Questions tagged [identify-this-object]
Questions which ask for an object in a photograph or other media to be identified and/or have its function described.
3
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1answer
100 views
Why does the Apollo-8 Trans-Lunar Injection burn appear to be pulsing in this photo?
This tweet called my attention to The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum story Photographing Apollo 8's Orbit Toward the Moon. The story is quite an interesting bit of space history and worth a ...
0
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1answer
110 views
What spacecraft components are in the foreground of this image of the Earth and Moon? What is the camera inside of?
This tweet shows the image below, and says:
Finally, some images from Queqiao, the relay satellite for the Chang'e-4 far side mission, showing the Earth and Moon! Queqiao is in a halo orbit at a ...
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1answer
87 views
At what time in the Apollo 14 mission did the maneuver shown in this image happen, and what exactly was happening?
In a search for information for this answer I received this google books link of Comment: The Relevance of Space, by Arthur Kantrowitz, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 197, 4 April 1971, pp 32-33. ...
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1answer
149 views
Was New Horizons launched on a copper rocket?
Screenshots below are from Brian May's new music video Brian May - New Horizons (Ultima Thule Mix) [Official Music Video] The beginning shows the launch of a rocket.
I can't tell for sure if this is ...
-3
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1answer
56 views
Has there ever been musical events or performances associated with deep-space spacecraft or their flyby maneuvers?
We've had several questions related to music being played (live, or recorded) in space:
Music played in space (6 answers)
How did Sergei Krikalev get (or build) the drum he is shown playing here? (no ...
6
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1answer
174 views
Is there really moon rock in this cathedral window? If so, how, and from where on the Moon?
This Tweet by NASA Space Flight Editor Ian Atkinson says:
Some pictures from the Cathedral before the event starts, they have a table set up with artifacts from Apollo 8, including the flown ...
3
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3answers
189 views
What is the largest antenna deployed in space?
@Tristan's answer says:
The satellites are classified, so details are speculative, but it is believed that the Magnum/Orion and Mentor SIGINT satellites have parabolic antennae around 100 m in ...
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2answers
145 views
Where is the “antenna farm” from which this Soyuz launch photo was taken?
The Phys.org article SpaceX Christmas delivery arrives at space station
had a small version of this photo, and I found this large one at wirenews.com's SpaceX Christmas delivery arrives at space ...
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1answer
51 views
Which orbit around Earth has the least perturbation?
Which orbit around Earth would have the least amount of perturbation from the moon, Sun etc.? Does an orbit exist where in either direction of travel that the perturbation would be the same?
The ...
3
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1answer
277 views
What is the meaning of this writing on the InSight lander, and why is some in Braille?
I spotted this image in this answer and a few things caught my eye.
Both images are cropped from the much larger image PIA22540.
First Braille in Space?
On the left and right sides there is what ...
0
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0answers
92 views
What is an “M motor” used in a full-scale model of a Corporal missile?
The NASA JPL video Corporal: America’s First Guided Ballistic Missile shows that it used an Acid/Analine engine.
That would have been both challenging and unpleasant to reproduce. So instead, the ...
7
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2answers
353 views
What is this huge, red, blinking light structure on Earth seen from the ISS in this video?
The video ESA video Progress launch timelapse seen from space is of course striking for many reasons.
However there is a strange, blinking light structure on Earth that's quite puzzling! I've added ...
8
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1answer
183 views
What are the small red cylinders used for on the bottom of the Soyuz Launch vehicle?
They are fitted on each of the first stage strap on boosters and on the second stage core and are all orientated the same way. Pipes and cables connect to the stages from the cylinders. I believe they ...
9
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1answer
2k views
What are the two orange tabs stuck on opposite edges of each window of the ISS cupola?
The YouTube video ONE OF THE MOST DETAILED ISS TOUR!!! is cited in several Q&A here, and shows a tour and explanation of the ISS by astronaut Steven Swanson.
Today I noticed between ...
2
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2answers
74 views
How many CICERO cubesats are in space now? What are their IDs?
Trying to better understand the situation discussed in CICERO orbit design and optimization for GPS occultations? I decided to look these satellites up, but got stuck right away.
Gunter's space page ...
5
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2answers
549 views
Why is there such a large range of stage numbers, including fractional stages?
Falcon 9 clearly has two stages, but the smaller two-stage Electron has a "kick-stage" so some might call that 2.5. The question Quantitative benefits of Atlas II's engine-dropping or 1.5 staging? and ...
