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Postby Shyster » Mon Jun 19, 2017 6:38 pm

The Bulgariasat SpaceX launch that was scheduled for today has been pushed back a couple days. SpaceX announced they need to replace a sticky pressure-release valve on the payload fairing. There is another redundant valve, but they decided to go ahead and replace it. The weather in Florida is poop with rain and thunderstorms everywhere, so they almost certainly weren't going to go to space today regardless.

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Postby Shyster » Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:36 pm

Successful launch of Bulgariasat and the second flight of a previously-flown first stage. The first stage landed successfully on the drone ship, although it does seem to be leaning a bit to one side. Elon says:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/878334920141135872

The next SpaceX launch is scheduled for this Sunday, June 25, at 4:25 p.m. EDT. The two launches can come so close together because the Sunday launch is from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It's the second SpaceX launch for Iridium Communications and will carry satellites 11-20 of the Iridium NEXT mobile-communications fleet.

Also earlier today we had the 40th flight of the Indian PSLV launch vehicle, which lofted the Cartosat 2E Earth-imaging satellite along with 30 other cubesats.

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

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Postby Kaiser » Mon Jun 26, 2017 12:00 am

Anonymous apparently hacked some NASA meeting and revealed a bombshell announcement of...nothing new about discovering life outside of Earth. But of course its being treated like the proof of E.T.

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Postby Silentom » Wed Jun 28, 2017 9:07 am


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Postby Shyster » Sun Jul 02, 2017 4:37 pm

Two launches were planned for today: the Chinese launch of the Shijian-18 super-heavy experimental communications satellite aboard the second flight of the Long March 5 rocket, and the SpaceX launch of the Intelsat 35e communications satellite. Unfortunately, the Shijian-18 launch has already failed. Early signs point to a failure in one of the two YF-77 engines on the core of the first stage. There was a camera pointing down on the first stage, and it captured the exhaust of one of the two engines. Around 4 minutes into flight and after booster separation, the plume of that engine suddenly shrank, and it seemed at the same time gas was also escaping from somewhere. About a minute later it looked like the same engine either shut down entirely or experienced a RUD; the plume stopped, there was a large release of gas from that side, and based on the horizon it looked like the vehicle was veering off course. I don't know whether the YF-77s on the first stage have a large enough gimbal range such that the second engine could have kept thrusting through the center of mass to stay on course. Whatever happened, the shortfall in performance left the second stage far too low for a successful mission, and it and the Shijian-18 will reenter and burn up (if they haven't already).

This was a rare live broadcast of a Chinese launch. The Chinese space program is run by the Chinese army, and unfortunately for spaceflight fans they've always had a strong air of military secrecy. A public failure like this one might lead to the generals to further cut back on information and videos. I wish them the best of success in investigating the anomaly. The Long March 5 is the planned to be the main carrier rocket for the pieces of the future Chinese space station as well as China's Moon and Mars missions, so it's going to be carrying some very important cargo.

SpaceX's launch is scheduled for 19:36 EDT from LC-39A at Kennedy. This is the tenth Falcon 9 mission of 2017 and the fourth to be flown in the last month. Due to the high mass of Intelsat 35e, which is heaviest GTO payload launched by SpaceX to date, this Falcon 9 will be the expendable version of the rocket with no ability to land for reuse. Intelsat 35e is a 6,700 kg (14,900 lb) communications satellite bound for geostationary orbit over the Atlantic. Built by Boeing, it will provide telecommunications services to Europe, Central and Southern Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and parts of North America as well as direct-to-home satellite TV broadcasting for the Caribbean. Weather is only 40% favorable at the moment.

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Postby Shyster » Sun Jul 02, 2017 4:39 pm

Something big is warping the outer solar system
http://www.futurity.org/kuiper-belt-sol ... 1468172-2/

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Postby Shyster » Sun Jul 02, 2017 8:12 pm

SpaceX had an abort at T-0:09. There won't be enough time to recycle the vehicle within today's launch window, so that's a scrub for today. No announcement yet as to the exact cause, but it was an automatic abort done by the Falcon 9's onboard guidance computer. If the problem is easily fixable, the next launch window is tomorrow,

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Postby Shyster » Mon Jul 03, 2017 9:39 pm

Second launch attempt, and a second about for SpaceX at T-0:09. From other message boards, it is my understanding that at T-0:10 the Falcon 9's onboard guidance computer performs a final go/no-go check of its sensors and settings to make sure everything is set for launch. Something in that final check is clearly throwing up an error. SpaceX commentator John Insprucker said on the webcast that the engineers thought they had identified and fixed the error from yesterday, so I have a feeling a bunch of people at SpaceX are scratching their heads right now.

Depending on whether they can find the problem, there may be another launch attempt tomorrow, which would no doubt give SpaceX bragging rights for the largest bottle rocket to go up on the Fourth of July.

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Postby Shyster » Wed Jul 05, 2017 6:14 pm

SpaceX stood down yesterday in order to perform what Elon Musk called a "full review of rocket & pad systems." They are hoping that the third time will be the charm at 7:38 p.m. EDT. The weather forecast is currently calling for a 90% chance of "go" conditions at launch time.

After this launch gets off the ground, there won't be any east-coast launches until at least August because the Eastern Range is standing down for maintenance to ground stations, communications systems, radar tracking, etc. At the moment, the next scheduled east-coast launch is an Atlas 5 launch NET August 3, which will carry a new communications and data-relay satellite for NASA.
Last edited by Shyster on Wed Jul 05, 2017 6:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby columbia » Wed Jul 05, 2017 6:16 pm

Musk is looney tunes....ie super awesomeness.

