Artemis II

[Padge]

Good clean launch, currently traveling at 18,000 mph, 600 miles away from earth, 240,000 miles from the moon.

 

[Futtocks]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4g4ygw0r02t 

[Hopie]

Had the live stream on as background noise whilst working:
https://www.youtube.com/@NASA/streams

Never expected to hear someone reporting an issue with their toilet from space.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

Personally as a veteran of the Apollo launches of the 60s I thought the video coverage was poor. Given the advances in camera technology I really expected to be wowed, not watch shaky video, the camera not panning to follow the flight and miss one of the important steps of the launch: the separation of the solid fuel boosters.

Hopefully I'll be wowed going forward.

Edited April 2 by Les Tonks Sidestep

[Padge]

Took me back to being 11 and following Apollo 11 using the Airfix model I had built to follow each stage of separation and docking to the moon and back.

[Bedford Roughyed]

1 hour ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

Personally as a veteran of the Apollo launches of the 60s I thought the video coverage was poor. Given the advances in camera technology I really expected to be wowed, not watch shaky video, the camera not planning to follow the flight and miss one of the important steps of the launch: the separation of the solid fuel boosters.

Hopefully I'll be wowed going forward.

SpaceX, it has to be said, do it a lot better.  They recognise the marketing effects if nothing else.

[JohnM]

I watched the live launch last night and survived to 1 pm BST. It took me back to that amazing TV coverage as a 23 year-old living in....shock horror -Howe Bridge, Atherton - at the time. (How will I ever live that down?) How easy it is now to take for granted  that which was revolutionary over 50 years ago.  At that time, too, I was an engineer commissioning rreal-time process control, SCADA and C3 computer systems yet I still found the whole thing amazing. It still is.

[Maximus Decimus]

2 hours ago, JohnM said:

I watched the live launch last night and survived to 1 pm BST. It took me back to that amazing TV coverage as a 23 year-old living in....shock horror -Howe Bridge, Atherton - at the time. (How will I ever live that down?) How easy it is now to take for granted  that which was revolutionary over 50 years ago.  At that time, too, I was an engineer commissioning rreal-time process control, SCADA and C3 computer systems yet I still found the whole thing amazing. It still is.

I lasted until 5 minutes from the countdown, just couldn't hold out .

[Bedford Roughyed]

 

[graveyard johnny]

just about sums up what's wrong with the insane human race - lets spend billions to go and see nowt - they could have gone down my cellar steps in the dark for a tenner - have these idiots seen the state the world is in at the min ? and the mess we are making of it all?

[Gerrumonside ref]

47 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

just about sums up what's wrong with the insane human race - lets spend billions to go and see nowt - they could have gone down my cellar steps in the dark for a tenner - have these idiots seen the state the world is in at the min ? and the mess we are making of it all?

I think man’s inability to share resources with other men is the cause of humanity’s problems and not space exploration.

Edited April 2 by Gerrumonside ref

[graveyard johnny]

17 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

I think man’s inability to share resources with other men is the cause of humanity’s problems and not space exploration.

they could have shared all that fuel for starters

[Gerrumonside ref]

2 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

they could have shared all that fuel for starters

What if I told you there’s resources on the moon worth fighting for - if that’s what floats your boat?

[graveyard johnny]

1 minute ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

What if I told you there’s resources on the moon worth fighting for - if that’s what floats your boat?

no - its gonna cost more to get there and back than its worth - what sort of resources? 

[Gerrumonside ref]

23 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

no - its gonna cost more to get there and back than its worth - what sort of resources? 

I knew I’d find the hook that way!

Potentially minerals and land (always good because they’ve stopped making it).

I’m not joking either that it’s a potential gold rush (except not gold itself).

[Gerrumonside ref]

Back to the science, I’m just hoping this new technology works as it should and these brave astronauts can be brought home safely first and foremost as planned and achieve mission goals secondly.

Edited April 2 by Gerrumonside ref

[graveyard johnny]

54 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

I knew I’d find the hook that way!

Potentially minerals and land (always good because they’ve stopped making it).

I’m not joking either that it’s a potential gold rush (except not gold itself).

what minerals?

[The Masked Poster]

4 hours ago, graveyard johnny said:

just about sums up what's wrong with the insane human race - lets spend billions to go and see nowt - they could have gone down my cellar steps in the dark for a tenner - have these idiots seen the state the world is in at the min ? and the mess we are making of it all?

Right, so what does *not* exploring space solve in regard to the state of the world? Zero. If anything it should remind us that we aren't even specks of dust in the atmosphere. 

Why did any species of man you can think of (Cro Mag, Neanderthal etc) leave their caves? Because we are an inquisitive species.

If I want to put my entire life savings on a horse tomorrow it doesn't affect you in the slightest. Yet you could argue that I could have fed X starving people with that money. The world doesn't work like that. 

[Gerrumonside ref]

2 hours ago, graveyard johnny said:

what minerals?

I’ll leave you to do the research yourself.

[Hopie]

That's the last major use of the engines done, on their way to go around the moon and then back to the Pacific. 

[Padge]

8 hours ago, Hopie said:

That's the last major use of the engines done, on their way to go around the moon and then back to the Pacific. 

Yep, they're on their way, turning back now isn't really an option (though I suspect NASA has a contingency)

[Padge]

Some cracking video of launch.

 

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

 

[Dunbar]

The only things that needed fixing so far are the toilet and Microsoft Outlook. 

[Dunbar]

22 hours ago, graveyard johnny said:

they could have shared all that fuel for starters

It is a drop in the ocean compared to the energy used to mine digital crrency (primarily Bitcoin) and to produce rubbish AI videos. I will take space exploration any day of the week.