Author Topic: SpaceX News  (Read 126918 times)

AZRedhawk44

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1550 on: July 21, 2022, 01:30:56 PM »
Can remember them claiming a less than 1 week turnaround time then changing that to a 2 week turnaround time during the program's development for the entire vehicle package.


What horseshit.  It had to be strapped to a train and sent from FL to UT, cleaned and serviced, then strapped on a train back from UT to FL.  I don't know if the ATK/Thiokol facility is directly adjacent to a train railyard for delivery of such a payload or if 18 wheelers or SPMT's are then needed as intermediary transport between the railyard and the SRB facility.

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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1551 on: July 21, 2022, 01:45:12 PM »
What horseshit.  It had to be strapped to a train and sent from FL to UT, cleaned and serviced, then strapped on a train back from UT to FL.  I don't know if the ATK/Thiokol facility is directly adjacent to a train railyard for delivery of such a payload or if 18 wheelers or SPMT's are then needed as intermediary transport between the railyard and the SRB facility.

And that's just for the boosters, real world.
NASA was claiming there would be a 2 week turnaround required for the entire package, shuttle and all, during the system's development. Reality often has other ideas. There was a lot of sunshine being blown up people's arses by NASA to secure funding.

According to NASA at the time there was going to be to be a massive fleet of them going up and down like airliners. Yeah, more sunshine.
Got a book I bought while I was down at the cape for the first shuttle launch. Page after page of pie in the sky plans that never happened.

« Last Edit: July 21, 2022, 02:10:22 PM by WLJ »
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1552 on: July 21, 2022, 02:13:32 PM »
Speaking of SRBs this just popped up

Quote
1,369 waiting  Scheduled for Jul 21, 2022  NASA and Northrop Grumman are firing Flight Support Booster 2, an upgraded solid rocket booster for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The test is occurring from Northrop Grumman's test facility in Promontory, Utah.

LIVE: Test of Upgraded Space Launch System (SLS) Solid Rocket Booster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCyEjZErgcY
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1553 on: July 21, 2022, 02:16:34 PM »
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us".
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Jim147

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1554 on: July 21, 2022, 02:22:36 PM »
I had to double check what thread I was in I read SRB as SBR.  So I had to reread what I read.
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1555 on: July 21, 2022, 02:33:12 PM »
And that's just for the boosters, real world.
NASA was claiming there would be a 2 week turnaround required for the entire package, shuttle and all, during the system's development. Reality often has other ideas. There was a lot of sunshine being blown up people's arses by NASA to secure funding.

According to NASA at the time there was going to be to be a massive fleet of them going up and down like airliners. Yeah, more sunshine.
Got a book I bought while I was down at the cape for the first shuttle launch. Page after page of pie in the sky plans that never happened.

Meant to add I'm hoping I'm not seeing the same pattern repeated with Elon and Starship because I'm seeing him make similar claims for Starship NASA made for the shuttle before it flew. So if any skepticism comes through in my posts that where it comes from. Once burned and all that.
So far with the Falcons he's come through on what he said he was going to do. Remains to be seen if he can repeat that with Starship
« Last Edit: July 21, 2022, 08:41:29 PM by WLJ »
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1556 on: July 21, 2022, 03:41:42 PM »
Speaking of SRBs this just popped up

LIVE: Test of Upgraded Space Launch System (SLS) Solid Rocket Booster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCyEjZErgcY

First a delay due to test site camera issues
Then a delay due to the FAA. Sounds familiar
Then NSF's camera battery dies

Looks like a go now
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1557 on: July 21, 2022, 04:06:52 PM »
And right on the heels of that

 LIVE: Starship 24 Conducts Engine Testing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QWf2Y5ZoAQ
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kgbsquirrel

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1558 on: July 21, 2022, 09:36:28 PM »
What horseshit.  It had to be strapped to a train and sent from FL to UT, cleaned and serviced, then strapped on a train back from UT to FL.  I don't know if the ATK/Thiokol facility is directly adjacent to a train railyard for delivery of such a payload or if 18 wheelers or SPMT's are then needed as intermediary transport between the railyard and the SRB facility.

