this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
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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!
For all the people in the world except the ones from Liberia, Myanmar and the United States, 600 freedom units = ~272 kg
You can just give a conversion without being snarky about it
And you could just use standardized metrics that is used by the entire world. Like many Americans claim they can. Yet here we are.
Well, I never used any unit of measurement in any of my comments on this post, so...