Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.

[Shyster]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spac ... SKCN1T12FD

Reuters is reporting that Stratolaunch—the company founded by late Microsoft guy Paul Allen that recently test-flew the world's largest aircraft—is closing operations. A lot of people predicted this outcome after Allen's death. He was the sole source of funding for the company, and his heirs don't seem interested in continuing to pump millions into a space-launch company. When Stratolaunch announced months ago that it was stopping development on its own air-launched rockets, that pretty much put the writing on the wall, and today's announcement just confirms it.

It will be interesting to see if anyone buys the "Roc," which is the nickname for the massive twin-fuselage, six-engine jet that Stratolaunch designed specifically to air-launch orbital rockets. Virgin Orbit has the same business model and will be using a modified 747. Buying the Roc would give them a greater launch capacity, but who knows whether they want to own a one-off aircraft. If no one buys it, the "Roc" would end up as an even bigger white elephant than the Spruce Goose. Below is video from the Roc's (to date) one and only flight.

[Shyster]

In a first, China conducted a successful launch of its Long March 11 launcher from a sea platform in the Yellow Sea. The Long March 11 is a light-lift all-solid rocket that is based on an ICBM design. It's capable of putting around 1,500 lbs into LEO, which places it in the same class as the European Vega rocket and the Minotaur rockets from NGIS. The ICBM origin is why the rocket launches from a tube and doesn't ignite until it's been expelled; it was originally designed to launch from mobile launchers.



The big advantage of doing sea-platform launches is that you can position the launch site at the optimal location for the mission. For missions to geostationary orbit, for example, it's advantageous for multiple reasons to launch as close as you can to the equator. Polar orbits are the reverse; they use less delta-v the closer the launch site gets to the poles. The downside is that it's really difficult to get all of the necessary support and fueling equipment onto a barge. That can be minimized by using an all-solid rocket, though, and the Long March 11 is great for the task because it's based on an ICBM that was designed from the start from remote or mobile launch sites.

[Shyster]

SpaceX this morning successfully launched the RADARSAT Constellation Mission for the Canadian Space Agency from a very foggy Vandenberg AFB. The three satellites launched on the mission will provide Earth-observation services for maritime surveillance (ice, surface wind, oil pollution and ship monitoring), disaster management (mitigation, warning, response and recovery), and ecosystem monitoring (agriculture, wetlands, forestry and coastal change monitoring).

While this was far from the biggest or heaviest mission launched on a Falcon 9, it was the most expensive payload to date by officially announced cost; the three satellites together cost more than $1 billion. (The Zuma payload for the US government is rumored to have cost more, but no price was ever officially announced.)

[LITT]

Had a good view of Jupiter’s last night. Could only see three moons with my telescope

[tifosi77]

SpaceX this morning successfully launched the RADARSAT Constellation Mission for the Canadian Space Agency from a very foggy Vandenberg AFB. The three satellites launched on the mission will provide Earth-observation services for maritime surveillance (ice, surface wind, oil pollution and ship monitoring), disaster management (mitigation, warning, response and recovery), and ecosystem monitoring (agriculture, wetlands, forestry and coastal change monitoring).

While this was far from the biggest or heaviest mission launched on a Falcon 9, it was the most expensive payload to date by officially announced cost; the three satellites together cost more than $1 billion. (The Zuma payload for the US government is rumored to have cost more, but no price was ever officially announced.)

Dangit, I wish I had known this. My own fault for not keeping up with the schedule, but it would be neat if I could see a rocket launch from my yard.

[Shyster]

It's going to be a while, unfortunately. The next launch that I see on the schedule for Vandy is the SpaceX SAOCOM 1B mission, which is roughly penciled in for early January 2020.

[shafnutz05]

Had a good view of Jupiter’s last night. Could only see three moons with my telescope

One was probably obscured by the disc. Very cool, this was one of the more exciting early amateur astronomy moments for me. What do you have?

