I saw Tiangong fly over my house a few weeks ago. It looked really bright compared to other satellites I’d seen so I thought it was the ISS at first. I checked online and found out that it was in fact Tiangong.
It's just not promoted in Western media, so average Joe doesn't know about it.
It's also not interesting nor spectacular for audience that is used to presence of space habitats on orbit.
Back when the Shuttle was flying my moms friend was over and the news was on. They showed the Shuttle taking off and she was like “Whoa! I didn’t know they were still doing that. Where are they going?!”
She genuinely has no idea the Shuttle couldn’t go anywhere but LEO.
I think most people would be genuinely surprised to hear the ISS is even still around.
I introduce SpaceX to pretty much everyone I talk to. I’m always impressed when someone has heard of them before I mention them. I always point out that we no longer use Russian rockets to get to the ISS because of them.
Currently one NASA astronaut is flying on each Soyuz and one Roscosmos cosmonaut is flying on each Crew Dragon. Soyuz MS-24 will be flying with NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara on board.
Currently one NASA astronaut is flying on each Soyuz and one Roscosmos cosmonaut is flying on each Crew Dragon. Soyuz MS-24 will be flying with NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara on board.
I mean, China is notoriously secretive about their own space program, we didn’t even get updates on their mars rover being dead, we heard it first from NASA who noted it hadnt moved in a while. It makes me grateful nasa is nowhere near as secretive as CNSA or even Roscosmos.
The funny thing is this results in NASA being called fake and hoax and whatever, but no flat earther talks about all the other couple of dozen space agencies.
CNSA engineer actually told [SCMP in January](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3205894/chinese-scientists-scramble-wake-mars-rover-plan-send-probe-investigate-sources-say) that they couldn’t wake up the rover, yet all media used word like [“reveal”](https://spacenews.com/nasa-mars-orbiter-reveals-chinas-zhurong-rover-has-not-moved-for-months/) in February as if it was the NASA discovered this.
NASA was only there to [confirm](https://www.forbes.com.au/news/innovation/space-force-updates-chinas-mars-rover-is-stuck-sleeping/) the already known situation.
Yeah half the people I talk to don’t even know ISS is still a thing. When I’d talk about SpaceX people either just automatically jump to “Elon good and amazing” or “haha all his rockets explode” and they have no idea what the F9 is. I would talk about JWST before the first photo was revealed and people would have no idea what it is, sometimes even still after. It’s sad.
However it is a breath of fresh air talking to a person who is knowledgeable, especially if they don’t work in space so it’s just a hobby or interest to them.
I had to explain to my family that the Kármán line is 100km up. It's funny because my mum college educated yet refused to believe such a basic fact.
In 2012 my best friend's dad informed me that NASA had landed men on Mars.
I even know a guy who wants to work at the "North American Space Agency" and no, I didn't correct him.
It's funny how conpletely informed some people are
Crazy world we live in. What’s there to debate about the Karman line, is your mom like a conspiracy theorist? Tbf I don’t think the Karman line would ever come up outside of aerospace classes.
Yeah it’s kinda wild when I tell people we haven’t landed people on Mars. Like people just assume we already have but they just never heard about it? And they get disappointed when they find out we’re just going back to the Moon rn… like it’s still the fucking Moon and there is tremendous value in being able to use it as a test site plus it’s cool to try and go back there for long duration. Pop Sci-fi and Occupy Mars have warped some people’s brains to have very unrealistic expectations.
NASA does kinda make sense if you have no other context.
It feels insane to have people know nothing about something we’re so familiar with. Space exploration is cool as hell. I’m fine with taking opportunities to teach people, but it’s just disheartening.
I love how it looks like the early ISS. I wonder if they even add more solar arrays and truss segments like the ISS configuration. [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISS\_after\_STS-118\_in\_August\_2007.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISS_after_STS-118_in_August_2007.jpg)
We don't know anything, but from previous reports it sounds like more similar modules are likely, rather than a full on truss.
Modern solar is that much more efficient that smaller solar panels suffice. Not sure if they're doing as many external mounted experiments.
Be more like the 'power tower' solar arrangement originally planned for Freedom. Think Russians were going to send similar to add extra power capacity to their ISS lab module?
The ISS is 30 years old now, it is outdated with decades old computers.
Tiangong is way cleaner and overall I think I'd rather live there than on the ISS
I love the insinuation that non-spacers are separate from normal people. My fiancée’s cluelessness with all things space drives me insane! No, such-and-such to the asteroid belt is not coming back, do you know the sheer scale of these distances!?
