The Space X/Starship thread

[tc27]

SN8 is fully stacked




Starship is an absolute game changer in space exploration - and its being done in Dan Dare style stainless steel rockers!

[Biffer]

I'd be happier if they weren't cluttering up the sky with tens of thousands of satellites for a business model that doesn't make much sense to me.

[tc27]

I'd be happier if they weren't cluttering up the sky with tens of thousands of satellites for a business model that doesn't make much sense to me.

I think some criticism of the effect of Starlink on astronomy are reasonable the business model makes sense as vast swathes of the US have poor internet coverage

[Biffer]

I'd be happier if they weren't cluttering up the sky with tens of thousands of satellites for a business model that doesn't make much sense to me.

I think some criticism of the effect of Starlink on astronomy are reasonable the business model makes sense as vast swathes of the US have poor internet coverage

I've got two issues with the business plan

1. The network still needs base stations on the ground to work. These are small, but their range is way less than a mobile mast. I haven't seen a cost estimate for this infrastructure to be installed
2. The capital cost of the satellite network is a continuous, ongoing cost at about $8billion per year. I don't think that is sustainable.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

I'd be happier if they weren't cluttering up the sky with tens of thousands of satellites for a business model that doesn't make much sense to me.

I think some criticism of the effect of Starlink on astronomy are reasonable the business model makes sense as vast swathes of the US have poor internet coverage

I've got two issues with the business plan

1. The network still needs base stations on the ground to work. These are small, but their range is way less than a mobile mast. I haven't seen a cost estimate for this infrastructure to be installed
2. The capital cost of the satellite network is a continuous, ongoing cost at about $8billion per year. I don't think that is sustainable.

Think of starlink as wifi, or a sky tv service where you need a satellite dish/router This infrastructure cost will be borne by the end user, one way or another. They aren't trying to make a mobile phone network

[Biffer]

I think some criticism of the effect of Starlink on astronomy are reasonable the business model makes sense as vast swathes of the US have poor internet coverage

I've got two issues with the business plan

1. The network still needs base stations on the ground to work. These are small, but their range is way less than a mobile mast. I haven't seen a cost estimate for this infrastructure to be installed
2. The capital cost of the satellite network is a continuous, ongoing cost at about $8billion per year. I don't think that is sustainable.

Think of starlink as wifi, or a sky tv service where you need a satellite dish/router This infrastructure cost will be borne by the end user, one way or another. They aren't trying to make a mobile phone network

I know those arguments. I've seen plenty of stuff about it through work, but I just don't see that model working. Not when you combine it with the massive capital cost in the background

[PlanetGlyndwr]

Musk is a spineless, gutless, trump supporting degenerate plum.

[tc27]

Musk is a spineless, gutless, trump supporting degenerate plum.

Even if that's all true hes also doing more than any other invidiual alive at the moment to ensure the long term survival of the human race...

[stemoc]

Musk is a spineless, gutless, trump supporting degenerate plum.

and he is also a saffer.

[Biffer]

Musk is a spineless, gutless, trump supporting degenerate plum.

Even if that's all true hes also doing more than any other invidiual alive at the moment to ensure the long term survival of the human race...

Balls

[Glaston]

Musk is a spineless, gutless, trump supporting degenerate plum.

Even if that's all true hes also doing more than any other invidiual alive at the moment to ensure the long term survival of the human race...

No love for Bill Gates?

[tc27]

Musk is a spineless, gutless, trump supporting degenerate plum.

Even if that's all true hes also doing more than any other invidiual alive at the moment to ensure the long term survival of the human race...

No love for Bill Gates?

No I am a huge fan its just more efficient flushing toilets and vaccines aren't as sexy as rockets and space exploration/colonisation.

[Biffer]

Even if that's all true hes also doing more than any other invidiual alive at the moment to ensure the long term survival of the human race...

No love for Bill Gates?

No I am a huge fan its just more efficient flushing toilets and vaccines aren't as sexy as rockets and space exploration/colonisation.

Colonisation of the moon and Mars isn't going to happen. Permanent manned bases probably, on the moon at least, but colonisation? No. There are fundamental problems which I can't forsee a way to overcome, and no one ever talks about them. Primary amongst these is reproduction. Mammalian gestation has evolved to happen in a gravitational environment, that environment being Earth. Gestation in a different gravitational environment will produce nothing but deformed, inviable foetuses.

