from the who-else-can-say-they-have-a-two-day-commute? dept.
Three astronauts will launch to the International Space Station later "tonight". From Wired:
A Soyuz spacecraft will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:37 local time, or 12:37 am EDT on Wednesday. If you're curious to follow along, you can watch NASA TV's live broadcast of the launch above, starting at 11:45 pm EDT tonight.
It will be a crowded time on the ISS:
Three crew members are ready to head into space Wednesday morning bringing the crew complement on the International Space Station (ISS) to nine, something that hasn't been seen since 2013.
Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov along with Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency, and visitors Aidyn Aimbetov from Kazcosmos, the National Space Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan, will blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:37 a.m. EDT. They are scheduled to dock two days later at 3:42 a.m. on Friday with the hatch opening 6:15 a.m.
The new crew will join the One-Year duo of NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko along with Russians Gennady Padalka, Oleg Kononenko and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui along with NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren.
That will take the number of people on board the station to nine. Typically there is a crew of six.
Aimbetov and Mogensen are scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 12 along with current commander Padalka. Scott Kelly will take over command of the space station on Sept. 5.
Live coverage at NASA TV.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @02:14AM
How many astro-men does it take to install planet-facing spy-satellites anyway?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday September 02 2015, @03:17AM
They now have fully manuverable pods propelled by ion thrusters [wikipedia.org] that can physically manipulate other satellites. What that means exactly I can't tell you but they don't need humans in space to do it.
(Score: 2) by tynin on Thursday September 03 2015, @02:55AM
Oy! Why are you deleting your journal entries! I'm too busy to stay on top of your comings and goings on an hourly basis! Your writing is of worth (in some crazed meth loving sort of horror show, but I can relate in ways) dammit, don't tease me with entries to find them taken from me!!!
Yes, I'm talking about yesterday:
Predictions of Accidental Empires @1:29pm ... AND
Predictions of Accidental Empires @9:54pm
Don't you know I should be sleeping!?!
Please share again... :-)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mtrycz on Wednesday September 02 2015, @09:00AM
You're a little late to the show. At least if you're going to go full tinfoil, do it right.
https://theintercept.com/2015/08/03/life-unmasking-british-eavesdroppers/ [theintercept.com]
The NSA/GCHQ had all the infrastructure to do so, and actually spied all of the traffic on the first civilian/business satellite communications infrastructure ("Intelsat", ironically), as soon as one year after it's launch in 1966.
Before that, in 1940 (or even earlier), the british signals intelligence (can't remember the acronym, maybe it was already GCHQ) already had the infrastructure and did actively intercept all the german (and axis') communications. It's one of the reasons the war agains the nazis was won.
In this hindsight, it's not so out-of-this-world anymore to imagine the infrastructure they were able to build over time to spy on every signal out there. When I first saw the Snowden documents, that the NSA was able to intercept ALL of the internet ALL of the time (in 2008), I thought, nah, nobody is able to do that. But it only makes perfect sense when you think what capabilities they had 50 years ago.
They're damn good at their job, and please instead of fearmongering, check the facts first.
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 1) by jrmcferren on Wednesday September 02 2015, @03:04AM
Remember, if you have a Free to Air TV system capable of C-Band Reception, you will get better picture by pointing your dish to AMC 18 C at 105 degrees West.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday September 02 2015, @03:58AM
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ [nasa.gov]
Stream just showed a Russian Orthodox priest blessing the three astronauts.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:11AM
Yesterday I saw a story on PBS Newshour about how Kennedy's intent was to have the first three men on the moon be a white guy, a black guy and an asian guy. But after he died, the black guy was hounded out of the program and the asian guy never got a chance either.
So I was curious. Turns out the USSR beat the USA at putting a black guy, an asian guy and two women in space.
PS, Gene Roddenberry - the original SJW.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:26AM
I heard from Doctor Who that Nixon was a racist homophobe so it must be true.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:45AM
Nixon was racist, anti-semitic, and homophobia was just normal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:55AM
They don't have anything on Earth for them to do, so might as well send them up to do nothing.