This is annually a Really Big Deal in our house, with many hours (and more than a few dollars) spent on costumes.
This year, we're getting off easy.
A week or so ago, I was cleaning out an upstairs closet and we re-discovered a costume we've had for a couple of years but have never used - Gumby!
We bought it at "Binwill" - the Goodwill clearance outlet where clothing is so cheap, it's sold by a per pound price. As lightweight as the Gumby costume is, I think it set us back $2 max, and it's great! I didn't like how droopy/not clearly shaped the head was, though, so today we constructed a form to fit on top of CJ's head and keep Gumby's head nice and angular.
Annabelle has decided to be an "OC" or 'original character' as the kids these days say. She is going to be a My Little Pony character she's designed called Midnight Magic. So, it's a pony that's a witch. Easy! We just needed to round up a hat and boots, make a tail, ears, and horn (it's a unicorn pony). Here's Annabelle fashioning a tail out of a skein of yarn.
NEW DETAILS: More information about the Orbital Sciences Corp.'s rocket 'mishap' from Tuesday continue to filter in. Today, we learned the powers that be actually purposely blew the rocket up shortly after takeoff because they knew it was headed off course. (All launches in the U.S. are equipped with a kill switch to prevent loss of human life and property in the event of an anomaly. Unfortunately, this is not the case everywhere, for instance, in China, in 1996, their Intelsat 708 mission killed hundreds of civilians). For details on that decision and how it played out, check out National Geographic's "Why NASA Blew Up a Rocket Just After Launch" here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141030-first-person-rocket-explosion-antares/
It's a fascinating read. The two safety officers with their fingers on the 'kill switch' have lives and millions of dollars to consider, and split seconds to make decisions.
What's super wild is that with all the tech involved in a launch, when it comes down to an emergency abort, it's pretty darn old school. Per Brad Scriber of National Geographic
In the early seconds of a launch, when the rocket is near the ground, there is too much interference from trees and nearby structures for radar and other monitoring systems to be accurate. So spotters watch the launch through wooden viewing frames fitted with guide wires. If the rocket crosses behind a wire, they know it's veering off track and they send up an alarm telling the safety officers to abort. Then they seek shelter.In case you missed it, here's the 'mishap' (the word NASA was using initially, though CATASTROPHIC FAILURE seemed more apt) can be seen here:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xF_YCj99VXk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
One other detail which may or may not have anything to do with what happened yesterday involves the (refurbished to some degree) engines used on the rockets' first stage. They're actually modified (to some degree) 40-year-old Russian engines. To quote from a National Geographic article "40-Year-Old Russian Engine at Heart of Rocket Investigation," "The first-to-fire "first stage" of the rocket used two NK-33 rocket engines originally built more than 40 years ago to power a planned attempt by the Soviet Union to land cosmonauts on the moon. That effort ended with four failures of the Soviets' gigantic N-1 rocket, one of them a colossal blast that ranks among the largest non-nuclear explosions in history."
Oh. Interesting. :/
I remember (Orbital Sciences' rival) Elon Musk of SpaceX pointing to the old engines as potential trouble months ago. Some thought it a rival's sour grapes. Maybe ol' Elon was on to something. ... Time will tell.
No comments:
Post a Comment