[Tichtheid]

I may have missed a step, but have we tried stopping fucking up this planet yet?

[Raggs]

I may have missed a step, but have we tried stopping fucking up this planet yet?

Sooner or later a big rock will hit us. Or Yellowstone will erupt. Even if we start behaving well if we want to continue as a species we need to be able to have a viable colony elsewhere.

[Sandstorm]

Mammalian gestation has evolved to happen in a gravitational environment, that environment being Earth. Gestation in a different gravitational environment will produce nothing but deformed, inviable foetuses.

Surely after 5 years on Mars @ 1/3 gravity, a woman's body would change enough to be able to have a healthy baby? Or at least Munster healthy.

[Biffer]

Mammalian gestation has evolved to happen in a gravitational environment, that environment being Earth. Gestation in a different gravitational environment will produce nothing but deformed, inviable foetuses.

Surely after 5 years on Mars @ 1/3 gravity, a woman's body would change enough to be able to have a healthy baby? Or at least Munster healthy.

Oh yeah, evolution works on five year cycles.

No.

[tc27]

Ultimately I think the future in so far as living outside of Earth lies in building space habitats like the O'Neil cyclinder. You can emulate normal gravity and create a closed cycle life support system plus if they are big enough they will provide protection against radiation (smaller ones will need shelters during solar storms).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder

Mars colonization is just a stepping stone to this IMO - Mars has 1/3 the gravity of Earth and is much closer to the asteroid belt (which contains virtually unlimited construction materials).

We get this done and we can keep Earth as a kind of national park preserving its bio diversity and natural beauty shifting most of the industry and population to space. We would also have the ability to do something when the next dinosaur killer shows up.

Biffer is right that trying to keep hairless monkeys alive and healthy outside of the very niche environment we have evolved to live in is going to throw up challenges (mainly low gravity effects on bone structure and radiation outside Earths magnetic field) - I would not give up living on Earth for Mars with todays technology. But then again we are a species that lives in every biome on Earth and crossed oceans in dug out canoes and carracks - I think we can do it.

[Biffer]

[Sandstorm]

[Insane_Homer]

SpaceX Starlink Public Beta Begins: It's $99 a Month Plus $500 Up Front (arstechnica.com)85 Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @03:00AM from the better-than-nothing dept.

Rei writes:
According to an email sent out to the Starlink mailing list, Starlink is now moving from a private, free, invite-only beta to a much larger, subscription-based public beta. Bandwidth estimates have risen to 50-150Mbps, while latency remains similar, at 20-40ms. This is expected to decrease to 16-19ms by summer of 2021. As it is a beta, the email cautions that "There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all" as they enhance the system. Pricing involves an antenna purchase ($500) and a $99/mo subscription rate. There is no data cap. The beta currently only appears to be for the northern U.S. and Canada, but SpaceX expects to quickly move further south; "near global coverage" is targeted at summer of 2021.

https://arstechnica.com/information-tec ... ium=social

[Biffer]

SpaceX Starlink Public Beta Begins: It's $99 a Month Plus $500 Up Front (arstechnica.com)85 Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @03:00AM from the better-than-nothing dept.

Rei writes:
According to an email sent out to the Starlink mailing list, Starlink is now moving from a private, free, invite-only beta to a much larger, subscription-based public beta. Bandwidth estimates have risen to 50-150Mbps, while latency remains similar, at 20-40ms. This is expected to decrease to 16-19ms by summer of 2021. As it is a beta, the email cautions that "There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all" as they enhance the system. Pricing involves an antenna purchase ($500) and a $99/mo subscription rate. There is no data cap. The beta currently only appears to be for the northern U.S. and Canada, but SpaceX expects to quickly move further south; "near global coverage" is targeted at summer of 2021.

https://arstechnica.com/information-tec ... ium=social

'Global'. Who in developing countries is paying $600 a pop startup and $100 a month?

And that's not competitive pricing to other options - so I don't see where the $8billion/year capital costs, which are needed in perpetuity on top of the revenue operating costs, are going to come from.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

SpaceX Starlink Public Beta Begins: It's $99 a Month Plus $500 Up Front (arstechnica.com)85 Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @03:00AM from the better-than-nothing dept.

