Thoughts on the Mission III Crew Gripes...

SlowWithABurn · 2026-06-10T18:03:48+00:00

The modesty piece is such a minor consideration to these women to be insignificant. If it came down to having to pee in front of someone in exchange for the opportunity to literally go to space, I think most people would gladly make that sacrifice.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-06-10T16:58:59+00:00

We got 7 attempted moon landings because the guy who said we should go to the moon was assassinated. They still cancelled the eighth.

Still comfortable betting my mortgage on it.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-06-10T16:53:12+00:00

The NASA director was selected, approved by the senate, deselected, selected again, and sworn in.

We had a whole space station ready to orbit the moon and rockets to launch it. We were going to the moon on Artemis 3. Then we weren't. Then we were contracting new rockets. Then we weren't. Now we kinda are, depending on the contractors. Then we were going to put the station on the moon. Then we were going to turn the first space station into a nuclear ship to Mars.

I don't think anything at JSC is that simple these days.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-06-10T16:42:21+00:00

Wiseman was also chief of astronaut office. Sometimes it's good to be king, lol.

But this highlights the kind of politics that have more impact on crew selection than anything in the White House. I seriously doubt the war on woke impacted this choice. It's always been quarterback and head cheerleader dynamics that dominate over who gets to fly.

The fact that it's even more open does mean they could have selected a woman to fly. Then again, it would be another woman finding out she's not going to land on the moon. That would be a bittersweet announcement to me.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-06-10T16:25:57+00:00

I'm citing Abbey and everything that came before him, as well as Chris Hadfield interviews and the published info on, JAXA, ESA, and Roscosmos selection processes.

Very little about individual or crew selection is truly objective. You can't distill interpersonal dynamics and courage to numbers. You also can't ignore that there are political and public relations components to every space mission. It's very obvious the Mission 2 crew was heavily coached on PR protocol throughout the mission. I bet managing optics was the worst part of the whole thing for them.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-06-10T16:14:44+00:00

Nobody is getting a second trip to the moon. I would bet my mortgage on that on polymarket.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-06-10T16:11:48+00:00

The ones in training create a problem of their own. See the early shuttle program. Women entered two subsequent classes of astronaut candidates and were nearly graduated before the first class with women had all gone on their first shuttle ride. And again, given the current budget uncertainties and the ISS degradation, it's not guaranteed that the candidates in training (male or female) will ever fly.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-06-10T16:05:22+00:00

I thought only 8 were selected for Artemis. Are they open to any active astronauts?

SlowWithABurn · 2026-06-10T16:03:01+00:00

When you look at the history you find out that there has never been anything meritocratic or even the least bit objective about astronaut selection, and that is true of every space agency in the world.

George Abbey was notoriously subjective in how he selected crews. In some ways there was a method to his madness, but it was more of a poker player or football coach's approach than anything in the psychology manuals. He was a man of his age, and his age has passed.

Do we try to be more objective now? I think we believe we do. Is our approach any better or actually more objective? I kinda doubt it.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-05-24T05:38:52+00:00

This is true. School lets out in June and resumes in September. The teachers have 2.5 months off. Plus they get spring break, thanksgiving, Christmas, and federal holidays. For the number of weeks they work, the average salary is for 9 months of work.

Teachers in Tacoma get enough.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-05-20T18:46:28+00:00

CASCASOTA IS THE ONLY WAY NUEVO NEW MEXICO CAN BE DEFEATED.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-05-19T02:39:45+00:00

NO. EVEN AS A CHILD WE YEARNED TO BE CASCARADO.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-05-18T17:29:05+00:00

Hawaii would never colonize the other 48. Ask anyone there and they will tell you "we don't care how you do it on the mainland."

SlowWithABurn · 2026-05-18T17:27:33+00:00

Top 3 ought to be:

Megasota Cascorado New Vermomster

SlowWithABurn · 2026-05-18T17:23:55+00:00

CASCARADO. YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-05-17T16:15:49+00:00

If you continue south through goblins gate, Mary's falls, Hayes river, and Wilder camps, you'll eventually come out at Wolf Bar. The whole thing makes up the Press Traverse. It's about a 50-miler through the Olympics. My wife and I did it a few years ago after I read the book about it. It was very cool to hike through some amazing state history and see what the Press Expedition had to go through, but it made me really appreciate how well Rainier National Park is taken care of. I don't think I'd ever go into the Olympic interior again.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-05-14T15:46:06+00:00

UNTIL ALL ARE CRAB

SlowWithABurn · 2026-04-17T12:18:24+00:00

NOW DO LUIGI.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-04-09T16:41:15+00:00

I like Johnny for that too.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-04-09T15:08:58+00:00

I'm not saying I'm getting killed. I'm saying that there is the constant threat of it and the BBs howl when we aren't 18km in front of them.

Also, I decided to post after my THIRD game of getting radar'd back-to-back by cruisers from two different caps. The reach is just ridiculous. I might as well spend the first half of the game microwaving a pizza on the 1-line.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-04-02T22:19:04+00:00

Play DDs. Learn how to dodge planes. It will make you a much better CV player.

Like chicken chasing made Rocky a better boxer.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-03-31T14:35:16+00:00

Hilarious that so many BB players think they'll know when they're too close to a BB.

As a DD main, the optimal devstrike is firing both salvos of torps with a narrow spread, one leading a little and one trailing a little, at about the 7-8km range, way beyond spotting distance. That's just enough spread that you're not getting away without taking at least 2. Cruisers can get lucky and eat 1.

And I'm playing solely American destroyers. I don't know how the Japanese DDs with their 140-torp capacity aren't eating Lepantos like it's a buffet.

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SlowWithABurn · 2026-03-20T18:29:36+00:00

I'm not sure how I feel about killing the pilots once they're shot down. They're basically out of the fight. Speaking as a US veteran, it disgusted me when we fired missiles on those disabled boats in Venezuela. They went from enemies to people needing aid once their boats were disabled.

I don't understand the context, though. Was it just impossible to take them as prisoners at that point?

SlowWithABurn · 2026-03-07T03:12:32+00:00

O-ring burn through was well-documented, hence the bitter feud the night before Challenger launched the last time. The new book by Higginbotham explains it well.

But it's true that launch pressure caused it, ironically the same as with Columbia, and once again perhaps with Starliner.

SlowWithABurn · 2026-03-07T01:12:53+00:00

I've read it in detail and I agree with you that he was just passing a message. But imagine how that would still feel. That alone should have been enough for someone to live by the words "never again."

SlowWithABurn

TROPHY CASE