The incredible machines and systems that make space travel possible, from the rockets that defy gravity (barely) to the life support systems that keep astronauts alive (fingers crossed) to the spacesuits that are essentially personalized spacecraft (with limited mobility and an unfortunate diaper situation). Spaceflight technologies include heat shields that laugh at re-entry temperatures, navigation systems that find a specific spot in the vast emptiness, and communication arrays that send messages across millions of miles with the latency of a really bad Zoom call.
Example: "He bought surplus spaceflight technologies from a government auction—a actual flight-tested heat shield panel. He hung it on his wall as art. Visitors asked if it had been to space. He said yes, and also that it had survived temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun, which was more than could be said for his last relationship."
by Abzugal February 14, 2026
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