Rei writes:
According to an email sent out to the Starlink mailing list, Starlink is now moving from a private, free, invite-only beta to a much larger, subscription-based public beta. Bandwidth estimates have risen to 50-150Mbps, while latency remains similar, at 20-40ms. This is expected to decrease to 16-19ms by summer of 2021. As it is a beta, the email cautions that "There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all" as they enhance the system. Pricing involves an antenna purchase ($500) and a $99/mo subscription rate. There is no data cap. The beta currently only appears to be for the northern U.S. and Canada, but SpaceX expects to quickly move further south; "near global coverage" is targeted at summer of 2021.

https://arstechnica.com/information-tec ... ium=social

'Global'. Who in developing countries is paying $600 a pop startup and $100 a month?

And that's not competitive pricing to other options - so I don't see where the $8billion/year capital costs, which are needed in perpetuity on top of the revenue operating costs, are going to come from.

I think there's a pretty big market :

All rural areas with shitty internet - This includes large swathes of rich countries as well as developing ones. There's also no reason services can't be shared. Demon Internet's groundbreaking "Tenner a month" service was just to cover the cost of a leased line.
All aircraft & ships
Military

I would expect the cost of satellites and launches to keep dropping. If starlink actually works properly I think they should do fine.

[Enzedder]

Up, up and away again - in 12 minutes

[eldanielfire]

Musk is a spineless, gutless, trump supporting degenerate plum.

I thought he endorsed Andrew Yang.

[mat the expat]

All rural areas with shitty internet - This includes large swathes of rich countries as well as developing ones.

My BiL has built on a property 20km outside of Canberra - he's already setup the link whilst he finishes the build

[bok_viking]

https://arstechnica.com/information-tec ... ium=social

'Global'. Who in developing countries is paying $600 a pop startup and $100 a month?

And that's not competitive pricing to other options - so I don't see where the $8billion/year capital costs, which are needed in perpetuity on top of the revenue operating costs, are going to come from.

I think there's a pretty big market :

All rural areas with shitty internet - This includes large swathes of rich countries as well as developing ones. There's also no reason services can't be shared. Demon Internet's groundbreaking "Tenner a month" service was just to cover the cost of a leased line.
All aircraft & ships
Military

I would expect the cost of satellites and launches to keep dropping. If starlink actually works properly I think they should do fine.

There is a massive market for this kind of service in the developing world and rural areas as was mentioned. People sitting with nice fibre connections and first world problems do not tend to see the benefit of this and what it could mean for rural economies in the developing world. For example in Africa where there is very little internet infrastructure outside of big cities in most countries, people tend to rely on expensive slowish LTE data or in some countries even 3G still. In some countries the only place people can get slightly affordable internet is to go to an internet cafe and some of these internet cafes only have LTE internet to offer. I know that here in SA, (even though SA have a pretty decent internet infrastructure depending where you live, many small towns still have really crap internet offerings), as well in some other African countries when the pre-registration for Starlink came a host of registrations were done, specially by businesses in rural areas. I can imagine in countries like India it could be a big hit as well, or a small town in Alaska.

And to be honest, a $99/month fee for highspeed internet is not a lot different from what I pay now in SA for Fibre. Some of the speeds you can get on Starlink would cost more than $99 in SA if I had to get a similar fibre speed package.

[Biffer]

'Global'. Who in developing countries is paying $600 a pop startup and $100 a month?

And that's not competitive pricing to other options - so I don't see where the $8billion/year capital costs, which are needed in perpetuity on top of the revenue operating costs, are going to come from.

I think there's a pretty big market :

All rural areas with shitty internet - This includes large swathes of rich countries as well as developing ones. There's also no reason services can't be shared. Demon Internet's groundbreaking "Tenner a month" service was just to cover the cost of a leased line.
All aircraft & ships
Military

I would expect the cost of satellites and launches to keep dropping. If starlink actually works properly I think they should do fine.

There is a massive market for this kind of service in the developing world and rural areas as was mentioned. People sitting with nice fibre connections and first world problems do not tend to see the benefit of this and what it could mean for rural economies in the developing world. For example in Africa where there is very little internet infrastructure outside of big cities in most countries, people tend to rely on expensive slowish LTE data or in some countries even 3G still. In some countries the only place people can get slightly affordable internet is to go to an internet cafe and some of these internet cafes only have LTE internet to offer. I know that here in SA, (even though SA have a pretty decent internet infrastructure depending where you live, many small towns still have really crap internet offerings), as well in some other African countries when the pre-registration for Starlink came a host of registrations were done, specially by businesses in rural areas. I can imagine in countries like India it could be a big hit as well, or a small town in Alaska.

