[Martinus]

Originally posted by Goober5000
Fancy that!

[color=66ff00]Yeah, they wouldn't be in an orbit unless they were falling due to the effect of gravity.

Methinks that writer needs a few basic physics lessons.
[/color]

[Mefustae]

Originally posted by ShadowWolf_IH
....now maybe america will get back off it's collective ass and start doing something again.

Well, first they'd have to put down their collective Beer Cans, put their collective pants on, and have a collective shave before they can do anything else...

Originally posted by aldo_14
Fanatical French-Canadian aetheist Muslim turbaned pinko fundamentalist Facist liberal Nazi communist aliens who believe in global warming and banning guns!

Y'know, i'm not really sure, but I think I might possibly take a bit of offense to that statement!

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Mefustae
Well, first they'd have to put down their collective Beer Cans, put their collective pants on, and have a collective shave before they can do anything else...

And then they'll weaponize space!

Originally posted by Mefustae

Y'know, i'm not really sure, but I think I might possibly take a bit of offense to that statement!

Might?  Might!?

Clearly I'm not working hard enough, you unemployed fanatical freedom of speech loving anti-Constitutionalist/pro-Constitutionalist French-Canadian Australian turbaned aetheist Muslim benefit-claiming pinko fundamentalist flip-flopping girlymannish UN-supporting Facist liberal Nazi communist single-mother immigrant  anti-american alien who believes in global warming, banning guns, pacifism, an independent judiciary, is against torture, wants to sign the UN convention on the rights of the Child and hates our freedom!

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Maeglamor

[color=66ff00]Yeah, they wouldn't be in an orbit unless they were falling due to the effect of gravity.

Methinks that writer needs a few basic physics lessons.
[/color]

I assume he meant that the astronauts were no longer weightless. But yeah.

[aldo_14]

To be fair, you kind have to take that line in context with the one above.

[Mefustae]

Originally posted by aldo_14
And then they'll weaponize space!

Oh c'mon, how can you be against the US weaponising space? Honestly, there's just something about American Nukes & Railguns in orbit that makes me feel... safe... y'know?

Originally posted by aldo_14
Might? Might!?

Clearly I'm not working hard enough, you unemployed fanatical freedom of speech loving anti-Constitutionalist/pro-Constitutionalist French-Canadian Australian turbaned aetheist Muslim benefit-claiming pinko fundamentalist flip-flopping girlymannish UN-supporting Facist liberal Nazi communist single-mother immigrant anti-american alien who believes in global warming, banning guns, pacifism, an independent judiciary, is against torture, wants to sign the UN convention on the rights of the Child and hates our freedom!

Now wait just one minute! You've really stepped out of line with that one! To set the record straight, once and for all, you are working hard enough, and to think otherwise is just offensive to my unemployed fanatical freedom of speech loving anti-Constitutionalist/pro-Constitutionalist French-Canadian Australian turbaned aetheist Muslim benefit-claiming pinko fundamentalist flip-flopping girlymannish UN-supporting Facist liberal Nazi communist single-mother immigrant anti-american alien...-ish ways!

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Mefustae
Oh c'mon, how can you be against the US weaponising space? Honestly, there's just something about American Nukes & Railguns in orbit that makes me feel... safe... y'know?
 

Well, of course.

I would never, ever feel nervous in even the slightest about a gigantic death ray above my head being under the sole control of a man who believes God is in his head talking to him, was voted in by people eagerly awaiting the rapture, and has the approximate intelligence of a newt.

(nor would I be troubled at the potential profit Halliburton could make in shoddily rebuilding the resulting global apocalypse).

Originally posted by Mefustae
Now wait just one minute! You've really stepped out of line with that one! To set the record straight, once and for all, you are working hard enough, and to think otherwise is just offensive to my unemployed fanatical freedom of speech loving anti-Constitutionalist/pro-Constitutionalist French-Canadian Australian turbaned aetheist Muslim benefit-claiming pinko fundamentalist flip-flopping girlymannish UN-supporting Facist liberal Nazi communist single-mother immigrant anti-american alien...-ish ways!

I'm glad to hear.

But you're still an unemployed fanatical freedom of speech loving anti-Constitutionalist/pro-Constitutionalist French-Canadian Australian turbaned aetheist Muslim benefit-claiming pinko fundamentalist North Korean money forging whacko flip-flopping non-conformist opinoinated principled video-game playing northern hemispheric girlymannish internet-using UN-supporting Facist Ayatollah-loving music-listening liberal Nazi TV-watching communist single-mother evolutionist immigrant intolerant tolerant democratic anti-american alien who believes in global warming, banning guns, pacifism, an independent judiciary, freedom of the press, civil rights, is against torture and detention without charge or trial, wants to sign the UN convention on the rights of the Child, doesn't fall for Fox News "stories", and hates our freedom/their freedom/not having freedom and wants to build a superstate!

