0787: "Orbiter"

[Jourdy289]

Alt text="Normally, the Shuttle can't quite safely reach the orbital inclination required to pass over both those points from a Canaveral launch, but this is an alternate history in which either it launches from Vandenburg or everyone hates the Outer Banks."

[LucasBrown]

Alt text: "Normally, the Shuttle can't quite safely reach the orbital inclination required to pass over both those points from a Canaveral launch, but this is an alternate history in which either it launches from Vandenburg or everyone hates the Outer Banks."

PC: overused and misapplied to the point of pointlessness.

[LucasBrown]

*AHEM*

You are blatantly cheating and I am reporting your post.

NO PLACEHOLDERS!

[Fat Tony]

I disagree. If you look for the punchline in the first frame, then yeah, you're right, but I think the comic as a whole is hilarious.
Edit: Woops - I thought you meant that AAAHHHH THUMPY WOOBLE HARRRRRPINK!! was overused as a comedy theme. Disregard my initial statement.

[Jourdy289]

*COUGH* Sorry, didn't know that rule

[LucasBrown]

That's what the rules thread is for... it's this forum's only stickied thread.

[Aceilooprrtv]

a) Thanks, Randall, for some good comic.
b) Posting here because it seems strange that this, the correct thread has fewer posts than the illegal one. Just doing my part, folks.

[RogueCynic]

Great comic. I'd say why I liked it but it's late and I'm tired. Randall has posted a few NASA related comics lately. Do you think he misses his old job?

[EdgarJPublius]

We'll free Oklahoma from the oppressors one day.

[1is0]

The middle east conflict is good money: One semi-jewish cat has an interesting relevant buisness venture but not all viewers agree as to it`s legitimacy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIU7BgIINT8

[Almost in register]

I've lived in Texas all my life, and for the record I've never heard of anyone here wanting anything to do with Oklahoma in an it-should-be-ours sense. In fact, I've always heard it asked, why doesn't Texas fall into the Gulf of Mexico? Because Oklahoma sucks.

Comic was funny though.

[The Milkman]

Oh my god...
I've had it...

GOOMHR! I'm in Israel right now and had a chat with a construction worker from here about the conflict.

[eleniy86]

Great comic. I'd say why I liked it but it's late and I'm tired. Randall has posted a few NASA related comics lately. Do you think he misses his old job?

i think he does

[scarecrovv]

Normally, the Shuttle can't quite safely reach the orbital inclination required to pass over both those points from a Canaveral launch, but this is an alternate history in which either it launches from Vandenburg or everyone hates the Outer Banks.

I'm 99% certain that this statement is wrong. As you orbit around the earth, it rotates underneath you, so you wind up flying over (in a low orbit, and for sufficiently loose values of over) every point within a certain distance of the equator that depends on your inclination. As long as you stay up for 24 hours of course. Unless he means passing over both these points in a single orbit period, in which case it's plausible, but I don't have a globe here.

That aside though, I liked the comic. Good one.

[Eternal Density]

I'm mildly amused for a change.

[mrpippy]

Found a typo: it's Vandenberg AFB, not Vandenburg. Do I win anything

Anyway I went to UCSB and regularly watched Vandenberg launches from the cliffs of Isla Vista.
I regularly dream about an alternate future where Challenger never happened, the Shuttle actually became the space delivery truck it was envisioned as...and I could have watched Vandenberg Shuttle launches from 40 miles away in my backyard

[drahcir]

Normally, the Shuttle can't quite safely reach the orbital inclination required to pass over both those points from a Canaveral launch, but this is an alternate history in which either it launches from Vandenburg or everyone hates the Outer Banks.

I'm 99% certain that this statement is wrong. As you orbit around the earth, it rotates underneath you, so you wind up flying over (in a low orbit, and for sufficiently loose values of over) every point within a certain distance of the equator that depends on your inclination. As long as you stay up for 24 hours of course. Unless he means passing over both these points in a single orbit period, in which case it's plausible, but I don't have a globe here.

That aside though, I liked the comic. Good one.

No he is right, launching from cape Canaveral gives you an east west orbit, unless you do an orbit inclination burn, you are stuck at a 28.4 degree orbit, which doesnt pass through both points. If you launch from Vandenburg then you get a North South orbit and in that case yes you can pass through both points at some point in your orbit.

[CorruptUser]

You mean the Levant!

But in all seriousness, an online topic with a mention of Israel and it hasn't decayed into a flamewar in over an hour? I'm impressed.

*cough*Canaan!*cough*

[RamblingPants]

Hey, guys? What happened the last time Randall posted coordinates?

Of course, there's no time or date here. So everyone should show up in Seminole, OK!
Or Palestine.
At some point.
Yeah.

[aleflamedyud]

There's always one of those douchebags willing to insist that anywhere you pick on the bloody globe has some kind of injustice drenching it irrevocably in blood. And now we can call him Frank. lulzy

[TheStormRanger]

I take offense to this comic. Texans aren't good enough to oppress us Oklahomans.

I've lived in Texas all my life, and for the record I've never heard of anyone here wanting anything to do with Oklahoma in an it-should-be-ours sense. In fact, I've always heard it asked, why doesn't Texas fall into the Gulf of Mexico? Because Oklahoma sucks.

Comic was funny though.

Oklahoma's south winds come because Texas blows and Kansas sucks. On the contrary, we get our north winds because Texas sucks and Kansas blows.

[SW15243]

Whenever I hear anything about Oklahoma I'm reminded of a standup routine by a guy named Anthony Clark from awhile back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hODiNmWr5Gw

[r3loaded]

The waters south of Iceland? You mean the occupied British cod-fishing territory?

