SPACE - random thread about space stuff

[jztemple2]

A story about the history of my old job site, From Apollo to multi-user, the changing yet similar nature of Launch Complex 39

As the Artemis 1 SLS vehicle prepares to take its place on LC-39B later this year for its first round of pad testing ahead of its debut mission, the Space Launch System (SLS) and Artemis program represent yet another major alteration to the LC-39 area of the Kennedy Space Center, originally designed to meet President Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s.

Since Apollo, complex 39 has transformed itself to suit the needs of a changing space program, going on to serve space station operations, the meeting of the Soviet Union and the United States in space, the deployment of numerous, international commercial and government satellites, missions with civilian crewmembers, space telescope launches, station assembly and maintenance missions, and a multi-user expansion in the 2010s.

[Zaxxon]

The history of that launch complex is something else.

Meanwhile, Blue Origin continues to melt down.

[jztemple2]

Uh oh... SpaceX Starlink satellites responsible for over half of close encounters in orbit, scientist says

Starlink satellites might soon be involved in 90% of close encounters between two spacecraft in low Earth orbit.

Operators of satellite constellations are constantly forced to move their satellites because of encounters with other spacecraft and pieces of space junk. And, thanks to SpaceX's Starlink satellites, the number of such dangerous approaches will continue to grow, according to estimates based on available data.

SpaceX's Starlink satellites alone are involved in about 1,600 close encounters between two spacecraft every week, according to Hugh Lewis, the head of the Astronautics Research Group at the University of Southampton, U.K. These encounters include situations when two spacecraft pass within a distance of 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) from each other.

Lewis, Europe's leading expert on space debris, makes regular estimates of the situation in orbit based on data from the Socrates (Satellite Orbital Conjunction Reports Assessing Threatening Encounters in Space ) database. This tool, managed by Celestrack, provides information about satellite orbits and models their trajectories into the future to assess collision risk.

[jztemple2]

NASA halts human moon lander work with SpaceX amid Blue Origin lawsuit

NASA must again stop work on its human moon lander partnership with SpaceX due to a lawsuit from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, further risking the agency's tight timeline to return astronauts to the moon.

In mid-April, NASA announced that SpaceX would build the Human Lander System (HLS), which will ferry astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface, for the Artemis 3 mission due to fly in 2024. But since the decision, NASA has spent just weeks actually working on the partnership due to repeated objections from Blue Origin, which also competed for the contract.

After an independent government agency rejected Blue Origin's first complaint about the contract, the company sued NASA in the Court of Federal Claims, which exclusively hears cases against the U.S. government, on Aug. 13; the agency has now agreed to pause the project for 2.5 months in exchange for resolving the lawsuit by the end of that window.

[Montag]

Bezos needs to take his suborbital upside down smiling penis logo butthurt lazy ass and make New Glenn work or just go cry home to mummy and let the adults do their work.

[Kraken]

Yeah, not cool. But I won't be surprised if Musk keeps working away on it independently during those 2.5 months.

[jztemple2]

Yeah, not cool. But I won't be surprised if Musk keeps working away on it independently during those 2.5 months.

I'm thinking this is true as well.

[Zaxxon]

Yeah, not cool. But I won't be surprised if Musk keeps working away on it independently during those 2.5 months.

I'm thinking this is true as well.

Guaranteed. Starship was/is happening with or without NASA. The frustrating part is that NASA can't work with SpaceX for the next few months.

How's this working out for BO?

Thread:

[jztemple2]

Mating the SpaceX Starship and booster. Take a look at those steering fins!


How it will work:

[jztemple2]

Over the years at KSC I saw an awful lot of these:

[Zaxxon]

That seems less than ideal.

[jztemple2]

That seems less than ideal.

These were inevitably coupled with PA announcements about being in lighting condition one or two or something like that, relating to how close the lightning was. At the highest alert state people weren't supposed to leave their buildings. This was initially enforced by management, but soon it was realized that not letting hourly or union workers leave meant you had to pay them four more hours . So these warnings became voluntary instead of mandatory. I did sometimes leave when lightning strikes were pretty close, but when you are young you are more likely to take risks

[Daehawk]

Bubble shield?

[jztemple2]

Bubble shield?

Shelf Cloud

[jztemple2]

For those interested, the Eric Berger book Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX is avaiable today on Kindle for $1.99

[Zaxxon]

I thought it was a fantastic read. Focuses on the Falcon 1, before SpaceX really got its feet under it. Remarkable story.

[Zaxxon]

Blue Origin not the only launch company to be losing its ever-loving mind.

[Daehawk]

Blue Origin not the only launch company to be losing its ever-loving mind.

Hey that guy reminds me of Walter.

[jztemple2]

Now you know what you want for Christmas: Hollywood artists offer full-scale replica of Apollo spacecraft controls

You can now take the controls of a historic NASA spacecraft — literally.

A team of Hollywood prop and visual artists are offering replicas of the Apollo command module control panel. The museum-quality reproduction features every switch, knob and indicator that was used on board the first three missions to land astronauts on the moon and to bring the Apollo 13 crew safely back to Earth.

"It is here where the impossible becomes possible," team leader Mark Lasoff, an Academy Award-winning artist whose credits include the 1995 feature film "Apollo 13," wrote about the control panel. "It is here where humans and machines interface. It is here where every vital operation, including navigation, propulsion, communication and life support is calculated, calibrated and controlled intricately."

