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 lowest first stage thrust for a launch reaching orbit?
What is the lowest thrust for a first stage rocket for a rocket that reached Earth orbit?
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Smallest orbital rocket by diameter?
Which orbital rocket has the smallest diameter?
Without fins.
Related question:
Smallest orbital rockets by height?
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1answer
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Smallest sounding rocket to reach space by height?
Which is the smallest sounding rocket to reach space (100 km)?
By height
Similar question:
Smallest orbital rockets by height?
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Smallest orbital rockets by height?
Which orbital rocket is the smallest in height (or length) that ever launched?
Would be nice to know the second and third place too.
Similar questions:
What is/was the smallest orbital launch system, ...
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671 views
What is the closest distance a human being has come to Venus ever since the beginning of the space age?
In line with this question, ever since we started space exploration, what is the closest a living human being has come to Venus?
All I can find on this matter is that the closest distance Venus and ...
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What is the closest distance a human being has come to Mars ever since the beginning of the space age?
Ever since we started space exploration, what is the closest a living human being has come to Mars?
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1answer
265 views
What spacecraft has had the greatest total propulsive delta-v?
How fast is fuel escaping a rocket for it to reach the escape velocity 11 km/s? was an active and well-received discussion! It's always exciting when we first realize that a rocket can go much faster ...
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What are the most-delayed missions that eventually launched successfully?
I author this question off of two failed cross-country trips to see NROL-44 and three lost bets on whether it'll launch. As ULA scrubs this Delta IV Heavy yet once again, I wonder, has there ever been ...
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First use of an incandescent light in an un-crewed spacecraft?
In early, pre-LED spacecraft indicator lights were incandescent I assume. For larger volumes of crewed areas of spacecraft fluorescent lights were often used.
But what is the first use of an ...
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First LED left on another planetāŗ by humans?
Light Emitting Diodes or LEDs are ubiquitous now, but I still remember riding my bike to Radio Shack and buying my first LED, checking the diagram on the back of the package, and getting a battery and ...
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Highest DC voltage ever intentionally produced in space?
Comments on the page Maximum grid voltage of ion thruster got me wondering; what is the highest DC voltage ever intentionally produced by a spacecraft in space?
Photomultiplier tubes and micro-channel ...
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2answers
138 views
How many maritime launch platforms were ever built?
How many maritime launch platforms has ever been built and used for orbital space launches?
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1answer
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Fastest rocket to reach space?
Spaceloft XL can reach space - 100 km - in 60 seconds
So I wonder which rockets can reach that limit fastest
Balloon-launched sounding rockets count but separately (from the moment they launch from ...
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1answer
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What is the largest proper cubesat?
The sizes of Cubesats are measured in "U" units of volume. Each U is nominally a cube of something like 10 to 12 cm on a side, depending on the specific deploying mechanism it's approved for....
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NanoSat/Small Satellite World Record
I have been trying to understand, small sat within 10-30 kg satellite what has been the longest operating satellite? Generally life of such missions is 6 months. Other heavy duty class satellite have, ...
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What's the longest crewed space mission flight ever?
I wonder what the longest single space mission ever was/is. This question doesn't ask for the longest single spaceflight of a human (this are Valery Polyakov's 437 d 18 h on Mir who launched with ...
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When was the first successful photograph of an orbital spacecraft from Earth taken?
Early artificial satellites were tracked by radio and visually by amateurs, scientists and military personnel for various reasons including fun and improving the understanding of orbital dynamics ...
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1answer
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Did Zuma complete at least one orbit? [duplicate]
Question: Did Zuma complete at least one orbit?
CLOSE VOTERS, PLEASE NOTE: answers to What was the outcome of the launch of ZUMA by SpaceX, to the best of the public's knowledge? do not answer my ...
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1answer
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Once in Earth orbit, what is the strongest propulsive acceleration an astronaut has experienced?
Early crewed launches subjected astronauts to large propulsive acceleration, usually right at the end of a stage before shut down and separation when the mass for that stage is minimum. (see ...
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1answer
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How much time did the longest maneuver last?
For this question, "maneuver" will designate any maneuver involving a change in $\Delta V$ (either direction, intensity, or both). The maneuver implying rotation only (such as the one the Hubble space ...
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Has anyone ever flown to space in a vehicle they helped build?
I'm sure people who build airplanes have had a chance to fly in the planes they build, and I'm confident that people who build submarines may get a chance to travel in them too. But I am under the ...
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Why was ISEE-3 “the most cost-effective spacecraft we ever had” in 2014?
NPR's 2014 news article and audio podcast: Space Thief Or Hero? One Man's Quest To Reawaken An Old Friend quotes Robert Farquhar (NASA, Wikipedia) when discussing the ISEE-3 mission before the ISEE-3 ...
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0answers
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What company has the most satellites in orbit?
Ars Technica's SpaceX to offer Starlink public beta in six months, Musk says says
Meanwhile, SpaceX launched another 60 Starlink satellites yesterday. The launch, as Musk noted, gives SpaceX "...
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1answer
556 views
Which kind of launch vehicle has put the most total payload mass in space?
Examples of "kinds of launch vehicles" include Ariane 5, Electron, Pegasus, Falcon 9, Space Shuttle, Saturn V, etc.; small variations shouldn't be counted as separate.
Question: Which kind of launch ...
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Without the accident, would Apollo 13 still have been the farthest crewed mission from the Earth?
This answer notes that the Apollo 13 crew holds the record for the distance that humans have traveled beyond Earth.
Had the mission exactly followed the flight plan, would they still have been the ...
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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 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 astronaut ...
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1answer
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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 34Ā° of inclination.
Question: Currently, what's the highest heliocentric inclination ...
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2answers
186 views
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
211 views
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
124 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
4k views
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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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
480 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
209 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
106 views
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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2answers
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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
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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 stress-based energy storage 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
468 views
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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0answers
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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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1answer
210 views
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
202 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 ...
