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back to article Soyuz to loft Sentinel-1B Earth-watching sat

Europe's Sentinel-1B Earth-watching satellite will soar heavenwards tomorrow from Kourou, French Guiana, riding a Soyuz lifter to a 700km altitude polar orbit. It'll orbit 180° apart from its identical twin - Sentinel-1A - which launched in April 2014, on a joint mission to deliver data as part of the Copernicus environmental …

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  1. MrRimmerSIR!
    Joke

    "To achieve this, two concentric cylindrical test masses made of different materials — one titanium and one a platinum-rhodium alloy "

    Did they run out of feathers and Lead?

    8 0 Reply

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Anonymous Custard
        Reply Icon
        Alien

        Indeed, I too was wondering quite what was wrong with the Apollo test, as I presume the moon is close enough to a vacuum to be a valid testbed.

        2 0 Reply
  2. SkippyBing

    Are they live streaming the first stage landing...

    3 0 Reply
  3. rh587

    Playload

    "*The Russian horizontal assembly method - which also includes mounting the playload on the ground - "

    I didn't realise Sentinel was being operated by plucky playmonauts!

    5 0 Reply
  4. phuzz Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    I'm surprised there wasn't more jokes about horizontal and vertical mating. (fnar fnar).

    2 0 Reply
    1. imanidiot Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Flame

      I'd think making mating jokes when talking about giant flaming fallusses was kind of superfluous.

      2 0 Reply
    2. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      Horizontal integration

      I believe we've already exhausted this particular innuendo vein on previous stories.

      3 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Custard
        Reply Icon

        Re: Horizontal integration

        Since when does that ever stop us?

        4 0 Reply
        1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Re: Horizontal integration

          This is true. Carry on.

          4 0 Reply
          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Horizontal integration

            Hey look! He's awarded himself two badges! That's not fair.

            I'll be when you were a scout you got your mum to sew on other people's challenge badges.

            2 0 Reply
  5. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

    assembly

    "The Russian horizontal assembly method... is a lot simpler than hoisting everything up for vertical mating, "

    Well, if you don't have handy a giant building with enormous cranes built specifically for that purpose, then I suppose horizontal would be decidedly simpler. NASA opted for the megabuilding to assemble the Apollo rockets. At one time, it was the largest building (by volume) in the world. I went there as a child (unfortunately narrowly missed one of the latter Apollo launches). The scale of that building and the crawler which transports the assembled vehicles to the launch pad boggles the mind.

    4 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Custard
      Reply Icon

      Re: assembly

      One of those buildings that are large enough to have the risk of clouds forming inside them if their climate isn't properly controlled, iirc.

      Also saw it in my younger days (between the Apollo and Shuttle eras sadly), as you say a most impressive place.

      2 0 Reply
    2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
      Reply Icon

      Re: assembly

      That's kinda the point, innit? You don't have to build that big-ass VAB in the first place. Building tall is building expensive.

      0 0 Reply
    3. imanidiot Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: assembly

      When it comes to building rockets the size of the Saturn 5, vertical assembly is pretty much the only way to go.

      Horizontal assembly brings with it a number of challenges that put extra strain on the vehicle body, which requires extra material for it to withstand those strains. Doing so on something the size of saturn 5 means adding a lot of extra kilograms and so losing a lot of weight you could be using for fuel and cargo. IIRC horizontal assembly was considered for Apollo but decided to be too difficult and complex to work. Vertical assembly was actually the simpler option!

      2 0 Reply
  6. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    Radar Sats

    I really should get around to building that large radar corner reflector that I've been contemplating. About 2 or 3 m on each side of the truncated cube. Reportedly such an installation, done correctly, may give a good solid consistent '255' bin in their data.

    0 0 Reply

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