On that note:
Most likely 7.62 x 39 for myself.
Was walking down a sidewalk, roughly 100 to 50 feet from a stationary group of people, when a car slowed to a near stop and unloaded on them.
It looked like some kind of Draco, AK-pistol type of weapon, but I did not get the best look, as I was rather preoccupied with jumping into some bushes and then sprinting away.
I could have phrased that better. Your comment did not knock me out cold lol, you posted it around midnight (or later...??) my time, and I remembered 'I need to reply to this' when I woke up, apparently having passed out browsing lemmy, lol.
I appreciate your expert input!
Yeah the only stuff I could find about actual orbital refueling was basically some tests with cryogenic fuel pumping on the ISS, which had some fairly serious problems, and a few times that basically a small satellite was refueled / serviced by another small satellite, which yeah as you say, just deliver a tiny amount of hydrazine, an exceptionally less volatile and easier fuel to deal with.
I read your comment and fell asleep, so here's my add on to that:
If Trump does a 20% across the board import tariff, and deports 10 million people, most of whom work...
The economy, the GDP contracts by 8.9%, or about 2.5 trillion dollars in year one.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-economic-depression-msnbc/
It also starts a massive trade war.
This basically causes Great Depression 2.0.
It truly is the 1930s again.
I fell asleep after making my original comment, but you are correct that the velocities and altitude achieved are indicative of something capable of achieving orbit.
So for that, thank you for the correction.
I will caveat that with: We still have literally no idea what this things LEO payload capacity is.
Up until a few months ago, Musk was saying its 100 tons. Then he says its more like 50 tons, and we're gonna make Starship+Booster 2 and 3, 2 will be capable of 100 tons, 3 will be even more.
So far its proven payload capacity is 'banana'.
=/
What about the 'Snoke'?
Just impale a steel rod laterally through the pelvis, like a foosball player.
The original timeline NASA gave to SpaceX was to have a successful landing on the moon, with humans, and their safe return, in Q2 2025.
7 months from now.
...
You could theoretically refuel the S-IVb, the Apollo/Saturn V third stage, in LEO, with Falcon Heavies...
...assuming you redesigned both to do refueling in orbit, which has never been accomplished before with huge volumes of cryogenic fuel.
But you could not actually launch even a completely unfueled, completely dry S-IVb with a Falcon Heavy.
The S-IVb is about 22ft in diameter.
The Falcon Heavy's final ascent rocket is about 12 ft in diameter.
There's almost certainly no way that would be aerodynamically stable through launch.
The service module and lander are just too wide.
...
NASA did actually award another contract to Blue Origin (Bezos Private Space Program) for an updated, embiggened Apollo style lander.
That's going to be mated to a Locked Martin designed orbiter, and they'll all launch on the SLS.
... Assuming the SLS does not also fall (further) behind schedule or suffer from quality control problems.
A whole lot of SLS is built by Boeing. Not doing so great in the quality control department lately.
But hey at least one of the things so far has actually completed an uncrewed lunar fly by!
...
To conclude: Yes, Space is indeed hard.
But uh, the last thing Musk said about Starship+Booster is that it will actually have... half... the originally promised payload capacity to LEO.
... and they're going to making a Starship+Booster 2, that will have the original promised payload, and then a 3rd version that will have even more!
If you have to cut your effective payload capacity in half, thats a whole lot more than quality control problems, its fundamental design mishaps.
Starship's upper stage will make a partial orbit of Earth, re-enter the atmosphere and splash down in the Indian Ocean...
Also known as not an orbit, or a suborbital flight / trajectory.
Saying a suborbital flight is a partial orbit is like saying a cessna can partially achieve hypersonic velocities.
NASA is also counting on a specialized version of Starship to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade under its Artemis program.
There is no public information indicating design on this variant has even begun.
... And Starship+Heavy Booster was supposed to have completed a succesful orbital flight in Q2 2022, per NASA's contract with SpaceX.
Which it still has not done, in Q4 2024.
If SpaceX somehow completes an orbital flight of this thing in say Q2 2025, and keeps to the originally agreed contract timeline, well thats only 3 years behind schedule.
But this is Musk. Not the best track record on delivering on promises, more of a 'pray i do not alter the deal further' kinda vibe, but spoken with all the menacing intimidation of Darth Helmet.
So far he's gotten a banana to suborbit in this thing.
...
I'll eat a sock if a SpaceX launcher and lander gets human beings to the moon and back safely by the end of 2030.
Did I forget to mention Musk's plan for a moon mission requires the Starship Lunar Lander variant to remain in Earth orbit, rendevouz and dock with and refuel from something like 12 or 16 other Starships?
... And there is also no publicly available information indicating actual design of this refuelling system either, just vague cgi concept arts of a plan?
I'll eat two fucking socks.
A trillion dollars.
Is a 'highly conservative estimate.'
...
From the people who notoriously underestimate costs and failed every audit in my lifetime.
Faaaantastic.
There is also a fairly popular DOOM mod that replaces mechaHitler with mechaThatcher, which Bethesda just banned from their certified mod db because they are fucking cowards.
Yep.