And to be honest, a $99/month fee for highspeed internet is not a lot different from what I pay now in SA for Fibre. Some of the speeds you can get on Starlink would cost more than $99 in SA if I had to get a similar fibre speed package.

I understand there's a market for high speed Internet FFS. My point is I don't see the economics of this working. There's no scalability of infrastructure cost in the long term, so that price isn't coming down much. At that level of pricing there is potential for shared access points - but that isn't selling enough to cover the ongoing capital outlay, let alone the revenue. Its a typical silicon Valley bro concept which won't have ongoing profitability at any point. Like Uber.

[JM2K6]

Starlink is an interesting one. I don't like that they've commoditised space even more, but it's undeniable that the product has some benefits that don't currently exist anywhere else.

A few things to bear in mind, though

1) It's still a satellite connection and still suffers from high levels of packet loss, with huge variation in speeds & times when you're online but it's almost unusable
2) It does manage to have much lower latency than some other satellite providers, which is a bonus
3) It's no substitute for proper network infrastructure and peering in (for example) African countries and is not a silver bullet by any means
4) Disconnections are still common and it shouldn't be compared with anything other than other satellite providers, nor is it yet reliable enough to be a genuine alternative to a wired connection

Sources: Dude(s), trust me

(I do this for a living and am probably getting a bit too close to saying stuff I shouldn't)

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Starlink is an interesting one. I don't like that they've commoditised space even more, but it's undeniable that the product has some benefits that don't currently exist anywhere else.

A few things to bear in mind, though

1) It's still a satellite connection and still suffers from high levels of packet loss, with huge variation in speeds & times when you're online but it's almost unusable
2) It does manage to have much lower latency than some other satellite providers, which is a bonus
3) It's no substitute for proper network infrastructure and peering in (for example) African countries and is not a silver bullet by any means
4) Disconnections are still common and it shouldn't be compared with anything other than other satellite providers, nor is it yet reliable enough to be a genuine alternative to a wired connection

Sources: Dude(s), trust me

(I do this for a living and am probably getting a bit too close to saying stuff I shouldn't)

That depends on the wired connection.

At my parents old house in leafy Surrey, the best speed I ever saw was just under 2Mb/s and several day outages were the norm. Openreach showed no interest whatsoever is fixing it. If Starlink had existed it would have been ideal.

Shitty internet is spread all over the world and there's plenty of it in rich countries as well as poor ones.

[Enzedder]

Not SpaceX but thought this was interesting for little old NZ. Also, they don't land the booster like Musk, they parachute it down and snare it with a helicopter and their rocket motors are 3D printed

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/128730 ... HgyaohPI98

Rocket Lab is preparing to venture far further into space than it has been before.

All the 146 communications and imaging satellites Rocket Lab has launched for its clients to date have been into a relatively low Earth orbit.

But in June, in a launch window opening on Monday week, Rocket Lab will attempt to use the Earth’s gravitational field to slingshot a spacecraft around the Earth so it can put a satellite into an orbit around the Moon for Nasa.

It won’t create a record for commercial space flight. In 2015, a spacecraft launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket travelled more than 1.2 million kilometres to deploy the Deep Space Climate Observatory into an orbit between the Earth and the Sun for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But it marks the beginning of business away from Earth for Rocket Lab.

Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck says “launching from Māhia” to the Moon will be a historic moment.

“This is a mission all New Zealanders can and should be proud of. We're going to the Moon and so few countries can say that.”

What is the Nasa satellite?
It’s called Capstone. It weights 25kg and it’s about the size of a microwave oven, ignoring its solar panels.

Capstone has been flown to New Zealand and is now at Rocket Lab’s launchpad on the Māhia Peninsula near Gisborne.

What is the satellite for?
Nasa wants to test whether the orbit that Capstone will be aiming for will be a good one for its planned multibillion-dollar lunar-orbiting space station, Gateway.

Gateway, the first parts of which may be launched in 2024, will be designed to support future Moon missions, including ‘peopled’ missions to the lunar surface, and it may also serve as a staging point for missions to Mars.

Capstone’s main mission is to orbit the Moon for six months while testing its ability to communicate with Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter which is in a different orbit around the Moon.

Between them, the spacecraft will test a navigation system that is designed to let spacecraft calculate their exact position in space and their position relative to other spacecraft without needing a line of sight back to Earth.

“The Moon has remained virtually unexplored for the past 4½ billion years,” Beck says.

