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Space Launches, Landings, and Destinations - SpaceX Thread #3


SpaceChampion

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8 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I’m still in the dark as to what “subtext” he ment.

My guess is he objects to my use of the word "workers" in congratulating SpaceX rather than referring to the organisation in the abstract or Elon Musk individually.

I used that word advisedly. There was no subtext, just text.

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7 minutes ago, A wilding said:

Did Doug Hurley knock his forehead as soon as he got into the ISS? He kept wiping it with a tissue.

Either that or he really worked up a sweat.

I had to shut off the live feed after those magic words were spoken: our special VIP guest, Senator Cruz.

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16 minutes ago, A wilding said:

Did Doug Hurley knock his forehead as soon as he got into the ISS? He kept wiping it with a tissue.

I saw him wipe his forehead on the capsule, too, after they got out of the suits. He probably sweats easily.

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This was an incredibly significant moment.  Failure here could have set the Commercial space program back tremendously, strengthening the hand of the critics from Old Space.

Success has set the foundation for an acceleration of innovation and progress. SpaceX is not taking any breaks by the way. Their next Starlink launch is on Wednesday.

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Approximately two-thirds of the global launch market is effectively closed to competition because these are national payloads. For example, Russia and other space-faring countries will typically launch their military and science satellites on domestic rockets. Only about one-third of the overall launch market—consisting of satellite constellations, communications and imaging satellites for nations without launch programs, and other payloads—is truly open to competition.

Decades ago, US launch companies ceded this commercial market as they began to focus on winning more lucrative contracts to launch payloads for the US military. By 2006, when Boeing and Lockheed Martin consolidated their rocket businesses into a single company, United Launch Alliance, America essentially captured zero percent of the competitive launch market. Customers in the United States and abroad turned to more economical launchers in Europe, Russia, and elsewhere to reach orbit. Meanwhile, with a monopoly on launching missions for NASA and the US Department of Defense, United Launch Alliance’s prices steadily rose.

The success of the Falcon 9 rocket reversed this trend dramatically. Seeking lower cost delivery of supplies to the International Space Station, NASA invested $396 million in SpaceX from 2006 to 2010 to develop its Cargo Dragon spacecraft, the Falcon 9 rocket, and a launch pad at the Cape. This investment, which precipitated the June 4, 2010 launch from Florida, delivered not just value for NASA, but for the country.

“Because of the investments that NASA has made into SpaceX we now have, the United States of America now has about 70 percent of the commercial launch market,” said the space agency’s administrator, Jim Bridenstine. “That is a big change from 2012 when we had exactly zero percent.”

from https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06/forget-dragon-the-falcon-9-rocket-is-the-secret-sauce-of-spacexs-success/

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15 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

There actually was a Starlink launch yesterday and I missed it:

 

And next one planned for 13 June and then the one after that for 24 June. With a commercial satellite launch planned for around 30 June. 

With the Crew launch out of the way the SpaceX juggernaut has been unleashed.

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2 hours ago, Ran said:

Thought this was pretty neat:

It is an interesting idea and the Orion capsule that the video focuses on is actually mostly ready. However, the Space Launch System (the rocket that is supposed to get Orion to Earth's orbit) is... well, basically the incarnation of everything that is wrong with the Old Space approach. It's not reusable in any way. It costs around a billion dollars per launch even after excluding the massive development costs. Each rocket takes over a year to manufacture and parallelization is problematic so only one launch per year is currently planned. And worst of all, its launch date keeps being pushed back and is currently November 2021 for the first test flight (but honestly, don't expect it before 2022).

Realistically, despite the fact that the Starship prototypes keep blowing up, I have more faith in Starship than I do in the SLS.

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10 hours ago, Ran said:

Thought this was pretty neat:

 

 

The Lunar Gateway - aka the “Lunar Tollbooth” in the words of Robert Zubrin. A tiny, yet massively expensive, needless gateway to nowhere, designed for the sole purpose of giving the boondoggle SLS something to do. 

Starship will make it obsolete.

Meanwhile:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/07/elon-musk-email-to-spacex-employees-starship-is-the-top-priority.html

 

 

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On 6/8/2020 at 6:27 AM, Free Northman Reborn said:

The Lunar Gateway - aka the “Lunar Tollbooth” in the words of Robert Zubrin. A tiny, yet massively expensive, needless gateway to nowhere, designed for the sole purpose of giving the boondoggle SLS something to do. 

Starship will make it obsolete.

Probably, but from 2030+ onward.

Anyway. Gateway will be delayed few years too, won't be surprised if it gets cancelled altogether.

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Another Starlink launch, #8, "the Ocho".  And the starlink website is taking email addresses and zip/postal code info if you want to be kept informed when service is available in your area, if you are in Canada or the U.S.  SpaceX is doing a private within-company beta test of the service right now, and will likely be doing a public beta soon.

 

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