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Cake day: June 18th, 2023

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  • Germany didn’t choose hydrogen because of its greater lifting capacity, they had to use it because the US was the only country at the time with industrial quantities of helium, and they weren’t exporting it. The Hindenburg was originally planed to use helium, but once the Zeppelin Company resigned themselves to having to use hydrogen, they added addition passenger staterooms to take advantage of the excess lift capacity.








  • With the exception of the recent Starliner fiasco, there are never more people on board the station than there are seats on the visiting spacecraft. In the event of a catastrophe, the Soyuz and Dragons function as lifeboats. To leave the station, you need to be able to close the station hatch from the spacecraft side. If you didn’t, the entire station would depressurize in your face when you undocked, which could cause a navigational hazard for the escaping ship.

    Therefore, it must be possible to crank the station hatch shut from the visiting vehicle side, and, it stands to reason, the reverse is true.

    This is a photo of the space-facing side of Shuttle / Dragon docking port on the station. The middle is a target to assist pilots in manually flying into the port straight and level. It was needed for the shuttle, newer spacecraft have automatic guidance. At 12 o’clock is a handle to help pull the hatch shut. (To open, you push the hatch in.) At 6 o’clock I believe is a socket you can put a crank into to seal or unseal the hatch. At 10:30 is a pressure equalization valve.