“It’s a museum of the history of the solar system. We stand to learn so much about our own planet by enabling further exploration of the Moon.”

Capstone will circle the Moon every seven days in an oval, coming as close as 1600 kilometres to one lunar pole at its nearest approach, but as far away as 70,000km at the furthest point of its orbit.

Nasa says the elliptical orbit will see Capstone maintain a position where the gravities of Earth and the Moon will be balance, meaning it is an orbit that should be very stable and which should also require minimal energy to maintain.

What happens after the six months is up?
Capstone is expected to remain operational for about another year, after its main mission, conducting secondary experiments.

Then it will be disposed of, either by being flown into the Moon or sent into a deep space orbit around the Sun.

Nasa is expecting to spend tens of billions of dollars establishing a regular human presence on and around the moon.
When we will know if the mission is a success?
No earlier than in the spring.

It will take about four months for a Rocket Lab Proton spacecraft that will detach from the Electron rocket to transport Capstone to its lunar orbit.

Is this mission a big deal for Rocket Lab?
Rocket Lab is being paid just under US$10 million (NZ$15.4m) for the Capstone mission, which is small beer when put next to the company’s US$4.7b share market value.

But it is a rare example of Nasa teaming up with a private rocket company for space exploration and will see it play an early part in a mammoth space project.

“When you think of Moon missions you think of the enormous Saturn V rockets of the 1960s and billions of dollars, but we’re going to the same destination with a carbon fibre rocket and our Photon spacecraft the size of a bar fridge, all for just a fraction of that cost,” Beck says.

[Enzedder]

SpaceX launching 21 Starlinks in 10 minutes here

[Hellraiser]

Musk is a spineless, gutless, trump supporting degenerate plum.

Even if that's all true hes also doing more than any other invidiual alive at the moment to ensure the long term survival of the human race...

No he fucking well isn't.

[Mahoney]

Musk is a spineless, gutless, trump supporting degenerate plum.

Even if that's all true hes also doing more than any other invidiual alive at the moment to ensure the long term survival of the human race...

For me Musk's proposition fails on its own terms. Things I think are pretty obvious:

* In the near future (next 50-100 years) an extra-Earth colony will be dependent for its survival on no civilisational collapse on Earth. Civilisational collapse on Earth and the Mars (or whatever) colony will be extinct in short order.
* Beyond the near future, if there is no civilisational collapse on Earth the rapid rate of improvement in technology may change this
* The odds of civilisational collapse in the next 200 years due to extra-terrestrial factors (asteroids etc.) are very low indeed
* The odds of civilisational collapse in the next 200 years due to climate change or nuclear exchanges are significant

Conclusion - the good bet if you want humanity to survive for the long term is to focus resources on maintaining civilisation & associated technological advances over the next 200 years. Do that and space colonisation, if it's ultimately possible, will look after itself.

[Mahoney]

(I seem to be slightly odd in this but personally I don't really give a shit whether humanity / self aware intelligence goes extinct 500 years after I die or 500 billion years after I die. It's going to go extinct with the universe anyway. Quite like to give our great grandchildren's generation as good a chance as we have, but they can look after whatever happens after that.)

[fishfoodie]

Fun fact I hadn't known until I did; anyone who makes the trip down to the permanent South Pole base; before they do so, if they haven't already, has to have their appendix removed, because it's just to fucking risky to send someone down to the end of our own planet, with an unexploded bomb in their abdomen.

It's not that we don't know how to treat someone who has their appendix flare up, it's that with even just regular weather, there's a very good possibility that they'll die before they can be evaced, so we just don't send someone with that ticking time bomb out, ... but what are the other things that can kill you out on Mars .... OH FUCK !!!!

[Guy Smiley]

Fun fact I hadn't known until I did; anyone who makes the trip down to the permanent South Pole base; before they do so, if they haven't already, has to have their appendix removed, because it's just to fucking risky to send someone down to the end of our own planet, with an unexploded bomb in their abdomen.

It's not that we don't know how to treat someone who has their appendix flare up, it's that with even just regular weather, there's a very good possibility that they'll die before they can be evaced, so we just don't send someone with that ticking time bomb out, ... but what are the other things that can kill you out on Mars .... OH FUCK !!!!

There's a story floating around somewhere about a doctor based at the South Pole who had to perform an appendectomy on himself.

