Author Topic: Again, the media stuffs up space news  (Read 4156 times)

Offline Kiwi

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Again, the media stuffs up space news
« on: April 15, 2015, 09:44:38 AM »
New Zealand company Rocket Lab has unveiled at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs its different method of getting fuel into a small rocket engine, but reporters with the usual lack of understanding say Rocket Lab have unveiled the world's first battery-powered rocket engine.

Yeah, right!  Just load in some AA batteries and you're off into space.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/67717283/rocket-lab-unveils-electric-rocket-engine

It's hardly any different to the report back about 16 July 1969 that said, when describing what would happen during the Apollo 11 mission, "Two of the astronauts — Apollo-XI commander Neil A. Armstrong and lunar module pilot Edwin E. Aldrin — crawl through a tunnel into the lunar module, detach it from the main craft and descend with it to the moon..."

No they wouldn't and didn't.  Some reporter had to dolly-up whatever it was that NASA handed out, and got it wrong. Being in zero G, Armstrong and Aldrin floated through the tunnel. 

::)  ::)  ::)  ::)  ::)   ::)  ::)  ::)  ::) ::)   ::)  ::)  ::)  ::)
« Last Edit: April 15, 2015, 10:15:24 AM by Kiwi »
Don't criticize what you can't understand. — Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are A-Changin'” (1963)
Some people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices and superstitions. — Edward R. Murrow (1908–65)

Offline Count Zero

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Re: Again, the media stuffs up space news
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2015, 05:08:29 AM »
I forget where, but I recall reading about the LM with its "thundering rocket engine descending to the craggy surface in a billowing cloud of dust."   ::)

I also remember a major American newscaster reporting on the Voyager probe's images of "Jupiter's moon 10."

 :o
"What makes one step a giant leap is all the steps before."

Offline Chew

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Re: Again, the media stuffs up space news
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2015, 08:31:58 PM »
I also remember a major American newscaster reporting on the Voyager probe's images of "Jupiter's moon 10."

Yeah, it was Tom Brokaw: http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/news/io_brokaw.html

Lot's more here: http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/news/birdcage.html

Offline BazBear

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Re: Again, the media stuffs up space news
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2015, 08:42:48 PM »
LMAO @ Tom Brokaw  ;D ;D
"It's true you know. In space, no one can hear you scream like a little girl." - Mark Watney, protagonist of The Martian by Andy Weir