parallel-parking-the-rocket — PT-PT complete
Source (EN)
- Title
- Parallel parking the rocket
- Summary
- A launch pad is easy. The spot between two comets is not.
- Slug
- parallel-parking-the-rocket
Nobody warns you about parking.
Launching is loud and glorious and the brochure covers it in detail. What the brochure does not cover is arriving at a busy orbit at rush hour and finding one free spot between two comets, both of which parked diagonally.
The committee has therefore opened a training programme: forty hours of simulator time, a traffic cone borrowed from the canteen, and an instructor who keeps saying mirror, signal, retro-burn. Certification is mandatory before anyone is allowed to dock the tin anywhere with witnesses.
The German translation of this report is still with the review board, which is exactly the kind of thing our own publish gate is for.
Translation preview
Ninguém nos avisa sobre o estacionamento.
Lançar é barulhento e glorioso e a brochura cobre isso ao detalhe. O que a brochura não cobre é chegar a uma órbita movimentada à hora de ponta e encontrar uma única vaga entre dois cometas, ambos estacionados na diagonal.
O comité abriu por isso um programa de treino: quarenta horas de simulador, um cone de trânsito emprestado pela cantina e um instrutor que repete espelho, pisca, retro-propulsão. A certificação é obrigatória antes de alguém poder atracar a lata num sítio com testemunhas.