Posted on 03/19/2018 6:01:03 PM PDT by Kathy in Alaska
I remember reading his posts over the years. Always very erudite and witty.
I didn’t know that he was ill. He just stopped posting on 3/8.
What an awesome collection of pictures. It was a fantastic place to visit. Hard to describe if you haven’t seen the opulence of . If I got any pictures, they aren’t digital so I haven’t gotten them onto my hard drive...so this will be great to add to my son’s album. ;)
He was a very intellectual and funny guy.
He was overweight but hey.. I’m underweight.
I was not close, but can vouch that he was a good guy.
I just looked up “Hearst mansion images” and there it was.
I’m overweight. It’s not the WORST thing, but it doesn’t help.
Thanks...listening now.
Seriously I think he would like this.
The man had a degree in English Lit.
Howdy, LUV.
Neat that you got a tour of the base. Bet that was fun.
It was fun! I have seen and done some very cool stuff thanks to my son who gets around much more than I ever did. Two places in CA, two places in WY, two places in FL, Virginia, Alabama [OTS], Oklahoma,
Oh...and....WOOOHOOOO!!
Me too! 21 years on the old Titan program. 1984-2005. We lived in Santa Maria.
Vandenberg is the west coast launch platform for missiles and rockets, but did you know why?
The following IS rocket science, but it’s also understandable. I hope.
The earth rotates from west to east - so we see the sun apparently rise in the east and go overhead and set in the west. So, the earth’s surface at the equator is moving about 1000 miles per hour form west to east. The early rockets were terribly underpowered and needed all the help they can get to reach orbital speed.
So, they, like Jules Verne forecast in the 1880’s, launched from as close to the equator as possible, and launched eastward from the Florida coast so the flightpath went over the (unpopulated) Atlantic. Now, once in orbit, you can use rocket fuel to (slightly) change orbital paths, but that takes a LOT of fuel that you have launch into orbit as well. it’s much more profitable to keep the satelliete weight weight as low as possible, not to rely on re-starting rocket engines in space after launch and orbit, and just point the thing in the right direction in the first place.
SO, if you launch due east from Cape Canaveral, your orbit begin at the Cape, then angles “down” south over the equator to an equal distance south of the equator (-26 degreees or so), then curves back up to again be back over the Cape’s latitude. But many miles further back.
that’s why you see the NASA’s curves when they show the orbit: each orbit is a little bit further back than the previous, but each starts at the Cape’s latitude and wiggles back and forth.
Not bad if you want your satellite to go over the equator. To fly over any region from +25 latitude to -25 latitude.
Real bad if you want to photograph Lenningrad, Moscow, Siberia, north China, or North Korea, Germany, or Murmansk.
So, to fly over the north pole, you need to launch due south. Get into orbit, and let the earth rotate underneath your satellite cameras. But the residents of Miami, Bermuda, etc will get irritated when your rocket falls on their head.
Launching east from a spot closer to the equator gives you a little bit more speed = That is why the French launch from Guiana, not Marseilles or Paris or Normandy. That - and not to drop rockets and boosters on Germany, Poland and Russia.
But, the “south coast” of California is actually running nearly west-east. So, if you launch south from the west of California, your satellite camera will eventually fly over each part of the pole and Russia and China. Good for polar research too. You can’t quite get due north over the pole, but you can get close.
The “research launches” for anti-missile testing are aimed out over the Pacific towards the launch sites in Polynesia too.
So that why you launch south from the west coast to spy on Russia to the north coast.
You’ve been lucky enough to see a lot more than a lot of us.
I’ve only seen a bit of Camp Lejeune when I was married to my first husband eons ago (he was stationed there) and was lucky enough to get invited for a tour of Arnold AFB, which is close to us here. It’s primarily a R&D canter and we got to see some of the test facilities. It was cool seeing the huge wind tunnel where Dad worked for many years.
LOL! I fell right into that one and didn’t even realize it. Was a little distracted by a thunderstorm at the Berry nest at the time.
Thanks Kathy!
Had a meeting today with a web guy and a backer of my work.
Lots to do and I am coming up with 5 more designs.
I have to have a back up for slow times. Praying this will be it.
I have been lucky in that respect. The down side is that they always live so far away.
My son is pushing hard to get us to move up to WY, but man! I just don’t see THAT happening. LOL! I get chilled just thinking about it. it was snowing there in JH today! EEK!
I’ve always wanted to see Camp Lejeune. I have been to NC, but not to their facility. We were in Gastonia snd in Ashville, visiting friends we’d met in Germany.
Yes, them living so far away is a downside indeed. Your parents probably felt the same way when you and your hubby were at different bases.
Nope, somehow I don’t see you moving to WY. You always say you wish you could have some cool weather but that’s a bit beyond cool! LOL!
Camp Lejeune is huge. We lived off base at Sneads Ferry, which is not far from the back gate. We had one car and I had to take him to work and pick him up on days I needed the car and it was quite a drive all the way through the base to get to the building he worked in.
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