Space Launches, Landings & Destinations v4

[SpaceChampion]

Russian film crew in orbit

Quote

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian actor and a film director rocketed to space Tuesday on a mission to make the world’s first movie in orbit, a project the Kremlin said will help burnish the nation’s space glory.

Actor Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko blasted off for the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft together with cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, a veteran of three space missions. Their Soyuz MS-19 lifted off as scheduled at 1:55 p.m. (0855 GMT) from the Russian space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan and arrived at the station after about 3½ hours.

Kind of ridiculous she's actually only the 7th Russian/Soviet woman in space.  Ought to have been a lot more preceding her.

[Loge]

Well, the prospects for Russia's space program aren't very good. Putin just slashed its budget. That on top of the revenue from flying Astronauts to the ISS, which they lost to SpaceX.

[SpaceChampion]

Photoshopped, but amusing
 

 

[maarsen]

3 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

Photoshopped, but amusing
 

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

It's some kind of insider thing to trekkies, the red shirt joke?

I'm ashamed to say I don't know what it signifies.

[maarsen]

4 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

It's some kind of insider thing to trekkies, the red shirt joke?

I'm ashamed to say I don't know what it signifies.

 Red shirts always died on the otiginal Star Trek. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

5 minutes ago, maarsen said:

 Red shirts always died on the otiginal Star Trek. 

Cool, probably the most useful thing I'll learn today.

Here's a Shatner quote from this morn-

• At age 90, Shatner became the oldest person to have flown in space.
• After landing back on Earth, Shatner said the flight was "the most profound experience" he could imagine. "I hope I can maintain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it," he said.
• 

Edited October 13, 2021 by DireWolfSpirit

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Is Blue Origin ever going to fly the New Glenn?

[SpaceChampion]

3 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Is Blue Origin ever going to fly the New Glenn?

Not if they continue as they are.  This Ars Technica article shows BO knows what's wrong with it three years ago, and have done nothing about it since.

[SpaceChampion]

Good informed speculation in this video on Starship launches over the next several years.

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by SpaceChampion

[rotting sea cow]

As many of you probably have read. The FT has reported that China tested an hypersonic vehicle that circled the Earth before hitting (actually missing) the target. The implications is that China tested some Fractional Orbit Bombardment system to make their nuclear arsenal more survivable.

Here is the paywalled link. https://www.ft.com/content/ba0a3cde-719b-4040-93cb-a486e1f843fb

Here is a good write-up about this event. Unfortunately only in Spanish. I haven't found any blog comparable to Daniel Marin's in the anglosphere.

https://danielmarin.naukas.com/2021/10/19/el-extrano-caso-del-lanzamiento-espacial-chino-que-oficialmente-nunca-existio/

TL;DR: He believes that the FT report is inaccurate about what actually happened. Basically, there was no rocket launch on that date (it's hard to hide one) and it's probably they tested something different in a different launch. 

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

We are one step closer to my dream of Bezos and Musk launching the world's radioactive waste into the Sun.......rocket ship to be piloted by Richard Branson of course.

[SpaceChampion]

 

[SpaceChampion]

Direct observation on an infant exoplanet around a newly formed star

Quote

This serendipitous discovery adds to an elite list of planets that we can directly observe with our telescopes,” explained lead author Eric Gaidos, a professor in the UH Mānoa Department of Earth Sciences. “By analyzing the light from this planet we can say something about its composition, and perhaps where and how it formed in a long-vanished disk of gas and dust around its host star.”

The researchers estimate that the planet is a few times more massive than Jupiter, and that it formed with its star several million years ago, around the time the main Hawaiian Islands first emerged above the ocean. The planet is so young that it is still hot from the energy released during its formation, with a temperature similar to the lava erupting from Kīlauea Volcano.

 

[SpaceChampion]

Very brief firing of the R-vac but quite significant.  I'm not sure any other space-optimized rocket engine outside of a vacuum chamber has been fired at sea level ever before.  SpaceX could only do it because on how high their chamber pressure is, that it avoids the flow separation that would make it go boom.

Musk thinks SN20 will be ready to launch on Super Heavy in a few weeks, but dependent on getting FAA approval. 

Edited October 23, 2021 by SpaceChampion

[A True Kaniggit]

Ugh. 
 

JWST. Get your ass in orbit!

[SpaceChampion]

If they don't lobby the government for money to pay for it, I'd be surprised.  The only one of that group I'd expect to see substantial efforts are Sierra Space.

 

 

Lockheed Martin, Nanorack and Voyager Aerospace are also partnering in a private space station venture called Starlab.

Edited October 25, 2021 by SpaceChampion

[Starkess]

3 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

If they don't lobby the government for money to pay for it, I'd be surprised.  The only one of that group I'd expect to see substantial efforts are Sierra Space -- and they've apparently bought the intellectual property for inflatable space stations from Bigelow Aerospace, so they are not starting from nothing.

This is the point of NASA's Commercial LEO Destinations project, so the government is already planning to pay. This is these companies banding together and tossing their hat in the ring (well Sierra Space was already in the ring AFAIK). Wonder if they had to scramble to bump up a planned announcement after the Nanoracks/Voyager Space/Lockheed announcement last week.

[SpaceChampion]

1 hour ago, Starkess said:

This is the point of NASA's Commercial LEO Destinations project, so the government is already planning to pay. This is these companies banding together and tossing their hat in the ring (well Sierra Space was already in the ring AFAIK). Wonder if they had to scramble to bump up a planned announcement after the Nanoracks/Voyager Space/Lockheed announcement last week.

Yes, though that's not intended to support all the costs of designing and building and maintaining a space station.  It's $400 million divided up possibly 4 ways at most, for some R&D, but if these companies aren't putting up their own money too, they're not going to get very far.

 

To correct what I said earlier: no, Bigelow's IP was not bought by Sierra.  I was surprised to hear that when i first saw a tweet about it, but it appears to be not true.  Apparently Sierra Space's LIFE module is lighter and stronger than Bigelow's 330 module, though a little smaller.

[Starkess]

23 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

Yes, though that's not intended to support all the costs of designing and building and maintaining a space station.  It's $400 million divided up possibly 4 ways at most, for some R&D, but if these companies aren't putting up their own money too, they're not going to get very far.

Ah yes, I agree! Though I won't be surprised to see some more funding in that direction--really doubt NASA is going to allow the ISS to reach EOL and not have a presence in space, especially while China is operating Tiangong. (Then again, I would have doubted that NASA was going to spend a decade paying Russia to send its astronauts to space, so perhaps my predictive powers here are limited!)