SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
"Made it to space. Team delighted. More to follow!" the U.S. company, founded by New Zealander Peter Beck, tweeted at 4:29 p.m. New Zealand time Thursday. It is the first test of the company's Electron Rocket from New Zealand, a country of just 4.7 million people deep in the South Pacific.
Rocket Lab aims to build a New Zealand base from which to launch small satellites into low orbit. The country is considered a prime location because rockets originating deep in the Southern Hemisphere can reach a wide range of Earth orbits.
[...] With a height of 17 meters and a diameter of 1.2 meters, and 3D-printed engines, the Electron Rocket is capable of carrying a maximum payload of 225 kilograms, according to Rocket Lab, whose investors include Lockheed Martin Corp.
Related stories:
Vector Space Completes First Test Flight, Hoping to Expand the Small Satellite Launch Market
"Planet" Purchases 3 Launches from "Rocket Lab"
New Companies Begin to Target the Micro-Satellite Market
Moon Express and Rocket Lab Team Up for 2017 Lunar Mission
Rocket Lab Unveils "Electric" Rocket Engine
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @02:27AM (8 children)
Rocket Lab aims to build a New Zealand base from which to launch small satellites into low orbit. The country is considered a prime location because rockets originating deep in the Southern Hemisphere can reach a wide range of Earth orbits.
The Earth is a ball and orbits go all the way around so there's no difference between launching a rocket from deep in the Southern Hemisphere and launching one from deep in the Northern Hemisphere. Canada or Russia would be just as good.
In fact, it's expensive to launch rockets into orbits whose inclination is less than the latitude of the launch site, which is one reason why commercial satellites tend to get launched near the equator. So there are a lot of orbits for which New Zealand is a *lousy* launch site. It might be OK for certain kinds of polar orbits, but no better than any other site far from the equator.
But marketers have to spin!
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday May 26 2017, @04:17AM (5 children)
> Canada or Russia would be just as good.
Perhaps the advantage is that New Zealand is surrounded by ocean. At Baikonur,
-- http://www.russianspaceweb.com/baikonur_downrange.html [russianspaceweb.com]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday May 26 2017, @08:24AM (4 children)
There is the added advantage of not having to construct, or ship, your payload in, or to, the northern hemisphere. Great, if you're thinking of putting stuff into space and you're already based somewhere south of the equator.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday May 26 2017, @09:27AM (2 children)
According to someone's Web site, 88% of the Earth's people live in the Northern Hemisphere, and a hemisphere centred on New Zealand is less populated than one centred on the South Pole:
-- http://brilliantmaps.com/human-hemisphere/ [brilliantmaps.com]
I would guess that being distant from people, the site may be distant from manufacturing as well. Perhaps you were making that point facetiously? However I'd also guess than transporting rockets, satellites, fuel and such around the world by ship is not much of an impediment.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday May 26 2017, @11:08AM (1 child)
not facetious at all:
http://www.australianmanufacturing.com.au/tag/space-manufacturing [australianmanufacturing.com.au]
http://www.spaceindustry.com.au/ [spaceindustry.com.au]
http://www.acser.unsw.edu.au/ [unsw.edu.au]
https://northamerica.uq.edu.au/news_posts/uqs-scramjet-will-soon-be-launched-in-space/ [uq.edu.au]
there was also discussion about putting a launch location in North Queensland
http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol/2013/10/21/whatever-happened-to-the-cape-york-spaceport/ [qld.gov.au]
I suspect not having to risk your expensive satellite on a ship for a trip of thousands of miles may be attractive for potential space companies and researchers.
not to mention the cheaper flights, getting your staff to the launch pad.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday May 26 2017, @01:37PM
Thanks for explaining. I should have remembered Australia; there was a story about it not long ago.
/article.pl?sid=17/02/14/1845243 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @01:06PM
This is counter-balanced by the fact that you'd have to construct or ship your payload to New Zealand. Not a trivial undertaking for most of the world.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Friday May 26 2017, @05:24AM
> Canada or Russia would be just as good.
I'll have to agree with Ars: They have the most beautiful launch site in the world...
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/05/a-new-zealand-rocket-company-has-successfully-taken-flight/ [arstechnica.com]
(Score: 2) by novak on Friday May 26 2017, @06:23PM
Some satellites are launched from near the equator, but many are not. Many of those benefiting from a equatorial launch are large comsats and the like headed out to geostationary orbits. Many of the small satellites which fit in a 225kg to LEO orbit are going into polar orbits.
novak
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @02:32AM (1 child)
Rocky took one quick step back, then sprung up onto her
back. His woolen legs enveloped her waist. His weight
forced her head further into the grass, as her nipples
dragged across the ground. Startled, her eyes bugged out
of her head as she felt something else long and wet replace
his tongue. His long penis wildly poked at her cunt,
trying to find its entrance. Well, that answered Mary's
question as to whether he could get it up again.
Immediately, Mary clamped her legs closed, trapping his
long dick between her thighs. She was losing control of
the situation as the ram's penis frantically rubbed first
up and down her slit and then banged into her swollen clit.
Hoping to regain her composure, she decided she would just
grab hold of it with her hand. Perhaps then she could just
rub the head of it up and down her pussy lips without
putting it in. She reached between her legs and grabbed
his throbbing hunk of meat, once again confident that she
had control of the situation. In this position, his cock
would be no more than a dildo for her amusement. She held
the powerful stalk of her new toy in her hands and began to
rub it up and down her slit. As his pre-cum began to leak
out copiously, she once again began to cream. In less than
a minute she was building back up towards orgasm.
That's when her own body began to betray her. The ram
continually hunched forward, and as he did, Mary found
herself hunching back, pressing his glans harder and harder
against her clit and deeper and deeper between her outer
lips. His pre-cum literally poured into her hole, making
it so slippery that it easily stretched her opening wider
and wider. Her pussy lips kissed the end of his cock,
trying to suck it inside. Then in one swift motion, and
most likely with the aid of Mary's own hand, the head of
his cock slipped past the ring of her cunt opening.
Mary gasped with surprise as she felt the sudden invader.
For a brief moment she reached back and tried to pull it
back out with her thumb and forefinger. "No, no! Take it
out!" she grunted but Rocky would not be denied. He
pressed forward and Mary lost all resolve, feeling herself
squirming back onto his shaft another couple of inches.
Knowing that he had won, Rocky withdrew slightly without
removing the head of his dick. With a loud Baa, befitting
a roar of a lion, he thrust his cock forward, splitting her
open and tearing her hymen to shreds. Tears welleed up in
Mary's eyes from the sudden sharp and searing pain of
losing her virginity.
The ram stopped thrusting for the moment, taking the time
to cry out again in his conquest. The pain began to
subside and her pussy began to relax and stretch out as the
ram continually pressed forward. The ram pulled back and
slammed into her even further. This time her pussy was
even more accomodating, allowing him to reach the furthest
depths of her pussy. As he withdrew again, her cunt
muscles began to stroke his member, pulling on it as if
they did not want to let it go. Her inner lips were drawn
out of her pussy as he withdrew a few more inches. Christ,
he thought, nothing he had known had ever felt so tight.
No sheep pussy ever milked him like this before. The bands
of muscles in her young pussy involutarily began to snap at
the head of his dick. Finally, he thrust forward, sinking
his cock to the hilt. As he bottomed out, Mary sighed in
contentment feeling herself completely filled. Stuffed to
the limit, the walls of her pussy began to juice like
crazy, warming and lubricating his passage.
With the increased lubrication, Rocky began to slowly
thrust in and out of Mary's cunt. Delirious with lust now,
Mary began to rut her hips back towards his impaling shaft.
This was the greatest experience she had ever felt in her
life!
He soon began hunching his back faster, picking up speed.
Her insides began to quake, building up to orgasm.
Suddenly, BLAMMMM!!! - one quick one rocked through her
body!
The ram kept up his animalistic pace. "Oh, my God!!!", she
squealed, "Here comes another one!" Over and over, the ram
continued to pour it to her, and Mary continued to cum,
each one larger than the last. His penis nudged right up
against her womb. Her insides were snapping at his
dickhead and squeezing along its length, hungry for more
and more dick. The ram felt his balls swelling one more
time.
Rocky didn't know he couldn't make baby sheep with this
female. He only knew he had a job to do and that this
female was hotter and wilder and more in heat than any he
had ever been on before. He had to try to impregnate her
with as much of his sperm as he could possibly make. His
humping sped up to a frantic pace, and Mary's eyes began to
water. Her tongue hung out of her mouth, as she was turned
into a quivering mass of lust. Her pussy was the center of
her universe. Crying out one last time the ram thrust in
as hard as he could and unleashed a torrent of cum into her
gripping pussy.
"A-a-a-y-eee-eee-iii!!!!", she cried out. She convulsed
with a mind numbing orgasm, this time squirting back at
him. His balls continued to pump another quart of ram
sperm into her pussy, pushing up against the back of her
cunt, trying to plant his seed into her womb. He hosed
every inch of her insides, til Mary thought she might soon
see his sperm shoot out of her mouth. Rocky kept pumping
until he could give no more, eventually groaning and
collapsing on her back.
For a few brief moments they laid there, incapable of
moving. Mary couldn't believe how intense it felt to be so
filled with dick, and to be pumped so full of cum, even if
it was just a ram. Now she knew what it felt like to be
fucked. Not just fucked, but royally fucked. Nothing her
friend Lulu May had done could possibly top this. The ram
struggled to his feet pulling his long phallus out of her
strangling cunt. As the head finally popped out, Mary felt
the combined fluids of their mating pour out of her now
gaping hole.
The once aggressive ram staggered away, all of his energy
sapped from every sinew in his body. Mary moaned in
contented bliss, "Umm-m- m-m-m, I'm never going to want to
do anything else. We're gonna fuck a lot!"
One day, maybe she might invite Lulu May over to show her a
thing or two. Meanwhile, she wondered if she could still
technically call herself a virgin after this. Perhaps one
of the local farm boys could help lay that problem to rest.
Of course, he'd have to be a really BIG farm boy to measure
up to Rocky. Besides, farm boys could talk and mess things
up a lot for her.
No, for now, animals would have to do. Delirious with
lust, Mary wondered if one ram would be enough to satisfy
her now insatiable hunger for sex. Maybe Rocky had a
friend who could help out. This way she could drink the
sperm out of one ram cock while being fucked by another.
She struggled to her feet, picking up her dress and
slinging it over her arm. She began to walk down to the
local creek to rinse off. As she strolled along she
fantasized about dicks. Now that she had fucked the ram,
nothing would stop her. A dick was a dick. Maybe she
could interest her neighbor's hound dogs to help her out,
or perhaps her father's new pony could be trained to
cooperate with her. My God, wouldn't that be something,
she thought.
A whole new world of erotic bestial possibilities lay
before her and it made her smile deep down inside.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @02:03PM
What a fascinating retelling of the classic nursery rhyme. But I have a rocket fetish, you insensitive clod!
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 27 2017, @03:25AM
225 kg and 4.9 million US$. Almost like one could take a quick tour around the planet on the cheap using only a space suit ;)
Though re-entry would require some compact heat shield.