Questions tagged [record]
Questions regarding extremes or records, such as the smallest, largest, first, last, heaviest, etc. of a thing or event.
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What is the record for LOX staying liquid in space?
Liquid oxygen can be used for breathing, for fuel cells, and as an oxidizer for propulsion. However, it is cryogenic, and will slowly boil off in storage, even in a spacecraft. What is the longest ...
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What was the record for the highest man-made flight before Gagarin's spaceflight? [migrated]
My recent conversation with uhoh reminded me of something which stays kind of unmentioned in history of air and space flight, namely the altitude record prior to Gagarin's Vostok 1 mission. I wonder ...
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What was the first official oath in Space?
CNN's 1,000 Army recruits made history by taking an oath of enlistment from an astronaut in space says:
In a US Army first, 1,000 recruits took their enlistment oath Wednesday from an Army ...
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1answer
177 views
Fastest time to Sun Earth L2 (or L1)?
Of all the past, present or planned probes to SE-L2 (or L1*) which has or will take the shortest amount of time to arrive from leaving low earth orbit, or from passing that location if the probe doesn'...
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1answer
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What's the highest heliocentric inclination achieved by a deep space probe, without using the outer planets?
Wikipedia and this answer explain that it will take several flyby's of Venus for ESA's Solar Orbiter to reach 34° of inclination.
Question: Currently, what's the highest heliocentric inclination ...
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2answers
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What was the first use of analog to digital conversion in a satellite?
This answer to Do the Voyager probes transmit analogue or digital data? states that the Voyagers sent only digital data. This is no doubt mostly because analog data was digitized and store digitally ...
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1answer
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What's the largest rocket that was carried to space inside a Space Shuttle?
Why did the Ulysses probe reach Jupiter much faster than Galileo? got me wondering about the largest rocket that was carried to space inside a Space Shuttle.
Largest in terms of some performance ...
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1answer
111 views
What Earth satellite remained in orbit the longest before reentering?
@BillGray's excellent answer in September 2018 mentions that the Soviet magnetospheric research satellite 1977-093A (NORAD 10370) was expected to reenter the atmosphere in 2019 due to effects ...
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1answer
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Which object has been to space the most times?
Which particular piece of hardware has crossed the Karman line most often?
By hardware I mean anything other than organisms.
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4answers
185 views
What spacecraft relied on solar electrical power farthest from the Sun?
Question: What spacecraft relied on solar electrical power farthest from the Sun?
If you like you can break it down by use case; spacecraft that used it for solar-electric propulsion (and weren't ...
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When might we get fourteen people in space?
The record for the number of people in space at one time is thirteen, which has been set a few different times (as discussed in this question, this other question, and this article). In order:
March ...
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1answer
462 views
What is the highest velocity a spacecraft has left Earth?
The comment below @TomSpilker's answer
I'd love to see anything in LEO that can impart 20.89km/s of delta V to anything.
got me wondering what the highest velocity a spacecraft has left the Earth,...
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1answer
178 views
Who was the first person to shave in space?
A quick internet search shows that Apollo 11 astronauts shaved, but there were some Apollo missions earlier than that were also of similar week-like duration and the Soviet Union had astronauts in ...
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1answer
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Who was the first person in space to “be on TV”?
The Apollo missions had video cameras and transmitted live images to Earth, but I am not sure if there were any video transmission prior to the Apollo 11.
Question: Who was the first person in space ...
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1answer
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When did an astronaut in space first see someone on a TV screen?
The Apollo missions had video cameras and transmitted live images to Earth. But what about the other direction -- astronauts seeing live images of people on Earth?
Question: When did an astronaut in ...
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1answer
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What probe has the shortest/longest operational surface time (non-Earth)?
I was reading fastest trip to the moon and that question got me in the mood for asking "what's the record for X" style questions. I thought of 5-10 but I'll limit myself to one because they're not ...
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What's the record for the fastest trip to the Moon?
The line
"Therefore the USSR sent detailed instructions to Jodrell Bank how to find their second lunar probe, Luna 2, that was launched on 12 September 1959 and hit the moon the next day."
from ...
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1answer
686 views
Astronaut distance from Earth?
After the Apollo Missions, what is the farthest that any country has sent astronauts into space (distance from Earth)?
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What is the largest energy stored in a spring or other mechanical device ever put in space?
The question What is the largest delta-v ever produced in space from mechanically stored energy? asks of course about the delta-v produced, but here I'm asking about the largest amount of stored ...
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1answer
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What's the largest optical telescope mirror ever put in space?
As a follow-on question to What's the largest optical lens put in space? I'd like to ask about mirrors this time.
Question: What's the largest optical telescope mirror ever put in space?
Optical ...
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What is the longest manned re-entry from Low Earth Orbit ever recorded?
What is the record for the longest amount of time that a manned spacecraft has taken to re-enter from low Earth orbit (LEO)?
I would prefer the duration between the beginning of the re-entry burn ...
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1answer
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What's the largest optical lens put in space?
While star cameras and wide angle cameras in space are built from glass lenses, large aperture optical systems generally use reflective optics. For some large ones see answers to What's the largest ...
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Which two spacecraft have spent the longest times in libration point orbits? (Lagrange points, Halo, Lissajous, etc.)
Libration point orbit is a general term including halos, Lissajous', and a whole zoo of others associated with Lagrange points in three-body systems.
Which two spacecraft has been in such an orbit ...
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What's the longest time that an astronaut remained in free fall?
After watching the video below (found here and here) I am reminded of the series of possibly less than 100% serious questions here about being weightless in the middle of a large volume and ...
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1answer
141 views
What card or board game was first played in space?
Was it chess, blackjack or some other game that was first played in space?
