<unnamed>

Public Key

npub18rnangevj4f5xx0d4j406hhupkzsck5fqwmtycycpr0x5q8q87xsmsdcyh

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsr3e7e5vkf256rr8k6e2hatm7qmpgvt2ys8d4jvzvq3hn2qrsrlrgpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qk2tl4f

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

Last Notes

2026-11-01 19:36:34 UTC

Calibrating my 5MHz standard.
Last done in 2012, not powered on much since then either.
It's about 27Hz high.
Still drifting upwards, but slowly. I'm guessing it'll top out at 30 Hz high unless it cycles down again.
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/542/853/700/108/536/original/22c129ae8253a870.jpg

2026-10-17 12:03:53 UTC

Let's fix another radio.
The patient this time is this plastic heap of junk. Made by Sonix of Hong Kong (whoever they are).
Faux military styling (I think they are going for).
It doesn't work on a known good battery.
With the back off it's the usual rubbish two IF stage with transformer coupled audio.
#RadioRepair
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/456/133/075/809/179/original/e2bf7e3e7b7a950f.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/456/139/344/479/692/original/5365596f6390c985.jpg

2026-10-04 18:31:00 UTC

Let's fix an old radio.
The patient tonight is a Brother transistor radio, model unknown, vintage unknown.
I do have a working example of a radio very like this, but I can't find it.
#RadioRepair
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/384/060/059/185/432/original/6e3863fee5e589ec.jpg

2026-09-27 19:12:21 UTC

Right, I've crunched 5 gig of images and got three points on a graph.
My first supernova light curve!
I mages over three nights: 20, 21 and 23 of September.
It seems the that supernova was getting brighter over those three nights, and the plot confirms it!
If we had had a few more clear nights, I'd have more points. but three is a good start!
#astronomy
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/344/578/354/308/280/original/c66be14d056dddbc.png

2026-09-24 12:40:06 UTC

A quick lunchtime experiment.
Is the pH caused colour change in autumn leaf extract reversible?
#science
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/326/055/029/617/214/original/7fff945306c0640c.png

2026-09-21 05:46:15 UTC

The dumbbell nebula M27, a planetary nebula formed from the death of a star.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbbell_Nebula
Straight off the #dwarf3
400 X 45sec subs.
#astrophotography
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/307/436/441/344/715/original/93b7cfcbbfc9fde2.jpg

2026-09-03 10:17:53 UTC

Probably nothing to worry about.
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/206/585/314/181/344/original/2feffc2e78aba3b5.jpg

2026-08-30 09:19:32 UTC

I have no electricity to the kettle in my hotel room. I could diagnose and fix this if I had the caffeine to do so.
Maybe I can just chew on a teabag until I'm fully booted up.

2026-08-24 01:38:23 UTC

Eleven and a half hours sleep was very useful.

2026-08-20 17:11:39 UTC

I inherited this hammer from my Grandfather when I was about 8 years old. So I've had it about 40 years. He had it for at least 20 years before I got it.
#tools
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/128/934/922/270/471/original/d742a70fc970b035.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/128/936/380/615/709/original/88fe52255a54c9cf.jpg

2026-08-17 17:55:12 UTC

With a sky like this, we must get some rain, surely?
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/112/127/668/195/062/original/f8c0706c443e26e8.jpg

2026-08-16 16:18:20 UTC

I bought a new radio on the way to the station in Saxmundham.
It's in a box and everything.
#DTLbuysTat
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/106/085/614/227/230/original/adc3e3dc1e3f6e71.jpg

2026-08-13 08:25:06 UTC

Dear Journals I do not want a fucking AI reading assistant on the page trying to summarize the scientific article I'm reading.
I sought out the article because I want the detail. I have multiple qualifications in the topic.
A glorified Eliza chatbot isn't going to make a better stab at understanding it than me.
"How do I feel about that?"
Pissed off.

