rotting sea cow Posted December 16, 2019 Share Posted December 16, 2019 On another topic: Simulation of planned 12000 Starlink satellites which will be visible during a summer night (June), at 32° latitude. North is up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted December 17, 2019 Author Share Posted December 17, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted December 20, 2019 Author Share Posted December 20, 2019 Boeing launched Starliner early this morning on a Atlas 5 rocket. The launch itself went perfectly it seems, but the Starliner has a timing issue where things went firing earlier that it should, and now Starliner is in the wrong orbit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 1 hour ago, SpaceChampion said: Boeing launched Starliner early this morning on a Atlas 5 rocket. The launch itself went perfectly it seems, but the Starliner has a timing issue where things went firing earlier that it should, and now Starliner is in the wrong orbit. I saw the contrails from this launch this morning while walking my dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share Posted January 6, 2020 First SpaceX launch of 2020 is scheduled for tonight ~9pm, a F9 flight of a whole bunch of Starlink internet satellites. This includes an experimental darkening treatment to reduce the albedo of the sats. Launch Stream: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted January 17, 2020 Author Share Posted January 17, 2020 Musk gives details for million person Mars colony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 Launch attempted delayed to tomorrow due to high winds, of the Dragon in-flight abort test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted January 19, 2020 Author Share Posted January 19, 2020 Dragon in-flight abort test a success! Still waiting for the press conference to see if any issues came up... Stream: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotting sea cow Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 17 hours ago, SpaceChampion said: Dragon in-flight abort test a success! Still waiting for the press conference to see if any issues came up... So far I haven't heard of any issues, so it's a great day for SpaceX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted January 27, 2020 Author Share Posted January 27, 2020 Third Starlink launch scrubbed today, try again tomorrow.A realistic look at what the Space Force is. Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives is trying to hand over all of NASA's Moon and Mars plans to Boeing. and also do it through cost-plus contracts. Basically a blank cheque for Boeing to print as much money as they want, while unlikely to deliver on much of it. This pretty much indicates much of NASA's Artemis program, proposed by the Trump administration, is DOA. Which, assuming SpaceX gets Starship operating in the next few years it would have been anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted January 29, 2020 Author Share Posted January 29, 2020 Starlink launch success: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted January 29, 2020 Share Posted January 29, 2020 35 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said: Starlink launch success: Have they done anything about the albedo problem with the Starlink satellites? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 phew, they didn't collide https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/01/29/satellites-on-collision-course-above-pittsburgh-do-not-hit/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted January 31, 2020 Author Share Posted January 31, 2020 On 1/29/2020 at 2:04 PM, Ser Scot A Ellison said: Have they done anything about the albedo problem with the Starlink satellites? I believe they are testing a solution this flight. Apropos of nothing, umm... Elon wrote a song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotting sea cow Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 Regarding the recent CST-100 Starliner failure. The initial reports sounded like it was a near success. The talk now is that it was a near catastrophe. Besides the known timing issues that led to an incorrect orbit and the communication problems, two more severe faults were identified. - The service module was incorrectly programmed so after separation from the capsule it would have pushed against it instead of flying away. This could have damaged the heat shield of the capsule and put lives in serious danger. The problem was identified in orbit and a patch was uploaded. - The ISS approximation simulation didn't go well. Apparently the Starliner failed to manoeuver properly with respect to some reference point. Something that in a real situation could have had damaged the ISS. NASA partners of the ISS aren't happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted February 17, 2020 Author Share Posted February 17, 2020 Starlink 4 launch (Actually the 6th launch, but the first was just two prototypes, and the 2nd was v0.9, the original 60 that caused the albedo controversy, which were considered test sats but are still going to be used for the constellation for a few years before deorbit). These are v1.0. Musk is saying the albedo of these will decline in each successive launch. These first 300 v1.0 sats are in the 550km orbit, but the full constellation is expected to be in orbits at 8 different altitudes (330 to 1325km). The booster landing missed the drone ship, and did a "soft landing" on water, intact. This was supposed to be the 50th booster landing. No word yet what went wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 Space Adventures, the company that sold tourist seats on Soyuz to fly to the Mir space station and ISS, is partnering with SpaceX to launch about 4 tourists of Crew Dragon to orbit higher than anyone has gone in orbit in decades -- twice the altitude of ISS. So about 800km. Sounds like an elliptical orbit -- perigee would likely by around 250km, from which they'd deorbit after 5 days in space. Honestly not sure why any rich person would bother with this, if Starship is coming in a few years as a vastly cheaper per seat cost. I'd bet money it'll be upgraded to a Starship flight -- bigger ship, more customers, cheaper ticket price. On the other hand, perhaps if SpaceX is reusing a previously flown Crew Dragon it won't be quite as expensive as I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 Katherine Johnson has passed at 101. RIP https://www.npr.org/2020/02/24/517784975/katherine-johnson-nasa-mathematician-and-an-inspiration-for-hidden-figures-dies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhom Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 And in a shocker... flat earther "Mad Mike" dies in homemade rocket failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maarsen Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 4 hours ago, Rhom said: And in a shocker... flat earther "Mad Mike" dies in homemade rocket failure. There are easier ways to get up to 5000 feet. A small plane or balloon will do. And a steam powered rocket? Did his mechanical training stop at the 18th century? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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