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610
611

Ground control to Major Tom (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by BFSkinner

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[–]spacemanspiff2009 20 points21 points ago

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Commencing countdown, engines on

[–]UtterlyDisposable 13 points14 points ago

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Check ignition and may god's love be with y you

[–]BooYeah0484 8 points9 points ago

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This is ground control to major Tom, you've really made the grade

[–]DoctorSpurlock 7 points8 points ago

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And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear

[–]DroolingIguana 8 points9 points ago

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And it's time to leave the capsule if you dare.

[–]CedarWolf 8 points9 points ago

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"This is Major Tom to Ground Control; I’m stepping through the door. And I’m floating in a most peculiar way... And the stars look very different today."

[–]silverwyrm 8 points9 points ago

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Here, am I sitting on a tin can, far above the world. Planet earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do.

[–]awesomedan24 7 points8 points ago

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dum da dum da dum CLAP CLAP dum da dum da dum CLAP CLAP

[–]Vitalizes 5 points6 points ago

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Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles, I'm feeling very still. I think my spaceship knows which way to go..Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows. Ground control to major Tom, your circuits dead, there's something wrong, can you hear me, major Tom?

[–]silverwyrm 0 points1 point ago

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Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear am I floating on a tin can. Far above the moon.

[–]winterapple 2 points3 points ago

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Relevant (Major Tom set to images of the shuttle and spacewalks)

[–]675675TEN 2 points3 points ago

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Can you hear me major Tom?

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points ago

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earth below us, drifting falling

[–]happywhale 0 points1 point ago

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Oops, never mind. The program has been scrapped.

[–]doublerainbowomahgod 15 points16 points ago

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Higher resolution (4015x2672)

Photo by Bill Ingals

[–]BigGovt 7 points8 points ago

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Why do people rehost every fucking picture on imgur?

Thanks for posting.

[–]fattylewis 0 points1 point ago

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Came to the comments for exactly this. Thanks.

[–]BlackfieldFan 0 points1 point ago

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Thanks for posting this. The one the OP linked to was cropped which cut the bottom of the reflection and it also lost some of the contrast. This is a much better version of the image. Thanks for giving the credit to the photographer too.

[–]Stringbeanteam 19 points20 points ago

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smiley face!

[–]keyz182 20 points21 points ago

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smiley face!

[–]Honda_TypeR 2 points3 points ago

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I can't unsee!

[–]ryeinn 10 points11 points ago

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Original: APOD

[–]fallingshoes 46 points47 points ago

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Your funding's dead, can you hear me Major Tom...can you hear me Major Tom

[–][deleted] 43 points44 points ago

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Your funding for an old and unsafe vehicle that is only capable of getting you to LEO is dead, Tom. We are reinvesting in projects to travel to an asteroid beyond Mars, and eventually land you on Mars, we hope you can be patient as this will be far more beneficial to the human race than circling the globe tweeting about being weightless another 124 times, Tom.

[–][deleted] 26 points27 points ago

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...until the program is cancelled halfway through after vast cost overruns and enormous amounts of political infighting set off by unimaginative populist Congressmen who like to shout about things that the money could better be spent on, and eventually we all fucking die when the gigantic purple space aliens wipe us out because we didn't colonize the galaxy and build up a Robotech defense force.

Sigh.

[–]ulrichomega 12 points13 points ago

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Somehow this version is less poetic than the original.

[–]warmtunaswamp 1 point2 points ago

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My Robotech knowledge is limited having only seen a season or two in the early 90s, but I thought the original technology basically fell into earth hands with the crash landing of the huge alien robot/ship. So without that they wouldn't have had a Robotech defense force either. I would hope that if alien tech was suddenly discovered today, it would be a huge kick in the ass to humans to devote more time and money to going beyond our planet.

[–]Neebat 1 point2 points ago

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On the brighter side, the gigantic purple space aliens won't be coming to wipe us out, because they'll be plagued by unimaginative populist politics also. We'll have to wipe ourselves out, like every other "intelligent" species in the galaxy.