2026-08-12 19:00:06 UTC

Timelapse of the #eclipse
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/084/074/721/930/219/original/30518452aff8d86a.mp4

2026-08-12 17:22:35 UTC

It's happening. #eclipse
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/117/083/689/119/565/602/original/c54faf7b2f1fa402.jpg

2026-08-12 07:17:53 UTC

Woo. Named in two Nature publications this morning.
Ok, both are rejection letters, but they have my name on and are issued by Nature.
#accademichatter

2026-08-02 10:52:45 UTC

Finished off another article I started on in April.
Designing a 40m full wave loop antenna to fit in my garden.
#hamradio #antennas #indieweb
https://webshed.org/projects/40m-full-wave-loop/

2026-07-31 08:32:09 UTC

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@nprofile…mv7s That just seems like an invitation to shoplift.

2026-07-31 08:25:26 UTC

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@nprofile…mv7s One of the other shops near work uses those, there's usually a queue at the cashier desk as people avoid the self-service there.

2026-07-31 08:22:35 UTC

The co-op self-service tills have had a UI change!
I've years of muscle memory dedicated to the old UI. I can hit the options before it prompts and stop the till chatting at me.
Now it's different for no good reason and I'm left with the till prompting me like I've never used self-service before.
They changed the voice too!

2026-07-26 11:16:56 UTC

I'm trying to hunt down a malformed path generated for a compiler.
Hunting through a twisty maze of Makefiles, shell scrips and python.
This stopped being interesting about 45 minutes ago.

2026-07-21 13:35:09 UTC

Adding my material to a paper written in MS word, it already has 3 authors' contributions in it. They have left random formatting and colours littered throughout it.
You type anywhere and there's a good change half way though a sentence the text will change to bold red on a yellow background.
I think they are going to get a plain text file from me and they can deal with the mess they made.

2026-07-15 18:32:48 UTC

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@nprofile…3mz6 that's vehicular assault. I'm not surprised you were salty with him.

2026-07-14 11:39:55 UTC

Anyone got a quick and dirty Fourier transform implementation for micro-python?
I can't use the one you find as the first hit on google as the micro-python version I'm stuck with lacks the assembler.

2026-07-05 18:45:09 UTC

It's the #NHS 's birthday. 78 years young.
Let's not lose it.
My most recent run in with the NHS was just over 6 years ago. I work up one morning (mid first lock down) and my right arm was incredibly painful.
I got a referral from my local GP - "go straight to A&E"
My elbow had got infected and my arm was basically rotting off in real-time.
An imperial shitload of antibiotics fixed that.
Zero cost to me.
How it should be.

2026-07-01 17:54:09 UTC

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@nprofile…mv7s @nprofile…gvk2 @nprofile…7k5d @nprofile…vnlz 5mm of lead should give sufficient shielding at 60 kV.
If they are firing straight down they can maybe get away with a bit thinner up top, but it's still a fair amount of lead.

2026-06-26 07:08:44 UTC

Marshmallows cannot be allowed to develop thermonuclear weapons.
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/815/288/162/441/567/original/c0c51197170fb53b.png

2026-06-24 17:24:47 UTC

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@nprofile…wqkq perfectly cromulent.

2026-06-20 16:23:25 UTC

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@nprofile…7k5d I need a low voltage DC halogen bulb, do you know what type that takes?
I'm not after the unit, just some info on the bulbs if you have time.

2026-06-19 12:20:11 UTC

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@nprofile…mv7s I think so - it's annoying, the pump is basically new - less than 1000 hours use.

2026-06-19 12:17:28 UTC

Last day at work for a week and one of the turbo pumps on the x-ray kit has died.
It makes a growling sound as it tries to spin up, then stops, makes high pitched whines and finally errors out.
Cheapskate x-ray manufactures only put LED readout on the pump, not the full debug interface, so all I know is "error".
Thanks I can tell that by the fact I have no vacuum,

2026-06-13 15:46:02 UTC

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@nprofile…v9vp yep, flavour spice was always missing when I was in Germany (that said it was 25+years ago I was there frequently)

2026-06-13 15:43:41 UTC

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@nprofile…v9vp spice? In Germany? Does not compute. 🤯

2026-06-13 08:50:24 UTC

If you've had a domain for 20 years, you shouldn't have to pay for it any more.
I've paid the mortgage on it, it's mine.