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by aldo_14
[B
But you're still an unemployed fanatical freedom of speech loving anti-Constitutionalist/pro-Constitutionalist French-Canadian Australian turbaned aetheist Muslim benefit-claiming pinko fundamentalist North Korean money forging whacko flip-flopping non-conformist opinoinated principled video-game playing northern hemispheric girlymannish internet-using UN-supporting Facist Ayatollah-loving music-listening liberal Nazi TV-watching communist single-mother evolutionist immigrant intolerant tolerant democratic anti-american alien who believes in global warming, banning guns, pacifism, an independent judiciary, freedom of the press, civil rights, is against torture and detention without charge or trial, wants to sign the UN convention on the rights of the Child, doesn't fall for Fox News "stories", and hates our freedom/their freedom/not having freedom and wants to build a superstate! [/B]

You bastard!

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by aldo_14
To be fair, you kind have to take that line in context with the one above.

Which line was that?  They already fixed it.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Goober5000
Which line was that?  They already fixed it.

"The capsule is being pulled back towards earth by gravity"

Or something like that.

[Ace]

Somebody better forget to mention to Charismatic that the US hasn't been recycling the plutonium in the warheads, so in a few more decades without massive overhauls the amount of helium built up in 'em will prevent fission.

Yay for physics! The ultimate nuclear deterrent!

[Osiri]

There are still enough of them that that isn't going to matter all that much.  Yes, many of them might be left unusable but I am sure that Mr. George Bush Jr. will be more than glad to violate another Treaty and proliferate even more nukes at that point.  Of course that is assuming I am correct and he becomes president for life after a major consitutional amendment by all those fundamentalist(and yes I mean Christian ones. God you freaks are as bad as the Jehad freakss you hate) who are interested in kickstarting the apocalypse by having him try to destroy all the other beliefs in our world.  But first, he is going to take away our freedom of privacy so by writing this message the government will start looking at me closer to see what I have done so I can be sent away.  Then he will have a constitutional amendment so he can declare his religion the state religion and the only correct one.  Then at that point viola we are just like China, slaves to our government with no real voice.  Wonderful you fundamentalist nazi.  What else is someone who abhors the beliefs of others and declares his own to be only correct one and oppresses the beliefs of others.  He just isn't killing the oppressed yet.  Gays are his target now who do you think is next.   He is racist too.  

Wow touchy subject huh.

[aldo_14]

Incidentally, the new factory being built in the UK intended to refit Trident warheads is owned by none other than (a subsidiary of) Halliburton.  Not that any of the electorate has been asked or even informed of this vastly expensive refit - upon ICBMs leased from the US, with their entire technology copied from the US, and dependent upon the US manufacturing capacity to actually be fully maintained.

[Osiri]

wait wait wait:jaw:


Leased ICBM's who the BLEEEEAP thought that idea up.

Wonderful how George just helps Haliburton along isn't it.  I say we will have a wonderful dictator errrr I mean president for many many years to come.  


Hey just be happy Bush doesn't die and leave Cheaney in command.  Bush is dumb enough to help end the world.  Cheaney would actually do it.

[aldo_14]

The UK abandoned it's independent rocket making capability with the cancellation of the Blue Streak project in the 60s, opting (after another US system they intended to purchase was also cancelled) to buy US Polaris missiles and manufacture the warheads in the UK instead.

We now have Trident missiles bought under pretty much the same arrangement; because IIRC the UK is pretty much reliant upon US maintenance not just to maintain the missiles, but also the warheads (Uk uses a copy of a US warhead design, I believe), it's basically a system completely reliant upon US co-operation and technology.  If the US decide not to play ball (say they want an early warning radar station for that completely ineffectual 'son of star wars'), they can withdraw support and paralyse British ICBMs.  (I'm not sure on the situation with bombs, etc)

This is a system which costs over £250m per year to maintain, and will cost tens of billions in the alread-approved upgrade (including aforesaid warhead factory), not to mention that it may violate non-profiliferation treaties.

That amount of money, of course, could be used in sooo many more useful ways, even within the military (perhaps actually giving them boots, body armour and proper desert camo for our next desert adventure?).

[pyro-manic]

Channel 4 had a really interesting documentary a little while back called "Britain's Cold War Superweapons", all about that stuff. It covered the V bombers, Blue Streak and the development of a hydrogen bomb (entirely independently, and at a tiny fraction of the money that the Yanks spent on it). It was successfully designed and tested, but then the Americans changed their minds, and decided to "share" nuclear technology with us. But part of the deal was that we had to use their warhead and delivery system designs. They screwed us over nicely on that one...

I actually started a thread a while back about the (then-pending) decision to upgrade, and the ramifications etc.

On a not-entirely-unrelated note, did you know that Britain is the only country in the world to have completely abandoned it's space programme? A variant of the Blue Streak ICBM (which was a brilliant piece of design, and worked flawlessly) called Black Arrow was used to launch a satellite in the late '60s. But then the plug was pulled, and we left it to France to head up the ESA...