#iss enterprise-d | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bigfan-fanfic · 4 years

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Hi xx love u and do u think u could do Bruce in the a-z thing 💋 xxx thnx

Love you too, anon!

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Bruce freakin’ loves it if you end up working with Alfred during patrol. Also he likes it if you take a job at Wayne Enterprises because then the two of you get to be together all day and it means that you actually enjoy this part of him. Free time, when not spent with the boys, is generally used in physical pleasures or romantic dinners. But really, any time he gets with you he cherishes, even if he doesn’t say it.

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

Bruce admires your ability to commit, because let’s face it, you must have an iron will to stay with him this long. He thinks your kindness and determination are beautiful, and the fact that you remain with him day after day is astonishing.

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Bruce helps with firm hugs and quiet reassurance. He’s not so great with expressing himself or dealing with his own self-loathing, but he’s sure as hell not going to let you feel bad about the best person in the world - you.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

Bruce has no delusions about actually being able to eradicate crime in Gotham, so he dreams that one day he’ll retire, leaving Gotham in the hands of his children, and be able to dedicate his time to you. It’s an improvement from the times he thought his future was eventually dying on the job.

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

Bruce tends to take a dominant role in the relationship, being the control freak he is, if not necessarily in the bedroom. He’s in charge of where you two go out on dates (since he’s in charge of safety) and he likes to take care of you.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Bruce doesn’t like to admit he’s wrong, but he’ll definitely be quickly forgiving when you say you were wrong.

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

He’s mostly grateful, although in moments of frustration he might lash out. He, with Alfred’s help, tries to remember how much you have sacrificed for him.

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

Bruce often hides certain details from you in order to “protect” you, unless you take an interest in his vigilante life, in which case he is very honest with you and grows to depend on you. Either way, he ends up growing more honest over time.

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

Bruce’s relationship with you gives him what amounts to a crash course in emotional intelligence. He slowly learns how to process and deal with things like grief, guilt, frustration, and anger while allowing himself to be happy. Basically, the longer he’s with you, the more he gets over the emotional stunting his parents’ death caused him.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Bruce responds to most emotions by becoming surlier than usual. Unfortunately, his “jealousy” surly is very similar to his “hungry” surly, so you might accidentally get a jealous Bruce a burger and be met with annoyance (however, giving a hungry Bruce some kisses and attention seems to go over much better).

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Bruce is a fantastic kisser. He leaves you dazed and dreamy after claiming your lips in an almost innocent way, then cupping your head and tilting you to deepen it, and not coming up for air until necessary, wanting to remain forever in that kiss.

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

He’ll come right out and tell you that he loves you. Or, alternatively, he’ll show you the Batcave, which is like a love confession because he’s showing you his true self and placing an extraordinary amount of trust in you.

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

Hell yeah. Bruce cares for you a lot, and beyond wanting to spend his life with you, he wants to make sure that you are cared for should he die and immediately modifies his will. He’ll propose in private, in a sweet and intimate moment, and then probably he will do a proposal in a public space for the press. The marriage will be tough at times, but definitely rewarding.

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

Bruce uses the sappiest, corniest, schmaltziest nicknames he can come up with. “Sugar,” “Pumpkin,” “Honeybear,” “Snugglebug.” Sometimes he accidentally says it while still in Batman voice, and everyone around him just freezes. It happened once to Gordon and he doesn’t believe he actually heard it.

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

Not obvious at all. He hides it well. Except for Alfred. And if your relationship dates back to before his parents died, Thomas and Martha totally knew one day their son would fall head over heels for you.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Super possessive. He holds you close and kisses you often in public and totally proclaims that he is the luckiest guy in Gotham to be with you.

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

None. Bruce has to work hard to be romantic and maintain the relationship. This poor guy needs your help, okay?

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

He’s actually pretty romantic when he puts his mind to it. He really does want to make you happy. And for someone so calculating and analytical, he is pretty creative in romance.

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

Bruce does believe in you, but sometimes he focuses more on patrol and the League. But he makes an effort to be supportive and present. You learned that Bruce has programmed the Batcomputer to remind him of important events for you, and even made an alarm to alert him to see how you are every couple of hours so he doesn’t neglect you.

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

Bruce likes to spice things up sometimes, whether it’s a fancy dinner or a spontaneous trip to Hawaii (that has been meticulously planned and organized).

U nderstanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Bruce has trouble at first knowing what you need unless you tell him. He isn’t naturally an overly empathetic person and often has trouble communicating. It’ll be up to you most of the time to bridge the gap.

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

It’s very important to him to be with you. He’ll sacrifice time at Wayne Enterprises or social engagements to stay around you.

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

He once tried to cook for you and very nearly burned down the Manor. So he consigns himself to bringing you breakfast in bed made by Alfred or picked up from somewhere.

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

Bruce tends to kiss in public and cuddle in private.

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

Bruce gets more surly than usual, which is saying something.

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lenghts for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bruce has trouble putting the relationship first. He’s definitely one who will put his self-imposed duty before you. But anything else, he wants to please you. He’ll do whatever he can to make you feel wanted and comfortable, short of stopping patrol.

#fluff alphabet #my writng #batman headcanons #batman x male reader #alphabet

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spaceexp · 4 years

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Space Station 20th: Commercial Cargo and Crew

ISS - 20 Years on the International Space Station patch.

June 2, 2020 The successful flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo 2 mission, launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil for the first time since 2011, was the culmination of a years-long effort led and supported by several US Presidents and NASA Administrators to provide replacements for the cargo and crew transportation capabilities to the International Space Station (ISS) previously provided by the Space Shuttle. The novel approach of the government procuring services provided by private companies opened a new chapter in human space exploration. Launch America Nearly nine years after Space Shuttle Atlantis roared off from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, American astronauts Douglas G. Hurley and Robert L. Behnken made history when, aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule they christened Endeavour, they launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the very same pad. Nineteen hours later, in a flawless automated maneuver, they became the first crew to dock at ISS aboard a commercial spacecraft. As part of the test flight objectives, they performed manual flying tests of the spacecraft prior to docking at the Harmony module of ISS. Both Hurley and Behnken had visited the station on previous Shuttle missions, but for Hurley this was a different sort of homecoming – he served as Pilot on that last flight of Atlantis and piloted the Orbiter away from the very same docking port at which he arrived nine years later aboard Endeavour. Shortly after docking the crews opened the hatches and Hurley and Behnken joined Expedition 63 crewmembers Christopher J. Cassidy, Anatoli A. Ivanishin and Ivan V. Vagner as ISS’ newest residents. Their ground-breaking mission continues.

Above: Hurley (left) and Behnken say good-bye to their families as they prepare to depart for the launch pad. Bellow: Launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour on the Demo 2 mission.

Above: Expedition 63 crewmember Vagner photographed Endeavour’s launch from ISS. Bellow: Behnken (left) and Hurley aboard the newly-christened Endeavour shortly after reaching orbit.

Above: SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour docked at ISS during Demo 2 mission. Bellow: Expedition 63 crew (front, left to right) Behnken and Hurley; (back, left to right) Ivanishin, Cassidy and Vagner.

Preamble In an address at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, on January 14, 2004, President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE). In addition to proposing a return to the Moon, the VSE saw the retirement of the Space Shuttle by 2010 after completing the assembly of ISS. The VSE encouraged NASA to acquire commercial cargo services to ISS as soon as practical, and Congress supported the activity in the 2005 NASA Authorization Act. In response, NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin established the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO) in November 2005, inaugurating a new business model for the space agency that instead of traditional procurement contracts with private enterprise to deliver hardware and services to NASA now relied on the companies investing their own capital to develop the needed spacecraft and rockets and NASA to purchase the transportation services from them. The C3PO devised a two-phase process to develop cargo resupply service to ISS – the Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) program for commercial entities to develop and demonstrate reliable commercial services followed by the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program to actually deliver cargo to ISS. President Barack H. Obama’s space policies encouraged public-private partnerships and NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden greatly expanded the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program’s fledgling efforts for commercial crew transportation services.