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1answer
126 views
Help reading this Mercury era NASA “ancient” iconography
In a collectspace.com forum, I found the following (merged) thread containing images, questions and answers: http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum29/HTML/000962.html The two images below are ...
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0answers
65 views
CAPCOM Console at Mercury Control Center; what does Desired Retrofire Setting time display mean?
Wikipedia's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station page links to the image Alan Shepard in Mercury Control Center (shown below).
The console has two large digital time displays. One is dedicated GMT but ...
25
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2answers
6k views
What spacecraft control is Margaret Hamilton pressing in this picture?
Margaret Hamilton was the Apollo Director of Software Engineering. In this picture, she is shown inside a mock-up of the Apollo command module.
Hamilton is noted for many accomplishments during the ...
5
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2answers
234 views
RIP Kepler, how shall we call your orbit? Does this cyclic flip-flop process have a name?
So long, and thanks for all the Fish Planets
The captions in the NASA Ames Research Center video What Will Happen to NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft? read as follows:
NASA’s Kepler space telescope found ...
22
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1answer
5k views
What celestial body did NASA carve and why is it eating a spacecraft?
The Mashable.com article No one carves a Halloween pumpkin like NASA engineers shows several interesting examples.
But this one I can't figure out. The caption reads only.
Om nom nom.
Question: ...
5
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2answers
78 views
what's this fluffy object on the SAOCOM 1A mission's upper stage? [duplicate]
When watching the upper stage of the Falcon 9, I noticed this white or blue tuft:
It changes shape a bit as time goes on. That makes me think it is something very light (cotton candy, fiberglass ...
50
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1answer
6k views
Did a Soyuz fly with a Union Jack?
In this schematic of a Soyuz rocket, the payload fairing is depicted with the flag of the USSR on one side, and what appears to be the flag of the United Kingdom on the other.
Did the Soyuz ever fly ...
4
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1answer
442 views
Is this rocket design from 'The Americans' credit sequence real?
In the opening credit sequence of the TV show 'The Americans', a schematic of a rocket with 5 strap-on boosters is briefly shown:
The diagram appears immediately after an elevation view of a Soyuz ...
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1answer
145 views
Which one of these (if any) is the Moon? What are the rest?
I frequently see the Moon in SpaceX videos, "I suspect" the frequency is higher than random, but can't prove it (yet!)
I found the SpaceX video Falling Back to Earth | HD Footage From Space (also ...
2
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1answer
68 views
Need help identifying this (likely to be) phased array antenna used to track launches
I need help identifying the (what I believe to be) flat (and possibly phased) array antenna shown next to the tracking telescope in this photo, which can be found both here and here where the ...
0
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1answer
98 views
What is this combination tracking telescope and helical antenna pair? was it really used, and who is/was FlightLine?
I spotted the image below here which I found here (also seen here).
Zooming in on this combination pair of telescope trackers and pair of RHCP and LHCP (right- and left-handed circular polarization) ...
7
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2answers
491 views
What are these antenna-like structures seen in Oleg Artemyev twitter video?
Russian Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev's Sept 3, 2018 tweet has a narrated video of Earth from the ISS, at the time over the Nile river.
The video is also in YouTube (below).
At the bottom of the screen, ...
4
votes
1answer
205 views
What are these discs on the Crawler-Transporter?
I've just watched this footage of SLS's Mobile Launcher Platform being rolled out to LC-39B for fitting tests.
On the front of the drive trucks are two rotating discs with red markings which are ...
3
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0answers
85 views
How did Sergei Krikalev get (or build) the drum he is shown playing here?
In this answer @horsh shows an image of Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev playing what might be an improvised drum, together with cosmonaut Sergey Volkov on guitar, aboard Mir in 1989.
Is it possible ...
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2answers
2k views
What kind of antimatter engine is this?
I found this diagram while looking up diamagnetic machines. Could anyone explain what engine this is?
11
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1answer
511 views
Design of 1970s era orbital fuel depot
Multiple concept art examples for a 1970s orbital fuel depot from Marshall Space Flight Center show cylindrical tanks perpendicular to a central core. But then at one end of the central core are ...
4
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1answer
134 views
What is the “baby rocket” attached to the booster on this rocket? [duplicate]
@OrganicMarble's answer shows some very cool looking historical rocket launches.
What is the smaller structure attached to the booster on the right side, that looks like a "baby rocket"?
