NASASpaceflight.com L2 Overview and Q&A (2010 to 2015)

[Chris Bergin]

Hey. Is it right you can actually download stuff to your hard drive and keep forever? Or is it where you access things but only until your subscription runs out?

Welcome to the site! It's the former, you download content and keep it forever.

Also I had been a member of another subscription service and they kept charging my card until I wrote them an e-mail to stop charging me and remove my subscription. You don't do that here right?

Yeah, we'd never do that. You pay a one off payment for your term. We never "recharge", which some subscriptions do by using the clever "per month" tag. If you join for two months, you pay for two months - for example. You'll get the offer of resubscription a week or so before the end of term, but if you don't act on it, your term simply runs out. You never have to actually "unsubscribe".

Hey Chris, is it acceptable to say pay for a couple of months, let it expire, and then resubscribe again for another couple of months a little while later?

Sure is!

[kcrick]

Hey. Is it right you can actually download stuff to your hard drive and keep forever? Or is it where you access things but only until your subscription runs out?

Welcome to the site! It's the former, you download content and keep it forever.

Also I had been a member of another subscription service and they kept charging my card until I wrote them an e-mail to stop charging me and remove my subscription. You don't do that here right?

Yeah, we'd never do that. You pay a one off payment for your term. We never "recharge", which some subscriptions do by using the clever "per month" tag. If you join for two months, you pay for two months - for example. You'll get the offer of resubscription a week or so before the end of term, but if you don't act on it, your term simply runs out. You never have to actually "unsubscribe".

Hey Chris, is it acceptable to say pay for a couple of months, let it expire, and then resubscribe again for another couple of months a little while later?

Sure is!

Thanks, because I'm considering it.

[KEdward5]

Thanks, because I'm considering it.

You won't be disappointed, other than you'll find you need more than two months to get through all the cool stuff!

[Rangers75]

Thanks, because I'm considering it.

You won't be disappointed, other than you'll find you need more than two months to get through all the cool stuff!

That's the truth! I can't be one percent into this and it's already amazing.

Wish I had known about this sooner, but making up for lost time!

[DavisSTS]

Got to say, I'm loving the way L2 is transitioning. This week's Dream Chaser additions are really great.

[Chris Bergin]

And I'm writing up some DC stuff today, providing nothing breaks in the meantime.

Note to all: Be it confirmation e-mails or resub notices, please check your spam folder, as I noticed one response confirming he was about to resub had my initial e-mail attached with spam in the subject header.

[Galactic Penguin SST]

With the new policy of making the NSF Wild West an L2 posting area, maybe I should re-subscribe again.... which I have been always planning on since I've subscribed for two months last year. It's a treasure trove for spaceflight that I've never seen before.... it's so big that I believe I've only reached the Basement 1 level, and I'm already amazed at the wealth of information, from stunning historical pictures to internal documents from NASA (and hot off the press for some of them!). I definitely recommend every hard-core spaceflight geek to join L2: it's cheaper than a subscription of today's spaceflight magazines.

Good luck to Chris for getting hundreds of new L2 subscriptions on Monday! 

[Chris Bergin]

Thanks GP! I doubt we'll get many L2 members from the Space Policy thread change. It was mainly to keep the civility to a high level, cause it's going to be a painful day by all reckonings. Everyone will still be able to read it, but I can only imagine the food fights if everyone was able to post. It's not called the Wild Wild West for nothing.

I'd honestly prefer new L2 members to join for the goodies we have in there, and to support the site (some people still think we're some sort of company owned site, paying everyone a fat salary and writing articles on a beach. I should post the server invoices and the zero cents I've taken out of this site's revenue).

Appreciate your post a lot!

[Chris Bergin]

Amendment:

Q) If I am NASA, ULA, USA etc. Is L2 free?

A) Yes, simply mail me from your work address (ensuring you've signed up for a username on the forum). Your e-mail will only be used to confirm you are space industry...and only I will receive it, thus will be confidential. There's no condition of becoming a source attached, as much as it would be welcomed. We do, however, expect you to get actively involved, even if it's just answering the occasional question. Treating the site as read only is not welcomed and a "read only" involvement will result in the assumption of an inactive account <---this only applies to free upgraded space industry.

Amendment: Space industry accounts which have been inactive for a period of time will have their L2 access removed.