Above: President Bush announcing the Vision for Space Exploration in 2004. Bellow: President Obama (left) tours SpaceX launch facilities with Elon Musk in 2010.

Commercial Cargo Services

Timeline of Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) activities.

On Aug. 18, 2006, NASA announced that Space Exploration Corporation (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based Rocketplane Kistler (RpK) had won the first round of the COTS competition and signed Space Act Agreements (SAAs) with the two companies. In October 2007, NASA terminated the agreement with RpK since the company hadn’t raised enough capital and following a second round of competitions selected and signed an SAA with Orbital Sciences Corporation (Orbital) of Dulles, Virginia, on Feb. 19, 2008. SpaceX developed its two-stage Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule capable not only of supplying pressurized cargo to ISS but also delivering unpressurized external payloads and hardware to the station and also returning internal equipment and especially scientific samples back to Earth. Both the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon capsule relied on reusability to reduce operating costs. Italian aerospace company Thales Alenia Space built Orbital’s Cygnus cargo vehicle, relying on its experience building the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules and the European Space Agency’s Columbus research module for ISS. Orbital developed the two-stage Antares rocket to launch the Cygnus spacecraft. On Dec. 23, 2008, NASA announced the award of the first CRS contracts to SpaceX for 12 resupply missions to ISS and to Orbital for 8 missions, to which in 2015 NASA added 8 more Dragon and 3 more Cygnus missions. On Jan. 14, 2016, a second CRS-2 contract not only guaranteed at least six more SpaceX and Orbital missions but added a third contractor, Sparks, Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corporation to provide at least six flights of a cargo version of their Dream Chaser reusable space plane.

Above: Falcon 9 first launch in 2010. Midddle: Dragon capsule approaching ISS during the Demo 2 flight. Bellow: Dragon capsule being grappled by Canadarm2 before berthing to ISS.

Above: Expedition 31 crew poses inside the Dragon cargo capsule during the Demo 2 flight. Middle: The ISS Canadarm2 about to release the Dragon capsule at the end of the Demo2 flight. Bellow: Dragon capsule in the Pacific Ocean at the conclusion of the Demo 2 mission.

SpaceX launched its first Falcon 9 carrying a boilerplate Dragon capsule from Launch Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) on June 4, 2010. The successful mission, not intended to approach ISS or be recovered, demonstrated the capability of the new Falcon 9 rocket. The first mission under the COTS program called Demo Flight 1 took off on Dec. 8, 2010. Once again the Falcon 9 performed as expected and the Dragon capsule made two orbits around the Earth, demonstrating its communications and maneuvering capabilities. SpaceX recovered the capsule in the Pacific Ocean after a flight of 3 hours and 20 minutes. Two more demonstration flights had been planned, but NASA decided to combine their objectives into a single mission flown as Demo Flight 2, launching on May 22, 2012. Four days later, the capsule rendezvoused with ISS, where Expedition 31 crewmember Donald R. Pettit grappled it with the Canadarm2 robotic arm, calling to the ground, “Looks like we got us a dragon by the tail,” before maneuvering it to its berth at the station’s Harmony module’s nadir port. The first commercial cargo transportation vehicle had arrived at ISS. Later that day, he and ISS Commander Oleg G. Kononenko opened the hatch and entered the capsule, with Pettit noting that it “smelled like a brand new car.” The onboard crew spent the next six days unloading the 1,157 pounds of cargo that Dragon had delivered and on May 31 released it from ISS. Dragon made a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, returning 1,466 pounds of experiment samples and used hardware. The mission completed the required COTS certification for the Dragon cargo vehicle.

Above: First launch of an Antares rocket in 2013. Middle: Cygnus Demo spacecraft grappled by Canadarm2 prior to berthing on ISS. Bellow: Expedition 37 crewmember Karen L. Nyberg photographed inside the Cygnus spacecraft during its Demo mission to ISS.

Orbital launched the first test flight of its Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia on April 21, 2013, with a test payload to simulate the mass of a Cygnus spacecraft. The mission’s objectives did not include approaching ISS and the mass simulator burned up on reentry on May 10. Orbital carried out a single COTS demonstration mission, designated Cygnus Demo 1, launching on Sep. 18, 2013. The company began a tradition of naming their spacecraft after deceased astronauts or other aerospace notables, christening this first one the G. David Low after the former astronaut and Orbital employee who died in 2008. Orbital executive and Low’s fellow Class of 1984 astronaut Frank L. Culbertson said during a preflight press conference, “We were very proud to name [it] the G. David Low.” Eleven days after its launch, Expedition 37 crewmember Luca S. Parmitano grappled the spacecraft with Canadarm2 and berthed it to Harmony. The crew unloaded the 1,543 pounds of supplies that it brought to ISS and on Oct. 22 unberthed it from ISS, loaded with 2,850 pounds of cargo for disposal. The next day, Cygnus fired its engine to begin the fiery reentry over the Pacific Ocean. Orbital became the second commercial company to complete the COTS certification for its cargo vehicle.

Above: The first Enhanced Cygnus arriving at ISS in 2015; compare against

the smaller Cygnus in the Demo 1 photo above. Middle: The IDA-2 during removal from the SpaceX transport vehicle in 2016. Bellow: First launch of a Falcon 9 from Launch Pad 39A in 2017.

SpaceX launched its first operational Dragon cargo resupply mission on Oct. 8, 2012, while the first operational Cygnus spacecraft took off on Jan. 9, 2014. To date, 20 Dragons have carried pressurized and unpressurized cargo to ISS and returned scientific samples and hardware to Earth at the end of their missions, while 13 Cygnus spacecraft have lofted logistics to the space station. The record is not without setbacks as each program suffered a launch failure that resulted in loss of the spacecraft and its cargo. While both companies recovered quickly from the failures, the accidents highlighted the wisdom of the decision to use two separate and independent systems to launch cargo to ISS. Over the years, both SpaceX and Orbital have implemented improvements in their spacecraft and launch vehicles to increase safety, performance and reliability. For added flexibility, SpaceX leased Launch Pad 39A from NASA at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and began using it to launch Falcon 9 rockets beginning with the SpaceX-10 mission in 2017. Always a part of SpaceX’s business model to reduce costs, the company began to refly its Dragon capsules in 2017, and has flown three of its capsules three times to ISS. Beginning in late 2015, Orbital introduced an Enhanced Cygnus with a 50% increase in internal volume to carry more cargo. In addition to upgrading its spacecraft and rocket, Orbital underwent some corporate restructuring over the years, first merging with Alliant Technologies in 2015 to become Orbital ATK. In 2018 Northrup Grumman acquired Orbital ATK to form Northrup Grumman Innovation Systems. Upgrades to ISS itself, such as opening up a second berthing port on the Unity module in 2015 allowed two cargo vehicles to be docked at the same time. SpaceX vehicles brought two International Docking Adaptors (IDAs) that once installed on ISS enabled future commercial cargo and crew vehicles to dock directly to ISS rather than being grappled and berthed by crewmembers operating the Canadarm2. Commercial Crew Services Following retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, NASA needed a system not only for cargo transportation to and from ISS but also to ferry crews to the station and returning them to Earth. Until a US-based system could be deployed, NASA relied on purchasing crew seats from Russia on Soyuz spacecraft. The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 expanded existing CCDev activities with a new competition to develop the spacecraft needed to ferry crews to ISS. NASA awarded contract to four companies – Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, to develop a capsule; SpaceX to upgrade their Dragon cargo vehicle to carry humans and to human-rate their Falcon 9 rocket; Sierra Nevada to develop the Dream Chaser winged lifting-body vehicle; and The Boeing Corporation’s Defense, Space and Security Division of Arlington, Virginia, to develop the CST-100 Starliner capsule. SpaceX, Sierra Nevada and Boeing received funding in August 2012 to support development of the spacecraft. In September 2014, during the final phase of the competition, NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX to develop the Crew Dragon and Starliner vehicles for crew transportation. As noted above, Sierra Nevada decided to develop a cargo-only version of its Dream Chaser.

