incidentally, this is still the single most hilarious anecdote re: apollo astronauts i have come across
Apollo 13 was halfway to the moon before Swigert realized he had not flied his income taxes and that he would be quite unable to do so before the April 15 deadline. The subject came up as scientist-astronaut Joe Kerwin was reading the Sunday morning news: “Today’s favorite pastime across the nation—Uh oh, have you guys completed your income tax?”
Swigert radioed, “How do I apply for an extension?” Mission control exploded with laughter. “It ain’t too funny, things happened real fast down there and I do need an extension. I’m really serious…”
“You’re breaking up the room down here,” Kerwin said. A few minutes later he assured Swigert that there wouldn’t be any problem: an automatic extension is granted to anyone who is out of the country at tax time.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
CURRENTLY OUT OF THE COUNTRY GREATEST FUCKING UNDERSTATEMENT EVER
And when she says ‘one of the best […] EVER’ (emphasis mine), lemme tell ya: it’s really, really true.
hey
hey you there
following me
stop
stop what you’re doing
and watch
W A T C H T H E T H I N G
If you haven’t seen this, your life is about to get so much better. If you have, I assume you will watch it again because it is impossible to watch this video too many times. Watch it NOW.
This is, hands down, my favorite fanvid.
I send this thing to people who don’t know fanvids, and they love it.
reblogging myself because every day should be Rewatch Starships Day
This was glorious.
always reblog Starships
^^^^ always reblog Starships
always
I can now sometimes watch this without crying but only sometimes. Also recommended: the black and white remix version with classic golden age SF.
I think I recognize at least two of the images, NGC 602 & 30 Doradus, but I’m going to have to see these in person to be sure, yes, definitely, and probably try them on, too.
NASA scientists have reported that they’ve successfully tested an engine called the electromagnetic propulsion drive, or the EM Drive, in a vacuum that replicates space. The EM Drive experimental system could take humans to Mars in just 70 days without the need for rocket fuel, and it’s no exaggeration to say that this could change everything.
But before we get too excited (who are we kidding, we’re already freaking out), it’s important to note that these results haven’t been replicated or verified by peer review, so there’s a chance there’s been some kind of error. But so far, despite a thorough attempt to poke holes in the results, the engine seems to hold up.
“Be waiting out front of the HAB, Watney, we’re not fucking waiting for you to get dressed. Places to be.”
Guys. Guys. I’ve been following this story for a while now and you don’t get it. Some guy made this and was like “well hi I made a thing and it shouldn’t go but it goes.”
And the science community was like okay that… there’s no way that works.
Then they tested it theoretically and it worked.
Then NASA was like okay but technically this breaks one of Newton’s laws so even if it theoretically goes it won’t like, actually go. So they built it and tested it more and it works.
So what we have now is the scientific community slowly cautiously freaking out because this GODDAMN EM DRIVE breaks the RULES OF PHYSICS but every time we test it, it FUCKING WORKS.
How cool is this????
Every time we’ve found something “broken” that functions, it means something is wrong with our understanding of reality. The next step is to figure out what, figure out what’s true, and open up a plethora of new scientific discoveries.
*high pitched screeching*
I love when we find out that everything we knew is wrong~
and just today, someone proposed a possible answer for why it works:
eirenical17 