[ThTh1] Maybe you saw this little whoopsie.
LAUNCH! Astra's Rocket 3.3 vehicle, designated LV0006, launches from LP-3B at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska.#PowerSlide!
Overview: https://t.co/szufS2PS3j
Play by Play:https://t.co/0OBjqKX8gF
NSF/Astra Livestream:https://t.co/p7Kf9qmWAh pic.twitter.com/1HFJqySa9K
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) August 28, 2021
>
What actually happened here was quite remarkable. One of the rocket’s five engines failed immediately. The rocket has a thrust to weight ratio of 1.25 so with one engine out, thrust and weight were exactly balanced. So, it levitated in the air. After a while, however, it had burned enough fuel that the thrust to weight ratio was more than one, so the rocket began ascending (which, as Tim Hamilton pointed out, means it must have a remarkably good guidance system). It actually went through the highest stress point of its flight and reached supersonic speeds.
Unfortunately, the rocket veered from its flight trajectory and had to be aborted. But it was well on its way to orbit and reached a peak altitude of 50 km before splashing into the ocean.
So, while the launch was rather amusing to watch, I would actually call this a “successful failure”. It got into the sky, went through the point of maximum stress and reached 50 km. Its guidance system kept it going despite an immediate engine failure and the extra engine capacity saved it from exploding on the pad. The CEO of Astra went on Twitter to talk about how his team did a great job trying to recover the launch despite the initial Michael Jackson dance moves.
Space is hard. But we learn, we adapt, and we improve. Every new launch vehicle is tested like this so that by the time we use it for real stuff, it’s as reliable as a giant tube of explosives can be.
[ThTh2] And continuing with private space flight, Branson has some ideas.
.@VirginOrbit, explained. pic.twitter.com/UXSqJVHyHr
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) September 1, 2021
[ThTh3] We are now tracking so many COVID variants that the WHO is saying they may run out of Greek letter and start using constellations. So, we could literally get an Andromeda Strain.
[ThTh4] Also, a massive new study shows that masks work in cutting the spread of COVID, especially among seniors. The effect is seen even with fairly low rate of uptake. Universal masking can cut rates even further — which is a big reason we didn’t see outbreaks in schools last year and are this year.
[ThTh5] And final COVID note: you may have heard that natural immunity is seven times more effective than vaccines. I walk through why this isn’t so. It’s possible that natural immunity is better than vaccines. But natural immunity comes with known side effects such as damage to the kidneys, lungs, heart and brain, long COVID and death.
I think we should stick to the shots, personally.
[ThTh6] Have things gotten better over the last 20 years? To me, the answer is absolutely. And Reason’s list doesn’t even include the dramatic reduction in global poverty.
[ThTh7] Oh, wow.
Here's an incredible view from the cockpit, as Hurricane Hunters fly through the rough eye wall of Hurricane Ida, and enter the relatively calm conditions within the eye of the hurricane. #HurricaneIda pic.twitter.com/82LS6h6dG7
— WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) August 30, 2021
[ThTh8] This is honestly new information for me. The stories we’ve been told of how the planets were named are not true.
[ThTh9] Going to put this in a future class and ask students to label what’s wrong with it.
Hmm I feel like this figure probably shouldn't be in an introductory astro textbook pic.twitter.com/NeVPxURA6N
— Caleb Harada 🏳️🌈🔭 (@astronoleb) August 24, 2021
[ThTh10] A timeline of how we got the vaccines.
[ThTh11] Meet the Solar System’s fastest asteroid. And no, it’s not going to hit us.
ThTh2: I like how GoldenEye is in the list of satellites near the beginning of the video.Report
ThTh9: Gonna admit, that took a beat to spot.Report
When you can’t decide between a Michael Jackson reference and an Elton John reference, why not go for both?Report
ThTh7: When we lived on the East Coast we had a still-organized tropical storm go right over us one afternoon. Hard to forget: raining sideways out of the east, then the blue sky and calm, then you could see the eyewall coming, then raining sideways out of the west.Report
We just got slammed by the remnants of Ida here in NJ. I don’t even know how much total rain we got but basements flooded, cars floated away, and water was coming up out of the storm drains.
Then today was easily the most beautiful day we’ve had in two months.Report
ThTh3 well if I’m gonna die from a plague I want it to sound cool and reference a great old movie. It would be the most me kind of death ever. Well my only death as far as I know.Report
ThTh3: Should have used Chinese characters.
Alternatively, they can just keep incrementing the code point. After ω, we have ϊ, ϋ, ό, ύ, ώ, ϐ, ϑ, and it just goes on and on.Report
Bad Idea Dog disagrees.
Remember, it’s called the Clot Shot.Report
ThTh5: “Seven times more effective” is a bad way to phrase it, but the fact that people with prior infections are one seventh as likely to have breakthrough infections as people whose only exposure is via vaccine strikes me as kind of a big deal.
A month or two ago, you posted a link to a detailed explanation of why vaccines provide better immunity than infection. It appears now that that was just plain wrong. I remember this because my initial intuition was that prior infection would provide better protection due to a) higher viral leading to a stronger antibody response, and b) formation of antibodies to a broader range of viral proteins.
It’s true, of course, that vaccination is a much safer and more pleasant way of gaining some measure of immunity. Even a vaccine followed by a breakthrough infection is preferable to a naive infection. But I do worry that, having been exposed only to the spike protein, those of us who haven’t been infected are going to be much more vulnerable to a variant a few more mutations down the road.Report
Groupthink in action, marvelous times!
A breakthrough infection is surely preferable to a novel infection — but Antibody Dependent Enhancement is not preferable to a novel infection, and may lead to significantly more viral load.
You should read about antigenic imprinting before taking a “booster shot.”Report