Bang Zoom To The Moon and More - (Russian Style)

[Monster Dave]

Inside the Buran Shuttle:





The launching/transportation platform:





The main launching structure:

[Turf]

that shuttle looks really spacious, i've been in a lifesize mockup of our shuttles and there is barely enough room to turn around.

....is it weird i have an urge to live in the launching platform?

[Monster Dave]

that shuttle looks really spacious, i've been in a lifesize mockup of our shuttles and there is barely enough room to turn around.

....is it weird i have an urge to live in the launching platform?

Aside from the instrumentation, the cockpit has been really stripped down. I wonder how much of a difference in space that made?

Here's the cockpit of Atlantis:

[Turf]

that atlantis shot looks like it's shot with a wide angle lens to make it look bigger 

good thing the russian ones are bigger anyway because we'll be cramming americans in them now.

[Monster Dave]

good thing the russian ones are bigger anyway because we'll be cramming americans in them now.

not in the Buran - that was a failed program.

[Monster Dave]

News:



NASA has reported that its Messenger spacecraft is now in orbit around the planet Mercury â€" the first ever mission to achieve this feat!

More than 40 years on from the first moon landing in the age of the Mars rovers and space tourism, it's easy to overlook just what a remarkable a feat this is. Before reaching orbit on Thursday at approximately 9 pm EDT, Messenger traveled for six and a half years and covered 4.9-billion-miles in which it went through three flybys of Mercury, one of Earth and two of Venus.

After firing its main thruster for 15 minutes the spacecraft slowed by 1,929 mph (leaving around 10 percent of fuel in the tank for orbit correction maneuvers) and it is now in a 12 hour elliptical orbit around the innermost planet some 96.35 million miles from Earth.

[spolic]

i just realized that wild $#!t like this is what really bankrupted the CCCP.  they spent so much on stuff like this -- stuff that >I< would want to ride and play with -- that they didn't spend enough on building the country.

HEY VLADIMIR?  WHAT SAY WE BUILD A F---ING BOAT THAT IS REALLY A JET PLANE?

YOU MEAN IT SKIS ON VATER?  HOLY $#!T THAT'S GREAT!!

and then in typical government fashion they spend a trillion dollars developing it and playing with it only to mothball the project when they get bored and move on to the next thing...

Kind of like the F-22.  Or maybe the F-35?

[Turf]

Kind of like the F-22.  Or maybe the F-35?

Both of which are being built? The 35 is being built for like 3 countries and 5 different military services. Neither of which float on water, though one does have VTOL which is really cool.

I'm understand see the point of your comparison.

[Triple J]

Both of which are being built? The 35 is being built for like 3 countries and 5 different military services.

The F-22 has been discontinued (all will supposedly be built by the end of 2011) because it cost too much. Very cool and high tech...but too expensive to actually deploy in combat in sufficient numbers.

The Pentagon has a long history of building expensive POS planes which don't perform their mission well...F-111, B-1, F-4, F-14 (despite what Top Gun would have you believe), etc.  

Jury is still out on the F-35. My bet is it will be a marginal performer, which is what happens when you try to make one tool do everything. Time will tell.

Excellent book on the subject:

[ducpainter]

The F-22 has been discontinued because it cost too much. Very cool and high tech...but too expensive to actually deploy in combat in sufficient numbers.

The Pentagon has a long history of building expensive POS planes which don't perform their mission well...F-111, B-1, F-4, F-14 (despite what Top Gun would have you believe), etc. 

Jury is still out on the F-35. My bet is it will be a marginal performer, which is what happens when you try to make one tool do everything. Time will tell.

Excellent book on the subject:

I find it interesting that you comment on planes based on the info in your sig line.

[Triple J]

I find it interesting that you comment on planes based on the info in your sig line.

I didn't even think of that. I just think it's a funny quote, not necessarily true.

[ducpainter]

I didn't even think of that. I just think it's a funny quote, not necessarily true.

couldn't resist...

pointing out the obvious. 

[Monster Dave]

Space suits that never were:

[junior varsity]

he seems to have grown an additional joint in his right arm in fig.2

[spolic]

For Red rover