[LITT]

Had a good view of Jupiter’s last night. Could only see three moons with my telescope

One was probably obscured by the disc. Very cool, this was one of the more exciting early amateur astronomy moments for me. What do you have?

this one: https://www.celestron.com/products/come ... -telescope

first telescope ive ever owned. the stand is a little shaky

[Shyster]

NASA and the Air Force are developing a new launch complex in Florida. The new Launch Complex 48 sits between Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A to the north and and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 41 to the south. LC48 is intended for use by commercial companies wanting a pad from which to launch small launchers. Maximum liftoff weight for small rockets would be 300,000 pounds and no landings would be allowed. The facility will include a bare pad and room for fuel and oxidizer tanks. Beyond that, users would be responsible for bringing their own fueling, transportation, and launch equipment. The 300,000-pound limit would actually allow for some pretty large rockets. The Rocket Lab Electron, for example, only weighs around 30,000 lbs at liftoff, so the pad will be able to accommodate much larger vehicles.

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech ... 408175001/

SpaceX is on track for a Monday night launch of the Falcon Heavy on the Space Test Program-2 mission for the Air Force. The mission will be carrying 24 different satellites that will test a variety of technologies, including a test of a solar sail. The main payload is the six COSMIC-2 satellites, which will provide imaging for meteorology, ionosphere, climatology, and space-weather research. The second stage will fire multiple times in order to deposit sats into three different orbits. While STP-2 is carrying a bunch of useful scientific payloads, the real objective of the mission is that the Air Force wants to further verify the capabilities of the Falcon Heavy before the Air Force is willing to use it to launch any billion-dollar spy satellites for the NRO and similar spook organizations.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06 ... olar-sail/

[Kaiser]

Uranus is weirder than you thought. Uranus

https://www.sciencealert.com/amazing-im ... lar-system

[shafnutz05]

The widely varying characteristics of the rings on the gas giants has always fascinated me.

[Shyster]

A jaw-dropping photo by John Kraus of 27 Merlin engines firing at night:

https://twitter.com/johnkrausphotos/sta ... 2670503937

Successful mission for the Falcon Heavy early this morning. The second stage performed its multiple burns and plane changes successfully and inserted each of the 27 satellites it was carrying into the proper orbits. The side boosters both landed successfully, but the core for the Falcon Heavy went out of control and missed the droneship. Not sure exactly what happened there yet. The video from the ship appeared to show the exhaust plume hitting what seemed to be the center of the droneship's deck, but when the booster comes into view it's turning over to one side, and it looks like it goes horizontal before spearing into the ocean in front of OCISLY. It's not clear whether the core did that intentionally. The aberrant movement might have been part of whatever failed, or it might have been an intentional abort maneuver by the core in order to prevent damage to the ship. This core was coming in faster and hotter than any core for any prior mission, so the chances of a successful landing were iffy.

This mission also featured the first time that a fairing half was successfully caught by the big net on SpaceX's ship Ms. Tree (formerly named Mr. Stephen):



The fairings cost $6 million per set, and they get damaged by immersion in salt water, so catching them is a key to reusing them.

[shafnutz05]

Had a good view of Jupiter’s last night. Could only see three moons with my telescope

One was probably obscured by the disc. Very cool, this was one of the more exciting early amateur astronomy moments for me. What do you have?

this one: https://www.celestron.com/products/come ... -telescope

first telescope ive ever owned. the stand is a little shaky

I noticed Jupiter was shining bright last night so decided to get my daughter's basic kid's telescope out. I was surprised by how good the view was, could make out the moons as well as the two main red bands across the planet. This has given me the itch, and I think I am going to ask for a telescope for Christmas.

I am leaning strongly towards an 8" Dobsonian reflector--I would rather have the better viewing power than a smaller telescope with the computer guidance nonsense. Besides, one of the more fun things about amateur astronomy is using sky charts and your knowledge of the sky to look through the viewfinder and find what you are looking for.

[count2infinity]

Dragonfly was chosen over Caesar mission for NASA's next New Frontiers mission... previous missions include New Horizons, Juno, and OSIRIS-REx.