The first group of Commercial Crew astronauts – (left to right) Williams, Cassada, Boe, Mann, Ferguson, Hurley, Behnken, Hopkins and Glover – pose in front of mockups of the Boeing Starliner (left) and SpaceX Crew Dragon capsules at JSC.

In a ceremony at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Aug. 8, 2018, NASA Administrator James F. “Jim” Bridenstine introduced the first contingent of eight NASA and one Boeing astronaut who would fly the inaugural missions under the Commercial Crew Program. NASA assigned Douglas G. Hurley and Robert L. Behnken to fly the first Crew Dragon demonstration flight and Victor J. Glover and Michael S. Hopkins to its first operational mission. For the Starliner’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) demonstration flight, NASA selected Nicole A. Mann and Eric A. Boe and Boeing assigned its astronaut Christopher J. Ferguson, a retired NASA astronaut. Sunita L. Williams and Josh A. Cassada were selected for Starliner’s first operational mission. In January 2019, E. Michael Fincke replaced Boe on the Boeing CFT mission crew. In March 2020, NASA announced the addition of NASA astronaut Shannon Walker and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi to the first SpaceX operational flight crew.

Above: Launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo 1 mission. Middle: Crew Dragon approaches ISS during the Demo 1 mission. Bellow: St. Jacques taking a selfie inside the Crew Dragon while it was docked to ISS.

Above: View inside the Crew Dragon during the Demo 1 mission with Ripley in the far left seat. Middle: Crew Dragon departing ISS. Bellow: Crew Dragon floating to the Atlantic Ocean under its four main parachutes about to conclude the Demo 1 mission.

Following years of development and testing, SpaceX and Boeing prepared their spacecraft for uncrewed orbital test flights. SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off from KSC’s Launch Pad 39A, formerly used to launch Saturn V rockets during the Apollo Program and dozens of Space Shuttle missions, on March 2, 2019. During the Demo 1 mission, the unpiloted spacecraft completed an automated docking with ISS at the Harmony module’s forward facing port one day after launch. Although unpiloted, the Crew Dragon carried a fully suited anthropometric manikin named Ripley, after Sigourney Weaver’s character in the Alien film franchise. After six days at the space station, during which Expedition 58 crewmembers unloaded the 400 pounds of cargo it had brought to ISS, the Crew Dragon capsule undocked automatically. After it left the station, Expedition 58 crewmember Anne C. McClain said, “We want to take a moment to recognize this milestone accomplishment. Fifty years after humans landed on the Moon for the first time, America has driven a golden spike on the trail to new space exploration feats through the work of our commercial partner SpaceX and all the talented and dedicated flight controllers at NASA and our international partners.” The Crew Dragon capsule made an automated reentry, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast, clearing the way for the first crewed mission. The capsule also returned 330 pounds of cargo, including valuable science experiment samples.

Above The Boeing Starliner sitting atop its Atlas V rocket before launch. Middle: Launch of the Atlas V carrying the Boeing Starliner on its Orbital Test Flight. Bellow: Starliner capsule with airbags still inflated after landing at White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico.

Boeing’s Starliner, christened Calypso after the mission, launched from CCAFS Launch Complex 41 on an Atlas V rocket on Dec. 20, 2019, on its uncrewed Orbital Test Flight (OFT). While no astronauts rode aboard, the capsule carried an anthropometric manikin, wearing a pressure suit, nicknamed Rosie the Rocketeer, channeling Rosie the Riveter of World War II poster fame. About 31 minutes into the flight, an error with the Mission Elapsed Timer caused the spacecraft to enter an orbit from which it could not rendezvous with ISS. The planned eight-day mission was cut short to two days, with Starliner making a parachute- and airbag-assisted touchdown at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Following postflight analysis, Boeing announced in April 2020 that it will refly the mission to achieve the required objectives to clear the Starliner for its first crewed test mission. The OFT reflight is currently planned for October 2020, and if all goes well Ferguson, Fincke and Mann will fly the CFT mission in April 2021.

Above: Astronauts for the SpaceX Crew 1 mission (left to right) Walker, Glover, Hopkins and Noguchi during training at JSC in March 2020. Bellow: The crew of the Boeing Starliner Crew Test Flight (left to right) Fincke, Ferguson and Mann.

What’s next? The past eight years have seen the coming of age for commercial cargo services to ISS and the beginning of crew transportation which will become regular in the very near future. The SpaceX-20 mission in March 2020 was the last of the original Dragon capsule design. Beginning with the next mission in October 2020, SpaceX will introduce the Cargo Dragon 2 version based on the Crew Dragon capsule design. Like the crewed version, Cargo Dragon 2 will also dock directly with ISS instead of being grappled and berthed. NASA has contracted with SpaceX and Northrup Grumman for at least six Cargo Dragon 2 and Cygnus flights through 2024. Sierra Nevada is continuing to prepare its reusable Dream Chaser Cargo System lifting body vehicle to begin providing transportation to and from ISS in late 2021.

Above: Illustration of Cargo Dragon 2. Bellow: Illustration of Dream Chaser Cargo System. Credits: SpaceX, Sierra Nevada.

In 2019, in its continuing efforts to stimulate a low Earth orbit economy, NASA announced the opportunity for private astronauts to carry out missions of up to 30 days aboard ISS, using either Crew Dragon or Starliner for transportation. Houston-based Axiom Space has signed an agreement with SpaceX to fly one professionally-trained astronaut hired by Axiom and three paying private citizens on an eight-day flight to ISS in late 2021. Although details are still in work, NASA is in discussions with actor Tom Cruise to film a movie aboard ISS. Related articles: Space Station 20th: Music on ISS https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/05/space-station-20th-music-on-iss.html Space Station 20th – Space Flight Participants https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/05/space-station-20th-space-flight.html Space Station 20th: Six Months Until Expedition 1 https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/04/space-station-20th-six-months-until.html Space Station 20th – Women and the Space Station https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/03/space-station-20th-women-and-space.html Space Station 20th: Long-duration Missions https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/03/space-station-20th-long-duration.html NASA Counts Down to Twenty Years of Continuous Human Presence on International Space Station https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/11/nasa-counts-down-to-twenty-years-of.html 20 memorable moments from the International Space Station https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/11/20-memorable-moments-from-international.html Related links: Commercial Crew: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew/index.html International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Images, Text, Credits: NASA/Kelli Mars/JSC/John Uri/SpaceX/Boeing/Sierra Nevada/ULA.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Full article

#space #science

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generalconnoisseursandwich · 3 years

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Tailpipe Market Global Outlook and Overview till 2026

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perfectirishgifts · 3 years

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Market Leader In Building Analytics Raises Series D Funding For Global Growth

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Market Leader In Building Analytics Raises Series D Funding For Global Growth

The current crisis is changing the way we live, work and experience real estate in general. It is clear that much of this change is here to stay and, though there are winners and losers as we’ve seen in this column over the past few months, the disruption is accelerating the pace of innovation across asset classes and will result in a better outcome for their users. Technological change that was already coming is cementing itself as the new status quo and, therefore, it is not surprising that despite the pandemic-related slowdown, business is booming for many value-adding proptech and contech solutions.

One such company is Boston-based cloud building analytics platform KGS Buildings, which today announced an $8 million funding round and its rebrand to Clockworks Analytics. I spoke with CEO Nicholas Gayeski and VP of Business Development Alex Grace to find out more about the company, the raise, and their plans for the future.

