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Kazakhstan's Spaceship Junkyard

Posted by Zonk on from the mos-eisley dept.

Richard W.M. Jones writes "What happens to the booster stages of rockets? They fall back to earth, and in most cases into the oceans. But not in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, where the first stages fall over populated farmland. The locals have become rich dealing in the titanium-rich scrap metal as this article and this remarkable photo essay show. So far the only casualties seem to have been a few dead cows."

14 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. In Soviet Russia... by nxtr · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...rocket falls on YOU!

  2. Dead cows... by eurleif · · Score: 5, Funny

    So that's how cattle mutilations happen!

  3. Server going down? by Lingur · · Score: 4, Funny

    I predict that the server will go down like the boosters. First, heating up, then, burning up, and finally, nothing but scrap metal.

    1. Re:Server going down? by NoseBag · · Score: 4, Funny

      Thank you!

      Since you were the first to most graciously post the article from the (so predictably) now-slashdotted server, you win.....(drum roll)....

      ONE SIDE OF KAZAKHSTANI BOOSTER-SMACKED BEEF!

      Yes good comrade...Kazakhstani beef. Not a substitute! This beef was slow-marinated in pure slavic hydrazine - no oxygen here! - after being gently but firmly caressed by a 13-ton booster moving at terminal velocity! Range-smacked! Bones and cartillage removed or pulverized in a split-instant! No abattoir farm for the Kazakhstani!

      Bon Apetite!

      --
      Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
  4. Mooo! by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sucks to be a cow ...

    --

    Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

  5. Thank you! by firepacket · · Score: 3, Funny

    So far the only casualties seem to have been a few dead cows

    Thank you SO MUCH. I have found my new background.

  6. Priceless by ChePibe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Rocket hitting your barn full of cows, sheep, and Soviet Bloc farm equipment - 677912345234621 Rubles (roughly $20 US). Reselling the rocket to random scrap metal dealers - priceless, or at least 76790823485724429234 rubles (roughly $45 US).

    1. Re:Priceless by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Funny
      at least 76790823485724429234 rubles (roughly $45 US)

      ... or about 1.5 euros

  7. Re:Slashdot posts this... by Roofus · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's not a story, it's seven sentences.

    Of course, /. has posted stories based off nothing but a "my sister's boyfriend's best friend's uncle's janitor's hairdress told him that some unknown Microsoft VP told the guy in the stall next to him..."

  8. Re:Wow.. by myowntrueself · · Score: 4, Funny

    "And if it killed someone, they could just sell the titanium, and it would be OK, right?"

    I don't know... how much titanium is there in a human body?

    --
    In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
  9. Re:What killed the cows? by jericho4.0 · · Score: 4, Funny
    The cows were killed by a booster falling into a river, damming the river and creating a lake. The lake provided habitat for fowl, which hosted a particularly insidious bird flu. This caused the Russian authorities to kill all birds, people and cows in a 10 mile radius.

    One cow was almost killed by a direct impact, but managed to pull through after weeks of intensive care.

    --
    "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
  10. Re:Slashdot posts this... by darkewolf · · Score: 4, Funny

    Even funnier, I read the article about the mutant Chernobyl children and the in-page-advert was from Microsoft and included dinosaured headed people in shirts-and-tie talking around the office. I thought it was a spoof article at first with pictures of Godzilla like kids ;)

    --
    "That is not dead which can eternal lie...."
    Nimheil
  11. Hmmmm... by jpellino · · Score: 3, Funny

    The object the woman's hiolding in photo essay pic #8 looks suspiciously like the things Arthur, Ford, & Zaphod were getting slapped in the face with enroute to rescue Trillian...

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  12. Re:I liked Kazakhstan by natrius · · Score: 4, Funny

    Lunch was fairly straight forward but the dessert was a peculiar electric green sweet foam.

    Falling space junk and electric green food don't sound like that great of a combination.

    Especially if it's during an air raid in 1941.

    Are you my mummy?