[–]Plywoodpleasurehome 1 point2 points ago

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And we're putting you back on top of the rocket, Major Tom. Where you always should have been.

[–]Hypnopomp -1 points0 points ago

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I've been reading about these replacements for 15 years. Nothing's built, because all the funding is drying up. Instead, human space flight is going the corporate development route (for now), while NASA focuses on strapping robots to bullets again and shooting them at the sky.

[–]hunny_bunny 2 points3 points ago

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Ashes to Ashes, funk to funky...

[–]1Avion1 16 points17 points ago

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If you apply David-Bownium to anything it instantly becomes, at minimum, 20 times better.

[–]Sniperchild 7 points8 points ago

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The new Tron movie needed more Bowie

[–]crs76 10 points11 points ago

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Michael Sheen was good, but that role was CLEARLY for Bowie.

[–]qda 1 point2 points ago

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I'm too young - can someone explain how this song got sooo big and entered peoples' hearts and minds so?

[–]funkypenquin 0 points1 point ago

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Well I am a bit young too but that was in a time where space was very new to us and romantic. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were real life super heroes , and Apollo 13 was launched in 1970 , a year after major toms release so I am sure good timing helped make it popular. Major Tom was character in 3 Bowie songs , several other artists and many suspect rocket man by Elton John was based on him. Very interesting wiki.

[–]mrwatkins83 11 points12 points ago

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My dad made an interesting point the other night. He said that his generation had the Saturn V and mine had the Shuttle. My daughter is 18 months old, I wonder what space-faring vehicle she'll be upset to see retired when she's 30?

[–]lookatmythingy 10 points11 points ago

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Probably Soyuz.

[–]innervision 2 points3 points ago

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Or the 'enhanced' Chinese version of it. Yes, that's probably what she'll get. Sad, but true.

[–]Ghostalker474 0 points1 point ago

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Meh, everything else in her generation is Made in China anyways.

[–]frigginelvis -1 points0 points ago

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Please end the Soyuz. That is some dangerous crap right there.

[–]cockwaffle 1 point2 points ago

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Do you know anything about spacecraft or did you just see all the jazz about the progress failure?

Unlike the space shuttle, Soyuz has a launch abort tower to save it from a launch vehicle failure. It's been used twice and saved the lives of the crew both times. Challenger? No launch abort motor. 7 Dead People.

Russia's industry is crumbling and their workforce is aging but the R-7 Soyuz rocket has operated for nearly twice as long as the shuttle and is still in service. Statistically it's near the top of the charts for most reliable rocket in history. Fuckups happen. But do some goddamn research.

[–]frigginelvis -2 points-1 points ago

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Honestly, I was going to call you something like buttplug, but I''l just call you by what you already go by, Cockwaffle.

Three examples of Soyuz failures in the last ten years. All I said was that the Soyuz was dangerous crap. I said nothing about people dieing. Maybe you should read what I goddamned wrote before defending a program YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH!

[–]cockwaffle 1 point2 points ago

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Alright, I'm sorry for being presumptuous but this a passionate topic for a lot of people. Also I prefer asswaffle or anus master but can't remember the passsword of the former and the latter is taken.

This said. Rocketry is inherently dangerous. You can't do it without putting a lot of energy in one place and you have to make it volatile to make it do anything.

It would cost an infinite amount of money to make an infinitely-reliable launch vehicle. For this reason. You make it work when things don't work. I don't see why crew safety isn't the ultimate metric of a launch vehicle's safety.

And the thread is about the shuttle so I brought up crew safety versus the shuttle. Statistically, a less reliable launch vehicle with a dedicated launch escape system will be safer than a more reliable vehicle without one, as evidenced by two successfully used LES systems when they were necessary versus one zorched shuttle going up.

Similarly, the two fatal accidents with the russian space program--Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11-- have not been with the rocket, but the spacecraft reentry and life support systems.

As a note the third LV failure you mention is not a Soyuz-U used for crewed space transportation but a Soyuz 2a for satellite launch which is not a human rated vehicle with the usual redundancies. Someone might quibble with that point. I myself will grant it to you. But what's dangerous in Russia seems to be their ground practices and range safety, as the safety record there is not so comparable.