Clockworks dashboard

Clockworks Analytics was founded in 2008, out of MIT’s Building Technology Department, and it claims to be the most widely used cloud-based buildings analytics platform in the world, with its technology deployed in 420 million square feet of property across every building type in over 20 countries with a strong presence in North America, the UK, the Nordics, Australia, and India.

It started offering Clockworks – its flagship SAAS product which the company has now renamed itself after in a bid to concentrate all focus on its product and customers – in 2010 and initially focused on working with higher education institutions whilst bootstrapping. A partnership with Schneider Electric in 2012 boosted its growth and, in the mid-2010s, it started focusing on large multisite enterprise portfolios. Over the last year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and in part thanks to it, Clockworks has expanded to partnerships with service providers as well. Clockworks’ clients are mostly in commercial and industrial real estate, and the company works with facility management, mechanical, and controls service providers.

Gayeski shared that Clockworks leverages existing products installed in buildings such as thermostats, building automation devices, and other sensors and focuses on generating sophisticated analytics based on that data. As the world changes and more IoT (Internet of Things) devices are installed, more and more data will be created, which will maximize Clockworks’ potential. According to Gayeski, “for years, analytics have been very narrowly focused and our goal is to change this and focus on portfolio health and benchmarking across portfolios. Nitty-gritty details of what is going on will be translated into business intelligence, both for our real estate clients and service provider partners, who will be able to capture trends across different types of assets and services.”

The software is hardware agnostic, which is important in a context in which best-of-breed technologies need to be able to work together to provide the best outcome for owners and users.

Grace shared that they are currently seeing a big wave of growth and that the company has had a 50% year on year increase in sales in 2018 and 2019, and recurring revenue growth of 34% in 2020, as current clients are doubling down on the bet to work with them. He went on to say that “buildings have been serviced in a very traditional way, to date. Whenever there is a fault, you need to investigate manually, and you don’t know if the part you need is available. Many building services firms are looking at analytics to transform predictive maintenance. Owners seek to address risks and reliability, as well as efficiency.”

At the start of the pandemic, many owners went into wait-and-see mode to determine how it would affect their operations. Then, after the initial shutdown, the goal became how best to manage buildings in these difficult times. As Gayeski put it, “the focus was on how to manage buildings effectively, both in terms of efficiency and savings but also in regard to safety (air quality). As the pandemic evolved, many owners realized how important analytics and effective management of building systems is to people’s heath in the built environment.” Gayeski added that the remote visibility into building operations that Clockworks provides has proven to be invaluable when operators can’t be on-site, and that “when you do have someone on-site you can use analytics to ensure that you focus on what will drive the most impact.”

Jeremy Macdonald, Global Energy and Sustainability Director at ISS Facilities Services had the following to say about the software: “Clockworks Analytics has enabled ISS to help its portfolio customers make and keep their promises to reduce energy use. In today’s environment, corporate sustainability commitments are essential for leading corporations, and driving energy reduction across the building footprint is a top goal for ISS and our portfolio clients. Clockworks Analytics has proven effective in driving energy and carbon reduction at scale and we see more and more interest from Facilities leaders in automated analytics that not only deliver a clear ROI but also ensure that those results persist over time.”

Clockworks had been eyeing a raise since the end of 2019. This is only the second real round of funding (though on paper it is a Series D raise) because the company bootstrapped its operations for a long time, effectively skipping their seed and series A rounds, and raising $5 million in their first round in 2015. The founders have always chosen a conservative approach to growth and to the amounts they raised.

So, why now? Gayeski told me they see a big opportunity to empower people to manage buildings more effectively. “Change is happening rapidly towards a more analytics-based approach. The pandemic hit and the funding could have all fallen through, but our investors saw that with the pandemic, remote visibility on operations and on building health would be that much more important. Even though there might be an immediate slowdown, there would be a lot to offer in the long run. A shared vision led to the successful completion of the raise with the goal of generating long-term benefits for the industry.”

Bruce Evans, president of Evans Capital Management (which co-led the round with Carom Growth Partners) shared that, “with the number of smart devices proliferating rapidly, analytical insights from data collected by these connected ‘things’ is driving transformational change in many industries. With its wide adoption across the globe, Clockworks is leading that transformation in buildings, and we’re excited to be a part of the company’s growth.”

The funds raised will be split between global market growth and product development. Clockworks has a constantly evolving cloud-based SAAS model, and its roadmap includes executive-level dashboarding to provide global business intelligence across portfolios (looking at factors such as risks, environmental impact, and indoor air quality) as well as extending visibility down to a single piece of equipment within a building.

Gayeski reckons that applying a global data model across organizations will allow Clockworks to create a framework in which communities can be creative and share knowledge. This can only be achieved with scale but is an important dimension of transformation in the industry as it could change not only how people think about building management in the future, but also the way they train and hire their staff. The company’s goal is for firms to use Clockworks as a single source of truth, so no knowledge is left behind, at any point.

From Consumer Tech in Perfectirishgifts

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Did Star Trek: Discovery’s Georgiou Just Create a New Timeline?

https://ift.tt/2K92nBx

This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 9.

The biggest twist from Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 has returned for Season 3. After living in the Prime Universe since the end of Season 1, Phillipa Georgiou, former Terran Emperor in the Mirror Universe, has been confronted with the very real prospect that she might need to go back to where she came from in order to stay alive.

But what’s really going on? In “Terra Firma, Part 1,” Discovery has taken a very unexpected turn, seemingly in the middle of several other storylines, to fully tackle the mystery of fixing Georgiou’s “problem.” And that means that we’re now in a position where we have to unpack her Mirror Universe 2250s timeline to really get a sense of what the hell is going on. Here’s a rundown of Georgiou’s Mirror Universe timeline, as we understood it in Season 1 of Discovery, and what has fundamentally changed in Season 3.

Although the title should have been a dead giveaway, “Terra Firma, Part 1” takes a shocking blind turn back into the Mirror Universe, set just before the timeline as Discovery Season 1. After the A.I. of the USS Discovery’s computer advises the ship to take Georgiou to a planet in the Gamma Quadrant, Burnham and Georgiou meet a mysterious man named Carl, who encourages Georgiou to step through a Narnia-style portal that could double for that doorway you’ve seen in the intro to The Twilight Zone.

The slightly surreal exchange with Carl poses a lot of questions: Is he a Q? A member of the Caretaker’s species from Voyager? Where in the Gamma Quadrant are they? Could he be one of the Wormhole Aliens, better known as “the Prophets” from Deep Space Nine? None of these questions are answered because, before we can really process Carl and the Narnia doorway, Georgiou steps through and is suddenly back in the Mirror Universe.

When is this taking place?

Seemingly, Georgiou has not only traveled back to the Mirror Universe but also back in time to events that occurred offscreen well before Discovery Season 1. At this point in the Mirror timeline, the ISS Discovery hasn’t exchanged places with the USS Discovery, and it seems, Mirror Lorca hasn’t even left the Mirror Universe yet at all. Instead, we’re at a point somewhere in the Mirror version of 2255 and a time when Georgiou’s new flagship, the ISS Charon, is about to be christened.

How do we know it’s 2255? In Discovery Season 1, in the episode “What’s Past is Prologue,” Lorca tells his followers that they’ve endured “one year and 212 days of torture.” Because that episode takes place in roughly 2257, it seems likely that his coup against Georgiou and his subsequent accidental transposition of the Prime Universe happened roughly two years before that. In the Prime Universe, in 2256, Lorca and his ship the USS Buran was destroyed, and, by that time, Mirror Lorca had replaced Prime Lorca. But, Georgiou has gone back in time before all of that happens. In the Mirror Universe, Lorca doesn’t go on the run until after his coup is discovered, which means, right now, there’s not even the right setting for him to trade places with this counterpart.

