Brickfilm!

Another reason for The Register to drop Playmobil and do a Lego Space re-enactment of this mission.

Brill!

Icon says it all...

Funding crisis...

Hobbiests defeat Black ops? Then the black is not black enough. So either spend more or scrap it...

I doubt in this case there is an issue, as this is merely a test bed. More 37B's are on order and soon total coverage will ensure there are no holes, and therefore no problems with knowing they are there.

Re: Sky Watchers

"I do sometimes wonder whether the information they supply to joe public is as dangerous to us all"

And rightly so. May I be so bold as to suggest that widely read publications (such as the Reg) are also being thoughtless (at best!) when they give additional publicity to these amateur spies. What is needed is some sort of central bureau through which all published information (such as news articles or blog posts) must pass. Only articles which have been deemed to be free of this sort of sensitive information would be allowed to be published. This means there's no danger of anyone even inadvertently broadcasting information that they might not have known was top secret!

Or, you know, if a handful of amateurs with fairly simple astronomical equipment can see what this spacecraft is doing, then you can be absolutely and totally guaranteed that any national government that cared about such things could afford to employ a few people with high quality equipment full time to do much more thorough sky surveys without even the hassle of needing any foreign intelligence operations.

If even we know about it, and it were intended to be totally secret, then our governments have screwed up to such a massive degree that they probably aren't doing a very good job of protecting anything.

Dammit!

beat me too it...

I for one welcome our Klingon/Romulan cloak-wielding overlords...

Pedant mode ON

America is a continent. In fact, we have 3 of them: North, South and Central. Please, please, please: don't throw all the americans with the people born in the USA.

I'm brazilian, hence South American. One could say I'm american too. But I am NOT from the USA.

And Buenos Aires is locate in Argentina - not Brazil! :D

@Marcelo Rodrigues

Unfortunately, while I take your point, American does mean 'of the United States', as well as meaning 'of one of the American continents'.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0023560;jsessionid=1BE8C8FD0B0C8BDD59995335D8E0842E#m_en_gb0023560

It's OK Marcelo

When I said "I know where America (USA) is...", that was to indicate my assumption that by 'America', the original poster meant the USA.

You are right to be concerned Marcelo, but please be reassured that most people (I hope) are aware of the geo-political realities of North/Central/South America.

I even knew that Buenos Aires is in Argentina. :) (Brazil has Rio De Janeiro of course, but you knew that already.)

Well now, that's amusing.

Latin America isn't a continent.

Marcelo I know the feeling

I'm from South Wales so I'm not English, although I am British and a UK citizen. They tend to lump the whole UK together as E*****d, though in fact the nearest point of E*****d is 28 miles away by road, 12 miles away by sea.

Learn your geography

There are 5 continents (six, if you count Antartica) in the world, which explains why there are 5 rings in the Olympics logo.

America

Asia

Africa

Europe

Oceania

Anything smaller is usually referred as regions or "subcontinents". Like North America, Eastern Europe, Central Asia...

Unfortunately, the USA chose to have a really long name, and "UnitedStatesian" sounds too long & ugly, so they took the "American" moniker for themselves. The perversion of this causes the Monroe Doctrine "America for the Americans" even more funny; its original intent was that the Triple Entente didn't interfere with the new American countries, the double entendre has been that the US wanted to take over the entire American continent.

Learn some beginners geography

There are 7 continents, and Central America is NOT one of them!

@Me N U

They teach 7 continents here in UK corner of Europe. I'm not sure where Daniel B is from but I think your Title might be more likely to be the reason he thinks there are 6 rather than his education.

BTW MeNU is the name of my local chinese takaway..

Seppo? No way, José

Means (skilled) smith in Finnish. Like "Kultaseppo" - goldsmith. Nah, Rattus, let's not go that far..

(Seppo is also my girlfriend's brother's name).

Gives the USAnians too good a name.

"Sianpaskaa" might be better..

http://translate.google.fi/#fi|en|tyhm%C3%A4%20kuin%20sikapaskaa

rhyming slang

I had to explain rhyming slang to some USAnian crewmates who wondered why they were called 'septics', and they then started to call themselves 'Shermans'.

Mine's the one with the silver star.

Seppo

Means septic.

Septic Tank

Yank

what is the adjective for "UK citizen"....

Britain = UK minus NI.

British Isles = UK + Republic of Ireland

British = of UK, Britian or Republic Of Ireland depending on when news is good or bad on BBC

No adjective for "of UK" it seems

ps if you want to be really pedantic, look at the BBC reports from Northern Ireland - a catholic will call it Derry, a protestant Londonderry.

One recent suggestion was to call it Derry / Londonderry - nickname became Slash City!

Gah! No!

I'm from England, but I hate the whole of the UK being called England as much as anyone else. I'm British, the Welsh and the Scots are British, the Irish are Irish, the Manx are Manx (Manx is NOT part of the UK!!)

And we are all European - but I bet you less than one person in ten here would admit to it! In the UK, "Europe" or "the continent" refers to everything EAST of the UK in most people's minds.

To weigh in on another matter, there are 7 continents;

North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Australasia, Antarctica. (please note, AustralASia) This is important! (incorrect, but important because it's how it was taught to us!)

Going back to the origional subject; "a large bed" ... what size is this in standard REG UNITS??? the Reg needs to be consistant with their measurements or we will only get confused!

Good reason..

To move away from NASA and more towards Comercial Launch Companies who can do it right without 'other' departments interferring...

NASA for the science, Comercial for the business.

Simples.

Anonymous John

"It wouldn't have possible to launch it unnoticed. And I very much doubt if it could land secretly either"

Regarding the launch probably not (Atlas V is pretty big with a lot infrastructure needed) however landing is a different matter. It's not *that* big and there are a number of long runways in the US which might be suitable.

Sticking it on another Atlas V afterward would be difficult.

@Henry Wertz 1

"I wonder if these X-37Bs are more modern"

Well the Space Transportation System design does date from roughly the mid 70s. There have been a few improvements since then.

"(cheaper and easier to prep for relaunch mainly) compared to the shuttle?"

Easier to prep almost certainly (A too stage liquid fueled rocket is essentially 4 *very* large empty tanks. Fragile, but *nowhere* near the hazard of the 2 SRBs)

Note what it *can't* do.

Not crew rated.

LV *not* crew rated (Load safety factors of 1.25, rather than 1.4 of crew rated)

Payload bay size of a pickup truck, not a Greyhound bus (c14'x65' with a capacity of c55Klbs)

Replaces *highly* toxic hypergolics of Shuttle as Peroxide/kerosene engines (dating form mid 50s) were not included.

Recover *any* of its launch vehicle.

A launch *should* be more straightforward but the price may not be as cheap as you think (and given the *massive* reduction in payload as little as people would *expect*)

It is an interesting vehicle.

Ooops

Ok yeah sorry meant Nth Korea not South ...

@quite all right

Well the origins of seppo are not that derogatory as you are claiming in your post and that is the context with which it is used here so am unsure why you would take offence as its just slang?

"Limey's" was the typical retort used by the Americans in the fashion of what we call banter and being that I am an Australian I prefer to call the Brits Pom's anyway.

Anyway finished with my soap-box on this, so will leave you with "lighten up seppo!"

Huh?

"Well the origins of seppo are not that derogatory as you are claiming in your post and that is the context with which it is used here so am unsure why you would take offence as its just slang?"

You're saying calling a nation of people "septic tanks" *isn't* derogatory? Huh....