2026-06-11 09:04:56 UTC

Apropos of nothing, an ethernet interface for an Evans and Sutherland image processor.
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/730/659/712/084/022/original/3ade6b0fd43b8f9c.jpg

2026-06-10 07:36:30 UTC

Are there any #ambigram artists around here?
I want to pay you some money to create one for me.
#NoAI
#art

2026-06-08 04:04:00 UTC

I just worked out the date of an event (in days from now). I went to put it in the calendar as a reminder.
I did the conversion to years.
171 years in the future.
I might not bother adding that one to my calendar.

2026-06-07 10:11:28 UTC

My badge is alive again!
And there's a new access point detected. Someone has issues with a neighbour perhaps?
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/708/278/735/569/831/original/329341bb0229ddb2.jpg

2026-06-03 13:37:14 UTC

Anyone up for a fun game of Name That Jaw?
#Anatomy #science #zoology
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/686/436/260/154/830/original/bbf53812db065ed5.jpg

2026-06-03 07:16:35 UTC

There should be a law against two hour meetings that span LUNCHTIME on your first day back at work after a holiday.

2026-05-24 11:28:05 UTC

I've now eaten the ice cold plum I was saving for myself.
It was so cold and juicy.
So that's alright then.

2026-05-21 17:41:04 UTC

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@nprofile…mv7s was that your router project?

2026-05-15 18:25:25 UTC

I was asked to evaluate LLMs for code stuff today. I wrote up my experience here:
https://affable-lurking.org/2026/05/15/evaluating-the-orphan-grinder/

2026-05-07 11:35:21 UTC

A guess that didn't help at all, followed by a very lucky shot in the dark.
Metazooa Stats
🫎 Animal #1011 🐑
I figured it out in 3 guesses!
🟧🟧🟩
🔥 18 | Avg. Guesses: 7
https://metazooa.com
#metazooa

2026-05-06 11:48:09 UTC

Apparently ignoring an email sent last August means I agreed to give a talk on Friday.
I was just asked for a title.
I asked when I confirmed I'd give the talk, as I had no memory of agreeing to it. If they could tell me when I agreed, I might remember what I was doing at the time and be able to talk about it.
Nope.
Email last August with the schedule, and no reminders given until 2 days before.
I wonder why these sessions are so poorly attended in both speakers and audience?

2026-05-04 18:20:11 UTC

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@nprofile…mv7s engine birdstrike?

2026-05-04 18:17:32 UTC

There is a glaring absence of #swifts in my sky this evening.

2026-05-03 19:58:11 UTC

EMFcamp talk proposals submitted!

2026-04-30 12:45:18 UTC

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@nprofile…8mxe Red whiteboard marker.

2026-04-30 12:36:56 UTC

Right.
I have a laptop, a skull, a scrap of parchment with a Latin inscription, teeth, a wax candle in the shape of a tooth, and a reel of 16mm cine film.
I'm either off to conduct some necromantic ritual or teach.
#academicLife

2026-04-30 10:02:43 UTC

Sorting out props for a talk to secondary school students who are thinking of coming here to do medicine or dentistry.
I'm talking about what a non-clinical research career in those fields might look like.
I have Teeth, Film, Parchment and a Horse skull.

2026-04-29 03:25:21 UTC

Dr Ittai Gradel, the academic turned antiquities dealer who exposed the theft of many hundreds of artefacts from the British Museum, has died of cancer, aged 61.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1mk2pr39k7o

2026-04-26 07:41:03 UTC

#SilentSunday #Iceland
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/469/867/818/854/502/original/1529e36e658bd2c4.jpg

2026-04-25 10:44:50 UTC

Am I the only idiot that thought this weekend was the long bankholiday weekend?

2026-04-19 06:26:36 UTC

#SilentSunday The old sign for the bar I used to work in has finally fallen down, decades after the bar closed.
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/429/931/285/723/753/original/2a1c10557238cb19.jpg

2026-04-16 09:31:51 UTC

What's your favourite prime number?