[–]frigginelvis -2 points-1 points ago

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Thank you ass-cockwaffle. :) I understand rocketry is dangerous. That's what makes it fun. I agree with everything you say, save for one thing:

I don't see why crew safety isn't the ultimate metric of a launch vehicle's safety.

I take this like someone saying, "That car's wheels fall off, but I haven't died so it must be safe."

I just don't want an astronaut to hitch a ride on a Soyuz, and THAT'S the time, well, I don't even want to say it.

[–]cockwaffle 0 points1 point ago

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Alright, well it wouldn't be the internet if we weren't having an argument so I'll try to sell you on my point one last time:

Imagine if one out of every 100 times you drove a car the wheels fell off. So some cars get ejector seats installed and some don't, but are equipped with air-bags and crunch zones and roll-cages.

The cars with ejector seats now have another thing that can break, but even if the ejector seat only fails 1/100 of the times it's needed, it turns a 1/100 chance of you dying into a 1/10000 chance.

The cars with the other safety features will certainly make that 1/100 case more survivable but it's gonna take a whole hell of a lot more R&D to match the ejector seat and a whole hell of a lot more than that to lower the initial 1/100 chance.

Now the analogy is getting quite ridiculous but if your baseline of comparison is a car--or a commercial airliner like NASA when they were working out the shuttle--then no rocket is safe, nor will one be for a long long time.

[–]frigginelvis -1 points0 points ago

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Fine, it safely fails.

[–]danman11 0 points1 point ago

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If it doesn't result in the loss of the crew, than yes.

[–]danman11 0 points1 point ago

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And yet Roscosmos hasn't lost a crew in over 40 years. Where as the Space Shuttle lost two crews over the past 30 years. So I'm sorry if I'm not falling for your arm waving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_accidents_and_incidents#Astronaut_fatalities_during_spaceflight

[–]frigginelvis -2 points-1 points ago

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Three significant failures in the past ten years is arm waving? Remind me to never buy a car you recommend.

[–]Go_Away_Masturbating 4 points5 points ago*

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When I was at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in '98 as a 14 year old, my absolute high point was getting to see the Saturn V rocket up close after becoming obsessed with it from the movie Apollo 13. It almost felt surreal that this major milestone of human history was right there at arm's reach.

I was crushed when I learned of the cancellation of the constellation program and demise of the Ares V rocket, which would have been the proper replacement for the Shuttle (for cargo at least) and rivaled the Saturn V in size.

[–]DroolingIguana 1 point2 points ago

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Just out of curiosity, is that pronounced "Saturn Five" or "Saturn Vee"? I was never sure about that.

[–]LynxFX 1 point2 points ago

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Saturn Five.

Rocky Vee.

[–]cockwaffle -2 points-1 points ago

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The Ares V was cancelled the day it was announced. The people pushing it knew it would look great and keep a bunch of contractors in business for the rest of the Bush presidency and that when it came time to actually pay for it congress would say no and it would be somebody else's problem.

Either NASA needs to understand that congress will never give it the apollo blank check again and invest in small rockets, on-orbit assembly, fueling depots and nuclear-electric propulsion or congress needs to stop paying as much for a month in Afghanistan as a year of NASA

[–]ithunk -1 points0 points ago

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The aeroplane.

Air travel is going to become exorbitantly expensive for regular ppl, so ppl will use the internet for business travel/meetings or even tours. The really rich ones will use space travel, like the planes Virgin is testing.

[–]LordOfGummies 7 points8 points ago

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Looking at this craft makes me believe that humanity can accomplish great things... when we stop killing each other for 20 minutes.

[–]ithunk 0 points1 point ago

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actually, space travel was funded by the fear of getting killed by Russians, so it has been a motivator of sorts.

[–]vickangaroo 2 points3 points ago

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Ooh, is it story time already?

[–]kbuddha 1 point2 points ago

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they took it down because bowie tried sueing him. i found a mirror site though! lol

[–]vickangaroo 1 point2 points ago

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I was lucky enough to read the pdf in it's full glorious quality before it was taken down. However, it does seem like the Wired article I originally linked to has all the pages and even the song to play as you read!