[Dr Zoidberg]

Orbiter is passing over

Jordan, or don't you mean Israel?
Lebanon, or don't you mean Israel?
Syria, or don't you mean Israel?
Israel, or don't you mean Palestine?

[Raistlen007]

Normally, the Shuttle can't quite safely reach the orbital inclination required to pass over both those points from a Canaveral launch, but this is an alternate history in which either it launches from Vandenburg or everyone hates the Outer Banks.

I'm 99% certain that this statement is wrong. As you orbit around the earth, it rotates underneath you, so you wind up flying over (in a low orbit, and for sufficiently loose values of over) every point within a certain distance of the equator that depends on your inclination. As long as you stay up for 24 hours of course. Unless he means passing over both these points in a single orbit period, in which case it's plausible, but I don't have a globe here.

That aside though, I liked the comic. Good one.

No he is right, launching from cape Canaveral gives you an east west orbit, unless you do an orbit inclination burn, you are stuck at a 28.4 degree orbit, which doesnt pass through both points. If you launch from Vandenburg then you get a North South orbit and in that case yes you can pass through both points at some point in your orbit.

If you want to pass over Israel after launching from cape Canaveral you need to launch to a 65 degree inclination. This orbit takes you over France, and not south of Iceland. the rest of the orbital parameters for this orbit are a longitude of ascending node of 146.2 degrees, longitude of periapsis of 42.2 degrees.

I would post a link to a map of this orbit and the rest of the orbital parameters, but I registered just to say this and I can't post links yet.

[mwibeck]

No he is right, launching from cape Canaveral gives you an east west orbit, unless you do an orbit inclination burn, you are stuck at a 28.4 degree orbit, which doesnt pass through both points. If you launch from Vandenburg then you get a North South orbit and in that case yes you can pass through both points at some point in your orbit.

Ehh.. That depends on which way you launch. Launching anything from a 28.4 latitude only limits you to having a greater inclination than 28.4 from launch (you can change afterwards, but that's expensive). Now, as for the shuttle, I'm pretty sure it has rendezvoused safely with the ISS, which has an inclination of over 51 degrees..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Space_Center_Launch_Complex_39 says 28 - 62 degrees inclination possible from Canaveral.

/Magnus

[Raistlen007]

No he is right, launching from cape Canaveral gives you an east west orbit, unless you do an orbit inclination burn, you are stuck at a 28.4 degree orbit, which doesnt pass through both points. If you launch from Vandenburg then you get a North South orbit and in that case yes you can pass through both points at some point in your orbit.

Ehh.. That depends on which way you launch. Launching anything from a 28.4 latitude only limits you to having a greater inclination than 28.4 from launch (you can change afterwards, but that's expensive). Now, as for the shuttle, I'm pretty sure it has rendezvoused safely with the ISS, which has an inclination of over 51 degrees..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Sp ... Complex_39 says 28 - 62 degrees inclination possible from Canaveral.

/Magnus

This is accurate. Most of the shuttle launches were launched at either 28.5 degrees (which is a rather cheap orbit that gives you good equatorial coverage, and also where the Hubble is.) Or at 51.6 degrees which is where Mir was and the ISS is.

Although the maximum approved shuttle launch inclination is 57 degrees, the highest inclination shuttle launch ever was STS-36 which launched at 62 degrees, but required suspension of flight over land rules. They suspended these flight rules because the payload was deemed important to national security.

[wolf550e]

At coordinates 32.0N 35.5E is the town Rujm ash Shara'irah, a suburb of Amman, and capitol city of the Hashemite Arab Kingdom of Jordan.

Not Israel, or Palestinian Territories/Palestine.

[Plasma Man]

There's always one of those douchebags willing to insist that anywhere you pick on the bloody globe has some kind of injustice drenching it irrevocably in blood. And now we can call him Frank. lulzy

I second this idea. The comic is also a good illustration of why I generally stay out of the Israel / Palestine threads on the fora.

[rdm_box]

Israel and Palestine almost came to an agreement where Palestine would cut and Israel would choose, however, diplomatic proceedings broke down when Palestine revealed it had licked both pieces.

[H.H]

This is the map of Israel as it should be, everything inside the red border lines:

'http://img294.imageshack.us/f/greaterisraelmap.jpg

Anyone who says anything else is either a defeatist, or an enemy. Probably both.

[Alero]

[Steroid]

Couldn't he have just said, "over the West Bank?"

[NotAllThere]

...But in all seriousness, an online topic with a mention of Israel and it hasn't decayed into a flamewar in over an hour? I'm impressed.

*cough*Canaan!*cough*

My thoughts exactly. ( get out of my head! ). I was expecting 5 pages of vitriol by now at least. But give it time...

[H.H]

Couldn't he have just said, "over the West Bank?"

Tell me, how can a river bank be hundreds of meters high?
"The occupied territories", though a wrong mane by international law (the land wasn't claimed by any nation after the british mandate, which was given to it by the League of Nations, was over in 1948, by a recommendation of UNSCOP), at least has some foundation in ideology.
"The West Bank" ends a few dozen meters west of the border with Jordan. This is just geographic common sense.

[Frankie]

FWIW, there is indeed http://occupiedtexas.com

I did not check if they had any Rule 34 stuff though.

[yedidyak]

At coordinates 32.0N 35.5E is the town Rujm ash Shara'irah, a suburb of Amman, and capitol city of the Hashemite Arab Kingdom of Jordan.

Not Israel, or Palestinian Territories/Palestine.

I could find you enough people who would argue for any of those three options...

[mmmcannibalism]

That was pure genius

[SirMustapha]

"Occupied north Texas" is kind of unwieldy for a punchline, but the comic is overall good; and it made a good job of touching the Middle Eastern problem without making an ugly mess out of it.

[Me321]

We'll free Oklahoma from the oppressors one day.

Over my dead body.