Science Space Exploration megathread - Page 101

**DaFace** · 07:17 AM

Since a number of cool things are happening in space exploration these days, we'll widen the scope of this thread a smidge. Conversation about all things space exploration are welcome, whether it be from NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Blue Origin, or anyone else. Chances are most of the discussion will still be about SpaceX since they love to make things public and fun, but nothing's off limits. I'll eventually get around to modifying the OP to include resources for other companies too, but in the meantime, feel free to post any cool stuff you run across.

Lists of Upcoming Missions

Spoiler!

How to Watch a Live Launch

Spoiler!

Where to Learn More

Spoiler!

Glossary

Spoiler!

Space discussions tend to get a little bogged down in jargon, so here's a list of terms you might encounter. (Others, please let me know of others that should be added.)

ASDS - Autonomous Spaceport Droneship - The "barges" that they sometimes land rockets on.
Dragon - The cone-shaped capsule that sits at the top of the rocket for ISS-bound launches that holds the cargo (or, in the future, humans).
F9 - Falcon 9, the name of the rocket itself.
FH - Falcon Heavy, the three-booster version.
GTO - Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, a type of orbit that will eventually result in the satellite orbiting the earth as it turns so that it seems to be in the same spot from the ground (such as DirecTV or Dish satellites). These types of launches are particularly challenging because they require a lot of power to get them into the right orbit, leaving very little fuel left for landing.
HIF - Horizontal Integration Facility - the building near the launch pad where they put all of the pieces of the rocket together before rolling it out to the pad.
ISS - The International Space Station
JRTI - Just Read The Instructions, the name of the "barge" that they land on for west-coast launches.
LEO - Low Earth Orbit, a fairly low orbit shared by many satellites and ISS. These launches usually require less power to achieve the proper orbit, so the first stage can often be landed back on land rather than on a drone ship.
LZ1 - Landing Zone 1, basically a big open slab of concrete at Cape Canaveral where the first stage will attempt to land (for some launches).
NET - No Earlier Than, basically the date they're hoping to launch, but rocket launches have a tendency of getting delayed.
OCISLY - Of Course I Still Love You, the name of the "barge" that they land on for east-coast launches.
RTLS - Return to Landing Site, a mission where the first stage comes back and lands at LZ1.
Starship - SpaceX's next-generation rocket (and spacecraft) that will hopefully one day take us to Mars. Starship is the "second stage" that will carry cargo or people, but also refers to the whole system. (It's confusing, but think of it like the Space Shuttle, which was both the shuttle itself and the entire launch system.)
Super Heavy - The giant booster that will carry Starship to space.

**DaFace** · 01-31-2018, 03:35 PM

Heard a "recovery vessel AOS" in the callouts a bit ago. Guess that means they're still experimenting with fairing recovery. No one has seen the crazy spider arm ship on the east coast, though, so tough to tell what they're trying.

**DaFace** · 01-31-2018, 03:58 PM

Perfect. Now bring on FH dammit!

**DaFace** · 01-31-2018, 06:12 PM

Holy shit...

This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn’t hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived. We will try to tow it back to shore. pic.twitter.com/hipmgdnq16
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 31, 2018

Chitownchiefsfan · 01-31-2018, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaFace

Holy shit...

This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn’t hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived. We will try to tow it back to shore. pic.twitter.com/hipmgdnq16
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 31, 2018

Holy shit that is awesome. Even when they aren't trying they succeed.

Curious. How far ahead of everyone is spacex time wise. It doesn't seem like any other company is anywhere near ready to land rockets yet (out side of blue origin but they are still pretty far from spacex's scale). How far before other people catch up. Over or under 5 years?

**DaFace** · 01-31-2018, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chitownchiefsfan

Holy shit that is awesome. Even when they aren't trying they succeed.

Curious. How far ahead of everyone is spacex time wise. It doesn't seem like any other company is anywhere near ready to land rockets yet (out side of blue origin but they are still pretty far from spacex's scale). How far before other people catch up. Over or under 5 years?

Blue Origin is a weird one. On the one hand, they're far behind. But on the other, they have done a ton of R&D that hasn't come to anything yet, but probably will soon. Couple that with a basically endless pile of money that Bezos could throw at it, and it wouldn't surprise me to see them catch up in 5 years.

I don't think anyone else has a chance.

Cornstock · 01-31-2018, 09:55 PM

This was the first launch I've watched live, YouTube sent me a notification about 30 prelaunch or I would have missed it. Really insightful and informative coverage. Exciting first 10 minutes. I was pulled away so I missed the fairing separation, I'll go back and try to find it.

Can someone explain the significance of how difficult it was to recover the booster? Elon sounded like it was pretty impressive it survived

**DaFace** · 01-31-2018, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cornstock

This was the first launch I've watched live, YouTube sent me a notification about 30 prelaunch or I would have missed it. Really insightful and informative coverage. Exciting first 10 minutes. I was pulled away so I missed the fairing separation, I'll go back and try to find it.