The replica panels will be built and assembled using 14 separate die-cast metal molds and CNC-machined acrylic plates, which will then be painted, laser etched with text and outfitted with LED backlighting to illuminate the panel, just like the original. Lasoff on Wednesday (Aug. 18) revealed the first laser-cut panel section in an update to the project on the Kickstarter crowdfunding website.

"In my entire thirty-year career, I can honestly say this is an extremely impressive creation. The detail is amazing. The two years of modeling it really paid off," Lasoff wrote. "The next step is to get the left and right panels cut, which could happen next week. Then we need to cut the upper acrylic panels."

The Kickstarter campaign is offering the full-scale metal replica for $3,900.

[Kraken]

That's beautiful.

[dbt1949]

Where's the on/off button?

[Daehawk]

Someone will modify that to use in their mech sim.

[jztemple2]

OK, so the Apollo CM panel is too expensive for you? How about a Captain Kathryn Janeway collectible figure?

[jztemple2]

Another thing to blame the anti-vaxxers for... SpaceX faces possible liquid oxygen shortage for rocket fuel amid pandemic. Minor quibble, LOX is not a rocket fuel, it's an oxidizer.

Liquid oxygen (LOX) is in short supply as demand rises with COVID-19 cases in the United States. But as hospitals struggle to figure out how to treat patients, SpaceX worries the shortage could also jeopardize upcoming launches.

With the rapid spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, cases are on the rise as we push through the second year of the pandemic. Hospitals treating COVID-19 patients rely on LOX for ventilator treatments, and with rising numbers, LOX is becoming hard to find.

However, as SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell pointed out during the 36th annual Space Symposium here on Tuesday (Aug. 24), this shortage could impact upcoming launches, as many launch providers rely on LOX, a commonly used propellant.

"We're actually going to be impacted this year with the lack of liquid oxygen for launch," Shotwell said.

[Daehawk]

Good. Maybe they wont get more of those satellites up there.

[Kraken]

Another thing to blame the anti-vaxxers for... SpaceX faces possible liquid oxygen shortage for rocket fuel amid pandemic.

I await your BAM, sir, since I just posted that same link in the SpaceX thread.

[jztemple2]

Another thing to blame the anti-vaxxers for... SpaceX faces possible liquid oxygen shortage for rocket fuel amid pandemic.

I await your BAM, sir, since I just posted that same link in the SpaceX thread.

Great minds post alike

[Kraken]

Another thing to blame the anti-vaxxers for... SpaceX faces possible liquid oxygen shortage for rocket fuel amid pandemic.

I await your BAM, sir, since I just posted that same link in the SpaceX thread.

Great minds post alike

Yeah, but sometimes an hour apart.

[The Meal]

I want that control panel on the wall of my shaker control room.

[jztemple2]

Compare the size of rockets:

[Unagi]

I always pictured the Shavit with a less conical nose cone, maybe even with a payload fairing.

[Max Peck]

The whole HLS lawsuit fiasco makes a lot more sense when you realize the degree of penis rocket envy involved. Jeff's are so much smaller than Elon's...

[Zaxxon]

Crazy Astra launch last night. Spawned some fun memes, tho.

[Daehawk]

OOofh. Looks like its going to the store for noodles.

[jztemple2]

[Daehawk]

Great video. Hope they got a lot of info from that failure.

[jztemple2]

And with everything else going on, we kind of overlooked this: SpaceX launches Dragon cargo capsule to space station, nails rocket landing at sea

SpaceX launched its 21st rocket of the year today (Aug 29), sending a robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station (ISS) before nailing a landing at sea.

A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Launch Complex 39A here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 3:14 a.m. EDT (0714 GMT), kicking off the company's 23rd cargo resupply mission to the orbiting lab for NASA. The Dragon is packed with more than 4,800 pounds (2,200 kilograms) of supplies, scientific experiments and hardware, including a new robotic arm that will be tested inside the space station's Bishop Airlock.

A little less than eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9's first stage returned to Earth, landing on one of SpaceX's drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean in a smooth touchdown. The massive ship, called "A Shortfall of Gravitas," is the newest of three drone ships in the company's fleet of recovery vessels that catch falling boosters and return them to port for later reuse.

"That is the 90th successful landing of an orbital class rocket and the very first for our newest drone ship, 'A Shortfall of Gravitas,'" Andy Tran of SpaceX said during a webcast of this morning's launch. "What a great way to start today's mission."

[Isgrimnur]

Extreme Tech

NASA has now officially completed work on the James Webb Space Telescope. This follow-up to Hubble has been in some phase of development since the late 1990s, and the cost has ballooned to $10 billion, but we’re mere months away from the culmination. NASA is packing the telescope up, and its next stop is French Guiana, where it will leave Earth behind forever.
...
Currently, Webb is scheduled to launch in late 2021, but there’s no firm date. The previous Halloween timeline was the last official date, so we’re now looking at November or December.

[Daehawk]

I would hope Hubble is kept working. At the very least bring it home as a museum piece.

[jztemple2]

I would hope Hubble is kept working. At the very least bring it home as a museum piece.

Unfortunately there no longer exists a way to service Hubble, the Space Shuttle having been retired. Some long term plan might have a modified SpaceX Starship with a payload bay service and even return the Hubble to Earth, but that's pretty much a long shot. I think a lot depends on if and how the Webb telescope performs. If Webb has a major failure, rather than spending money on another Webb, folks might see their way to servicing Hubble.