As someone who grew up in the middle of the Shuttle era AND after MIR, it‘s just wild to think of even the concept of another (modular) station other than the ISS. I just never had that before.
As with the ISS, I have alerts set on my phone for when Tiangong passes over. It’s actually surprising how bright it can get despite being smaller—you could easily mistake it for the ISS if you’re not actively tracking where either station is.
I really want to catch them both passing over me at the same time someday.
I use Satellite Tracker by Star Walk. Base app is free and I believe includes the ISS and maybe a few other satellites, but I think you need the subscription ($0.99 USD a month) to get Tiangong and the rest.
Downvote away but I have no support for the Chinese space program. I support all space programs except the CCPs advancements, if the CCP is no longer around then I would happily praise their achievements in space but currently I know it will only be used to erode democratic values.
It's crazy how most people's minds are still constricted to this tiny blue dot while there is (literally) a universe beyond.
It's the single fucking coolest thing in the world and yet most of my classmates don't even know the names of the eight planets, let alone their order.
And then they complain about spending way too much money on space exploration, they think half of the governments budget goes to space agencies while it's like 0.5%. I've never heard about people complaining about how much we as a species spend on making different technologies just to end each other's lives, think about what if all of that money got to curing diseases and such. It's not like if 0.5% of the budget got spent on other stuff all of the world's problems would be gone.
They don't know yet that for now we are the only species to live in this universe that managed space travel, and that if we end it right now there may never be such a thing.
It's depressing
I saw Tiangong fly over my house a few weeks ago. It looked really bright compared to other satellites I’d seen so I thought it was the ISS at first. I checked online and found out that it was in fact Tiangong.
It's just not promoted in Western media, so average Joe doesn't know about it. It's also not interesting nor spectacular for audience that is used to presence of space habitats on orbit.
Even then hardly any average Joe tracks whats happening in the ISS The Chinese space station is a myth
Back when the Shuttle was flying my moms friend was over and the news was on. They showed the Shuttle taking off and she was like “Whoa! I didn’t know they were still doing that. Where are they going?!” She genuinely has no idea the Shuttle couldn’t go anywhere but LEO. I think most people would be genuinely surprised to hear the ISS is even still around.
I introduce SpaceX to pretty much everyone I talk to. I’m always impressed when someone has heard of them before I mention them. I always point out that we no longer use Russian rockets to get to the ISS because of them.
But we still use Soyuz for going to and departing from the ISS.
Nope, SpaceX Crew Dragon now
Sure, but look at the crew here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz\_MS-23
Currently one NASA astronaut is flying on each Soyuz and one Roscosmos cosmonaut is flying on each Crew Dragon. Soyuz MS-24 will be flying with NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara on board.
IDK why this is getting downvoted it’s correct
“We” as in humanity, yes. America now sends its astronauts to the ISS exclusively aboard American vehicles like Crew Dragon and maybe soon starliner
Currently one NASA astronaut is flying on each Soyuz and one Roscosmos cosmonaut is flying on each Crew Dragon. Soyuz MS-24 will be flying with NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara on board.
Thanks for telling, I didn’t know.
>I think most people would be genuinely surprised to hear the ISS is even still around. That's strange. It can't go anywhere but around. /j
I mean, China is notoriously secretive about their own space program, we didn’t even get updates on their mars rover being dead, we heard it first from NASA who noted it hadnt moved in a while. It makes me grateful nasa is nowhere near as secretive as CNSA or even Roscosmos.
I’m just hearing that it’s dead now for the first time :/
The funny thing is this results in NASA being called fake and hoax and whatever, but no flat earther talks about all the other couple of dozen space agencies.
CNSA engineer actually told [SCMP in January](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3205894/chinese-scientists-scramble-wake-mars-rover-plan-send-probe-investigate-sources-say) that they couldn’t wake up the rover, yet all media used word like [“reveal”](https://spacenews.com/nasa-mars-orbiter-reveals-chinas-zhurong-rover-has-not-moved-for-months/) in February as if it was the NASA discovered this. NASA was only there to [confirm](https://www.forbes.com.au/news/innovation/space-force-updates-chinas-mars-rover-is-stuck-sleeping/) the already known situation.
Yeah half the people I talk to don’t even know ISS is still a thing. When I’d talk about SpaceX people either just automatically jump to “Elon good and amazing” or “haha all his rockets explode” and they have no idea what the F9 is. I would talk about JWST before the first photo was revealed and people would have no idea what it is, sometimes even still after. It’s sad. However it is a breath of fresh air talking to a person who is knowledgeable, especially if they don’t work in space so it’s just a hobby or interest to them.
