Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Is the Falcon heavy launching from Vandenberg?
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
I want to say SpaceX will be upgrading the Vandenberg pad for Heavy launches, but I don't think the infrastructure is in place yet. The pad itself was originally used for Titan III and IV launches, so it would be big enough to accommodate the Heavy, but I believe SpaceX would need to install a new transporter/erector for the Heavy and all of the pad hardware for the additional cores. Also, I think the landing site SpaceX built nearby only has one landing pad, so they'd need to build a second one.Is the Falcon heavy launching from Vandenberg?
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
SpaceX is amazing and I love SpaceX.
It is so cool to watch their launch footage with live audio from the HQ. And the recovery of the boosters remains breathtaking to watch; that can't be the easiest way to solve that problem, but good lord is it fun to see.
It is so cool to watch their launch footage with live audio from the HQ. And the recovery of the boosters remains breathtaking to watch; that can't be the easiest way to solve that problem, but good lord is it fun to see.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2019/04 ... -redirect/
In addition to the Falcon Heavy launch, SpaceX yesterday was awarded contract to launch the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission in 2021 from VAFB. DART will be the first mission to demonstrate and test the effectiveness of slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid to change it orbit. This looks like a really neat mission, and it will involve multiple new technologies, including a new type of ion engine, new solar panels, and autonomous control for the spacecraft.
In addition to the Falcon Heavy launch, SpaceX yesterday was awarded contract to launch the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission in 2021 from VAFB. DART will be the first mission to demonstrate and test the effectiveness of slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid to change it orbit. This looks like a really neat mission, and it will involve multiple new technologies, including a new type of ion engine, new solar panels, and autonomous control for the spacecraft.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
OMG SpaceX is going to do a Bruce Willis in Armageddon......!
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Easily one of the worst films ever.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
So that Kate Bouman lady on the black hole team did a TED Talk a couple years ago, specifically about the efforts to capture an image of a black hole. I'm on mobile right now, so I'll post a link in the AM, but it was really cool to watch and see how accurate the predictions were.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Oops. The center core for the Falcon Heavy fell off the droneship due to rough seas.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/15/1831 ... ough-ocean
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/15/1831 ... ough-ocean
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Northrop Grumman is in the final stages of preparation for tomorrow's NG-11 cargo mission to the ISS. The Cygnus spacecraft is targeted to launch on an Antares rocket on April 17, 2019, 4:46 p.m. EDT from Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia. NGIS names its Cygnus spacecraft, and this particular Cygnus is named in honor of NASA astronaut Roger Chaffee, who died in the Apollo 1 fire. In addition to thousands of pounds of ISS hardware, science experiments, and crew supplies, the vehicle will also be carrying more than a half dozen cubesats for orbital deployment.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Chances they change it's orbit and bump it into a collision course with Earth? 1000%.https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2019/04 ... -redirect/
In addition to the Falcon Heavy launch, SpaceX yesterday was awarded contract to launch the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission in 2021 from VAFB. DART will be the first mission to demonstrate and test the effectiveness of slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid to change it orbit. This looks like a really neat mission, and it will involve multiple new technologies, including a new type of ion engine, new solar panels, and autonomous control for the spacecraft.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Wasn't Cygnus the name of the big ship from the Disney live-action movie The Black Hole? (Which was approximately 3,720 kinds of terribad.)
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Today saw a successful launch of the Cygnus spacecraft by NGIS. This is the last launch of the Cygnus on the original Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. NGIS also won a contract for the second round of resupply launches, so Cygnus launches will continue later this year under the CRS-2 contract.
