Actually, the Iridium satellites are in a low earth orbit. That's why they needed so many of them. GPS satellites are also in a low earth orbit. It's just that there's so many of them you'll always have a few in view. If the Iridium's were in a geosynchronus orbit you'd need a lot more powerful transmitter to get to them.
The Russians (or Soviets) have lost a few astronauts. You can find out more at http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/spacedocumentar y/story/0,2763,200523,00.html
Actually, the USSR space program had several fatalities, including (I believe) the first Soyuz launch. A valve opened during reentry and the guys all died. There was also one launch that had to abort before abort because of a staging problem and they took over 20g! Capsule stopped tumbling down the mountain just before a cliff! Oh yeah, there was also a big explosion on the pad on an unmanned test that wiped out a lot of people, including the "Chief Designer".
So that's why all those airplanes are always being shot down! Everytime a transatlantic flight gets within 10 miles of the UK the RAF shoots it down! Not to mention what the French do to them!:-)
Don't you think they'd come up with some agreement so that it could be built in whatever country it comes down in?
Nope, not enough propellent for that. They just have station keeping thrusters. Also, these aren't normal communications relay satellites, they're like telephone switches.
You can't use them individually because these aren't a normal communication satellite that just relays anything they receive back down again. These are essentially telephone switching centers in a satellite. They talk to ground stations as well as with each other directly. You can't reprogram them to act like a regular communications satellite, and you can't change the frequencies they use. Sorry.
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Actually, the Iridium satellites are in a low earth orbit. That's why they needed so many of them. GPS satellites are also in a low earth orbit. It's just that there's so many of them you'll always have a few in view. If the Iridium's were in a geosynchronus orbit you'd need a lot more powerful transmitter to get to them.
It's not a "NASA mission". No NASA money is involved. It's a UK project. NASA is not the only agency that sends stuff into space.
The Russians (or Soviets) have lost a few astronauts. You can find out more at http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/spacedocumentar y/story/0,2763,200523,00.html
Actually, the USSR space program had several fatalities, including (I believe) the first Soyuz launch. A valve opened during reentry and the guys all died. There was also one launch that had to abort before abort because of a staging problem and they took over 20g! Capsule stopped tumbling down the mountain just before a cliff! Oh yeah, there was also a big explosion on the pad on an unmanned test that wiped out a lot of people, including the "Chief Designer".
So that's why all those airplanes are always being shot down! Everytime a transatlantic flight gets within 10 miles of the UK the RAF shoots it down! Not to mention what the French do to them! :-)
Don't you think they'd come up with some agreement so that it could be built in whatever country it comes down in?
No, it was the "Tower of Babel". Hence, Babelfish .
Nope, not enough propellent for that. They just have station keeping thrusters. Also, these aren't normal communications relay satellites, they're like telephone switches.
You can't use them individually because these aren't a normal communication satellite that just relays anything they receive back down again. These are essentially telephone switching centers in a satellite. They talk to ground stations as well as with each other directly. You can't reprogram them to act like a regular communications satellite, and you can't change the frequencies they use. Sorry.
Believe it or not, the Ewoks were speaking Urdu, a language spoken in Pakistan.
What about Serbia? AFAIK, there are (or were) McDonalds restaurants in Belgrade. While it wasn't a "war", we have bombed Belgrade.