So, could we see Prime Lorca enter the Mirror Universe?

Assuming Mirror Lorca goes on the run, encounters an iron storm, and swaps places with Prime Lorca, sure. It’s possible. But, it also seems pretty unlikely, mostly because the events set into motion by Georgiou returning to the past have already significantly altered the way history played out before. In “What’s Past is Prologue,” Lorca explains to Mirror Stamets exactly how he entered the Prime Universe, basically on accident. That exact same accident or a similar accident has to happen in order for Prime Lorca to swap places with Mirror Lorca “again.” And, as mentioned before, Georgiou has popped back into a point in history way before that happened anyway.

Wait. Didn’t Mirror Stamets die a different way before?

Correct! In “What’s Past is Prologue,” Mirror Lorca had Mirror Stamets executed. But, now, in “Terra Firma, Part 1,” Georgiou kills Stamets before he can betray her to Lorca. This is nuts on a few levels. First, in the original Mirror Timeline, Stamets ended up double-crossing Lorca, and tried to remain loyal to Georgiou; this, to some degree, is why he was killed. This is also relevant because, in Season 1, Mirror Stamets’ experiments with the Mycelial Network were partially responsible for helping Prime Stamets understand the network. The Charon was the central hub of Mirror Stamets’ experiments, but now that he’s been killed before that can happen, it stands to reason his research has been halted, too.

Okay, so has Georgiou created the Mirror-Mirror Universe?

Because Georgiou has killed Mirror Stamets, she’s already created a new timeline. If she succeeds in keeping Mirror Burnham on her side, and preventing Lorca’s coup before it begins, then, in theory, everything is now happening in a new timeline, a new universe. This time, she remains Emperor of the Mirror Universe, and that timeline goes in a very different direction.

But, what does that mean for the original Prime Timeline?

This is where it gets even dicier. If Georgiou prevents Lorca’s coup, she effectively prevents Season 1 of Discovery from happening. If Lorca doesn’t go into the Prime Universe, then he never recruits Michael Burnham, she never becomes roommates with Tilly, Tyler never joins the crew, Stamets, and Burnham never figure out how to use the Spore Drive, the Red Angel thing doesn’t happen, and all of sentient life (in the Prime Universe at least) will get destroyed by Control. Assuming Georgiou really is back in time, then it feels like she’s creating a new timeline/universe, or perhaps, more accurately, she’s creating two.

The Kelvin Universe from the reboot films is a good model to help with this headache

Assuming Georgiou is really back in 2255 of the Mirror Universe, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a version of the Mirror Universe that still played out the same way as before. It also follows that everything in the Prime Universe did happen the way it did before, otherwise, Georgiou couldn’t even be in this situation, with these memories at all. When Nero destroyed the Kelvin in Star Trek 2009, he didn’t erase the Prime Universe in which Kirk’s dad lived, he just created a new timeline. Ditto for Georgiou. So yes, it seems like she’s created the Mirror-Mirror Universe. (You know, like the TOS title “Mirror, Mirror.”)

On top of creating a new Mirror Universe, Georgiou has also, probably, created an Anti-DISCO Prime Universe. Because if Prime Lorca and Mirror Lorca never swap places, then that version of the Prime Universe, again, would eventually, be totally destroyed by Control, probably. That is, assuming Control even rose to power at all. The Klingon War would probably be won by the Klingons in this new Anti-DISCO Prime Universe if the Prime events of Discovery Season 1 don’t happen the way they did before. One way to look at this is that Lorca and Georgiou are kind of like Donna Noble in that Doctor Who episode “Turn Left.” But, instead of Donna turning left in a car, Georgiou stabbed Stamets in the neck.

Is this actually happening? Or is this a “dream”? (Or a low-rent Nexus?)

It seems like this trip to the Mirror Universe is legit. However, there is one little question that doesn’t quite have an answer yet. If Georgiou was sent back to the Mirror Universe, at this specific time, what happened to her “original” self? The Georgiou we see here has the same bracelet that Culber gave her from the Prime Universe version of 3188. She has the memories of everything she’s done and everything that’s happened in both universes since she left. Presumably, if she’s “literally” the same person she was in when she walked through Carl’s doorway, she’s like two years older, maybe a little more. What happened to the two-years-younger Georgiou from Mirror 2255? Did she swap places and end-up on the snow planet with Michael Burnham?

In the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Relativity,” we learned about a way in which a time-traveling future Starfleet dealt with this problem: Basically, they forced conflicting versions of the same person into a process called “temporal integration.” This means, in theory, Mirror Georgiou from the “present” could have been “reintegrated” with Mirror Georgiou from the past. If Carl’s magic doorway can send her back at all, then it seems like it could also “reintegrate” her with her past self, too.

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The other option is that this method of time travel is a loosey-goosey style of time travel kind of like the Nexus from Star Trek Generations. In that movie, Picard was able to return to the exact point in time he needed to, complete with his memories of how it had gone the first time. Nobody worried about what happened to the “first” Picard who got his ass beat by Soran, because Nexus Picard was magically back, and he had Nexus Captain Kirk with him to throw some extra punches.

Arguably, Picard and Kirk created an alternate universe by using the Nexus as a cheap and dirty time travel ride to prevent the destruction of the Verdian star. Also arguably, there’s another timeline that went along in which Soran got back in the Nexus, Picard celebrated fake Christmas forever, and Kirk chopped wood for the rest of his life. That timeline would have resulted in the Enterprise-D crew having all died, but when you think about the stakes of Discovery Season 2, and what this new timeline change could do, that seems oddly like small potatoes.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

If Georgiou did ride a Nexus-style time machine, then we might be encouraged in “Terra Firma, Part 2” to think slightly less about the various alternate-universe implications. But, then again, if Discovery producer — and Trek 2009 co-writer – Alex Kurtzman knows how to do anything, it’s creating a convincing reboot. Georgiou’s trip to the Mirror Universe might be another reboot, only this time, it’s not the sunny optimistic universe of Trek that’s getting rebooted, it’s the dark and evil one in which, somewhere, Ethan Peck’s Spock is walking around with an evil goatee. Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 has four more episodes left before the finale.

The post Did Star Trek: Discovery’s Georgiou Just Create a New Timeline? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/341sBg7

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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defconprime · 5 months

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#jk woodward #star trek tng #star trek covers #mirror universe #worf #jean luc picard #galor class #klingon battlecruiser #klingon bird of prey #elim garak #data #reliant class #excelsior claas #galaxy refit #iss enterprise-d

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tranbergtilley75 · 3 months

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This could Occur To You... Artificial Intelligence Errors To Keep away from

Legit clients become victims as occasions promote out minutes after tickets become available. In distinction to supervised learning, reinforcement learning relies on the reinforcement agent to find out easy methods to perform a activity as a result of there isn't any predetermined answer. rullymisar.com of roboticists are working to construct machines that may truly carry out conversations with one another, together with humans. Though copycats use an existing idea to their benefit, there are certainly startups that simply copy the concept or its meaning. And remember when there wasn't even coloration? If you're a veteran, a profile high quality-tunes your preferences and makes it even easier for you to find the perfect scent.

Techniques, tools, financing, writing, monitoring and producing have come a good distance since the early days. The explanation given is to have greater uniformity in 3D buildings and to compete with Nokia Here and Apple Maps, which were already using this know-how. Emmys can have a giant influence on the people, networks or series that receive them. Seth Baum argues that the event of secure, socially useful artificial intelligence or synthetic common intelligence is a function of the social psychology of AI analysis communities, and so may be constrained by extrinsic measures and motivated by intrinsic measures. Lorek, L.A. "Pc downtime rising up to work on world's issues." San Antonio Categorical-Information.

