Editing 1596: Launch Status Check

{{comic
| number    = 1596
| date      = October 28, 2015
| title     = Launch Status Check
| image     = launch status check.png
| titletext = Visual checks suggest the cool bird has exited the launch zone. Tip the rocket sideways and resume the countdown--we're gonna go find it!
}}

==Explanation==
The first panel shows a {{w|Rocket launch|rocket launch}}, which is a critical point in any {{w|Spaceflight|space mission}}. Before this moment, a large technical staff has put in years of hard work, but all that work (and even lives) could be destroyed in a second if anything {{w|List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents|goes wrong during the launch}}. ''{{w|Countdown|T-Minus}} 2 minutes'' means that there are only two minutes left before the rocket is actually launched, so at this moment everybody is very nervous and worried about the launch going wrong. Other texts from the panel refer to the usual checks before the launch, whose end is to ensure everything is ready.

In the second panel, one of the people controlling the launch sees a "cool bird" on the {{w|Closed-circuit television|live feed}} from the cameras controlling the operation. This should be of no importance at all, given the relatively much more serious matter of having years of work and possibly human lives at stake. However, the technical staff starts commenting on this cool bird and aborts the launch procedure as they are interested in the bird. This behavior would be absurd in real life,{{Citation needed}} but may be presented as a comically extreme example of [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniping]].

In the third panel, the two controllers attempt to identify the bird; the one on the right guesses maybe it is a {{w|Hawk|hawk}}. Since the habitat of hawks and {{w|Vulture|vultures}} overlap almost entirely, a birdwatcher is almost certain to accidentally confuse the two in their lifetime of birdwatching. Obviously having this knowledge of the habitat overlap, the controller on the left asks if the bird was a vulture. The controller on the right accurately notes that it probably was not a vulture since it is commonly known to ornithologists that vultures "hold their wings slightly raised in a "V" when seen head on."[http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Turkey_Vulture/id]. However, this demands that the original sighting of the bird must have included a flight pattern in which the bird not only "flew past the tower" as stated, but also flew towards the tower... even cooler!

The title text goes on with the same absurd behavior: the crew restarts the countdown to launch the rocket, but only to follow the bird and get a closer look at it. The original space mission the rocket was designed for is completely ignored. This is even more absurd than the initial interest in the bird, given that a rocket designed to enter outer space is ill equipped to try to follow a bird and maneuver at the low elevation and at the relatively slow speed of a bird.

This could also be a joke in the well known fanaticism of ''serious'' bird watchers, who think nothing of spur of the moment day long road trips (or flights!) in order to get to view an unusual bird.

The vehicle pictured is not clearly identified, and it could also be totally fictional. It looks very much like the {{w|Atlas V}} launch vehicle. It also has some similarity with the {{w|Falcon_Heavy|SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy}} launch vehicle (albeit with stubbier strap-on boosters), named after the {{w|Falcon}}, another bird of prey. This would increase the absurdity of the situation.

The bird being referred to by the launch-crew features as a mere mark on the comic-strip, consistent with scale against the rocket, but they are obviously trying to start to identify the rough species or group it belongs to from the {{w|Bird_flight#Wing_shape_and_flight|wing geometry}}, the effortlessly soaring carrion-seeking vulture and the hawk that often uses a swooping attack upon its prey typically having very different wing configurations as matches their evolved lifestyle.

==Transcript==
:[A rocket is about to launch. A small object is near the top of the rocket.]
:Countdown: ''T-Minus 2 minutes''
:Offscreen Voice 1: Tank and booster are go for launch.
:Offscreen Voice 2: Safety console?
:Offscreen Voice 3: Check. Safety-
:Offscreen Voice 4: Wait.

:[The small object moves to further to the right.]
:Offscreen Voice 1: What is it?
:Offscreen Voice 2: On the live feed- a cool bird just flew past the tower!

:[The launch scene now a background silhouette, the small object of everyone's attention is no longer on-panel.]
:Offscreen Voice 1: Whoa, what kind?
:Offscreen Voice 2: Like a hawk, maybe!
:Offscreen Voice 1: Could it be a vulture?
:Offscreen Voice 2: I doubt it. The wings were flat, not in a "V".
:Offscreen Voice 3: It could be an eagle!
:Offscreen Voice 2: Ooh!

:[The scene is returns to full contrast, with at least a token attention being paid to it, once more.]
:Offscreen Voice 1: This is launch control. We have a possible sighting of a cool bird. Halt the countdown.
:Offscreen Voice 2: Someone get some binoculars up here!
:Offscreen Voice 3: I want to see!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Space]]