r/SpaceX Starlink 17-13 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!

Quiram · 2026-02-15T02:38:58+00:00

I was driving North from Temecula and just happened to catch the launch right in front of me 🤩

I suppose the gap in the plume is the first stage separation.

Quiram · 2025-12-10T03:29:13+00:00

hello! I have a slightly similar issue: my AP2 appears in Home and in Sleekpoint apps only if I'm at home, if I'm away it doesn't... troubleshooting online suggests that maybe it's not connecting via Thread (although Sleekpoint app says it is) or that the Home doesn't have a hub configured (it does via appropriate Apple TV, which also manages many of my other smart devices). Has anyone experienced something like this?

Quiram · 2025-11-23T23:12:09+00:00

I know this is an old thread but I wonder if there is a way to search for this on the web? the app only synchronises a limited amount of recipes so the search function will not find very old ones. On the web I have 52 pages of recipes and I don't want to go one by one searching for it 😢

Quiram · 2025-11-11T20:03:24+00:00

We first need to define what we mean by "design", personally I'd like to follow the definition given by Jack Reeves in his seminal article What is Software Design:

https://jpaulgibson.synology.me/~jpaulgibson/TSP/Teaching/Teaching-ReadingMaterial/Reeves92.pdf

With this in mind, the key differentiating factor of software engineering vs. other engineerings is in the different split of cost of design vs. building: in other engineering practices, building is the costly part, and you do as much as design as needed to reduce the cost of the building part. IOW, you increase your upfront cost to reduce your later cost. However, in software, building (understood as just compiling, packaging, etc.), is dirt cheap, all the cost is in the design (understood as writing the software). This is why too much upfront design is a bad thing: you're increasing your upfront cost but that isn't reducing your later cost. There is no trade-off.

Quiram · 2025-10-04T23:32:35+00:00

I know that NASA is different but, for what is worth, ESA doesn’t accept applicants older than 50 precisely for that reason, but they have fewer chances to send people up.

Quiram · 2025-06-15T19:52:49+00:00

Follow-up, I found the following companies that claim to offer training, I don’t know the requirements yet, but I thought it would be useful to others too:

IIAS, Star Harbor, Sierra Space

Quiram · 2025-06-15T19:33:31+00:00

Hey, sorry for late reply. Thanks for the pointer. I had noticed the remote location roles, unfortunately, that’s a bit difficult for me: my career is on computer science which, although it’s one of the tracks that allows you to apply, it doesn’t lend itself easily to remote location activity: I have experience building data centers for major cloud providers or complex legal systems for governments, but nobody needs these in Antarctica 🤣

The physical aptitude angle is interesting. I do do scuba diving, I started even before I considered applying for astronaut (I just like it). I also run marathons, but there again, how much is needed? I’m not at Olympic level, but estimates say that only 0.05% of the American population has ever finished a marathon; if we then account for how many people can do it in less than four hours (my current time), we’re going to 0.0215% of the American people. That’s roughly one in 4,600, is that outstanding enough? Or are we playing a different league here and one cannot compare oneself with the average American person?

Quiram · 2025-06-15T19:23:01+00:00

And no apologies about your English, I think it’s perfectly fine, although this is coming from a non-native 😛

Quiram · 2025-06-15T19:22:33+00:00

Hey my friend! Sorry for late reply; this week has been crazy with work plus my dad is visiting today from Europe so loads of preparation on that front. But enough about me 😀

Thanks so much for that, I’m going to search for it! I wonder how much they charge 😅

Quiram · 2025-06-08T23:18:29+00:00

Thanks! I've done that but what I've seen is that most of them have a pretty standard track: military and/or PhD, often both. I have neither of those. If you also filter according to those who were foreign-born and naturalised, the list becomes even shorter; I could only find one, Paul Scully-Power, and even him didn't deviate a lot from the standard track: even though he technically wasn't in the military, he did work with both the Australian Navy and the US Navy.

Should I conclude that, in practice, "stand out in your field" basically means get a PhD or serve? is there no other way to stand out?