2026-04-09 15:42:21 UTC

With a Nod to @nprofile…qj99
If you ask chatgpt to tell you about an image but just make up an image name, it will just make shit up.
This is my first time ever using chatgpt and wow - it's a real shitshow.
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/375/499/297/201/273/original/05bf22345ebda36d.png
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/375/499/842/188/825/original/b5154e7727b04dab.png
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/375/500/357/647/686/original/bfb93b32d6da3107.png

2026-04-08 11:16:47 UTC

In the jaunty popular music song 'Flowers' by Ms M Cyrus, she claims to buy herself flowers. Is that Flowers Bitter? Does she know where to get it? I last saw it for sale in an Iceland store well over 15 years ago.
I used to quite like that beer.
If I sent her an email, do you think she'd tell me where she bought it?

2026-03-31 07:50:20 UTC

Today is 2222nd of March 2020.

2026-03-22 15:58:02 UTC

Aliens to distract from the war to distract from the #Epstein files?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/22/ufos-uaps-us-trump-files-release

2026-03-19 17:56:13 UTC

Nice!
Two papers accepted for publication.
Coming soon to that fine journal, Calcified Tissue International.

2026-03-02 19:05:05 UTC

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@nprofile…4w8z @nprofile…k6gw maybe?

2026-02-24 13:50:51 UTC

What the hell is going on with the sky? Is it supposed to be this colour?
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/125/927/266/289/851/original/d84d1cff09883ade.jpg

2026-02-19 10:29:32 UTC

Yay. The mouse mandibles I've been waiting on have arrived.

2026-02-19 08:08:38 UTC

Teddy in two photos.
He was really enjoying time with his squirrel toy, then realised I was taking a photo of him.
#DailyTeddy #dogsOfMastodon
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/096/259/462/917/688/original/f720aec5d61ef5a7.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/116/096/259/691/898/864/original/10f75561d93b6f68.jpg

2026-02-13 20:06:43 UTC

Sitting in a cheap pub on a Friday night. This really needs a David Attenborough narration on the subject of human mating rituals.

2026-02-09 10:04:53 UTC

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@nprofile…8mxe I do wonder if he had just got nose blind to the smell.

2026-01-30 12:51:58 UTC

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@nprofile…8mxe I don't have USB<>SCSI adaptors.

2026-01-23 11:03:23 UTC

Too many emails!

2026-01-18 18:02:35 UTC

Has anyone got a spare set of ribbon cables for a ST506/ST412 HDD? My stash is coming up empty despite having had loads of these drives and interfaces over the years.
#retrocomputing

2026-01-13 15:13:18 UTC

I've got in excess of 30 of these 85mm X 5mm Al disks. Free to a good home, collect from London only.
Anyone want them?
Edit - there's about 70 of them.
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/115/888/428/826/309/724/original/bb9184f43cf07c0c.jpg

2026-01-12 16:51:56 UTC

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@nprofile…mv7s that's a string in the Mac binary I have here.

2026-01-09 14:02:18 UTC

Aren't biscuits just brilliant? And they come in such convenient serving sizes of a whole pack of biscuits.

2025-12-30 07:45:46 UTC

I could have saved a guess if I'd read the clue properly.
Metazooa Stats
🦂 Animal #883 🐶
I figured it out in 6 guesses!
🟨🟨🟩🟩🟩🟩
🔥 2 | Avg. Guesses: 6.4
https://metazooa.com
#metazooa

2025-12-22 18:25:35 UTC

Can Teddy have an #xmashatting please @nprofile…lhws ?
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/115/764/615/724/849/372/original/a0449f2649d8574f.jpg

2025-12-22 07:16:19 UTC

If you live in the South East of England, you get 2 seconds more daylight today than yesterday.
7:49:17 instead of 7:49:15
Enjoy those extra 2 seconds!

2025-12-17 22:04:33 UTC

I spent an hour chasing a bug in my code or makefile, only to realise I had the Arm64 binary of the compiler installed on an x64 box.
That's why it wouldn't build.

2025-12-11 21:06:43 UTC

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@nprofile…e9ms evening!
I saw this squirrel today.
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/115/702/966/249/417/622/original/bbf0134c908569fe.jpg

2025-11-04 09:40:50 UTC

Hello!
Do you have access to an x-ray system, CT, Radiography, or a few seconds on the LHC main beam with a homebrew pixel detector?
Do you want to take part in #XrayMyAdvent this year?
You know you do.

