The Odyssey Launch Platform, owned and operated by Sea Launch (USA) is a self-propelled, semi-submersible rocket launch pad, measuring 132.8 m (436 ft) long by 67 m (220 ft) wide. This former North Sea oil platform provides accommodation for 68 crew. It has been operating as a commercial space launch facility since its inaugural launch in March 1999. See also: Heaviest Rocket Payload (Commercial)

The Wärtsilä RT-flex96C is a turbocharged, two-stroke reciprocating diesel engine designed to power large container ships and is the world’s largest engine. Built in the Aioi Works of Japan’s Diesel United, Ltd, it has a length of 27 metres (88 ft 7 in), is 13.5 metres (44 ft 4 in) high and weighs over 2,300 tonnes. Using improved fuel injection methods, which have done away with traditional camshaft, chain gear, fuel pumps and hydraulic actuators, the power output of the 14 cylinder version has, in Continue reading →

The largest mass-participation video game featured 242 players, who took part in a football headers simulation for the launch of Disney XD in London, UK, on 28 August 2009. The certificate was presented to Jamie Redknapp (UK) and the stars of TV show Zeke and Luther.

A block 2.7 m (9ft) long by 2.4 m (8 ft) wide, estimated to weigh 59 tonnes, is the largest known meteorite. It was found in 1920 at Hoba West, near Grootfontein in Namibia.

The Wellcome Trust, established in 1936 as part of the will of Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936), has an asset base of £12 billion ($19.46 billion), due to the merger of Wellcome plc with Glaxo in 1995, which left the Wellcome Trust with a 4.7 per cent stake in the new company, Glaxo Wellcome. The Trust has an annual expenditure of £400 million ($648 million). The directive of its founder was that his charity should support: ‘scientific research which may conduce to the improvement of the Continue reading →

The American ten-engined Convair B-36J ‘Peacemaker’ had a wing span of 70.1 m (230 ft), the longest ever for a bomber. The aircraft, which had a maximum takeoff weight of 185 tonnes (410,000 lb), has been out of service since the late 1950s, when it was replaced by the Boeing B-52. Its maximum speed at combat weight was 661 km/h (411 mph), and a normal cruising speed of 370 km/h (230 mph). The B-36J had its maiden flight in August 1946. The B-36 was the Continue reading →

The largest and most massive satellite is Ganymede, which is 2.017 times as heavy as the Earth’s Moon and has a diameter of 5,267 km (3,273 miles). The diameter of Ganymede – discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610 – is greater than the width of the USA. It is the largest moon of Jupiter and the largest moon in the Solar System. It is made of ice and rock and is believed to contain an ocean of salty water around 200 km below its surface. Continue reading →

DNA was discovered in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick at Cambridge, UK. This double helix-shaped molecule contains all the genetic code required to build an individual. Each of the ten trillion cells in the human body contains this code. If each DNA molecule could be unwound and stretched out, they would each be around 2 m (6 ft) long. If the combined DNA from all cells in the body could be stretched out and laid end-to-end, it would reach the Sun and back Continue reading →

The largest mouth in the world belongs to the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) and can measure 5 m (16 ft) long, 4 m (12 ft) high and 2.5 m (8 ft) wide. Its tongue weighs approximately one ton (900 kg). Bowheads are mainly found near the Arctic icepack and feed on planktonic organisms consuming about two tons (1,814 kg) of food every day. As a baleen whale, the bowhead has between 325-360 fringed overlapping plates hanging from each side of the upper jaw, where teeth Continue reading →

Muscles normally account for 40% of human bodyweight in men and 35% in women. The bulkiest of the 639 named muscles in the human body is usually the gluteus maximus or buttock muscle, which extends the thigh. However, in pregnancy the uterus or womb can increase from about 30 g (1 oz) to over 1 kg (2.2 lb) in weight.