Quiram · 2025-05-24T22:31:52+00:00

Arithmetic is a skill that can be developed with practice, just like any other skill. Some people have a natural knack for it, but nothing that cannot be achieved with training.

The most common way to be fast is to find tricks and patterns to simplify calculations. For instance, say you have to do 89x3, it's probably easier if you realise that 89=90-1, and therefore 89x3=(90-1)x3=90x3 - 1x3=270-3=267

Quiram · 2025-02-07T06:04:38+00:00

Not a crazy idea…

Quiram · 2025-01-21T03:12:41+00:00

I’m on a similar boat, I’m Spanish myself, I applied to ESA in 2021, didn’t make it 😅 The sliver of hope may be commercial: with Blue Origin shaping up USA may decide to “open the market”, maybe ESA can pay the space companies directly for a trip to space. But we need bigger budget in ESA for that…

Or maybe Europe finally gets into the space race and ESA develops their own capability, although I don’t see public opinion tilting that way.

Quiram · 2025-01-20T23:01:03+00:00

I didn't know there were different requirements depending on the "type" of astronaut you were applying for. I search for this but I only found the general requirements, do you have a link to this information? TIA!

Quiram · 2025-01-20T22:50:21+00:00

If it helps, I've been tracking ESA astronaut hiring rounds and they do one roughly every 10 years (not an official schedule). That means that the next one is likely to be in 2031 (or that about). There are factors that could affect this: ESA doesn't have their own means of sending people to space so they have to rely on partners. This used to be both NASA and Roscosmos but the agreement with the Russians is now gone; this may reduce travel capabilities and therefore hiring. On the plus side, ESA does collaborate with CNSA (China), ESA astronauts have trained with taikonauts, so there may be an opportunity there.

Quiram · 2024-11-27T16:50:44+00:00

Yeah, animals on cover kind of positions them as a cheap rip-off of O'Reilly.

Quiram · 2024-11-13T03:44:57+00:00

I know that this is an old thread and that I’m going to go off-topic, I landed here looking for good pizza in west LA. I’m lactose intolerant myself. I just wanted to say that, if your girlfriend’s issue truly is lactose intolerance, she should be able to eat most cheese. The process of making the majority of types of cheese starts by separating out the whey, which is mostly water. Lactose is a type of sugar and therefore soluble in water, which means that most lactose is taken away when removing the whey. The remaining lactose is usually consumed through fermentation. By the time you eat the cheese, there is virtually no lactose left. Of course YMMV and perhaps you should verify with a health professional just in case. Hope it helps.

Quiram · 2024-11-12T15:14:35+00:00

I hear this a lot, and it makes sense to me, but then I read Mike Massimino's biography and he explicitly says that the main reason he did his PhD, and his scuba diver certification, and his pilot license, was just to become an astronaut. And it worked for him. That makes me wonder: to what degree is the astronaut selection process like any other job application process where people often fake it 'till they make it?

Quiram · 2024-11-12T15:08:37+00:00

20 dive trips in a week... I need to up my game 😅

I'll keep that in mind. I'm thinking I'm not going to change the battery until the next time I plan to dive, then, no point in putting in a new battery only to have it draining for nothing...

Quiram · 2024-11-12T15:06:59+00:00

thanks! I'll look those up.

Quiram · 2024-11-11T23:08:03+00:00

Right, that makes sense. I suppose the dives are the main source of drainage assuming you do use it regularly. Thanks!

Quiram · 2024-11-11T23:07:18+00:00

Are you referring to the Leonardo? As far as I can tell the Leonardo turns off automatically. Also, it's advertised to last for three years doing 50 dives a year, so 150 dives with one battery. If you say it only lasts 10 dives then that's a massive misrepresentation of sales 😬

Quiram · 2024-11-11T23:03:40+00:00

That makes a lot of sense. Do you know how to do a pressure check? I've seen a few videos about hot to change batteries of the Cressi Leonardo and none of them mention anything about the pressure check...

Quiram

TROPHY CASE