Something that recently crossed my mind (again) was the whole “when will Starship fly people” discussion. To me the answer is simple: whenever NASA and the FAA consider it a safe and reliable enough vehicle to do so, which even if Spacex further accelerates the already mind-numbingly fast pace of the Starship program, definitely will not be this year, considering it will take dozens of launches and landings before crewed flight will (or should) be considered, maybe as many as a hundred (meaning we’re talking late 2022 at the absolute earliest, and even that would be an historic achievement and require virtually no failures or setbacks). So no, Starship 100% will not be taking off with people on board this year, and this is coming from someone who would take a bet that Starship will have reached orbit by this year’s halfway point (1st of July).
However, something that I haven’t seen brought up on this subreddit (though perhaps I just missed it) is that crewed spaceflight doesn’t require a crewed launch, at least not necessarily on the same vehicle, and Spacex is uniquely positioned to make use of this thanks to their prior contracts with NASA.
The Crew Dragon vehicle has now been certified by both NASA and the FAA to launch, fly, re-enter and land with people on board. Is it really that big a stretch for Spacex to put one or two docking or berthing ports on the side of a Starship and dock a crewed Dragon to it by the end of this year? I really don’t think it is. Here’s how I see it happening:
Spacex would offer NASA the deal of a lifetime. shortly after reaching orbit with SN15 or whichever it will be, they will build a crewed version of Starship with as much redundancy crammed into it as they can: 10+ tonnes of reserve food on board, 10+ tonnes of reserve water, lots of back-up air and air scrubbers, radiation shielding and a bunch of batteries with some deployable solar panels. None of this needs to be high-tech or highly efficient either, it just needs to sufficiently reassure NASA that their astronauts will not run out of power, air, water or food under any realistic circumstances. The Starship will have no heat shield to save mass and to allow two redundant and separate docking ports, one on each side of the ship. It might have an airlock or it might not, depending on what NASA prefers: all the life support systems should be accessible from the inside besides the solar panels, and an airlock is an inherent weak point in a pressurised vehicle, so I’m
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I have nobody I can tell this story to who would appreciate it. About 20 years ago I used to play gToons pretty religiously on the Cartoon Network website. I loved that game and website so much, but I was poor in the game, so I didn't hesitate to give out my credentials. Some random person told me he could make me rich, and I naively believed him. Luckily, he kept his word and hacked me tens of thousands of credits, and I went ham buying booster packs. It was fucking awesome.
This person stood out to me. Just some guy who genuinely wanted to help me with my silly game. It was honestly like winning the lottery. I know they will probably never see this, but if you're out there, that was pretty damn cool and noble of you. I still have no idea what you did, but you made 12 year old me really freakin' happy.
EDIT: Wow guys this really blew up, thanks for all of the fancy awards! It's like winning the lottery twice :) I just wanted to tell my silly story, haha. Now I feel like a million bucks.
Throughout this season, I've often been getting error code "Aragula" and as a fairly frequent comp/gambit player, these error codes are quite annoying. They almost bring me back to season 10.
However, what makes me livid, is the fact that the game has the audacity to tell me that I left the match whenever I get error coded.
Can you guys just remove these? They're just pointless and annoying.
So playing through Delta Rising on a new alt. First time in years. Why is "Nuke both the Kobali and the Varduar from Orbit" not an option? It would seem to solve everybody's problems? Heck it probably doesn't even violate the Prime Directive. "Let the Dead stay dead Both of them". Do the Undine offer rental rates on those Planet Killers? Getting rid of both of them would seem to be the easiest way to unify all of the other Delta species to your side in common cause.
Also am I the only one who expects a Vendor Window to pop up whenever you meet the Borg Collective? Maybe offering some quality Organically Grown Circuit Boards and the Finest in Delta Quadrant Artisanal Cheeses? Plus an extensive line of Hemp products.