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Postby Shyster » Wed Jul 05, 2017 9:13 pm

Third attempt successful. Intelsat 35e is now flying free on its way to geostationary orbit. The next SpaceX launch is scheduled to be the CRS-12 resupply mission to the ISS, which is NET Aug. 10.

The repair work on Launch Complex 40 is supposedly going very well, and there's a chance that the CRS-12 launch could be from that pad. SpaceX needs to shift all of the regular Falcon 9 launches back to LC-40 so that final work can be done at LC-39A to prepare that pad for three-core Falcon Heavy launches. After the AMOS-6 explosion last September seriously damaged LC-40, SpaceX needed to get LC-39A up and running as fast as possible for single-core launches, so they skipped installation of the two Tail Service Masts (TSMs) needed to provide fueling and equipment connections to the two side boosters for the Falcon Heavy. The TE (Transporter/Erector) at LC-39A also needs a few modifications for Falcon Heavy. Once those changes are done, the demo launch of Falcon Heavy should be some time this fall. At least two of the three cores for that launch have already been tested and shipped to Florida. My understanding is that the center stage for the Falcon Heavy will be new, but the two cores used as strap-boosters will be previously-flown cores. One of them was used for the Thaicom-8 mission last year. The idea going forward for the next couple years is to use LC-39A at KSC for Falcon Heavy launches and for manned single-core Falcon 9 launches, while LC-40 handles the unmanned Falcon 9 launches. SpaceX is also building the SpaceX South Texas Launch Site in Boca Chica, which should be able to launch both versions. Construction down there is running behind due to unexpectedly soft soil conditions, and it doesn't sound like Boca Chica will be ready before 2018 or 2019 at the earliest.

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Postby Kaiser » Fri Jul 07, 2017 1:32 am

Juno will be passing over the Giant Red Spot on Jupiter on the 10th.

I am not prepared

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Postby shafnutz05 » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:09 pm

Juno will be passing over the Giant Red Spot on Jupiter on the 10th.

I am not prepared
I cannot wait to see those photos.

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Postby Kaiser » Sat Jul 15, 2017 2:05 pm

A few pics of the spot
Image

Image

Image

Image

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Postby Gaucho » Sun Jul 16, 2017 12:42 pm


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Postby eddy » Sun Jul 16, 2017 4:54 pm

Amazing

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Postby Shyster » Thu Jul 20, 2017 5:27 pm

Elon Musk gave a talk at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference on July 19. Thus spake Elon:

1. The upcoming Dragon 2 crewed capsule was planned to land propulsively using its onboard SuperDraco thrusters, which also double as the launch abort system. Those plans have been scrapped due to both some technical hurdles and serious obstacles with ever getting that technology certified for manned use by NASA and other applicable agencies. The Dragon 2 will splash down in the ocean under parachutes.

2. The elimination of propulsive landing for the Dragon 2 will also scrap the Red Dragon version of the spacecraft, which would have been sent to land on Mars for testing and scientific research.

3. It took a lot more work than SpaceX expected to develop the Falcon Heavy, and Musk said "We were pretty naïve about that." It required a complete redesign of the center-core structure to deal with the loads. There are still a lot of unknowns about how Falcon Heavy will fly that cannot be tested on the ground, and Musk downplayed the potential for success on the first launch. Musk said there is a "real good chance" the first launch won't make it to orbit and "I hope it makes it far enough away from the pad that it’s not going to cause damage." Kablooey or not, Musk says that the first Falcon Heavy launch is "guaranteed to be exciting."

4. About 60 days are needed to prep LC-39A for Falcon Heavy, so if LC-40 is done around the end of August, the first flight of Falcon Heavy will probably be somewhere in November–December.

5. Musk hinted that the massive proposed Interplanetary Transport System that SpaceX unveiled last year may be scaled down in size in the name of financial viability. How to pay for the ITS is the issue, and Musk said that a smaller vehicle would be more suitable for "Earth orbit activity" as well as trips to Mars, with the Earth activity providing the funding.

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Postby Shyster » Tue Aug 01, 2017 9:56 pm

Arianespace is about to launch one of its light Vega rockets carrying two small satellites: (1) the Optsat 3000 reconnaissance satellite for the Italian military and (2) the French-Israeli Venus environmental satellite, which will also test out an experimental plasma-thruster system. The Vega has four stages with the first three being solid. Like a lot of solid launchers, the Vega has a really high thrust/weight ratio at launch, so it takes off like a bat out of hell.

Link to watch: http://www.arianespace.com/mission/vega-flight-vv10/

Currently T-3:00.

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Postby Freddy Rumsen » Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:00 am


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Postby Shyster » Tue Aug 15, 2017 7:37 pm

Ran across this great video of the first-stage landing for yesterday's SpaceX launch. The description on the YouTube page says this was recorded from LC-37B, which is the pad used for Delta IV launches, so presumably the person doing the recording works for ULA (otherwise someone has some 'splaining to do).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuGH7mfkl4

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Postby Freddy Rumsen » Thu Aug 17, 2017 6:44 pm

I can't believe that Uranus story got no play on this here website.

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Postby Gaucho » Thu Aug 17, 2017 6:45 pm

@NAN

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Postby NAN » Fri Aug 18, 2017 8:27 am

HAHAHAHA. Uranus.

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Postby Silentom » Fri Aug 18, 2017 8:29 am

:face:

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Postby columbia » Fri Aug 18, 2017 8:32 am

I can't believe that Uranus story got no play on this here website.
I was intrigued.

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