2025-11-03 06:37:11 UTC

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@nprofile…syqt if your budget can handle it, and your hardware can push enough mA quickly enough then a YIG sphere oscillator will do what you want.

2025-10-20 14:21:33 UTC

I'm strongly leaning towards giving up hosting my own email. I've been doing it for 25 years this November, and I'm about done with jumping though all the hoops needed to get mail delivered.
Is there a company you can recommend that will take over all the work and give me an imap account?
I don't mind paying a reasonable sum per year, but I'd really like my email to work again consistently so I can move away from google. #email #selfhosting #SellMeSomethingIWant

2025-10-10 10:07:54 UTC

Who does he bomb first, Norway or Venezuela?

2025-10-01 06:49:48 UTC

So anatomically incorrect I think I need it for the lab.
#snails #bones #anatomy
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/115/297/567/313/480/921/original/d69b6f8e2af906d9.png

2025-06-12 09:08:18 UTC

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@nprofile…gxcf @nprofile…zp6v can you animate this snail skipping? Pretty please.

2025-06-11 20:52:08 UTC

It's really annoying when websites won't accept my actual email address. If it's not google, MS or the like, they don't want to know.
I've been running my own email for longer than google has existed.

2025-06-11 15:02:59 UTC

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@nprofile…8x2j A friend from online joined my dept as a PhD student, it was really hard to start using his IRL name rather than the name I'd known him by for about a decade at that point.

2025-06-09 12:29:12 UTC

Today on my fixit list, a Panasonic 8050 time lapse video recorder.
Someone may have been here before.
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/114/653/399/768/186/631/original/77b0a041dde13ce3.jpg

2025-06-06 09:32:57 UTC

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@nprofile…jrae CATscan.

2025-06-02 10:00:01 UTC

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@nprofile…8x2j I'm the last person standing after a round of redundancies and ends of contract. So I win by default by being the last named applicant, but the budget allocation was worked out last year before I even got involved.

2025-06-02 09:54:11 UTC

Woot.
Just got a grant - £10k, of which I will nothing and I get zero say over how it's spent. But I still get credit for getting it.
#AcademicLife

2025-05-29 09:02:13 UTC

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@nprofile…k2mh @nprofile…32kp I can see from this that I need to get adding the benches in my area. There's none on the map.

2025-05-28 09:00:28 UTC

Marking medical physics exams.
So far two students have decided that an answer they correctly calculated to be a few millimetres must be too small, so they wrote down kilometres as the final units.
For a tendon being extended by a fairly small force.
Oh dear.

2025-05-18 09:22:01 UTC

There should be a law of #physics that prevents you from sneezing when you've got a sore neck.

2025-05-13 15:24:15 UTC

The battery in a set of digital calipers is only there to power an invisibility field. This explains why you can only ever find calipers that have a dead battery. #engineering

2025-05-11 18:39:21 UTC

A moth i just rescued from drowning.
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/114/490/650/431/591/273/original/5c811781450cdd57.jpg

2025-05-09 12:22:56 UTC

A bee really enjoying a dandelion. #bloomscrolling
#bloomscrollingwithabee
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/114/477/844/740/685/381/original/3c42697dd9f0f696.jpg

2025-05-07 19:49:34 UTC

I can see my workbench again.
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/114/468/275/893/865/531/original/7853a7d115d38017.jpeg

2025-05-04 12:43:37 UTC

#silentSunday
https://cdn.masto.host/num8bitorbustinfo/media_attachments/files/114/449/612/328/054/234/original/01a0627dc4426a9f.jpg

2025-04-21 06:37:52 UTC

Added a bunch more names to my filters on here. Only downside is I won't know when he dies.
Could one of you just post "He's Dead" without mentioning his name, when he dies?
Cheers.

2025-04-14 14:44:35 UTC

Seeing a few posts that the New Shepard launch emitted vast amounts of CO2 and we should hate everyone on that trip.
The rocket doesn't burn any carbon containing fuel for launch, it's waste product is steam. It burns oxygen and hydrogen.
Sure, hate people for having more money than sense, but at least get the science correct.
(Yes, they all probably flew in on aircraft burning fossil fuels, so yes, that will emit CO2, but the rocket isn't the problem this time)