This Cygnus is an updated version that will remain in orbit for months even after leaving the ISS. It's the first Cygnus to incorporate gyro wheels for attitude control, so it doesn't have to constantly use its RCS thrusters for station keeping, and that means it onboard fuel supplies will last a lot longer. NGIS is shopping the use of the Cygnus as an orbital research platform , so they want to demonstrate its ability to stay on orbit for extended periods. For this launch the Antares launcher also used a new payload fairing that has a "pop top" design where the nose can be swung aside in order to add/change cargo shortly before launch. For earlier Cygnus/Antares launches, everything had to be loaded something like four days in advance, and nothing could be added after fairing encapsulation.
This Cygnus is an updated version that will remain in orbit for months even after leaving the ISS. It's the first Cygnus to incorporate gyro wheels for attitude control, so it doesn't have to constantly use its RCS thrusters for station keeping, and that means it onboard fuel supplies will last a lot longer. NGIS is shopping the use of the Cygnus as an orbital research platform , so they want to demonstrate its ability to stay on orbit for extended periods. For this launch the Antares launcher also used a new payload fairing that has a "pop top" design where the nose can be swung aside in order to add/change cargo shortly before launch. For earlier Cygnus/Antares launches, everything had to be loaded something like four days in advance, and nothing could be added after fairing encapsulation.
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SpaceX last weekend was conducting some test firings of the thrusters for the Dragon 2 capsule that recently returned from the demo mission to the ISS. The plan was to test out the Draco reaction-control thrusters and then test the SuperDraco engines that are used for launch escape. I believe SpaceX wanted to make sure that everything was still working after the reentry/recovery, which included a dip in seawater. There have been no official videos from SpaceX, but based on what sure looks like a cell-phone video of a video feed, the DM-1 spacecraft experienced a spectacular RUD during what was supposedly the countdown for the SuperDraco test:
No official statements yet as to what might have gone wrong. A lot of people on the space boards think this was most likely a bursting pressure vessel. If you slow down and go frame by frame, it looks like something in the vehicle burst before there was any fire. No idea whether this indicates a problem with the spacecraft or its design or was somehow caused by the reentry and recovery process (such as by seawater contamination). We'll have to wait and see.
This is a major setback that will almost certainly push back SpaceX's manned program. At a minimum, SpaceX was planning on using the DM-1 vehicle for the in-flight abort test, and they'll now need to construct another vehicle for that. I assume all further tests and flights will be put on indefinite hold until this incident is fully analyzed and the cause determined. At least it happened during a test and not during flight. If something is going to break, then a test is when you want it to break. The vehicle should have been hooked up for test recording, so we can hope there is good data for what went wrong.
No official statements yet as to what might have gone wrong. A lot of people on the space boards think this was most likely a bursting pressure vessel. If you slow down and go frame by frame, it looks like something in the vehicle burst before there was any fire. No idea whether this indicates a problem with the spacecraft or its design or was somehow caused by the reentry and recovery process (such as by seawater contamination). We'll have to wait and see.
This is a major setback that will almost certainly push back SpaceX's manned program. At a minimum, SpaceX was planning on using the DM-1 vehicle for the in-flight abort test, and they'll now need to construct another vehicle for that. I assume all further tests and flights will be put on indefinite hold until this incident is fully analyzed and the cause determined. At least it happened during a test and not during flight. If something is going to break, then a test is when you want it to break. The vehicle should have been hooked up for test recording, so we can hope there is good data for what went wrong.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
The SpaceX CRS-17 cargo mission to the ISS was supposed to launch tomorrow. It has been delayed due to the apparent failure of an electrical switchbox thingamajig on the space station. The failure hasn't affected any important systems, but it did take down some of the redundant backups for systems that would be used for the Dragon docking, and NASA won't permit docking without both primary and backup systems functional. It looks like the electrical box can be swapped out for a spare using one of the station's robotic arms, and that will be attempted in the next day or so. The SpaceX mission currently will not launch any earlier than Thursday, and it could be delayed further.
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shafnutz05
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Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
How many launches per year does Wallops see?
