Fifth Avenue Forum

Readers/viewers of The Expanse know that asteroids are a real threat to the planet. This is good news.

Just the ones propelled by man, right?

I'm assuming the odds are 0 that they didn't accidentally knock this thing into a new orbit that may potentially cross paths with Earth, correct?

I'm assuming the odds are 0 that they didn't accidentally knock this thing into a new orbit that may potentially cross paths with Earth, correct?

Correct. The asteroid NASA hit (Dimorphos) is actually a smaller asteroid in orbit around a larger asteroid (65803 Didymos), and the force imparted wasn't enough to knock it out of that orbit, much less send it closer to Earth. Also, I believe we whacked it in the direction what would reduce its orbital velocity, which means that it will just orbit closer to Dimorphos.

Artemis safely back in the VAB.

Hey, go Google "dart project"

Congrats to Firefly Aerospace for going to space early today on the second launch attempt of its Alpha rocket. The first launch attempt in September 2021 failed to reach orbit and broke up due to an engine that shut down shortly after launch, but Firefly corrected the problem and had a flawless launch from Vandenberg SLC-2W early Saturday morning. The Alpha launcher is an all carbon-fiber-composite two-stage rocket that uses four "Reaver" engines on the first stage and a single "Lightning" engine on the second stage, all burning LOX and RP-1. (If anyone is a fan of the Firefly sci-fi franchise, I understand that these names should be familiar.) Firefly also plans eventual east-coast launches from SLC-20 at CCSFS. The Alpha is on the bigger end of smallsat launchers. It can carry roughly three times the payload of the Rocket Lab Electron and twice the payload of the Virgin Orbit Launcher One.



Firefly has a promising future. Not only does it how have a successful launcher in the Alpha, but as I posted a couple months ago, Firefly is a subcontractor for the Northrop Grumman Antares series 300 rocket and has been hired to provide the first stage booster for the Antares rocket, which will also serve as the first stage as Firefly's own Beta rocket. The Beta is a planned medium-lift vehicle that will be roughly comparable to the Soyuz and now-retired Delta II in terms of capabilities. A lot of space observers think that Northrop Grumman may eventually buy Firefly and bring the vehicles in-house.

I do love watching a manned spaceflight launch and orbital station dock.

This was the first time I remember the on-board camera on Stage 1 not borking out during recovery. It took me a beat to realize the image hadn't frozen and that the thing had indeed landed.

With today's launch, 59-year-old JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata joins his countryman Soichi Noguchi (Shuttle, Soyuz, Crew Dragon) and NASA astronauts Wally Schirra (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo) and John Young (Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle) in the "three different spacecraft to orbit" club. Wakata's four previous space flights were Shuttle flights in 1996, 2000, and 2009, and a Soyuz flight in 2013, so Crew Dragon makes three vehicles. No one to date has ever launched into space on four different vehicles. Noguchi retired from JAXA earlier this year, so Wakata is the only active member of the club.

We watched that the other day, pretty cool with the launch chemcontrail in the background.

For those closer to the Atlantic coast, the next two months have two scheduled launches from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. The Antares NG-18 resupply mission to the ISS is scheduled to launch a Cygnus cargo mission on November 6, and the first launch of the Rocket Lab Electron from Wallops is currently scheduled for December. We also have a Falcon Heavy launch for the Space Force coming up on November 1, and the window for the SLS launch attempt opens back up on November 14.

Whoever launched from Vandenberg tonight, it was visible from my house. Not the best view, but that was my first rocket launch. Wooohoo.

For those closer to the Atlantic coast, the next two months have two scheduled launches from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. The Antares NG-18 resupply mission to the ISS is scheduled to launch a Cygnus cargo mission on November 6, and the first launch of the Rocket Lab Electron from Wallops is currently scheduled for December. We also have a Falcon Heavy launch for the Space Force coming up on November 1, and the window for the SLS launch attempt opens back up on November 14.

Alarms added to phone. Thanks

Whoever launched from Vandenberg tonight, it was visible from my house. Not the best view, but that was my first rocket launch. Wooohoo.

Oh, that was a SpaceX Starlink launch. To be honest, there are so many of them that I lose track.

There's also an upcoming Atlas 5 launch from Vandy that is currently scheduled for November 1 at 2:25 am your time (5:25 am east coast). I believe that is the final Atlas launch from the west coast and the final Atlas launch with the smaller 4-meter payload fairing.

Here we go again. Chine just launched the third and final major module for its Tiangong space station Oct. 31 aboard its Long March 5A heavy-lift rocket, and that means that one again the 21-metric-ton core of that rocket will be making an uncontrolled reentry. The latest prediction from the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron predicts a reentry at 8:16 a.m. (12:16 UTC) on Nov. 4, plus or minus five hours. While the most likely outcome is an entry over the ocean, over 88 percent of the world’s population lives under the reentry’s potential debris footprint.

Anyone else see the meteorite just 5 minutes ago? Was driving down 19 in Wexford, it showed up south toward the city.

Anyone else see the meteorite just 5 minutes ago? Was driving down 19 in Wexford, it showed up south toward the city.

Nice man!

The Taurids peak tonight. They are typically sparse but produce a lot of fireballs. The moon is hurting at the moment, so that's cool you saw one that bright

Beautiful morning for the eclipse

NASA is currently go to proceed with tanking the SLS tomorrow for a launch window that opens at 1:04 am eastern time. I think the most likely outcome is another scrub, but if anyone here wants to watch the potential first launch of the billion-dollar SLS vehicle on the Artemis I mission, be sure to be up late tomorrow.

TIL from nasaspaceflight.com that once the Ground Launch Sequencer computer does the handoff of the launch sequence to the SLS's onboard computers at T-33secs (the equivalent of the "Go for auto sequence start" callout for every Space Shuttle launch), the only way to reset the onboard computers is to fully de-tank the vehicle. So if that handoff occurs and anything thereafter throws an error, it means an automatic scrub for at least a couple days because it takes that long to recycle the fueling system. There's literally no way to just recycle the count and try again once that T-33 handoff occurs.

Why 33 seconds and not 30 or 35?