Can someone explain the significance of how difficult it was to recover the booster? Elon sounded like it was pretty impressive it survived

Rocket boosters - especially empty rocket boosters - are very strong vertically, but they're really weak horizontally. If you watch the old explosive landing videos, a lot of them almost land, but when they hit the deck horizontally, the entire thing immediately ruptures.

The expectation is that the booster would tear and explode after hitting the water, but this one apparently slid down into the water so smoothly that it remained pressurized and intact.

Mind you, this booster is trashed and will absolutely never fly again. The salt water will damage pretty much everything even ignoring it'll be dragged through the water 100 miles.

But they might be able to get some good data from it or otherwise learn from it.

**DaFace** · 01-31-2018, 10:23 PM

Cool shot of the flames from today.

eDave · 02-03-2018, 06:20 PM

SpaceX confirms it will try to land all of Falcon Heavy's boosters

Elon Musk's outfit has confirmed that it will attempt to land all three boosters on Falcon Heavy's launch, which is now slated for a 2.5-hour window starting at 1:30PM Eastern on February 6th.

https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/03/...nding-attempt/

aturnis · 02-03-2018, 09:21 PM

Any guess how likely it is the FH will launch the 6th or 7th? I'm thinking of taking my 7yo down, but really worried about wasting the money.

**DaFace** · 02-03-2018, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aturnis

Any guess how likely it is the FH will launch the 6th or 7th? I'm thinking of taking my 7yo down, but really worried about wasting the money.

Pure gut feeling, I'd say 60% for the 6th and 75% for the 7th. It's definitely a risk.

Scooter LaCanforno · 02-04-2018, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aturnis

Any guess how likely it is the FH will launch the 6th or 7th? I'm thinking of taking my 7yo down, but really worried about wasting the money.

Weather will be a Sunny 75 degrees with 10 MPH winds. The weather will not delay this launch. Any of the South beaches or the Titusville river front parks will give you a good view without the sun in your eyes.

**DaFace** · 02-05-2018, 10:47 AM

24(ish) hour bump for FALCON HEAVY!!! Looks like we're gonna have all sorts of cameras on the car and its passenger...

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000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Starman in Red Roadster

c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Feb 4, 2018 at 9:50pm PST

**DaFace** · 02-05-2018, 11:13 AM

I believe this is unofficial, but should be pretty close. Doubt the fairing recovery is ready for prime time yet, though.

**Donger** · 02-05-2018, 11:26 AM

What's the liftoff time?

06-01-2014, 09:40 AM
DaFace Kind of a mod Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Donkey Land Casino cash: $-83101	Space Exploration megathread Since a number of cool things are happening in space exploration these days, we'll widen the scope of this thread a smidge. Conversation about all things space exploration are welcome, whether it be from NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Blue Origin, or anyone else. Chances are most of the discussion will still be about SpaceX since they love to make things public and fun, but nothing's off limits. I'll eventually get around to modifying the OP to include resources for other companies too, but in the meantime, feel free to post any cool stuff you run across. Lists of Upcoming Missions Spoiler! General lists: https://nextspaceflight.com/ http://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/ SpaceX specific list: https://spacexnow.com/upcoming.php How to Watch a Live Launch Spoiler! SpaceX: https://www.spacex.com/launches/ ULA: https://www.youtube.com/user/UnitedLaunchAlliance RocketLab: https://www.youtube.com/user/RocketLabNZ NASATV will also cover some launches (primarily ISS resupply missions): https://www.youtube.com/user/NASAtelevision Where to Learn More Spoiler! Some cool pics... https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/ https://www.instagram.com/spacex/?hl=en Twitter feed is usually interesing... https://twitter.com/SpaceX https://twitter.com/elonmusk The SpaceX sub is a great source of info... https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/wiki/index And for a more forum-style discussion board... http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php#c17 And there are plenty of YouTube channels with great content... Joe Scott - Lost of "future" discussion. Some about rockets and space. Much that goes beyond. Scott Manley - Super smart dude (engineer) who reviews a lot of major events in space exploration. Frazer Cain (Universe Today) - Podcast-style videos that go in-depth into space topics. Tim Dodd (Everyday Astronaut) - A "random dude" who got really into space (particularly SpaceX). He's a great resource for simple explanations of this stuff, as well as live hosting launches. USLaunchReport - Lost of videos of the more mundane stuff (e.g., booster recovery operations). Not a ton of commentary. NASASpaceFlight - Live hosting of most launches including a ton of video of Starlink operations. Glossary Spoiler! Space discussions tend to get a little bogged down in jargon, so here's a list of terms you might encounter. (Others, please let me know of others that should be added.) ASDS - Autonomous Spaceport Droneship - The "barges" that they sometimes land rockets on. Dragon - The cone-shaped capsule that sits at the top of the rocket for ISS-bound launches that holds the cargo (or, in the future, humans). F9 - Falcon 9, the name of the rocket itself. FH - Falcon Heavy, the three-booster version. GTO - Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, a type of orbit that will eventually result in the satellite orbiting the earth as it turns so that it seems to be in the same spot from the ground (such as DirecTV or Dish satellites). These types of launches are particularly challenging because they require a lot of power to get them into the right orbit, leaving very little fuel left for landing. HIF - Horizontal Integration Facility - the building near the launch pad where they put all of the pieces of the rocket together before rolling it out to the pad. ISS - The International Space Station JRTI - Just Read The Instructions, the name of the "barge" that they land on for west-coast launches. LEO - Low Earth Orbit, a fairly low orbit shared by many satellites and ISS. These launches usually require less power to achieve the proper orbit, so the first stage can often be landed back on land rather than on a drone ship. LZ1 - Landing Zone 1, basically a big open slab of concrete at Cape Canaveral where the first stage will attempt to land (for some launches). NET - No Earlier Than, basically the date they're hoping to launch, but rocket launches have a tendency of getting delayed. OCISLY - Of Course I Still Love You, the name of the "barge" that they land on for east-coast launches. RTLS - Return to Landing Site, a mission where the first stage comes back and lands at LZ1. Starship - SpaceX's next-generation rocket (and spacecraft) that will hopefully one day take us to Mars. Starship is the "second stage" that will carry cargo or people, but also refers to the whole system. (It's confusing, but think of it like the Space Shuttle, which was both the shuttle itself and the entire launch system.) Super Heavy - The giant booster that will carry Starship to space. Last edited by DaFace; 10-13-2024 at 07:17 AM..
Posts: 52,580	1 0