If you lose your job in the transition (post-Shuttle etc) you will not lose your free access privilege.

[Gary NASA]

Speaking of those at NASA, contractors or in the industry, the updates and discussion from the numerous individuals involved with SLS, from several centers, on the L2 SLS section is actually of a higher quality than official lines.

For me, that is such a strong point of this site and I really appreciate the set up of this site.

[Chris Bergin]

Sorry Gary, I didn't notice this post until now. Really appreciate the kind words.

[HyperTay]

Sure do miss my L2. I've almost got enough in paypal to get it back! Even though as it's been said there's not enough time at all to get through that whole area. Think of Warehouse 13 in files! 

[Chris Bergin]

We've just added our ninth L2 section, the first mission special since STS-135.

[cro-magnon gramps]

Hey Chris,
     Thanks for the quick response, spent about 3 hours this afternoon, scratching the surface; that Tag Cloud is mind blowing; and I really mean that; haven't felt this way, since getting my first computer, just kept going WOW!! and honestly I am not exaggerating my response;
    spent a lot of time on Padrat's photos  totally jaw dropping the whole lot; then into the video feeds; feel like I have walked into Aladdin's Cave; there are other analogies, but this is a public site, and kids have access  but you adults can probably figure out what I am saying;
     if your around Padrat, your one lucky guy, I can't imagine having such a great job, you must literally have to force yourself to ignore the scenery and photo ops  btw, great High Res. sizes;
     oh yeah!! I made the Tag Cloud my home page LOL

Cheers

Gramps

[d3jf]

As I've just re-subscribed for another two months of this drug called L2, I think I should briefly share what it brought to me and what it took away

Before two years ago, I had only occasionally stumbled upon news about shuttle launches and stuff like that, but hadn't pay much attention to it. But then in one of such news articles, there was a link to NASA TV. So I discovered NASA TV ("WOW, is this really live from orbit?") and became hooked.

From then on, I frequented the NASA website but didn't really go into the technical details of things. Until I saw RTLS mentioned somwhere and I thought, wow, that would be one hell of a stunt, and started doing some research.

That's when I came across this forum. I read through some threads of which I could understand barely 50%, but the articles on the site were quite layman-friendly. When the preparations for STS-133  started to become, well, interesting, small screenshots of presentations ceased to satisfy my curiosity, so I started reading through this thread to discover if it was worth it to spend 1 % of my salary on that premium section. After a few posts, I was like "What, all that for so little money? What kind of a crazy person runs this site?"

So I gave it a try. I sent the money and within two hours or so (thank God Chris is only a single timezone away) I had access to an ultimate knowledge base, if you will. And I became hooked really bad.

As a spaceflight newbie, I didn't have the slightest idea about things I now consider basic. I have scavenged information from all corners of L2 and tried to put it all together since then and I have learned a lot, but still barely scratched the surface.

To summarize - L2 is better than college If I read, watched and listened to everything that is on L2, I could become a decent astronaut

And what does L2 take away from me?
- At least 20 % productivity at work
- Free time
- Sleep time
- Hard disk space

Seriously, people, do not even consider buying a subscription, it will crush you. People at work will be looking down at you as the weird guy who looks at shuttles and strange space stations all the time. Friends will be asking you questions about windows in spaceships and rocket engines, and what's worse - you will be able to answer them.

OK, enough typing, will check if there is a new ISS update over at L2 and then get back to work. Oh wait, I saw earlier that the SpaceX cargo manifest is up, have to check that out first, work will wait.

[AndyX]

Hi I joined L2 but forgot to add my username to the note. Hope that is not a problem!

[Chris Bergin]

Hi I joined L2 but forgot to add my username to the note. Hope that is not a problem!

Not a problem at all Andy. I personally receive a notification e-mail and because I personally upgrade people into L2, I can cross reference the e-mail address with the database for the account upgrade, so you're already on and you will have a confirmation e-mail from me to both your e-mail and in your "messages" (top of the forum tool bar in red).

Thanks for your support Andy, enjoy!

[AndyX]

Thanks Chris! And I am, wow! A quick browse show's this is amazing!

[Harly8]

Thanks for the quick upgrade! Loving L2 already!

[MalcolmSpace]

OK I got to get me some of this!