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It turns out we, The Final Frontier, https://thefinalfrontier.stackexchange.com , more commonly known as the Space Exploration Stack Exchange, are turning 10 years old! This summer we hit that huge milestone (it was July 22nd, to be exact)!

While we are hitting this milestone, let's take a bit of time to think about some of the cool things about this site, some fun memories, and the fact that the URL above still works 10 years later even though I might be the only one who remembers it points that direction. Maybe some fun site trivia, or anything else that comes to mind.

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    $\begingroup$ I'd like to say I'm very happy the site exists and I've had a good time here. I'm just bad at digging up specific memories. $\endgroup$
    – Erin Anne
    Commented Aug 13, 2023 at 2:02
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    $\begingroup$ I appreciate that this site has attracted a number of knowledgeable professionals who have direct experience in the topics being asked about here (including at least one astronaut!) $\endgroup$
    – Tristan
    Commented Aug 14, 2023 at 14:44
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    $\begingroup$ It's been a wild ride, but I'm glad to have been a part of it. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Aug 15, 2023 at 20:38
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    $\begingroup$ Even though I have not been here for that long, I am happy to have been part for nearly 2 years! $\endgroup$
    – The Rocket fan
    Commented Aug 16, 2023 at 10:52
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    $\begingroup$ We got a nice "Happy Anniversary" banner :-) $\endgroup$
    – Ludo
    Commented Sep 15, 2023 at 12:42
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    $\begingroup$ I think it would be cool if we got a nice artwork background and banner like, for example, worldbuilding.se or similar to celebrate this occasion ;) $\endgroup$
    – Dragongeek
    Commented Sep 17, 2023 at 8:40

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A few memories -

My favorite answer to a question that I asked - I had wondered about this for decades:

What is the purpose of the "shaft" and "block" in these two different engine gimbal joints?

My favorite Q&A that I had nothing at all to do with:

Apollo image lighting

My favorite answer that I wrote, because the answer seemed to be genuinely surprising, and spawned a bunch of other related questions.

What does "stirring tanks" mean?

I'm glad I stumbled across the place - the first stack exchange community I joined was Ask Ubuntu. I've learned a lot about orbital mechanics here. It's been good to keep my mind in the game thinking about Shuttle and how it worked. It's too bad that as Shuttle recedes into the past there are not many new questions about it here any more.

enter image description here

Ad astra per disciplina!

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It's due to this site that I got into the rabbit hole that is space flight history. Here I learned about all the books, NTRS, and all those other resources (many of which seem to be disappearing as website are no longer maintained...). I know the site's scope is more than historic space flight, but it is the questions on the Space Shuttle, Apollo, etc. that for me are most intriguing and interesting to research.

This Q&A started it for me: How does the Saturn V Dynamic Test Stand work?

I chuckle thinking of this - in hindsight - silly question of mine, because the answer was totally unexpected (for me as non-native English speaker): What is a "fee area" exactly and why is it named that way?

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This has been a whirlwind for me. I was the one who proposed this in Area 51, and have been a moderator most of the time. This site has been an incredible resource for many things.

For me personally the most memorable, and really life changing, moment was the excitement of Elon Musk launching his Tesla Roadster in the first Falcon Heavy launch, which attracted considerable attention. It was largely in the questions of this site, and in the chatroom, that I decided to make a website to track Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, which has lead to a lot of things for me.

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I enjoyed the questions coming from all the SpaceX activity, but found the Tesla Roadster related ones particularly fun, especially @PearsonArtPhoto's calculations, graphs and eventually the tracker site.

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ I haven't checked recently, but I'm pretty sure that was the highest traffic 2 weeks in the site's history. Those were exciting times for sure! $\endgroup$
    – PearsonArtPhoto Mod
    Commented Aug 17, 2023 at 23:22

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