Spaaaaace (Part 1)

Humans first reached space today - June 20th in 1944.

When the MW 18014 V-2 rocket passed the Karman Line; reaching higher than the space tourism vehicles go today.

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And this achievment is forever tainted because it was made by a weapon. And making it killed more people than deploying it, at a ratio of, roughly, 5:1. Some stains never come off.

On a lighter note, the Brits also bagged a couple of leftover V-2s in 1945. And test fired some in 1945 or 1946, from Schleswig-Holstein, I think. Based on this data, there was talk about modifying the rocket to carry a pilot on a ballistic trajectory to the edge of spaaaaace by 1948 or so. Alas…

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IMG_4665

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Despite some difficulties with the actual timeline I’m going to claim that they were Volvos.
Not SAABs. Because 1) reasons and b) the secret Swedish space programme.

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161287e215d0839f75f32d69625cd102

… and hitch a ride.

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well, I guess dont look up, then. hope and stuff…/s

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Thoughts and prayers. Works every time.

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India to build re-usable launch vehicle after nailing third landing of mini-spaceplane

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Well, Canadians, obviously! Just can’t trust polite people. (And their Queen is pretty out there, so…)

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Camilla’s not that bad.

I’ve had my moments worrying about Chuck sometimes, though.

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No, the real Queen of Canada.

:grin:

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The major downside of having a functional asteroid defense program is that any nation or organization capable of deflecting an asteroid away from earth would also have the capability to direct an asteroid toward the earth (or a specific location on earth). So there are definitely some major cost/benefit considerations there.

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Tuvalu takes its revenge!

Well, in theory. But it is a lot easier to make a projectile miss a specific point than it is to make it hit a specific point.

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