They got to the cape by river barge once in range of a navigable waterway if I recall correctly.

kgbsquirrel

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1559 on: July 21, 2022, 09:42:11 PM »
And that's just for the boosters, real world.
NASA was claiming there would be a 2 week turnaround required for the entire package, shuttle and all, during the system's development. Reality often has other ideas. There was a lot of sunshine being blown up people's arses by NASA to secure funding.

According to NASA at the time there was going to be to be a massive fleet of them going up and down like airliners. Yeah, more sunshine.
Got a book I bought while I was down at the cape for the first shuttle launch. Page after page of pie in the sky plans that never happened.

Meanwhile they killed off the mature Saturn production line that had just finished working out all the bugs in the system (Apollo 17 was the only one to fly without a major technical issue of some sort) in favor of this spending spree death trap.  Just more evidence of total bureaucratic capture of NASA by 1970 (the engineer origins director having been replaced with a politician lackey in '68).  Just another way to siphon tax money to corporations after that, but wearing a skinsuit made of American hopes and ambitions as disguise so we wouldn't notice for a while.

WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1560 on: July 22, 2022, 12:03:58 PM »
Quote
Falcon 9 is launching the Starlink 3-2 mission with 46 internet satellites onboard. Liftoff is scheduled for 10:39 a.m. PT (17:39 UTC) from SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB, California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDp_WALyITs
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RocketMan

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1561 on: July 22, 2022, 02:17:50 PM »
The booster camera stayed live all the way to landing.  The drone ship camera cut out again, though.
If there really was intelligent life on other planets, we'd be sending them foreign aid.

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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1562 on: July 24, 2022, 09:25:03 AM »
Quote
Falcon 9 is launching the Starlink 4-25 mission with 53 internet satellites onboard. Liftoff is scheduled for 9:38 a.m. ET (13:38 UTC) from LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Starlink 4-25 Mission
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMj8VCGaE_c
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RocketMan

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1563 on: July 24, 2022, 12:31:38 PM »
Now they're just showing off.  They nailed the booster landing again.
If there really was intelligent life on other planets, we'd be sending them foreign aid.

Conservatives see George Orwell's "1984" as a cautionary tale.  Progressives view it as a "how to" manual.

My wife often says to me, "You are evil and must be destroyed." She may be right.

Liberals believe one should never let reason, logic and facts get in the way of a good emotional argument.

Jim147

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1564 on: July 25, 2022, 09:30:42 AM »
Sometimes we carry more weight then we owe.
And sometimes goes on and on and on.

BAH-WEEP-GRAAAGHNAH WHEEP NI-NI BONG

AZRedhawk44

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1565 on: July 25, 2022, 10:51:10 AM »
China doesn't do booster landings.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/debris-from-china-rocket-to-crash-land-on-earth-but-no-one-knows-exactly-where

Don't look up.

I'm not sure this is real news or not.  There's a bit of a quasi cold war between the US and China when it comes to space activities, and there have been two instances of the US calling foul on Chinese launches that attain near-orbit of the booster and passively de-orbit later.

Pre-SpaceX, most US launchers would push the booster first stage for only about 4 minutes.  The flight profile is mostly vertical to escape thick atmosphere, but after passing through max-Q it will pitch over and begin building horizontal velocity which defines orbital capability.  The remaining 4-5 minutes of orbital insertion are done by a second stage as the first stage falls  back to Earth, well under 5000mph horizontal velocity and slowing due to wind resistance even in the rarified upper atmosphere.

SpaceX has booster shutdown and separation even earlier in their flight profile.