5
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1answer
271 views
Why is this rocket transparent, and why is there a nozzle in the nose, pointing up?
This tough question links to the NASA YouTube video NASA 60th: How It All Began which shows a lot of really nice, historical file footage and stills.
At about 01:56...
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1answer
223 views
What do these GPS-related emblems represent? Does one of them show “Marvin the Martian”?
The Wikipedia page linked in @OrganicMarble's answer about the Air Force Space and Missile Museum contains the image below, of a (now retired) GPS monitoring station. To the right of the station ...
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2answers
130 views
Puzzler; “who” are the members of this family of comet-visiting spacecraft?
In the video Once upon a time... Rosetta's grand finale (also in ESA Space Videos) mentioned in this answer there is a "family portrait" showing Rosetta along with previous comet-visiting spacecraft.
...
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2answers
115 views
What ESA video contains this “family portrait” of comet-visiting spacecraft?
I don't use (or condone) FaceBook, but nonetheless I stumbled upon this page from a search: https://www.facebook.com/ISEE3Reboot/photos/a.801544933207256.1073741827.800538433307906/1384594101569000/?...
2
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1answer
170 views
What is the ESA Grip experiment, and why does it require Alexander Gerst to be strapped into it?
The text of this 14-June-2018 astronews.com tweet translated into English via google says:
IMAGE OF THE DAY: Today's picture of the day shows the German ESA ...
2
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2answers
534 views
Is the Hollywood “Enemy of the State” satellite at all based on a real satellite?
The page on the model maker Asylum FX's website shows some stills of a model used in the production of the movie Enemy of the State.
We fabricated a 15ft long satellite model for motion control ...
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1answer
164 views
What is Kennedy's USB?
In this answer, the following picture appeared (emphasis in red mine):
The VIC is the visitor centre (nowadays KSVC). But what is the USB facility? Is this by chance related to the Unified S-band ...
7
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1answer
177 views
Function of this big pointy thing on the Titan Transtage? Do other upper stages have something similar?
Jonathan McDowell's tweet
Six more debris objects from Transtage 17 cataloged. Here is the Gabbard diagram showing apogee and perigee for each piece - green line is the GEO altitude
led me to ...
3
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1answer
123 views
Rocket name request: rocket company launching a rocket with a “punny” name
I'm trying to recall the name of a rocket. I read / watched about it this year, or late last year; unfortunately I cannot find it in my history.
The name of this rocket, created by a company whose ...
5
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2answers
255 views
What is the purpose of the “shaft” and “block” in these two different engine gimbal joints?
This question refers to the device which transfers the thrust force from the engine to the vehicle while allowing the engine to swivel - the "gimbal joint".
Both the F-1 and SSME have a bolt- or ...
53
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4answers
10k views
“Pillars of Baikonur” What is the purpose of the hundreds of short, white posts near the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad?
The caption given in the third image included in the Space.com page Expedition 56: The Space Station Mission in Photos reads as follows:
At the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad, remote-controlled ...
3
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0answers
74 views
What could be used to associate these fairing halves with their launches?
Eric Ralph's Teslarati article SpaceX’s BFR factory in LA spied with four Falcon 9 fairing halves shows several panoramic photos of the site for the future rocket factory. In it, the author says:
...
5
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0answers
114 views
What was the design failure that Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is alluding to?
I was looking through old saved urls and when an old Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory press release link didn't work, it sent me to the PageNotFound page, where I saw the image below.
It ...
5
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1answer
280 views
What's the spiral pattern on this satellite?
I was looking through old saved urls and when an old Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory press release link didn't work, it sent me to the PageNotFound page, where I saw the image below.
It ...
23
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2answers
2k views
What's on the bottom of the Shuttle's external fuel tank?
In the Wikipedia article about Spaceplane there's a (rare and cool) shot of the Space Shuttle from one of the SBRs immediately after it was released. The web page for the image says:
Space Shuttle ...
2
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1answer
89 views
What are these two very large, round panels on opposite sides of AngoSat-1?
The Spaceflight101 article AngoSat-1 Satellite Overview Shows several images of the large communication satellite designed for GEO.
Two color photos show that the spacectraft has two large (roughly ...
2
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1answer
318 views
When was there a dog in ISS's Kibo module?
The interesting question What living organisms adapt to 0 gravity? includes several GIF images. One if them is shown below, that of (apparently) a dog in a NASA suit floating around in the ISS's ...
