Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Blowing shit up


My friend Maury down at the Johnson Space Center sent me these. They're either a very well produced hoax, or the real deal. I'm going with the real deal, otherwise all of these fucking people are in on the next conspiracy.

These are allegedly a full scale test of Orion's LAS abort motor. When I pointed out to Maury that they seem to be pointing in the wrong direction (down), he assured me that when they are installed they will be pointed in the proper direction. Seems it's easier to test these bad boys by pointing them down. Something about heavy duty restraints....








Testing.....testing......





7 comments:

Cindy said...

Our son works for NASA in Cape Canaveral. We often get pictures that would make your hair curl!!!

I'm a big fan of funding the Space programs and anything like this stuff -- I love it. The guys are usually geeks (as is our son) but in a really neat way!!

We have some cool t-shirts and jackets from the various Shuttle missions. It's like when there's a big "project" the whole team becomes a sort of club. They get jerseys, jackets and shirts, they work basically around the clock and they get very close.

It's a great job - and we're super proud of him. I'll go dig up some of the lift-off photos and post them.

When I get home from Disney World! :)

Michael said...

I don't have much hair to curl, but thanks for the memory jog.

Keifus said...

That's a lot of people to keep something under their hat, but hey, they could be actors. I mean, that's basically how "street magic" was produced, right?

Nah, just kidding (about NASA).

I didn't know you were regularly on the outside now. I'll be sure and put you on the hamster wheel.

Michael said...

Thanks buddy. To answer your rhetorical in the hoax thread...Mars mission back burner for quite some time I think....just a hunch.

Catnapping said...

That was perty. I love watching fire and smoke and goes boom.

I used to support the space program without hesitation...with more than what might be considered a normal enthusiasm.

But sometime in the 90s, it started to hit me that maybe we should use our resources to get things right on our own planet before chasing off to space.

I know there are many who believe that our answers lie in über-technology, but I see more harm resulting from R and D than I do benefit.

We're still just hunter-gatherers...and our species would probably be happier if we'd never discovered agriculture...(I say discover, even though I've read a few hypotheses that agriculture was actually developed to address a growing addiction to alcohol....maybe I'll blog on that some time. i'll need an illo: chimps with beer. LOL)

I might be conflating our problems...materialism and high-tech are not necessarily connected.

I'm rambling. I mostly wanted to say hi, and apologize that I haven't been posting. Just really tired.

I have a few things 'scheduled' but I forget what dates they're set to publish.

love,
cat

Bite said...

Sorry,

It didn't look like a link to me the first time.

I did see these before--very cool.

The area looks almost exactly like the area wheter they do the rocket motor test here in utah

Michael said...

Is that fucking great or what?

3-2-1....FIRE!

Whooo-hooo.....boom!

I love the delay.