[Shadowmuse Blown]

SpaceShipTwo fires it’s rocket engine to push it beyond Earth’s atmosphere in Virgin Galactic’s 2nd commercial flight.

[SamV]

SpaceShipTwo fires it’s rocket engine to push it beyond Earth’s atmosphere in Virgin Galactic’s 2nd commercial flight.

Oh to be wealthy enough to afford such a thing, but as for me, I would welcome the money while keeping my feet solidly on the ground.

[Shadowmuse Blown]

SpaceShipTwo fires it’s rocket engine to push it beyond Earth’s atmosphere in Virgin Galactic’s 2nd commercial flight.

Oh to be wealthy enough to afford such a thing, but as for me, I would welcome the money while keeping my feet solidly on the ground.

There was one paying passenger, who, I believe, paid $450,000 for his ticket.  Eventually, the price will come down to $250,000. So affordable!

Two of the passengers paid nothing: the woman had a won a lottery and was allowed to bring someone else, who turned out to be her teenage daughter.

[Shadowmuse Blown]

So, we’ve been having a mini race to the Moon with both Russia and India sending probes to the South Pole.  India’s probe has been traveling around the Earth for about a month gaining enough momentum to where it’s finally enroute to cis-Lunar space and should land soon. 
Russia’s probe—Luna25, their first in over 40 years—was slated to zip to the Moon in just a few days snd beat the ISRO—Indian Space Research Agency—probe by a day or two. 

Word came in that the Luna 25 had moved into an uncharted orbit and crashed into the Moon. Meanwhile, little Chandrayaan-3 is slated to land in two days. 

Classic tortoise and hare scenario.

Luna 25 illustration shown in an uncrashed stance.

[SamV]

Considering all the problems the Russian Federation is having of late with Putin's war in Ukraine, both economically and otherwise, it does not surprise me their attempt at landing a probe on the moon was such an embarrassing failure!

As for India, they recently became the world's most populous country, passing China, and their (GDP) has touched the $3.75 trillion-mark, which is still smaller than China's, but IMO I think India will succeed in their bid to be the fourth nation to join the others.      

[TheZookie007]

So, we’ve been having a mini race to the Moon with both Russia and India sending probes to the South Pole.  India’s probe has been traveling around the Earth for about a month gaining enough momentum to where it’s finally enroute to cis-Lunar space and should land soon. 
Russia’s probe—Luna25, their first in over 40 years—was slated to zip to the Moon in just a few days snd beat the ISRO—Indian Space Research Agency—probe by a day or two. 

Word came in that the Luna 25 had moved into an uncharted orbit and crashed into the Moon. Meanwhile, little Chandrayaan-3 is slated to land in two days. 

Classic tortoise and hare scenario.

Luna 25 illustration shown in an uncrashed stance.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is amazing. They're able to achieve feats on such a (relative-to-other-countries) slim budget, they are super-inspiring.

One of my favorite images from any nation's mission control was when the ISRO put an orbiter into Mars orbit in 2014, and all of the sari-clad scientists were smiling and congratulating each other for the feat.

"Nandini Harinath, 44, a physicist and a mother of two, was the deputy operations director of the Mars mission - in other words, she was the person "operating" the spacecraft between Earth and Mars. "It's easier to bring up chi|dren than to control the Mars orbiter," she told the NDTV news channel. Minal Sampath and her team built three instruments for the spacecraft and she wants to become "the first woman director of a space centre".

A woman leads one of the agency's main strategic programmes. Another female engineer was in charge of wheeling out the 15-storey-high 320,000kg (320 tonne) Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) from the vehicle assembly building to the launch pad. Tessy Thomas, a scientist from India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is thought to be one of the very few women working on strategic nuclear ballistic missiles in the world. Three women led a team which launched a communication satellite three years ago.

What next? Will a woman head India's space agency one day? (All seven chairmen of Isro so far have been men.) And, as Pallava Bagla writes, Isro reckons that the first astronaut from India "could well be a woman". When that happens, Indian women will be over the moon."

[Shadowmuse Blown]

Chandrayaan-3 has successfully landed on the Moon.  Image from ISRO, and, no their prime minister was not on board.  LOL

[Shadowmuse Blown]

Chandrayaan-3 has successfully landed on the Moon.  Image from ISRO, and, no their prime minister was not on board.  LOL

It has a rover? 

[solvegas]

Privacy .... unlikely. 

[TheZookie007]

Chandrayaan-3 has successfully landed on the Moon.  Image from ISRO, and, no their prime minister was not on board.  LOL

We know a few people who wish he was on a one-way trip to the Moon though 

[TheZookie007]

There's going to be a blue supermoon tonight.

[TheZookie007]

ISRO definitely punches way above its weight class.

WatchMojo, 4 September 2023: “Top 10 Facts About ISRO”

[solvegas]

ISRO definitely punches way above its weight class.

WatchMojo, 4 September 2023: “Top 10 Facts About ISRO”

I'm not that impressed. The first man-made probe to land on the Moon was Luna 2 of the Soviet Union on 13 September, 1959, or 64 years ago, and the first crewed mission was Apollo 11, 1969, or 54 years ago, of the United States of America and Neil Armstrong was the first man to step on the Moon.

[solvegas]

 

[Shadowmuse Blown]

At the northern pole of Saturn is an everlasting storm that is oddly hexagonally shaped. Here it is with the outline of the continental United States superimposed for scale.