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Every little bit counts (media.piefed.social)
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[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 62 points 2 weeks ago
[-] PugJesus@piefed.social 169 points 2 weeks ago

Back when NASA was flinging things into space for the first time, the tolerances that were even possible were extremely tight. Every pound mattered (every pound still matters, but because we have other things to do once we get to space nowadays, plus every pound is expensive).

600 pounds of white paint for the fuel tank was considered unnecessary, once the engineering team figured that it didn't actually protect the special foam covering of the fuel tank anyway. Thus the distinctive orange color!

[-] Scrollone@feddit.it 106 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

For all the people in the world except the ones from Liberia, Myanmar and the United States, 600 freedom units = ~272 kg

[-] wieson@feddit.org 25 points 2 weeks ago

Thank you, finally something sensible

[-] tetris11@feddit.uk 15 points 2 weeks ago

That's 4 and half men. Or a minivan's worth of kids. Or 100 buckets of KFC

[-] 0x0@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 weeks ago
[-] Dicska@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Tsss, it's barely 1/6th of a skateboarding rhino.

[-] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

also Canada. because we don't use metric in contexts like this

[-] AffineConnection@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

You weigh in beavers?

[-] Gladaed@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago

To many significant digits. It's 300kg

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this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
753 points (98.8% liked)

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