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Puzzler: Precisely what maximum distance from the Earth did the Apollo 13 astronauts achieve?
tl;dr:
Both this answer and this answer quote Wikipedia to state that the Apollo 13 astronauts reached 404,171 km from Earth. I'm not able to reproduce that value.
According to JPL's Horizons the ...
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1answer
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Who were the youngest and oldest persons in space?
In recent years there has been much talk about the possibility of establishing a permanent space colony somewhere in the solar system. If that happens it's plausible that within the next century ...
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Was Alexander Gerst the first man to have bare skin exposed to the vacuum of space and live?
On August 30, 2018, a hole was found in the Soyuz Orbital Module on the ISS. Astronaut Alexander Gerst initially plugged it with his thumb, meaning a part of his bare skin touched space. I can't find ...
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Which astronaut has experienced the largest relativistic shift in time (relative to Earth's surface)?
Following this answer and then this question (where I've linked to Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev; the World's Most Prolific Time Traveller) I've noticed that currently Krikalev does not hold the precisely ...
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What is the fastest rover that has ever traveled on the surface of an extra-terrestrial body?
What is the fastest rover currently moving on the surface of another celestial body? At what speed with our technology currently does physics restrict our speed limits on the surfaces of solar system ...
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4answers
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What is the fastest can we or have ever traveled in space?
What is the fastest vehicle currently in space? At what speed with our technology currently does physics restrict our speed limits in space?
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3answers
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What is the largest delta-v ever produced in space from mechanically stored energy?
The math behind this answer suggests that while the delta-v delivered from hand-throwing an object from the ISS would not produce prompt de-orbit and atmospheric reentry, it would still lower the ...
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What artificial satellite has the farthest orbit around the Earth?
What is the furthest Earth orbiting satellite?
What is its speed and purpose?
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Most orbital launches in one day
There were 3 orbital launches on March 29 2018:
Soyuz 2-1v
GSLV Mk.2
Long March 3B
Is it a record tie for most orbital launches on the same day (as expressed in local time)?
If so, when it was set?...
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How long will it take Elon Musk's roadster to become the fastest ever car?
In chat, site moderator PearsonArtPhoto raised an interesting question after I'd pointed out that watching this launch could be disguised as watching "A car go faster than any car has gone before."
...
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What is the farthest that a “human satellite” has been from their spacecraft?
There are several news items about the recent passing of astronaut Bruce McCandless II, and they generally refer to his work developing, and then using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
BBC: Bruce ...
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1answer
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What's the record for the longest time a deep space craft has functioned without a reboot?
The question How is Voyager 1 still operating? and the interesting comparison to the record times that Earthbound servers have run without reboot got me thinking about deep space spacecraft.
I'm ...
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What is the highest non-equatorial earth orbit used?
When looking at the operational altitude of satellites, it seems that the highest one is GEO (36000km), which is an equatorial orbit. Non-equatorial orbits are less high (from LEO to 20000km for GPS).
...
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2answers
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When was the last normal electron tube (valve) for electrical circuitry launched into space?
The answer to my question The first transistors in space: Germanium or Silicon? What about LEO? actually addressed both the first Germanium and Silicon transistor.
So now I've gotta ask about ...
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The first transistors in space: Germanium or Silicon? What about in orbit?
Certain people (me) will have hours of fun in the Transistor Museum website. Who can resist stuff like this: Historic Germanium Transistors; General Transistor/General Instrument (5MB pdf)?
I found ...
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What is the current record for the farthest detection of a “dead” spacecraft?
In order to better defend my position that trying to track Juno from Earth once it can no longer transmit would be Quixotic, I'd like to ask what the current record is for the farthest detection from ...
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2answers
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Is this the longest that a spacecraft “went to sleep” and then woke up on schedule?
For various reasons, spacecraft are sometimes "put to sleep" for periods of time on long voyages. Many systems are shut down, and radio communications suspended. Tracking of spacecraft at very large ...
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1answer
321 views
How far from earth have atomic clocks (or ultra-stable oscillators) been placed and monitored?
The various flavors of GPS satellite constellations use atomic clocks on each satellite. As far as I know, all of the constellations are "shells" of circular MEO orbits in 3 to 6 planes, 20,000 to 25,...
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What were the biggest and heaviest spacecrafts to safely return from orbit?
How big a thing was able to land or splash down? Was there ever anything bigger or heavier than the Space Shuttle? If no then whats next on the list? And secondary question: what is the maximal ...
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4answers
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What's the largest single object payload ever lifted into space?
I am aware that the Saturn V is the largest rocket ever built and was capable of lifting more weight into space than anything that exists today. Modern rockets often carry several satellites up at ...
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1answer
504 views
What's the furthest a probe has travelled from Earth before returning?
Inspired by this question, I've been wondering how far a probe has been from Earth, conducted its mission, then subsequently returned to Earth.
I'm aware of the Hayabusa and Stardust missions, but I'...
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Has humanity launched a SSTO … ever?
If you've been reading the news lately, you've probably been reading about Skylon and it being Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO).
I've had a think back and to the best of my knowledge humanity has always ...
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What is the closest flyby to date?
Cassini is to fly within 50 km of Enceladus.
What is the closest flyby a spacecraft has ever made? What object was targeted and when was it? Is 50 km a new record?
(For the purposes of this question,...
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1answer
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How will the Voyager Golden Record last for 1 billion years?
In the Radiolab podcast Space episode (2004) Ann Druyan mentioned that the contents of the Voyager Golden Record will last for 1 billion years before the contents of the Record becomes unreadable. ...
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1answer
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Who has been the closest to/furthest from the Sun?
Google couldn't find the answer for me.
Technically this is two very closely related questions.
Since no person has yet been much further from the Earth than the far side of the Moon I was wondering ...
