Fifth Avenue Forum

Of course I won't be here

More hilarious bullcrap from the Russian space program's chief Dmitry Rogozin.



This from the head of the space program that in the last decade launched a Soyuz that had a hole drilled in it, had a launch failure on a manned launch that required the use of the emergency escape system, and had an unmanned Progress cargo ship (the cargo version of the manned Soyuz spacecraft) spin out of control and burn up on launch.

The Boeing Starliner OFT-2 mission has now successfully docked to the ISS. This is the repeat of the Starliner's unmanned demonstration mission after the prior attempt in December 2019 went seriously wrong due to software glitches that caused excessive thruster firings to the point where the Starliner no longer had sufficient fuel to reach the ISS. The mission so far has not been without problems. On the orbital-insertion burn, several of Starliner's thrusters stopped working, but the vehicle has a triple-redundant thruster system that allowed it to continue. On approach, the docking adapter didn't extend properly the first time, but Boeing cycled it and it extended properly the second time. Not carrying any crew, the Starliner was carrying a couple hundred pounds of cargo for this demo mission, and it should be at the ISS for about five days. Unlike Crew Dragon, the Starliner is designed to land on land rather than a water splashdown; landings are on the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

With the docking of the Starliner, there are now six spacecraft (two manned, four unmanned) of five different types attached to the ISS: Starliner, Crew Dragon, Cygnus, Soyuz, and Progress (x2).

Very good news for United Launch Alliance. It looks like Blue Origin may be close to finally delivering the first set of BE-4 engines, which are years behind schedule. ULA's current Atlas and Delta vehicles will both eventually be retired in favor of the Vulcan rocket, which uses a pair of BE-4s supplied by Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin (and which will also be used on Blue Origin's own New Glenn launcher).

As said by NASA, "This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground." I believe everything in this picture is a galaxy, not a star, and the galaxies we're seeing are billions of light-years away.

Damn that's absolutely beautiful. So excited for more.


Ultra High-Def:



Comparison to Hubble:

https://preview.redd.it/g2ugi4r771b91.g ... a4f1eb92df

1923 was the first definitive proof that there were galaxies beyond the Milky Way. 99 years later we get that photo. Just unreal.

Say hello to my new PC wallpaper.

That's just awesome

nice mspaint

I'm seriously thinking about making this a canvas.


The folks compiling the colors for NASA are artists.

SpaceX was doing some ground testing on Booster 7 yesterday, and there was a big boom after an engine-start test released a fair bit of methane and oxygen, which ignited in an energetic air burst:



Preventing this sort of air burst of accumulated flammable gases is why the Shuttle had those sparklers (officially the Radial Outward Firing Igniters, or ROFIs) that ignited with that distractive crack at around T-10 seconds, and other launchers like the Delta 4 and H-II use similar systems. The idea is to ignite and burn off any stray flammable gas before it builds up to the point where it could combust with any significant force. It looks like SpaceX might want to invest in some of those systems.

Enjoy.

People joke about being alive at the same time as Elon Musk, but this thread............................. No matter when a person has lived, it is at the peak of human civilization.

I know I make this point a lot, but holy heck. In 120 years time we have gone from the first ever powered aircraft flight; to individual aircraft that have wings that span a greater length than that first flight; to landing people on other celestial bodies (and bringing them back, that's an important detail); and in just 30 of those years we've gone from the left side of that pic to the right side.... which is more than mere image 'resolution', it's a frickin' time machine.

Enjoy.

Man. Stunning.

Congrats to Arianespace for a successful first launch of the Vega-C launcher. The new Vega-C replaces two of the four stages of the original Vega rocket and updates a third. The first stage is replaced by the new, more-powerful P120 solid motor, which for economies of scale and commonality will be the same solid motor used for the strap-on boosters on the upcoming Ariane 6. The second stage is the new updated Zefiro 40 solid motor. The third Zefiro 9 solid stage carries over unchanged from the original Vega. The fourth AVUM+ liquid-fuel stage has been updated from the original Vega and is larger with an increased propellant load.

Arianespace still has a significant problem with the Vega-C, namely, its fourth-stage RD-843 hypergolic engine is made in Ukraine by Yuzhmash, and future supplies are at risk. Arianespace does have plans to replace the Vega-C in turn with the Vega-E around 2026, which will replace the upper two stages with a single liquid stage using a new methalox "M10" engine. They may need to accelerate that development if the supply of RD-843s gets cut off.

The Chinese space agency early this morning successfully launched the new Wentian science module for the Tiangong space station. The launch was aboard the heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket, which I believe is not second only to Falcon Heavy in terms of launch capabilities. The new Wentian module has already docket with Tiangong after a 15-hour trip. Wentian adds working space, resource storage, and an airlock for spacewalks to the Tiangong space station.

Prior launches of the Long March 5B in 2020 and 2021 featured an uncontrolled reentry of the core stage, which is massive enough that debris can still reach the ground. Although most of the stage will burn up, the amount that reaches the ground is still in the range of several tons. Unless the Chinese have modified the core since those prior launches to facilitate a controlled disposal (which is unlikely), expect more news stories along the lines of "Massive Piece of Chinese Space Junk Will Fall to Earth on [Date] and Could Hit Your City!" to start up in the next few days, and those headlines aren't wrong.

IMO, the Chinese not doing a controlled reentry of the Long March 5B's core is a massive act of international douchebaggery. Nothing that big should be reentering uncontrolled, and the Chinese should add an RCS system to the 5B's core to control it to a safe reentry over the ocean, but they choose not to because they're the Chinese.

And the articles have started:

Beautiful night last night up at Camp Archbald. Low of 56. I'm pretty sure my daughter and I legitimately got a direct shot from the solar panels on the ISS. I've probably observed it dozens of times but I've never seen it gleaming like a diamond like it was last night. Kicking myself for not having my phone with me, but awesome nevertheless. 

This is unexpected. Northrop Grumman and space startup Firefly Aerospace have announced that they will be partnering to develop both a new first stage for the Antares rocket and then later a new medium-lift rocket. The Antates uses a Ukrainian-built first stage with Russian engines, and getting either are now highly problematic. Firefly will be providing a new composite first stage powered by seven Firefly "Miranda" engines, which sounds quite similar to Firefly's already-in-development "Beta" launch vehicle. Basically, it sounds like NG will be funding the development of the Firefly Beta's first stage and engines, which will be shared with the Antares, as well as more development of the Beta itself. This gives Firefly a partnership with one of the largest military contractors and aerospace companies in the US.



Because development of the new stage will take several years, NG also announced that it has purchased three launches for its Antares cargo vehicle from SpaceX. This means that the Cygnus will fly on a third launcher, because NG purchased several Atlas 5 launches back when it was transitioning its first stage from the unreliable NK-33 engines to the RD-181 engines.