These programs work finest in a enterprise setting the place a small variety of users will work with this system. First, implementation of many of those technologies will probably be costly. Feb. 12, 2005. pg. Feb. 18, 2008. Vol. Verstraete, Christian. "Cloud computing: 1 idea, three sorts and a couple of enterprise models." HP Cloud Source Blog. Filloux, Frederic (February 25, 2013). "Google Information: the key sauce". 25, Iss. 7. pg. For instance, the Amazon web site permits guests to put up product critiques. Tv has gone by super transformations throughout its relatively quick lifespan. Nathan Srebro; Jason D. M. Rennie; Tommi S. Jaakkola (2004). Maximum-Margin Matrix Factorization.

#rullymisar.com

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graphicpolicy · 11 months

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Preview: Star Trek: The Mirror War

Star Trek: The Mirror War preview. Return to the Mirror Universe of The Next Generation with Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the ISS Enterprise-D as they plot to reestablish their dominance #StarTrek #comics #comicbooks

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#david tipton #Gavin Smith #idw publishing #j.k. woodard #scott tipton #star trek #star trek: mirror war #trade paperback #trade paperbacks

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whalefucker69 · 7 years

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11 Questions Tag Game

I was tagged by @onedamnminuteadmiral who now has a whale url, which reminds me of how I have “whalefucker69″ saved because of senior year when I wrote my 20 page term paper on Moby Dick.

1.What is the coolest vehicle you’ve ever driven/ridden in?

Well, okay, so my grandfather was a fighter pilot right, then he was a pilot for continental when the war ended, and after he retired he built his own little 2 seater plane (being extra runs in the family I guess). He sold it a few years ago but when I was like 10 or 11 he would take me up in it and let me take control once we were high enough up that it wouldn’t be a big danger.

2. Do you believe in the paranormal? Ever had any weird experiences?

I definitely don’t. The most paranormal experiences I’ve had are when I sometimes hallucinate spiders crawling on the walls and ceiling when I’m falling asleep.

3. Describe your ideal climate.

Temperature in the 90s but low humidity; like the Texas hill country. I like the cold for the ability to wear fun jackets, but I could survive on Vulcan no problem.

4. What is your favorite thing to do with friends?

Probably just watch stupid movies/TV, honestly. My roommates and I just watched the season finale of Bachelor in Paradise which is a surprisingly okay show. I also like cooking for people.

5. What do you think is your best quality?

Can I pass? It’s hard for me to think of things I like about myself without instantly turning them into things I don’t like.

6. If you could mash up two of your favorite TV shows, what would you mash up, and what would the resulting show be like? (For instance, Galavant and Star Trek, a space-faring musical farce that makes fun of the genre of sci-fi. Sorry if I stole yours. I think about this a lot.)

Hohohohoho, have I told you about the X files/fringe/twin peaks inspired Star Trek AU I had planned like all through high school? The main conceit was that Jim was a navy pilot who had been suddenly called back stateside for a “promotion” that he was very unhappy about because he saw it as a boring desk job that would keep him from flying. It turns out he was being assigned to basically lead a top secret operation codenamed enterprise that would track down paranormal activity localized in this small town in the northwest. So he ends up recruiting this ragtag team of military and civilian scientists and other personnel, and they have sort of monster-of-the-week adventures. The main overarcing plot would have Spock and Scotty basically invent warp drive, which would set up a chain of events with Spock discovering a government conspiracy (basically America wants to weaponize the rudimentary warp core) so the only way he sees to get out of the situation is to basically destroy all of the research and lead a trail of fake evidence so everyone thinks that he’s betrayed the enterprise team and gets him labeled as a terrorist. So then Jim ofc takes this personally and asks to be in charge of the team sent to track him down and bring him in, so it becomes a sort of international spy thriller with a lot of heated scenes where Jim just barely misses Spock and there’s a lot of chess metaphors as Jim sort of tries to figure out wtf happened and Spock is terrified because he knows that if anyone is smart enough to figure it out it’s Jim, but if Jim finds out he’ll be in the same danger. I don’t remember how I’d planned for it to end, but it definitely involved first contact with Vulcan (they had picked up on the warp tests). The last scene would involve Jim approaching Spock at the end some sort of official party and basically saying “So it’s super classified but the UN is putting together funds to build a starship and they want me to command it so I need a science officer and you have like 16 PhDs so you’re obviously the logical choice, our personal history nonwithstanding” and them basically agreeing to start over and try to move on after all the deceit.

7. Do you have any original characters? Tell me about one of them! If not, tell me about your favorite character from your favorite piece of media.

Okay so my main D&D character right now is a dragonborn warlock named Kashira Alazir. She grew up the heir of a family of honor-driven royals in charge of a sort of city-state in a larger empire. She spent all her life training to be the smartest and the strongest heir she could be, training in combat, tactics, politics, etc, but after her younger brother manifested as a sorcerer he was immediately declared the new heir because of his magic. She spent months trying to study to be a wizard, but never made any progress, so she eventually made a pact with a devil to gain magical abilities. She told herself this was for her family, since her irresponsible brother wouldn’t be a good ruler, but in reality she was just bitter. When her family found out they exiled her because making deals with demons is like, super fucking illegal. Now she’s just sad and lonely, wandering the continent trying to find a cause she can fight for to regain her honor and return to her family.

8. If you could switch places with one person for one day, who would you switch with?

Is “any astronaut currently working on the ISS” an option?

9. Are you a neat or a messy person?

Neat. I used to be messy but at this point I clean all the fucking time because “messy” has become synonymous with “depression” in my head so I’m terrified if I slip up at all I’ll fall apart. It’s the same thing with my grades, honestly.

10. What do you do when you need to relax?

I run 2 miles every morning, and sometimes I go for walks at like 2am to just.. breathe you know.

11. Tell me something not a lot of people know about you! <3

I say I’m over Doctor Who but last week my roommates were watching a movie starring David Tennant and I almost started crying because his face and voice are so nostalgic for me. Did you know he’s been cast as Crowley in the new Good Omens series? I’m a little disappointed they cast well known british actors for the main roles (I would’ve preferred unknowns for A&C, then big names for supporting roles like the did in the American Gods show) but if they had to choose one of the big British names, I’m glad it’s someone I unironically love.

I’m tagging @morganzephyr @10-screaming-horse-figurines @yogdad @leggdad @bradh2os and anyone who wants to do this.

My questions:

1. What time did you wake up this morning?

2. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?

3. If you could live in any fictional universe (but like, as a normal person and not the protagonist), which would you choose?

4. What’s a band/show/etc that you loved as a kid and still love?

5. If you could kill someone and face no consequences, would you do it? If yes, who?

6. How many people have you slept with in the same bed all crammed together? What size bed was it?

7. If you had to be stranded on a desert island/planet/etc and you could have only one person with you, who would it be?

8. What fictional character would make the best roommate?

9. If you could relive your life starting at like age 10, and have the chance to redo your mistakes, would you do it?

10. If work/school/etc wasn’t an issue, when would you go to sleep and wake up?

11. What position/blanket arrangement do you sleep with?

#ask meme #long post

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hoe-gaarden-blog · 7 years

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thing @ducks-r-evil tagged me in and refuses to let me go

1. If you were in Avatar, what would you bend (or not bend)? Minds... if that was possible. Water though, out of most anything else.

