ChiefsPlanet - Science Space Exploration megathread

Aside from that, there's this goofy bastard.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SpaceX will try to bring rocket upper stage back from orbital velocity using a giant party balloon</p>— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/985655249745592320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Wait, what?

DaFace

04-18-2018 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donger (Post 13522149)

Wait, what?

Theory is they're going to try using something called a ballute:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballute

DaFace

04-18-2018 04:48 PM

I sure hope this goes well. This is definitely one of the more important things SpaceX has launched so far.

DaFace

04-18-2018 04:52 PM

Looks like a beautiful day to watch a rocket launch.

DaFace

04-18-2018 05:01 PM

Feels like it's been forever since we've actually had a landing to watch. All looks good thus far.

Bewbies

04-18-2018 05:07 PM

It will never get old watching rockets land. So crazy.

Molitoth

04-18-2018 05:17 PM

Doh, did I miss something?

Molitoth

04-18-2018 05:20 PM

weee, just watched the replay on youtube of the drone landing, but do not see any status on catching the fairing.

DaFace

04-18-2018 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Molitoth (Post 13522232)

Doh, did I miss something?

Launch and landing is done, but the webcast is still up if you want to watch. You can rewind for those parts and then go back to live to watch the second burn and deploy here in a bit.

DaFace

04-18-2018 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Molitoth (Post 13522235)

weee, just watched the replay on youtube of the drone landing, but do not see any status on catching the fairing.

They're still having a lot of trouble figuring that part out. They did have chutes on one of the fairing halves but no boat to try and catch it.

DaFace

04-18-2018 05:30 PM

While we're waiting for the sat deploy, I went ahead and updated the OP. Bangabandhu-1 isn't all that notable in terms of the payload, but it'll be the first launch of the "Block 5" version of the rocket. In theory, the booster will be capable of being reused up to 10 times without refurbishment. I'll be curious to see (assuming it works) if they consider giving the boosters names in the future since we'll see a single booster putting in a lot of work.

DaFace

04-18-2018 05:44 PM

All looks good. Still need to hear from NASA that they've got a good signal, but for now, we can breathe easier. :)

DaFace

04-18-2018 05:58 PM

Solar arrays deployed. Now TESS just has to move itself into its proper orbit over the next couple months. Total mission success on the SpaceX side!

Hydrae

04-18-2018 06:19 PM

That was pretty awesome. Love seeing a private firm launching FOR NASA. I have been a proponent of privatizing space since the Apollo program died.

DaFace

04-18-2018 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hydrae (Post 13522307)

That was pretty awesome. Love seeing a private firm launching FOR NASA. I have been a proponent of privatizing space since the Apollo program died.

Yep. I've slowly become more and more against SLS. NASA needs to get out of the launch vehicle game and focus on doing great science instead. Once Blue Origin gets New Glenn up and running, they'll have multiple options for providers to do just about any launch they could want.

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