Science Space Exploration megathread - Page 343

**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.

**Bowser** · 04-22-2023, 12:20 PM

Man, the carnage that thing caused on liftoff is akin to what a MOAB explosion would look like, I'm assuming.

RIP minivan.

GloryDayz · 04-23-2023, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

Watching live when they showed this shot I thought this don't look right.

I thought it was a QR code..

**mlyonsd** · 04-23-2023, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bowser

Man, the carnage that thing caused on liftoff is akin to what a MOAB explosion would look like, I'm assuming.

RIP minivan.

Makes you wonder if all the shit flying up from the carnage is what damaged the engines.

BleedingRed · 04-23-2023, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

Makes you wonder if all the shit flying up from the carnage is what damaged the engines.

100% what I think happened, the debris caused some engines to fail

LagunaSWana · 04-23-2023, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BleedingRed

100% what I think happened, the debris caused some engines to fail

But how could any debris make it back up through the force of the exhaust?

**DaFace** · 04-24-2023, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LagunaSWana

But how could any debris make it back up through the force of the exhaust?

Tons of forces at play there. One possible explanation is that they start up the engines in a sequence rather than all at once, so there would be "dead spots" in the force where the ricochet might be strong enough to get back up in there.

**Donger** · 04-25-2023, 06:44 PM

Watch the impacts/splashes in the Gulf. Not sure the distances involved, but dang...

**Donger** · 04-25-2023, 06:47 PM

Closer shot:

stumppy · 04-26-2023, 11:32 AM

Bummer!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...b5ece9c3&ei=37

A mission to the moon has apparently ended in failure

A Japanese startup appears to have failed in its effort to become the first to achieve a privately funded moon landing.
Tokyo-based ispace was attempting to land the Hakuto-R Series 1 lander on the surface of the moon at 9:40 p.m. PT on Tuesday, April 25 (1:40 a.m. on Wednesday, April 26, Tokyo time), but it lost contact with the vehicle at around that time.

“At this time, our Mission Control Center in Tokyo has not been able to confirm the success of the lander,” ispace tweeted about 90 minutes after it had hoped to set down the lander.

It added: “Our engineers and mission operations specialists in our Mission Control Center are currently working to confirm the current status of the lander.”.................

**Donger** · 04-27-2023, 09:46 AM

Time for another Falcon Heavy launch!! Today at 4:29pm PDT. All three boosters are expendable for this launch.

SpaceX is targeting Thursday, April 27 for a Falcon Heavy launch of the ViaSat-3 Americas mission to geostationary orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Also on board this mission is Astranis's first MicroGEO satellite and Gravity Space’s GS-1 satellite. The 57-minute launch window opens at 7:29 p.m. ET (23:29 UTC). If needed, a backup opportunity is available Friday, April 28 with the same window.

One of the side boosters on this mission previously supported Arabsat-6A, STP-2, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2, KPLO, and three Starlink missions, and the second previously supported launch of Arabsat-6A and STP-2.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff.

**DaFace** · 04-27-2023, 09:51 AM

Aww, no dual booster landings? How sad.

Should still be fun, though.

LagunaSWana · 04-27-2023, 10:38 AM

There was a successful Falcon 9 launch of 34 Starlink satellites at 6:40 PDT this morning from Vandenberg AFB. Unfortunately, the marine layer prevented a view of the launch.

allen_kcCard · 04-27-2023, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stumppy

Bummer!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...b5ece9c3&ei=37

A mission to the moon has apparently ended in failure

A Japanese startup appears to have failed in its effort to become the first to achieve a privately funded moon landing.
Tokyo-based ispace was attempting to land the Hakuto-R Series 1 lander on the surface of the moon at 9:40 p.m. PT on Tuesday, April 25 (1:40 a.m. on Wednesday, April 26, Tokyo time), but it lost contact with the vehicle at around that time.

“At this time, our Mission Control Center in Tokyo has not been able to confirm the success of the lander,” ispace tweeted about 90 minutes after it had hoped to set down the lander.

It added: “Our engineers and mission operations specialists in our Mission Control Center are currently working to confirm the current status of the lander.”.................

They never should have called the lander the Kamakazi.

**DaFace** · 04-27-2023, 04:26 PM

Weather is looking pretty iffy for FH tonight. Just had a lightning bolt at the pad.