01-31-2018, 03:35 PM	#1501
DaFace Kind of a mod Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Donkey Land Casino cash: $-83101	Heard a "recovery vessel AOS" in the callouts a bit ago. Guess that means they're still experimenting with fairing recovery. No one has seen the crazy spider arm ship on the east coast, though, so tough to tell what they're trying.
Posts: 52,580

01-31-2018, 03:58 PM	#1502
DaFace Kind of a mod Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Donkey Land Casino cash: $-83101	Perfect. Now bring on FH dammit!
Posts: 52,580

01-31-2018, 06:12 PM	#1503
DaFace Kind of a mod Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Donkey Land Casino cash: $-83101	Holy shit... This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn’t hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived. We will try to tow it back to shore. pic.twitter.com/hipmgdnq16 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 31, 2018
Posts: 52,580

01-31-2018, 09:55 PM	#1506
Cornstock Veteran Join Date: Oct 2008 Casino cash: $9986835	This was the first launch I've watched live, YouTube sent me a notification about 30 prelaunch or I would have missed it. Really insightful and informative coverage. Exciting first 10 minutes. I was pulled away so I missed the fairing separation, I'll go back and try to find it. Can someone explain the significance of how difficult it was to recover the booster? Elon sounded like it was pretty impressive it survived
Posts: 1,606

01-31-2018, 10:23 PM	#1508
DaFace Kind of a mod Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Donkey Land Casino cash: $-83101	Cool shot of the flames from today.
Posts: 52,580

02-03-2018, 06:20 PM	#1509
eDave Banned Join Date: Jan 2013 Casino cash: $9998560	SpaceX confirms it will try to land all of Falcon Heavy's boosters Elon Musk's outfit has confirmed that it will attempt to land all three boosters on Falcon Heavy's launch, which is now slated for a 2.5-hour window starting at 1:30PM Eastern on February 6th. https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/03/...nding-attempt/
Posts: 53,803

02-03-2018, 09:21 PM	#1510
aturnis MVP Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Iowa Casino cash: $9975811	Any guess how likely it is the FH will launch the 6th or 7th? I'm thinking of taking my 7yo down, but really worried about wasting the money.
Posts: 13,873

02-05-2018, 10:47 AM	#1513
DaFace Kind of a mod Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Donkey Land Casino cash: $-83101	24(ish) hour bump for FALCON HEAVY!!! Looks like we're gonna have all sorts of cameras on the car and its passenger... FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"> F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> 000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Starman in Red Roadster c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Feb 4, 2018 at 9:50pm PST
Posts: 52,580

02-05-2018, 11:13 AM	#1514
DaFace Kind of a mod Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Donkey Land Casino cash: $-83101	I believe this is unofficial, but should be pretty close. Doubt the fairing recovery is ready for prime time yet, though.
Posts: 52,580

02-05-2018, 11:26 AM	#1515
Donger "Think BOOM!" Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: 33.675° N 106.475° W Casino cash: $8389900 VARSITY	What's the liftoff time? __________________ I think the young people enjoy it when I "get down," verbally, don't you?
Posts: 187,573