Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.

Post by **tifosi77** » Tue Nov 19, 2024 4:51 pm

Is this supposed to be another chopsticks situation?

Post by **Shyster** » Tue Nov 19, 2024 4:55 pm

That's the plan, yes.

Post by **Shyster** » Tue Nov 19, 2024 5:05 pm

No go for tower catch.

Post by **Shyster** » Tue Nov 19, 2024 5:12 pm

Huh. Booster seems to be floating pretty well.

Post by **Shyster** » Tue Nov 19, 2024 6:08 pm

That looked like a pretty good reentry and landing, even though SpaceX was trying to up the stress on Starship, and this version was flying with an older heatshield design. The way they were talking, I expected things to get much more melty than they did.

Post by **Shyster** » Thu Nov 21, 2024 1:07 am

Elon says that aborted catch attempt was due to a loss of comms. SpaceX released a post-launch statement that said that the abort was triggered by a hardware health check on the tower, so it seems like whatever caused the loss of comms, it was on the tower and not on the booster.

Post by **Shyster** » Tue Nov 26, 2024 10:42 pm

Last July, JAXA had a bad day when a second-stage motor for the new Epsilon S light-lift rocket exploded on a test stand. An investigation concluded that the failure "was caused by the melting and scattering of a metal part from the ignition device inside the engine." Today was the first test of the redesigned second-stage motor, and it again blew up on the test stand. I'm thinking maybe they didn't identify the correct cause the first time.

Post by **Shyster** » Sun Dec 01, 2024 12:27 pm

New rocket alert. Yesterday was the first launch of the new Long March 12 rocket. This is a two-stage rocket that uses four kerolox YF-100K engines on the first stage and two kerolox YF-115 engines on the second stage, for a lift capacity to LEO of around 12,000 kg. That is right around the "no boosters" capability of the Atlas V rocket, or a Falcon 9 doing an RTLS landing.

Interestingly, the LM-12's payload isn't much less than the also-relatively-new Long March 7, which has been expected to be a major workhorse for the Chinese space program. The LM-7 is thought to do around 14,000 kg to LEO. But the LM-7 also uses six YF-100 engines (two on the core and one each on four strap-on liquid boosters). Because all of these rockets are fully expended, I'm thinking the LM-12 has been developed as a simpler/cheaper option (two fewer engines, no boosters) for payloads that don't require the extra performance of the LM-7. The LM-12 is also a slightly wider rocket and can accept wider payload fairings than the LM-7, which basically inherited the same fuel-tank designs and diameters as the older rockets in the Long March family.

Post by **Shyster** » Fri Dec 27, 2024 7:28 am

Post by **Shyster** » Thu Jan 16, 2025 2:37 am

Congrats to Blue Origin for successfully reaching orbit on the first launch of New Glenn. That thing just kind of moseys off the pad. Blue Origin was also attempting a booster recovery on its drone ship, but the recovery was not successful. The on-screen first-stage telemetry stopped around the time the booster was doing its entry burn, and there were no callouts for a landing burn. I think they did say they were still receiving data from the booster, but it's not clear whether, for example, the booster was still totally intact at that point. We'll have to wait for more info from Blue Origin as to what happened.

Post by **Shyster** » Thu Jan 16, 2025 6:37 pm

SpaceX stuck the tower catch for IFT 7 today, but it looks like Ship 33 had a RUD before SECO. This was the debut flight of version 2.0 of Starship, has hundreds of changes versus the first version, including a new fuel feedline system for the engines. There was a brief shot of the Ship on ascent where we were looking at one of the rear flaps, and it looks like you can see flames coming from inside where one of the hinges is connected. Right around the same time, the on-screen telemetry appeared to show the quantity bar for methane, which had been equal with the bar for LOX, suddenly start much faster. I'm thinking a rupture in the fuel-line system. The Ship might have activated its FTS if it determined that it no longer had the fuel to reach its target orbit. Or the rupture and fire might have caused a structural failure.

Post by **Shyster** » Thu Jan 16, 2025 6:41 pm

This is supposedly the moment the RUD occurred, as recorded from a cruise ship.

Post by **Shyster** » Fri Jan 17, 2025 12:10 am

Elon says there was a leak. I think he is saying that pressure from the leak itself caused the RUD and not the vehicle triggering the ATFS.

Post by **Shyster** » Fri Feb 21, 2025 7:47 am

Post by **Kaiser** » Fri Feb 21, 2025 2:22 pm

The other life on Earth can't catch a break.

Post by **Shyster** » Mon Mar 03, 2025 5:42 pm

Prop load should be beginning shortly for IFT 8, which has a launch window opening at 18:30 ET, or about 45 minutes from now.

Post by **Shyster** » Mon Mar 03, 2025 5:48 pm

SpaceX is now targeting a T=0 of 18:45 ET, or a little less than an hour from now. Prop load has started.

Post by **Shyster** » Mon Mar 03, 2025 6:57 pm

Scrubbed for the day.

Post by **Shyster** » Tue Mar 04, 2025 8:12 pm

Post by **faftorial** » Thu Mar 06, 2025 7:37 pm

Did SpaceX launch another rocket today?

Elmo needs to pay more attention to his businesses that he purportedly runs.

Post by **Ad@m** » Thu Mar 06, 2025 8:13 pm

Post by **dodint** » Thu Mar 06, 2025 10:27 pm

Oh look, more reckless disregard for the people that actually have to live under their exploding bullshit.

Post by **Shyster** » Fri Mar 07, 2025 2:35 am

dodint wrote: ↑Thu Mar 06, 2025 10:27 pm Oh look, more reckless disregard for the people that actually have to live under their exploding bullshit.

I'm sure you know the flight path is over the ocean.

Post by **Shyster** » Fri Mar 07, 2025 2:46 am

Not a good week for SpaceX. First they had a F9 booster tip over after a droneship landing. Then the launch and booster catch for Starship IFT-8 went fine, but there was another Ship failure before SECO. It looks like one of the Raptor vaccum engines had a RUD, which took out other engines and started a loss of control. It's not clear whether the engine was the source of the problem, or the engine RUD was a symptom of something else going on. A propellant leak that causes a sudden loss of fuel or oxidizer flow could also cause an engine to kablooey.

I'm thinking the new plumbing for Ship version 2 still has more design defects that need to be worked out. This is also still only an interim design, because at some point the version 3 Raptors will replace the current version 2 Raptor engines, and that will also lead to plumbing changes for both ship and booster.

We did at least have another good booster catch, and I think the hosts mentioned that this booster could potentially be the first to fly again.

Post by **Shyster** » Fri Mar 07, 2025 2:52 am

In other space news, the Ariane 6 had its second launch on Thursday, successfully launching a French military satellite to sun-synchronous orbit. The second stage also successfully conducted a deorbit burn, which had failed on the first launch, so it looks like ESA got the bugs worked out of the auxiliary propulsion system that had failed on the first launch. That thing really scoots off the pad.