With stormy weather continuing to impact Florida's Space Coast, SpaceX is now targeting the end of tonight's launch window at 8:26pm EDT (0026 UTC) for liftoff of a Falcon Heavy rocket on the ViaSat 3 Americas mission. https://t.co/bnKR6bILaD pic.twitter.com/oZ97aCHRvL
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) April 27, 2023

**DaFace** · 04-27-2023, 05:03 PM

Scrub a dub dub.

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

04-22-2023, 12:20 PM	#5131
Bowser sorta mod-ish Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: KC North Casino cash: $1491616	Man, the carnage that thing caused on liftoff is akin to what a MOAB explosion would look like, I'm assuming. RIP minivan.
Posts: 104,183

04-25-2023, 06:44 PM	#5137
Donger "Think BOOM!" Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: 33.675° N 106.475° W Casino cash: $8389900 VARSITY	Watch the impacts/splashes in the Gulf. Not sure the distances involved, but dang... __________________ I think the young people enjoy it when I "get down," verbally, don't you?
Posts: 187,578

04-25-2023, 06:47 PM	#5138
Donger "Think BOOM!" Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: 33.675° N 106.475° W Casino cash: $8389900 VARSITY	Closer shot: __________________ I think the young people enjoy it when I "get down," verbally, don't you?
Posts: 187,578

04-26-2023, 11:32 AM	#5139
stumppy New and Improved Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Springfield, Mo. Casino cash: $-601410	Bummer! https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...b5ece9c3&ei=37 A mission to the moon has apparently ended in failure A Japanese startup appears to have failed in its effort to become the first to achieve a privately funded moon landing. Tokyo-based ispace was attempting to land the Hakuto-R Series 1 lander on the surface of the moon at 9:40 p.m. PT on Tuesday, April 25 (1:40 a.m. on Wednesday, April 26, Tokyo time), but it lost contact with the vehicle at around that time. “At this time, our Mission Control Center in Tokyo has not been able to confirm the success of the lander,” ispace tweeted about 90 minutes after it had hoped to set down the lander. It added: “Our engineers and mission operations specialists in our Mission Control Center are currently working to confirm the current status of the lander.”................. __________________ “As a nation, we can endure damaging policies for a four-year term. But we cannot survive a president willing to terminate our Constitution”
Posts: 22,029

04-27-2023, 09:46 AM	#5140
Donger "Think BOOM!" Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: 33.675° N 106.475° W Casino cash: $8389900 VARSITY	Time for another Falcon Heavy launch!! Today at 4:29pm PDT. All three boosters are expendable for this launch. SpaceX is targeting Thursday, April 27 for a Falcon Heavy launch of the ViaSat-3 Americas mission to geostationary orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Also on board this mission is Astranis's first MicroGEO satellite and Gravity Space’s GS-1 satellite. The 57-minute launch window opens at 7:29 p.m. ET (23:29 UTC). If needed, a backup opportunity is available Friday, April 28 with the same window. One of the side boosters on this mission previously supported Arabsat-6A, STP-2, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2, KPLO, and three Starlink missions, and the second previously supported launch of Arabsat-6A and STP-2. A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff. __________________ I think the young people enjoy it when I "get down," verbally, don't you?
Posts: 187,578

04-27-2023, 09:51 AM	#5141
DaFace Kind of a mod Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Donkey Land Casino cash: $-83101	Aww, no dual booster landings? How sad. Should still be fun, though.
Posts: 52,580

04-27-2023, 10:38 AM	#5142
LagunaSWana Starter Join Date: Mar 2023 Location: Laguna Niguel, CA Casino cash: $-4209500	There was a successful Falcon 9 launch of 34 Starlink satellites at 6:40 PDT this morning from Vandenberg AFB. Unfortunately, the marine layer prevented a view of the launch.
Posts: 374

04-27-2023, 04:26 PM	#5144
DaFace Kind of a mod Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Donkey Land Casino cash: $-83101	Weather is looking pretty iffy for FH tonight. Just had a lightning bolt at the pad. With stormy weather continuing to impact Florida's Space Coast, SpaceX is now targeting the end of tonight's launch window at 8:26pm EDT (0026 UTC) for liftoff of a Falcon Heavy rocket on the ViaSat 3 Americas mission. https://t.co/bnKR6bILaD pic.twitter.com/oZ97aCHRvL — Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) April 27, 2023
Posts: 52,580

04-27-2023, 05:03 PM	#5145
DaFace Kind of a mod Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Donkey Land Casino cash: $-83101	Scrub a dub dub.
Posts: 52,580