› added 5 years ago

143

TIL When the space shuttle was in operation, it could launch a payload of 27,500 kg for $1.5 billion, or $54,500/kg. For a SpaceX Falcon 9, the rocket used to access the ISS, the cost is just $2,720/kg. SpaceX’s technical advances and cost reductions have changed the direction of U.S. space policy.

Read more theconversation.com

via reddit.com

oRK67 TIL Australia's first ever medal won at the Winter Olympics was a gold medal in Short Track Skating and the skater, Steven Bradbury, was dubbed "the accidental hero" after winning in a very bizarre sequence of his rivals colliding in all the elimination phases (quarter-finals, semi-finals and final)
awvBA TIL Ben Franklin "predicted" Titan Leeds, a rival publicist, to die on Oct. 17, 1733. When he proceeded to not die, Franklin published an obituary anyways. When Leeds challenged this, Franklin insisted he did in-fact die and would only acknowledge the "inferior imposter" until Leeds actual death.
Wkoxd TIL T.G.I. Friday's founder Alan Stillman, despite having no restaurant business experience, opened the restaurant because the neighborhood he lived in had many young, single people and he wanted to meet women.
b9yo9 TIL four new species of epaulette walking sharks were recently discovered off the coast of Australia and Papua New Guinea which are able to travel short distances over land because of their ability to walk using their pectoral fins and live in low to no oxygen conditions for extended periods of time
kOgwe TIL an operation in the Spring of 1945 named “White Buses” was organized by the Swedish Red Cross and Danish Govt to rescue people in concentration camps. Using white buses with the Red Cross seal they were able to get over 15,000 people to safety in neutral Switzerland