ExoMars mission thunders aloft from Baikonur The European Space Agency's (ESA) ExoMars mission roared aloft from Baikonur Cosmodrome this morning atop a Proton-M rocket. The Proton-M being raised into a vertical position. Pic: ESA / B. Bethge Going vertical: The Proton-M being raised for launch last week. Pic: ESA / B. Bethge The lifter - carrying the Trace Gas …
I rather love the retro quality of this video. On the one side of the planet we have people hyping 4K television, on the other side we have rather important events seen through a camera that, judging by the image quality, was manufactured somewhere in the early 90s.
Bonus feature is an audio track that could have been lifted straight of the old "Moonraker" Bond movie, complete with echo.
All I'm missing is a guy in a chair busy generating static electricity by means of a cat..
I managed to catch the ESA feed this morning. It was crazy that it started to feel almost run of the mill after the recent activities of ISS crew changes and resupply missions, Rosetta, New Horizons, etc and all the SpaceX almost reusable rocketry.
How incredible is it that, by late October, some part of that rocket assembly I watched launching is going to land on another planet using what seems almost a Wil-E-Coyote assemblage of heat-shields, parachutes and rocket thrusters?
More, so much more of this please, (along with lots of other good science a bit nearer to home).
Icon, not for this post but for all the stuff winging its way to our rocky red neighbour.
"what seems almost a Wil-E-Coyote assemblage".
In fact, the main CAD package they use is a copy of The Incredible Machine...
More seriously: yes, I am right there with you.
Whenever I take a step back and look at how incredible "everyday" stuff is, I almost get vertigo. Then I remember that at some point in time, a flint edge probably was just as -- hah! -- cutting-edge and that at some point in the future, our toys will probably seem just as primitive and cry myself to sleep.
"Then I remember that at some point in time, a flint edge probably was just as -- hah! -- cutting-edge and that at some point in the future, our toys will probably seem just as primitive and cry myself to sleep."
The main difference being that those flint cutting edges barely changed over 1000's of years whereas we are seeing incredible changes in our own lifetimes. Closely followed by even more incredible things coming along soon after, still in the same fscking lifetime!
Granddad flew on Concorde but remembered the news reports of the first powered flight of the Wright brother and Bleriot crossing the channel.
I saw Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon. Live on TV. I wonder if I'll get to fly in space?
It's an exciting time to be alive.
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