But of course, Artist's site

[–]kbuddha 0 points1 point ago

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well if you'd like i have the link saved to DL it.. let me know and i'll send on over to ya :)

[–]schoule2008 2 points3 points ago

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Ground control to Major Tom, we found a hole in your theory, and we named is Sean.

[–]tloxscrew 1 point2 points ago

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and when the leaves fall, the land looks more humane

it's got me questioning the essence of my farm-boy blues

hence i never wore the fashions of i-know-what-i'm-doing

but there won't be no alarm when we sound up the movement...

[–]ridik_ulass 1 point2 points ago

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for the coolest second of my life, i thought that was mounted on an oil rig in the ocean, sadly that water was just a puddle .

[–]OuchLOLcom 0 points1 point ago

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You really gotta get out more.

[–]randomscarab 1 point2 points ago

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Take your protein pills, and put your helmet on...

[–]chiablo 1 point2 points ago

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My problem with these desktop wallpaper worthy pictures is that they are never wallpaper sized.

[–]elephantpoop 1 point2 points ago

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the reflections on ground always makes the picture a bit nicer

[–]virtuallynathan 1 point2 points ago

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I prefer this one, by Trey Ratcliff: http://stuckincustoms.smugmug.com/Portfolio-The-Best/your-favorites/i-5Gp8wgF/0/X2/Final-Night-of-the-Space-X2.jpg

[–]holysnapson 1 point2 points ago

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Why did they make another shuttle pointing down?

[–]NaturalLogofOne 1 point2 points ago

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RIP

[–]thebeansdude 1 point2 points ago

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Should start building a new one to create jobs

[–]Hypnopomp 0 points1 point ago

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...for eggheads. who needs 'em? /s

[–]OuchLOLcom 1 point2 points ago

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  1. The shuttle doesn't fly anymore.
  2. That song was written before the shuttle existed.

[–]JETEXAS 1 point2 points ago

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Stop stealing photos and rehosting them on imgur.

[–]ZeppelinJ0 0 points1 point ago

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"Send me up a drink!" jokes Major Tom. The count goes on.

[–]BricksWereShat 0 points1 point ago

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Someone has got a pimped up Water Shader.

[–]Fudgefactor7 0 points1 point ago

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You just gave me my new desktop. Thanks.

[–]ThisLooksLikeFun 0 points1 point ago

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Happy reflection is happy :)

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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We need a Hi-Res copy stat.

[–]muellkonto 0 points1 point ago

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It's odd to think about the fact that this is (albeit vastly simplified) essentially the same as a bottle rocket: combustible propulsion system with something standing it up straight for liftoff.

[–]Bladelink 0 points1 point ago

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That's an amazing structure.

[–]liberty4u2 0 points1 point ago

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How many redditors' get the Major Tom reference?

[–]agent103 0 points1 point ago

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i think this spaceship knows which way to go.

[–]StanDinfamy 0 points1 point ago

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as somebody named Tom I naturally love this song.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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I was listening to the song when I saw this.

[–]Ultraseamus 0 points1 point ago

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Unfortunately, the only thing I can think about when looking at this picture is some scene from the last Transformers movie; which I now realize was based on, if not filmed at, a real place.

[–]cehak 0 points1 point ago

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far above the world

[–]loluguys 0 points1 point ago

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:(

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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relevant

[–]RDJesse 0 points1 point ago

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Turn that frown upside down!

[–]Fwuzeem[!] 0 points1 point ago

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Just found out that 'Shuttle Reflection' is like Sean Connery saying 'Subtle Reflection'.

[–]DaHozer 0 points1 point ago

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Instant sad face the moment I opened that image.

[–]deep_ecclesiology 0 points1 point ago

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Rangers of the stratosphere, away!

[–]sosueme 0 points1 point ago

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This makes me sad

[–]doctor_lawyer -1 points0 points ago

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OCD here: Major Tom flew in a capsule.

[–]romieyo -3 points-2 points ago

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Jesus christ. These fucking nasa losers are still bitching?

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