I met with the crew that were the head researchers for the Caesar mission, and my company was going to work closely with them on the mission, so I'm a little disappointed, but Dragonfly sounds like a cool mission. We'll still be involved with that mission, but to a far lesser extent.

[Kaiser]

I'd had been pissed if they chose comet samples over landing on Titan, but why the F can we not do both? I would lick the SLGBTQ appropriate genitals of whomever would fund things that get us SOMEWHERE. But the stupid monkeys couldn't figure out that money is imaginary.

[count2infinity]

Scientifically speaking, Caesar is far more important than Dragonfly. Dragonfly was the sexy pick... I get that, but it's also riskier. As you said, why not both?

[Shyster]

Arianespace tonight a few minutes ago launched the Falcon Eye 1 Earth-observation satellite for the United Arab Emirates. I think the launch just failed.

[Shyster]

Confirmed. Arianespace just announced that the Vega solid-rocket launcher experienced a Loss of Mission anomaly around the time of second-stage separation. No announcement as to what happened, but there was a graph in one corner of the video feed that showed that actual altitude was deviating sharply from the expected altitude.

[Shyster]

I rewound the live stream I was watching, and I don't think the second stage ever ignited. The launch was in the dark, so one cannot tell from the video whether the stages separated and the second stage failed to ignite, or whether the first stage didn't separate properly to begin with. I find it a little more likely that the stages might have failed to separate to begin with, because I've never heard of a solid-rocket stage ever failing to ignite before. There's a first time for everything, though, I guess.

[tifosi77]

@Shyster

Forgot to post this yesterday. I was down in El Segundo to have lunch with friends, and decided to drive by SpaceX to pass time.

[Shyster]

Unfortunately, they don't offer tours and don't have anything that is accessible to the public other than the core sitting out front. I think I'd at least have a little gift shop to sell t-shirts and stuff.

[robbiestoupe]

I have many photos of SpaceX in McGregor, but not allowed to share them

[Kaiser]

I have many photos of SpaceX in McGregor, but not allowed to share them

I have pics from a disposable camera of a Lockheed UCAV that I still haven't seen anywhere else. That place also had the drone Iran hacked and captured in a hangar. It couldn't fly with us around because the jammer we were testing made it go haywire. Don't remember why I was saying all this.

*Cough*

[Gaucho]

[Shyster]

On the "that wasn't supposed to happen" front, SpaceX and NASA announced the initial findings on the Crew Dragon test explosion today.

SpaceX and NASA detail cause of Dragon test failure, crewed flight this year looks ‘increasingly difficult’
https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/15/space ... difficult/

From the SpaceX press release:

Initial data reviews indicated that the anomaly occurred approximately 100 milliseconds prior to ignition of Crew Dragon’s eight SuperDraco thrusters and during pressurization of the vehicle’s propulsion systems. Evidence shows that a leaking component allowed liquid oxidizer – nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) – to enter high-pressure helium tubes during ground processing. A slug of this NTO was driven through a helium check valve at high speed during rapid initialization of the launch escape system, resulting in structural failure within the check valve. The failure of the titanium component in a high-pressure NTO environment was sufficient to cause ignition of the check valve and led to an explosion.

So a check valve in the system failed and permitted a small amount of liquid oxidizer to get somewhere it shouldn't have gotten to. When the fuel system pressurized immediately prior to ignition of the SuperDraco thrusters, that liquid acted almost like a bullet to slam into and break another valve, and the force of that valve breaking led to sparks and rupturing that produced the kaboom. The fix will be to replace the check valve with a burst valve that has no moving parts and cannot leak.

On the same front, ESA and Arianespace have announced the formation of a commission to investigate last week's failure of the Vega VV15 launch, but no possible causes or other details have been announced to date. It's still not clear whether the second stage ever ignited. The Vega is slated to be replaced over 2019/2020 by the Vega-C, which uses updated and different first and second stages, but there are still five regular Vega launches on the manifest.