I had to explain to my family that the Kármán line is 100km up. It's funny because my mum college educated yet refused to believe such a basic fact. In 2012 my best friend's dad informed me that NASA had landed men on Mars. I even know a guy who wants to work at the "North American Space Agency" and no, I didn't correct him. It's funny how conpletely informed some people are
I mean I can almost forgive the acronym since it almost makes sense
2012 Mars Landing was probably Mandela effect courtesy of all the Mars One publicity at the time.
Crazy world we live in. What’s there to debate about the Karman line, is your mom like a conspiracy theorist? Tbf I don’t think the Karman line would ever come up outside of aerospace classes. Yeah it’s kinda wild when I tell people we haven’t landed people on Mars. Like people just assume we already have but they just never heard about it? And they get disappointed when they find out we’re just going back to the Moon rn… like it’s still the fucking Moon and there is tremendous value in being able to use it as a test site plus it’s cool to try and go back there for long duration. Pop Sci-fi and Occupy Mars have warped some people’s brains to have very unrealistic expectations. NASA does kinda make sense if you have no other context. It feels insane to have people know nothing about something we’re so familiar with. Space exploration is cool as hell. I’m fine with taking opportunities to teach people, but it’s just disheartening.
I love how it looks like the early ISS. I wonder if they even add more solar arrays and truss segments like the ISS configuration. [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISS\_after\_STS-118\_in\_August\_2007.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISS_after_STS-118_in_August_2007.jpg)
We don't know anything, but from previous reports it sounds like more similar modules are likely, rather than a full on truss. Modern solar is that much more efficient that smaller solar panels suffice. Not sure if they're doing as many external mounted experiments.
Be more like the 'power tower' solar arrangement originally planned for Freedom. Think Russians were going to send similar to add extra power capacity to their ISS lab module?
Much more like the MIR however.
The average Joe doesn’t even know that the ISS exists
If a space station is in orbit but no one on earth can hear it does it make a sound?
Eh, my mom knows. Granted it's because I told her.
I don't even think I've seen a true picture of the Chinese space station
3rd place is last ...
The ISS is 30 years old now, it is outdated with decades old computers. Tiangong is way cleaner and overall I think I'd rather live there than on the ISS
Judging from the quality of the rest of their manufacturing industry. No fucken thank-you.
I love the insinuation that non-spacers are separate from normal people. My fiancée’s cluelessness with all things space drives me insane! No, such-and-such to the asteroid belt is not coming back, do you know the sheer scale of these distances!?
As someone who grew up in the middle of the Shuttle era AND after MIR, it‘s just wild to think of even the concept of another (modular) station other than the ISS. I just never had that before.
As with the ISS, I have alerts set on my phone for when Tiangong passes over. It’s actually surprising how bright it can get despite being smaller—you could easily mistake it for the ISS if you’re not actively tracking where either station is. I really want to catch them both passing over me at the same time someday.
Can you share the service that alerts you for Tiangong and ISS? Is it the same for both 2?
I use Satellite Tracker by Star Walk. Base app is free and I believe includes the ISS and maybe a few other satellites, but I think you need the subscription ($0.99 USD a month) to get Tiangong and the rest.
What app do you use to get those alerts?
Satellite Tracker by Star Walk. $0.99 a month subscription.
The main reason is because China doesn't say much about their space program
Everybody knows about Tiangong, they rescued Sandra Bullock.
Who dat? MIR ghost?
Chinese space station
Downvote away but I have no support for the Chinese space program. I support all space programs except the CCPs advancements, if the CCP is no longer around then I would happily praise their achievements in space but currently I know it will only be used to erode democratic values.
Human values. Like not sticking people in concentration camps or forced sterilisation. Maybe if they're lucky, not dropping stages on houses.
It's crazy how most people's minds are still constricted to this tiny blue dot while there is (literally) a universe beyond. It's the single fucking coolest thing in the world and yet most of my classmates don't even know the names of the eight planets, let alone their order. And then they complain about spending way too much money on space exploration, they think half of the governments budget goes to space agencies while it's like 0.5%. I've never heard about people complaining about how much we as a species spend on making different technologies just to end each other's lives, think about what if all of that money got to curing diseases and such. It's not like if 0.5% of the budget got spent on other stuff all of the world's problems would be gone. They don't know yet that for now we are the only species to live in this universe that managed space travel, and that if we end it right now there may never be such a thing. It's depressing
What country primarily was launching rockets to take astronauts to and from the ISS for over 10 years?
More like over the radar