Edit... I got off my arse and found it

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32481442

During an expedition to the Antarctic, Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozov became seriously ill. He needed an operation - and as the only doctor on the team, he realised he would have to do it himself.

As the polar winter rolled in, 27-year-old Leonid Rogozov started to feel tired, weak and nauseous. Later, a strong pain developed down the right side of his abdomen.

"Being a surgeon, he had no difficulty in diagnosing acute appendicitis," says his son, Vladislav. "It was a condition he'd operated on many times, and in the civilised world it's a routine operation. But unfortunately he didn't find himself in the civilised world - instead he was in the middle of a polar wasteland."

Rogozov was part of the sixth Soviet Antarctic expedition - a team of 12 had been sent to build a new base at the Schirmacher Oasis.

The Novolazarevskaya Station was up and running by the middle of February 1961, and with their mission complete the group settled down to see out the hostile winter months.

But by the end of April, Rogozov's life was in danger and he had no hope of outside help. The journey from Russia to the Antarctic had taken 36 days by sea, and the ship wouldn't be back for another year. Flying was impossible because of the snow and blizzards.

"He was confronted with a very difficult situation of life and death," says Vladislav. "He could wait for no help, or make an attempt to operate on himself."

It was not an easy choice. Rogozov knew his appendix could burst and if that happened, it would almost certainly kill him - and while he considered his options, his symptoms got worse.

"He had to open his own abdomen to take his intestines out," says Vladislav. "He didn't know if that was humanly possible."

In addition, this was the Cold War, with East and West competing in nuclear, space and polar races - the weight of which rested on both nations and individuals.

The commander in charge of the Novolazarevskaya base had to get Moscow's blessing for the operation to go ahead. "If my father was to fail and die it would definitely put a hard hat of negative publicity on the Soviet Antarctic programme," says Vladislav.

Rogozov made his decision - he would perform an auto-appendectomy rather than die not doing anything.

"I did not sleep at all last night. It hurts like the devil! A snow storm whipping through my soul, wailing like 100 jackals," he wrote in his diary.

"Still no obvious symptoms that perforation is imminent, but an oppressive feeling of foreboding hangs over me… This is it… I have to think through the only possible way out - to operate on myself… It's almost impossible… but I can't just fold my arms and give up."

Rogozov worked out a detailed plan for how the operation would unfold and assigned his colleagues specific roles and tasks.

He nominated two main assistants to hand him instruments, position the lamp, and hold a mirror - he planned to use the reflection to see what he was doing. The station director was also in the room, in case one of the others became faint.

"He was so systematic he even instructed them what to do if he was losing consciousness - how to inject him with adrenalin and perform artificial ventilation," says Vladislav. "I don't think his preparation could have been better."

A general anaesthetic was out of the question. He was able to administer a local anaesthetic to his abdominal wall but once he had cut through, removing the appendix would have to be done without further pain relief, in order to keep his head as clear as possible.

"My poor assistants! At the last minute I looked over at them. They stood there in their surgical whites, whiter than white themselves," Rogozov wrote later. "I was scared too. But when I picked up the needle with the novocaine and gave myself the first injection, somehow I automatically switched into operating mode, and from that point on I didn't notice anything else."

Rogozov had intended to use a mirror to help him operate but he found its inverted view too much of a hindrance so he ended up working by touch, without gloves.

As he reached the final and hardest part of the operation, he almost lost consciousness. He began to fear he would fail at the final hurdle.

"The bleeding is quite heavy, but I take my time... Opening the peritoneum, I injured the blind gut and had to sew it up," Rogozov wrote. "I grow weaker and weaker, my head starts to spin. Every four to five minutes I rest for 20 - 25 seconds.

"Finally here it is, the cursed appendage! With horror I notice the dark stain at its base. That means just a day longer and it would have burst… My heart seized up and noticeably slowed, my hands felt like rubber. Well, I thought, it's going to end badly and all that was left was removing the appendix."

But he didn't fail. After nearly two hours he had completed the operation, down to the final stitch.

Then, before allowing himself to rest, he instructed his assistants how to wash the surgical instruments and only when the room was clean and tidy did Rogozov take some antibiotics and sleeping tablets.

It was a staggering achievement. "Most importantly he was relieved because he had another chance to live," says Vladislav.

Rogozov returned to his normal duties just two weeks later.

[TB63]

Launching in 15mins and going to try to catch it with the chopsticks..

[TB63]

All 33 engines still working!..

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Fuck me, that's impressive.