy Thread

  • Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!



    Go here and give us your nominations!
    Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Tuco

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
47,468
81,129
I'm disappointed to see them fail. It's best if there are multiple companies competing with different methods of reaching orbit. Virgin was the group pushing to yeet a rocket from a massive plane. Spinlaunch is another of that type of group, launching rockets by spinning them. Even if there are massive limitations to that tech compared to SpaceX's approach of a big ass rocket that can land with minimal material left in space/ocean, it's still worth pursuing in some capacity even on the govt dime. Something like Spinlaunch might be trash on earth but $$$$ on the moon and having a working prototype that can launch *something* into orbit on Earth would clear a path for moon operation.

But I don't know where Virgin's tech model fits in with SpaceX. If SpaceX is launching all the things into orbit around the clock, hitching a ride for something that Virgin could concievably launch seems trivial.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
Borzak

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
25,483
33,253
Tuco said:
www.cnbc.com

Virgin Orbit fails to secure funding, will cease operations and lay off nearly entire workforce

Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart gave employees an update in an all-hands meeting on Thursday, according to audio obtained by CNBC.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com

  • Virgin Orbit is ceasing operations “for the foreseeable future” after failing to secure a funding lifeline, CEO Dan Hart told employees during an all-hands meeting Thursday.
  • The company will lay off all but 100 employees, according to audio of the 5 p.m. ET meeting obtained by CNBC.
  • Shareholders unloaded the stock in extended trading Thursday.
Click to expand...

The important stuff was taken care of.

On the same day that Hart told employees that Virgin Orbit was pausing operations, its board of directors approved a “golden parachute” severance plan for top executives, in case they are terminated “following a change in control” of the company.
Click to expand...
 
  • 4Worf
Reactions: 3 users
Cybsled

Cybsled

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
17,092
13,620
They’re launching this from Texas. You might be able to see it from Florida at a certain point, though
 
Sanrith Descartes

Sanrith Descartes

You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
44,657
121,168
Cybsled said:
They’re launching this from Texas. You might be able to see it from Florida at a certain point, though
Click to expand...
Its Going Down GIF by Philips Norelco
 
Mudcrush Durtfeet

Mudcrush Durtfeet

Hungry Ogre
2,428
-757
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
<Silver Donator>
14,674
2,535
Are those tiles all they're going to put on? Looks like it's not finished but I'd think they'd want to have those on before they stood the thing up.
 
jooka

jooka

marco esquandolas
<Bronze Donator>
14,877
6,391

Mars Trek

Trek is a NASA web-based portal for exploration of Mars. This portal showcases data collected by NASA at various landing sites and features an easy-to-use browsing tool that provides layering and viewing of high resolution data.
trek.nasa.gov trek.nasa.gov
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
Burns

Burns

Avatar of War Slayer
7,449
14,681
MusicForFish said:
Click to expand...

Neat. Wonder if that's molten glass/rock/iron splatter from the asteroid impact. Then wind erosion comes and eats away the softer material underneath.

If it's not some visual illusion that we are seeing, that is.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
You must log in or register to reply here.