2. What is the quote you live by? (can be from a movie, famous person or your mum. Or anything) Don’t really have one :~)

3. How do you pronounce Pepe? The.. accented way... peh-peh?

4. Do you have a big family? Extended yeah, where I live, no.

5. What would be your patronus? This is where the fact that i never read HP gets out. From my basic knowledge its the animal thing right.. I’d go with something siq like a phoenix

6. Do you have any favourite high school stories? lmao... i feel like they’re all inside jokes - but one of my top faves is definitely bitching about one of our teachers and the teacher walking up right behind me

7. What colour shirt would you wear if on the ISS Enterprise? The what

8. Which country do you currently want to visit the most? (Why did I even ask this all my weeb friends are going to say Japan) S W E D E N

9. Do you prefer tea or coffee (or neither)? Coffee

10. Draw a quick sketch of your impression of me and upload

im awful at drawing its true

11. Upload here your best furry selfie, or if you don’t have one, take one and upload <3 ...... my icon..

#there i cbf doing any more

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chiefbeck · 4 years

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Act 2: The SEAL Teams Chapter 11: The Teams

After college I pretty much just joined the Navy. I had a job in Washington DC working for the Navy as a logistics analyst. I beltway bandit contractor at age 22, not a good way to start. One of the guys in the office was a retired SEAL from Viet Nam era. He would tell me stories over our lunchtime beers at the Crystal City Restaurant; a go-go bar that served really good burgers. These were the days when a beer at lunch and supporting a single mom was the norm. I really enjoyed the stories about the SEALs; so I joined the Navy.

After twenty years I built up quite a few accolades and stories myself.

The following is directly from my biography from the SEALs. My full name and gender are still that of my SEAL “man” days. I now prefer to be addressed as female and with feminine pronouns just as any woman would. One of the issues that commonly comes up is proper pronoun usage when addressing a person who has “transitioned.” The easy answer is use the pronoun that fits the persons’ attire. If the person is dressed very neutral, use neutral pronouns or ask the person what they prefer. There is a growing number of people who like the non-gender use of “Ze” and “Them” instead of a Mr. or Ms. or his and her. Talk of pronouns and confusion about all of this will be covered later... hang on to your seats, the SEAL Team stories are starting.

Note: “Tear Line” is a break in text that someone could separate out between classified and unclassified; it is commonly used by the Agency (you know, those guys). I like it, as this was a portion in my life that is separate and can and does stand-alone now.

Here is my SEAL bio in black and white and mostly unedited:

-----------TEAR LINE-----------

Christopher Todd Beck, USN SEAL(ret) xxx-xx-xxxx, TS/SCI

Senior Chief Petty Officer (SCPO) Christopher Beck has distinguished himself in 20 years of exceptionally meritorious service with Special Operations Forces.

Senior Chief Beck was a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute from 1984-1987, majoring in Electrical Engineering; he then graduated from Alfred University in 1989 with a BA in Political Science.

After the US responded to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, he enlisted in the Navy and went directly to SEAL Training, Basic Underwater Demolition (BUD/S Class 179). He graduated number two in his class of 58 officers and enlisted, narrowly missing the coveted “Honor Man” title, which was awarded to an outstanding Naval Academy graduate.

SCPO Beck’s initial SEAL tour was with SEAL Team One from 1992-1999 where he completed 7 SEAL Platoon deployments, including two combat tours. He was recognized with one Army, and 4 Navy Achievement Medals for his operational innovations and his tactical prowess as a Special Operator.

In 1999, SCPO Beck was then selected to join the SEAL two- star headquarters, Naval Special Warfare Command (WARCOM), to assist in the development of an automated mission planning system (SWAMPS). This effort was at a standstill as a result of poor contractor performance and lack of vision. Senior Chief Beck created completely new system architecture and wrote its source code in his spare time, which then became the Special Operations standard and is still in use to this day.

SCPO Beck was deployed to the Pacific and Indian Ocean with SEAL Team Five in 2002, in support of the Global War on Terror. During this deployment, using his skills as a Navy Quartermaster, he developed a novel method for precise small boat navigation which

enabled long range VBSS(Visit Board Search and Seizure) missions. He combined WWII maneuvering board techniques, GPS, and vectoring from P3 aircraft, to create new tactical capabilities. SEALs now routinely drop rubber boats in mid-ocean for long range intercepts using SCPO Beck’s techniques.

He deployed again in 2003 to Kuwait and conducted special operations with small UAVs in the opening phase of Operation “Iraqi Freedom”. He conducted multiple clandestine with various agencies beyond the forward edge of the battlefield. SCPO Beck was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat “V” for his efforts with American and British forces in Basrah, Iraq.

In 2005 Senior Chief Beck was board selected to transfer to Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) to head the UAV Department and Special Reconnaissance unit. Senior Chief Beck was the primary Subject Matter Expert in the Pathfinder UAV technology demonstration and he was instrumental in development of the NEPTUNE Maritime UAV and the Medium sized SENTRY UAV platform, still in use today.

He was then selected to be the Tactical Surveillance Department head, leading the entire overseas surveillance and field R&D effort for his Special Operations Component Command. He directed $16M of procurement and over $300M in R&D efforts in this period.

SCPO Beck worked with key senior leaders and executives from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and other agencies on the Hostile Forces Tagging Tracking and Locating (HFTTL) assessments. His operational inputs and technical expertise became the foundation for OSD’s HFTTL development strategy. Over the next five years the HFTTL initiative became a $600M OSD program in 2006. SCPO Beck received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal for his accomplishments while at DEVGRU.

In 2008 SCPO Beck received a special assignment to the Joint Task Force in Afghanistan, and became a primary HUMINT source handler for operations along the northeastern Afghan border. He conducted over 200 clandestine source operations and led sniper and ladder teams on over 20 high-risk missions—He was the Ground Force Commander and primary entry team leader on various “High Value Target” captures.

He was wounded in a rocket attack during this tour, but was patched up and continued the mission. He received the Bronze Star with combat “V” in these operations.

In 2009, SCPO Beck was requested by name to become the Senior Enlisted Advisor to USSOCOM’s Science Advisor and the S&T Directorate. He has been intimately engaged in all of the key technologies and advanced development efforts at the command. His efforts are critical to providing cutting edge technologies to SOF personnel in support of Special Operations Forces Worldwide.

While at SOCOM, Senior Chief Beck led the development of rapid innovation and prototyping shops now called the Mobile Technology and Repair Complex (MTRC).

The MTRC was a bottoms-up technical capability initiated without formal requirements, propelled by the efforts of SCPO Beck and several senior Non-Commissioned Officers. From initial inception to deployment, Senior Chief Beck was at the helm designing, fabricating, training and contracting all assets of the MTRC.

The MTRC deployed to Afghanistan, and is now forward creating tactical advantages and new mission capabilities daily for SOF units.

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In 2010, SCPO Beck was named in Congressional testimony by the Honorable Zachary Lemnios, Director Defense Research and Engineering:

“...One of SOCOM s most interesting concepts is a deployed

rapid prototyping capability, which allows design, fabrication, modification, and testing of components and systems in the field. The first capability in terms of personnel and equipment is currently in Afghanistan, ...This will enable operators to repair and upgrade deployed systems in hours and days, vice weeks and months. The importance of this connection between the warfighters and the S&T enterprise cannot be understated; in fact, I intend to grow and strengthen these connections....”

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On assignment to assist OSD experts, SCPO Beck co-authored a far-reaching study on the hydrology of the Helmand Province. He then personally developed a technical solution to counter the dwindling water tables in the area, which may lead to new indigenous micro-industry, helping to improve infrastructure in rural Afghan villages.

While in Afghanistan he also wrote a plan for a joint field technology laboratory. SCPO Beck identified communities of interest, established user needs and coordinated details of land use. This “Tech Village” concept has now received the support of OSD’s Rapid Fielding Office and US ARMY R&D command (RDECOM).

At SOCOM SCPO Beck has been an invaluable asset to SOF headquarters staff, components, and deployed SOF units in theater. His outstanding managerial skills and leadership have been responsible for many of the recent successes in SOCOM S&T Directorate.

He personally briefed senior OSD civilians on numerous occasions on key technologies and operational impacts. Prepared USSOCOM position papers on SOF-unique munitions for State Department and White House approvals. As a result of his outstanding achievements, technical innovations and positive impacts in the SOF community, SCPO Beck received the NDIA 2010 Special Operations Achievement Award.