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Depends on the type of launch. From what I understand, Wallops is a major site for the launch of NASA's suborbital sounding rockets, but there's not much to see for those. For the NGIS Antares missions to the ISS, there are roughly two to three per year. The next launch is scheduled for October. Rocket Lab will be building a launch site for its Electron vehicle at Wallops. The pad is currently under construction, and Rocket Lab is hoping to have its first Wallops launch this year. Construction progress as of mid April:
https://twitter.com/Peter_J_Beck/status ... 5733705728
Electron launches would be more frequent than the Antares launches, and they hope for a dozen or more launches per year from Wallops.
Finally, startup Vector Launch (a competitor of Rocket Lab in the small-launcher business) is also supposed to launch missions from Wallops. Vector is kind of secretive about its development and operations, so I don't know how far along they are with development or when the first launches might take place. They said "next two years" in 2017, but space stuff is often delayed. Just like Rocket Labs, Vector is aiming for a high-cadence launch schedule of many launches per year. Vector would use the existing Pad 0B at Wallops, which has occasionally been used for NGIS's solid-rocket launchers in the Minotaur rocket family. The last launch of one of those was the NASA Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) Mission back in 2013, which used a Minotaur V, so they aren't very often at all.
So the answer is, "Right now, not so many, but in the future, maybe a lot more."
https://twitter.com/Peter_J_Beck/status ... 5733705728
Electron launches would be more frequent than the Antares launches, and they hope for a dozen or more launches per year from Wallops.
Finally, startup Vector Launch (a competitor of Rocket Lab in the small-launcher business) is also supposed to launch missions from Wallops. Vector is kind of secretive about its development and operations, so I don't know how far along they are with development or when the first launches might take place. They said "next two years" in 2017, but space stuff is often delayed. Just like Rocket Labs, Vector is aiming for a high-cadence launch schedule of many launches per year. Vector would use the existing Pad 0B at Wallops, which has occasionally been used for NGIS's solid-rocket launchers in the Minotaur rocket family. The last launch of one of those was the NASA Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) Mission back in 2013, which used a Minotaur V, so they aren't very often at all.
So the answer is, "Right now, not so many, but in the future, maybe a lot more."
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shafnutz05
- Posts: 50555
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- Location: A moron or a fascist...but not both.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Thanks! Watching the live launch on my laptop and then running outside from our home in Lancaster County to see the rocket soaring up over the mountain to our south was an awesome experience.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
In 2009 an Orbital Sciences Taurus XL rocket failed to launch the NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory because the payload fairing refused to separate. Orbital redesigned the payload-deployment mechanism. Two years later on its next launch, which was NASA's Glory climate-research satellite, the exact same thing happened—the payload fairing didn't deploy. The two launch failures cost Orbital Sciences and NASA hundreds of millions of dollars, and Orbital lost customers for the launcher, which has since been renamed the Minotaur-C. A continuing investigation over the last 10 years by NASA and the DOJ has now found that Orbital (now Northrop Grumman) was not at fault. Rather, a company that supplied aluminum extrusions for the payload fairings—Sapa Profiles Inc.—had been falsifying literally thousands of test results for its products for more than a decade, affecting more than 200 customers. Sapa and the DOJ just settled criminal charges against the company for more than $40 million.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05 ... ecade-ago/
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05 ... ecade-ago/
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Elon Musk pokes fun at Jeff Bezos' new moon lander
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/el ... cna1004221
I personally find Musk and Bezos throwing shade at each other over their respective space program's to be pretty funny.
