3018: Second Stage

2024-11-30T04:49:32Z

172.70.207.78: moved [citation needed] to the end of the sentence

{{comic
| number = 3018
| date = November 29, 2024
| title = Second Stage
| image = second_stage_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hmm, they won't do in-flight delivery, so let's order a new first and second stage to our emergency landing site and then try to touch down on top of them to save time.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SECOND STAGE AMAZON DELIVERY DRIVER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about how rockets use multiple stages when lifting off, and in the comic, they installed too few stages. This is unlikely to happen in real life, because a lot of work goes into planning rockets{{cn}}. As the second stage is supposed to be started (according to the first pilot), the second pilot is initially confused and asks if a second stage was needed. The first pilot confirms that yes there was supposed to be a second stage, and thought that it was the second pilots responsibility to install and confirm there was a second stage. When both pilots realize there is no second stage, the second pilot, naturally thinks he can order one on Amazon with same day delivery (though Amazon typically doesn't sell space ship stages - at least with same day delivery {{cn}}). He then has difficulty picking an address zip code as they are likely travelling too high above the ground and too fast to be in a single postal area for long enough for the delivery to take place. The joke is likely poking fun at people becoming highly dependent upon [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(company) Amazon delivery] and that they don't need to remember to bring things on trips since they can have almost anything delivered to them while they travel.

The comic depicts a manned rocket launch, and the start of its subsequent flight. All current rockets, that are capable of sending manned capsules to orbit, do so by the initial rocket engines and fuel-tank being expended (or nearly so, where there is reusability) and disconnected to allow the smaller next stage to fire and continue the boost towards orbit with altitude-optimal engines and without the mass of the spent fuel tanks. Above this second stage may be one or more other stages, as required for the mission, which generally involves propulsion that is optimal for use in the vacuum of space, having a larger specific impulse but lower overall thrust, allowing for maneuvers to be completed with less fuel.



Note: the rocket design, though apparently at least one segment short, appears to be substantially taller than the launch tower of the pad, which is a strangely incongruous detail. Unless the real rocket support is an angled back "hard spine" structure that has been rotated out of the way and down into the exhaust-flume/flame-trench quenching system.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A multi-stage rocket, with a capsule on top, is lifting-off the ground from a launchpad, at least two rocket nozzles are visibly producing a flame, and the pad is surrounded with smoke and/or steam from the blast suppression system. A voice comes from the capsule at the top.]
:We have liftoff.

:[The first stage separates from the rest of the rocket, part way through the roll-program. There are no obvious engines standing out from the 'second stage' (or extended payload trunk) lower shroud.]
:Main engine cutoff.
:Stage separation confirmed.
:We are go for second stage burn.

:Second stage?

:Yes.
:...What?

:[The first stage and the rest of the rocket are drifting apart in apparent freefall. No rocket is firing and the background does not seem to indicate that this view is beyond the atmosphere.]
:We were supposed to have a second stage?

:...Yes!

:Did '''''you''''' set up a second stage?

:I thought '''''you''''' were handling staging!

:Oh no.

:[They continue to drift apart slowly.]
:Okay, don't panic.
:Lemme see if we can order a stage online for same-day delivery.

:''Sigh''.

:Hey, what zip code should I put? Ours keeps changing.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Rockets]]

Talk:901: Temperature

2024-11-13T20:38:10Z

172.70.207.78:

Apparently, male pregnancy is a thing. It requires surgery and artificial implantation, but it's a legitimate thing that yields live babies. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:00, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
:Link? That's really difficult to believe. [[User:Theo|Theo]] ([[User talk:Theo|talk]]) 18:13, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

:: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_%28film%29 <-- reference [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 03:07, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
::: That movie is fiction. Where is the reference to the actual fact? [[User:FlavianusEP|FlavianusEP]] ([[User talk:FlavianusEP|talk]]) 16:31, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Just a bit of trivia: there's a photo online of a pregnancy test where the control line is not (or faintly) visible and the test line is very visible. Someone said that it can happen if there was so much of that hormone that the test line drained ink from the control line. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.24|173.245.48.24]] 04:10, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
: If that happened you'd probably try again on a new test, possibly a different brand. If it kept happening it would probably want to see a doctor because something's going on there... -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 01:52, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

18 days of elevated basal body temperature are a sign of pregnancy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_body_temperature, no source given there, but I’ve read this somewhere else™ before). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.224|162.158.94.224]] 09:03, 6 September 2020 (UTC)
:Hey, it's the close paren for [https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/859:_( #859]! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.78|172.70.207.78]] 20:38, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

What if the pregnancy tests didn’t tell him he was pregnant, it just was already used? [[User:SilverTheTerribleMathematician|SilverTheTerribleMathematician]] ([[User talk:SilverTheTerribleMathematician|talk]]) 05:30, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3018: Second Stage

Talk:901: Temperature