Seems the Chinese have a long booster burn, near to orbital speed.  You know what else has a similar flight profile?  The upcoming Artemis 1 mission on the Senate Space Launch System.  The core stage with the old RS-25 engines achieves near orbital speed and is roughly calculated to land somewhere in the ocean for each launch, but it also has a passified reentry profile.

I expect Chinese media will be chock full of their equivalent of "zOMG the Americans are lobbing their space trash at us!" after the Artemis 1 launch.
"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."
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I reject your authoritah!

WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1566 on: July 26, 2022, 10:43:38 AM »
Russia: See Ya
Quote
Russia has announced it will no longer take part in the International Space Station after 2024, instead focusing on creating its own orbital station.

“We will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made,” Roscosmos space agency chief Yury Borisov said on Tuesday.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2022/07/26/russia-to-withdraw-from-iss-n2610806
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AZRedhawk44

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1567 on: July 26, 2022, 12:25:42 PM »
I hope the US has the good sense to abandon the ISS in 2024 as well.

It served its purpose as a useful tool both to explore human space flight and perform science, as well as a mechanism to encourage world peace among superpowers... but with Russia gone and China prohibited from participating, it cannot fulfill the latter mandate and it is antiquated and outdated in regards to the former.

Axiom, Blue Origin (snerk) and others are planning orbital installations of their own.  Vacating ISS from orbit will drive more commerce to commercial installations that are newer, sleeker, and less maintenance intensive.

Also, no remaining international "partners" have human spaceflight capability.  ESA is handicapped due to the Russia/Ukraine war and cannot acquire Soyuz/Vega hardware, and is caught flat-footed between their Ariane V and Ariane VI vehicles.  JAXA was always a low priority program for Japan. 

NASA currently spends about $3.1 billion a year on ISS.  NASA currently spends about $6.8 billion a year on Artemis and wants to increase that to at least $7.5 billion or higher in the coming years.  Leaving the ISS behind makes that quite easy, and allows for NASA to continue LEO operations as a customer of Axiom, Blue Origin (snerk) or some other LEO laboratory operator.

I also believe that bowing out of the ISS program would likely drive ESA to finally develop their own human spaceflight program.  It's irked me for years that ESA lacked this capability.  I suspect that India's ISRO will beat them to it.

Now is the time though, to support the direction LEO operations needs to go.  ISS without Russia will be a financial anchor for the US to carry alone.  It also was engineered from the get-go to have certain tasks performed by the Russian modules, and altering procedures such as orbital boosts will result in changes to center of gravity and thrust vectors to the station.  It's too old and fatigued for that.
"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."
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I reject your authoritah!

WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1568 on: July 29, 2022, 10:34:32 PM »
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us".
- Calvin and Hobbes

WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1569 on: July 30, 2022, 07:18:56 AM »
The Angry Astronaut is running a live tracking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRw71_YhcDw

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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1570 on: July 30, 2022, 07:29:25 AM »
Tracking says reentry  ~17:15 UTC (~13:15 EDT) + or - 1 hour

Place your Chinese booster bingo bets

Edit: updated time

« Last Edit: July 30, 2022, 08:43:43 AM by WLJ »
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1571 on: July 30, 2022, 10:31:25 AM »
One track shows it landing on Baja California and the west coast of Mexico
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Jim147

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1572 on: July 30, 2022, 11:39:52 AM »
Nothing good will come from it. We had a giant rock miss us yesterday and another will miss today. This thing needed to hit DC yesterday.
Sometimes we carry more weight then we owe.
And sometimes goes on and on and on.

BAH-WEEP-GRAAAGHNAH WHEEP NI-NI BONG

WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1573 on: July 30, 2022, 12:45:08 PM »
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us".
- Calvin and Hobbes

WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1574 on: August 01, 2022, 05:18:12 PM »
Set for 12:30am Aug 2nd

 Live! RocketLab NROL-199 Launch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lEZqGgGIlU
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us".
- Calvin and Hobbes