Questions tagged [record]
Questions regarding extremes or records, such as the smallest, largest, first, last, heaviest, etc. of a thing or event.
70
questions
6
votes
1answer
324 views
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....
2
votes
0answers
17 views
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, ...
1
vote
0answers
86 views
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 ...
2
votes
0answers
41 views
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
181 views
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
61 views
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 ...
6
votes
3answers
166 views
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 ...
0
votes
0answers
30 views
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 ...
1
vote
0answers
56 views
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 "...
5
votes
1answer
544 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 ...
45
votes
2answers
5k views
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 ...
3
votes
0answers
61 views
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 ...
0
votes
0answers
110 views
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 ...
1
vote
1answer
184 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'...
3
votes
1answer
69 views
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 ...
4
votes
2answers
169 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
183 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
120 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 ...
39
votes
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.
3
votes
4answers
193 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 ...
7
votes
0answers
93 views
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 ...
7
votes
1answer
471 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,...
2
votes
1answer
194 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
232 views
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
112 views
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
97 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 ...
7
votes
2answers
603 views
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 ...
8
votes
1answer
719 views
Astronaut distance from Earth?
After the Apollo Missions, what is the farthest that any country has sent astronauts into space (distance from Earth)?
3
votes
0answers
131 views
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 ...
5
votes
1answer
455 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 ...
1
vote
0answers
54 views
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 ...
4
votes
1answer
184 views
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 ...
3
votes
0answers
29 views
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
205 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 ...
5
votes
1answer
181 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?
11
votes
1answer
656 views
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 ...
20
votes
1answer
3k views
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 ...
16
votes
2answers
1k views
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 ...
7
votes
0answers
451 views
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 ...
10
votes
3answers
1k views
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 ...
5
votes
4answers
2k views
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?
3
votes
3answers
620 views
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 ...
15
votes
4answers
4k views
What artificial satellite has the farthest orbit around the Earth?
What is the furthest Earth orbiting satellite?
What is its speed and purpose?
7
votes
1answer
253 views
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?...
20
votes
2answers
9k views
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."
...
10
votes
1answer
2k views
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 ...
9
votes
1answer
373 views
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 ...
8
votes
2answers
692 views
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).
...
2
votes
2answers
555 views
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 ...
1
vote
1answer
774 views
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 ...