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/el ... cna1004221
I personally find Musk and Bezos throwing shade at each other over their respective space program's to be pretty funny.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin recently announced their plans for lunar landers and orbital habitats. Here's Scott Manley summarizing the presentation, including a new lunar lander and a new rocket engine for the lander.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Currently waiting for a 25500x25500 pixel image of the universe to load. It's like watching an image load on dial-up. 647mb.
https://old.reddit.com/r/space/comments ... _detailed/
Even bigger version here: hubblesite.org/image/4492/news_release/2019-17
https://old.reddit.com/r/space/comments ... _detailed/
Even bigger version here: hubblesite.org/image/4492/news_release/2019-17
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
SpaceX tomorrow evening will attempt to launch the first 60 test satellites for its "Starlink" space-based internet constellation. The launch is taking place from CCAFS SLC-40, and a core landing on the OCISLY droneship is expected. Liftoff is scheduled for May 15, 2019, in a window that opens at 10:30pm eastern. A cnet Article on Starlink is below. Due to the low orbits for the satellites, it will take literally thousands of satellites over dozens of launches to set up a full constellation. SpaceX is hoping that Starlink will provide a source of funding for the company's Mars ambitions.
https://www.cnet.com/news/the-spacex-pl ... tarts-now/
https://www.cnet.com/news/the-spacex-pl ... tarts-now/
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
SpaceX will be trying again tonight to launch the 60 Starlink satellites. The launch last Thursday was scrubbed due to high-level winds, and SpaceX decided to roll the payload back in order to do some last-minute software updates on the satellites. That's probably something done more easily on the ground than in space. The launch window opens at 10:30 pm eastern time. This will be the heaviest payload launched to date on a Falcon 9.
Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems earlier today made a lot of smoke and noise at their Utah test site while testing the first Castor 600 solid-rocket stage, which will serve as the first stage on the "light" versions of NGIS's proposed OmegA rocket. The Castor 300, 600, and 1200 are based on the Space Shuttle solid rocket booster, but instead of being made of steel segments joined together, they are solid units made out of carbon composites. That makes them much lighter than the steel shuttle SRBs and cheaper to manufacture, which is important because the stages will not be recovered. The first and second stages of the OmegA will all be based on this design. The first stage will either be this Castor 600 (as long as two segments or half of a shuttle SRB) or the Castor 1200 (as long as a whole four-segment shuttle SRB). The second stage will be the Castor 300, which is half the length of the 600 and equivalent to one segment of a shuttle SRB. The OmegaA's third stage will use two liquid-fueled Aerojet Rocketdyne RL-10 engines, which have been around forever and are also used on the Atlas and Delta rockets.
The test went well up to the last couple seconds when thrust was already tailing off. About two seconds before burnout, the rocket nozzle (which is uses a different design than on the shuttle and SLS SRBs) appears to have rapidly disassembled itself. The rest of the booster held together. Of course, the test stand is precisely where you want oopsies like this to happen, and the Castor 600 was hooked up to sensors recording something like 700 channels of data, so NGIS should have lots of material for the anomaly team.
Full test in the first video. Just the Nozzle RUD in the second.
The test went well up to the last couple seconds when thrust was already tailing off. About two seconds before burnout, the rocket nozzle (which is uses a different design than on the shuttle and SLS SRBs) appears to have rapidly disassembled itself. The rest of the booster held together. Of course, the test stand is precisely where you want oopsies like this to happen, and the Castor 600 was hooked up to sensors recording something like 700 channels of data, so NGIS should have lots of material for the anomaly team.
Full test in the first video. Just the Nozzle RUD in the second.
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Scott Manley with an in-depth explanation of the OmegA test:
I've posted Scott's videos a bunch of times. If anyone wants space news and to hear from someone who's great at explaining space stuff in simple language, I really recommend subscribing to his channel on YouTube. Manley is extremely well-known in the greater space-nerd community, to the point where he just had an asteroid named after him: (33434) Scottmanley. He also posts a lot of videos about Kerbal Space Program, which is how I ran across him.
I've posted Scott's videos a bunch of times. If anyone wants space news and to hear from someone who's great at explaining space stuff in simple language, I really recommend subscribing to his channel on YouTube. Manley is extremely well-known in the greater space-nerd community, to the point where he just had an asteroid named after him: (33434) Scottmanley. He also posts a lot of videos about Kerbal Space Program, which is how I ran across him.