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Director Defense Research and Engineering, Mr. Lemnios’ testimony is perhaps the best summary of Senior Chief Beck’s impacts on the SOF community:

“Chris is a remarkable individual and has spent most of his 20 years of service as a Navy SEAL operator forward deployed, most recently in Afghanistan. He brings a wealth of knowledge to both the S&T and the acquisition efforts. Chris bridges the gap between the capability providers and the operators and ensures systems are relevant to the current fight and operate properly in the most challenging environments.”

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Mr. William Shepherd, the first commander of the International Space Station(ISS) states, “He is an inspirational leader, a proven warrior, and a patriot. In his final active duty assignment, SCPO Beck’s volume of technical insights and innovative contributions have been unequalled, in this command, by civilian or military personnel of any rank.”

-----------TEAR LINE-----------

How did I get here? How did I earn all of this and do all of those missions? Was I driven extra duty because of my gender issues? How did I hide myself in this masculine environment? There are many questions of which I can only tell you my story and hopefully some of the answers will fall out.

OoO

I grew up with this gender issue held inside most of the time. It was still there and would not relinquish its hold on me. I joined the Navy in 1990 in response to Desert Shield; it was the right thing to do, and that is what my family did in every war prior.

I finished top of the SEAL training class. I was driven by such a deep-seated guilt and need to be one of the guys that I went overboard in every way. I thought to myself that I was hiding my inner self by building bigger and thicker armor around me. I was burying the female under layers and layers of maleness. I got deeper and deeper. I was in deep cover and may never come out. I was lost.

During training, I remember we had these Singaporean SEALs who were in training with us. They were not overly excited about being there and were in the middle of the pack, at best, as far as ability and motivation.

Any foreign student in SEAL training was going to make it. They were not allowed to quit or fail. The instructors would carry them or let them pass just to keep them in the training to graduate.

You might ask yourself, Why does every foreigner get to pass? Back in the old days there was a student from a Middle Eastern country; he was a prince or something. He failed out of SEAL training, and upon return to his country, he was beheaded. So the rule is “foreigners pass and get to keep their heads.”

So these Singaporeans were just floating to get to the end. They were in my boat that we paddled every day. I remember being so mad at them that I would hit them in the life jackets with my boat paddle to get them to paddle harder, so we did not fail. If our boat failed, then I was gone, and they still got to float-by and graduate. This was bullshit in my book, and I was not going to fail. I drove myself and everyone else to finish. Yeah, I was wrapped pretty tight. Note to self: be careful in Singapore around the SEALs.

After the basic SEAL training was complete, I went on to SEAL Team One and deployed on multiple tours over and over. I had wanted to be gone, always busy and going a thousand miles an hour and go out in a blaze of glory or something. I don’t know. I was happy in the SEALs; it was great work.

I went on to other SEAL Teams and finally ended up in the top SEAL team in the US Military; the Team that did the missions handed down from the President. I was on missions in the middle-east growing my beard out to almost my belt line; in these countries, if you don’t have a beard then “You are not a man.” Again, doing many missions, way more

missions than anyone should do. I would volunteer whenever it came up, far exceeding what any rational person would consider their duty. I wanted out, and what better way to go out than defending freedom and all that stuff.

It wasn’t like I had a death wish; I didn’t want to kill myself on every mission. You can’t! Too many people rely on you. I worked hard and I would lean out pretty far and jump out front if the need arose. But you can’t have a death wish in the SEALs, they count on you. We are a small unit, and everyone is totally necessary for every part of the mission. You could lean out a ways and volunteer for extra tours, but you could never put your teammates in danger by being reckless and having a death wish. That psychologist that wrote a book had that totally wrong and was speaking from her own head.

I volunteered a lot and didn’t mind leading way out front it was where I became comfortable, more comfortable in combat than I was at home with my family. This comfort in the battle zone and my gender issues caused some heavy drinking and depression when I was stateside, which then all added up to a divorce from my wife of nine years.

I still dressed up in private but rarely when I was working in the SEALs; it just looked and felt funny with a huge beard wearing a dress and heels, but it always made me feel better on the inside even if it did look funny.

I was deployed to the border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan. None of us wanted to be there, Americans, the Russians, the British or anyone over the last thousand years, but this place seems to draw everyone in. No one needed to be there or wanted to be there, but there we were anyway, because it was our duty and we were ordered to be there. This and many wars are easy to debate when looking back, but while you are there you fight and do your best for you friends and ultimately for your country.

When politics and diplomacy fail, then the only tool left for them to use is sending a bunch of young guys to the meat grinder. We smash it out until someone gives in; this tactic dating back to caveman days, still ends in more hate and discontent, and the cycle gets repeated. Someday, maybe the politicians and diplomats will get it right and stop sending nineteen year old kids to die in the desert.

When it comes to defending liberty and a way of life, we will continue to volunteer for the meat grinder, just as I did in 1990. I fought the wars the politicians failed to curtail; I bled in the jungle, the sea and the desert for liberty and freedom or for the failed politics of fat men in suits. It makes me bitter to know that men have died because words have failed, and egos were bruised. I don’t know; maybe I will run for office and make sure that no other young men have to go into war? But then again, hindsight is 20/20, so maybe none of this is senseless. Who is John Galt would be a good question right now.

One of the ways I kept my sanity and escaped the situations that I found myself in, I turned to poetry. Looking back, I could see that I was screaming through my writing, “Look at me world, something is amiss.” At the time, it was a way to blow off some steam – a way out, if only for a moment.

OoO

One of my poems from the SEAL team days deployed in Afghanistan:

“Everyone Prays”

by Chris “Caveman” Beck June 2008 in border town in Afghanistan

I hear the rotors beating the air; I see the hydraulic fluid dripping and remember the old Master Chief saying, "If it’s not dripping, It ran out. Get ready to crash."

I smell the JP8 all around; I see the green glow of NVGs on the 18 guys sitting around me. The place we are going is hot. We expect a fight on landing or earlier.

Don't know if we are all coming home. We have to do this job; our country expects it of us; we are the only ones who can do it, and I volunteered.

The young guys sleep that nervous sleep, that sleep you force on yourself when the unknown overcomes your mind’s ability to grasp

anything else but fear, so they cover it up with sleep. Some of them just stare at the floor.

I'm the old guy, so I have to look at a map or mess with the radio and check last minute details with the pilots. I can’t show anything on my face but steadfast determination and positive vibes.

Fifteen minutes out from the LZ, pass the word, wake everyone, and check gear. A few guys do press checks; most of us have been hot for 3 months; the only time the round or a magazine changes is in anger.

You look around and see the green glow in all their young faces. Some of them bob up and down to memories of Metallica or Lynyrd Skynyrd; guess it depends where you grew up. In the end, we are all the same.

The green glows beat the air and get fired up; you gotta have the blood going fast, going from sitting down to a full out sprint off the back of the Helo into a hot LZ.

Five minutes is called.

The green glows slow down; I look around and smile; I'm doing the same thing.

My head is bowed, and I'm saying my prayer; the same prayer I say every night before we go out deaths door.

God guide me, be with me, make me brave in the face of my enemy, bless my guys all around me, bring us home. If I don't make it, take care of them, take care of my two sons back in Minnesota; give them the peace I never had. Thank You for the time I have had in this life.

I lift my head; some of the guys are still praying. It’s kinda one of those things; everyone prays before a firefight. One minute is called.

We are back to rock and roll. We start standing, checking gear, stomping feet and a few stretches, ready to go.

30 seconds is called, doing a hard bank then flair. We hit the ground, run out into the desert night.

Just another mission...

OoO

The military and what I did in Iraq and Afghanistan is another story, full of the good and the bad. Seven combat tours, thirteen deployments.

How about some stories from those days?

#Kristin Beck #Lady Valor

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