OT: We have liftoff

**Old Guy** · June 4th, 2010, 06:40 PM

Probably only of interest to the seriously geeky here but American history was made today.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches - CNN.com

**Cal Weldon** · June 5th, 2010, 12:13 AM

C'mon OG, you don't have to be geeky to think that is cool. We've been hearing about it for years and today it finally came to be. Good on them.

**edharbur** · June 5th, 2010, 06:57 PM

Very cool. Kind of sad, though, to see the NASA, which in it's heyday typified everything that made America great, can't keep up with private industry anymore.

**Audio_by_Goodwill** · June 5th, 2010, 07:41 PM

Originally Posted by edharbur

Very cool. Kind of sad, though, to see the NASA, which in it's heyday typified everything that made America great, can't keep up with private industry anymore.

The article said that they were wanting to hand over that aspect of space flight. Could be just PR for lack of funds, or current policy, Though. What bothered me is the part about renting space on the Russian rockets to get to the space station.

**Altec Best** · June 6th, 2010, 02:00 AM

I like all things that have to do with space exploration.Astronomy magazine,and I've wanted to purchase a nice 11" telescope for a couple years now, one of those goto scopes hooked up to my laptop.Geeky no it is just a question of asking What's out There.:2thumbsup:

**valhallax** · June 6th, 2010, 12:14 PM

i subscribe to astronomy magazine as well..have since i was a kid

**Altec Best** · June 6th, 2010, 01:18 PM

It's an excellent magazine.The latest issue's cover "Is The Sun An Oddball Star"

I've subscribed for about the last 5 years.It will be a sad day when they retire Hubble.

As Hubble has taught us there is a surprise everywhere we turn to look in the universe.One subject I have been studying is "Black holes" they are quite incredible and almost impossible to comprehend.Ex: The black hole in the center of our galaxy(Milky Way) there is a Supermassive Black Hole.It has 4 million times the mass of our Sun and it is compressed down to a size of a spec of dust.Our Sun is around 870,000 miles across so 4 mil. times that to a spec of dust. Very Cool

.There is a new Telescope out in Arizona and it has 2 mirrors like binoculars supposed to have more resolution than the Keck scope in Hawaii and Hubble,can't wait to see some images from that.:2thumbsup: