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Big Flying Rockets: Space Launches V


SpaceChampion
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  • 2 weeks later...
27 minutes ago, BBB Jacelyn said:

Who the fuck puts engines on a glider? 

Are they bad at math but strong in vroom-vroom engineering somehow? 

Burt Rutan, 20 years ago?  Won the X-Prize with it?   I don't know why you're bringing that up though, Virgin Orbit isn't using a glider.  LauncherOne is a rocket, lifted to 10+km altitude by an airplane called WhiteKnightTwo, and goes to space from there.  That part succeeded, seems the aeroshell failed to separate to allow it to release the satellites.

It's a spin-off company from Virgin Galactic, which uses SpaceShipTwo, the glider with rocket engines, also dropped at height from WhiteKnightTwo.  I think both companies are dead ends but they're free to try whatever they want.  They're burning cash apparently, I don't think either will last as companies much longer.

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8 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

Burt Rutan, 20 years ago?  Won the X-Prize with it?   I don't know why you're bringing that up though, Virgin Orbit isn't using a glider.  LauncherOne is a rocket, lifted to 10+km altitude by an airplane called WhiteKnightTwo, and goes to space from there.  That part succeeded, seems the aeroshell failed to separate to allow it to release the satellites.

It's a spin-off company from Virgin Galactic, which uses SpaceShipTwo, the glider with rocket engines, also dropped at height from WhiteKnightTwo.  I think both companies are dead ends but they're free to try whatever they want.  They're burning cash apparently, I don't think either will last as companies much longer.

I was just being vicious

The only cost-effective way to do high-volume space (orbit) tourism is with gliders. 

Why are you making things out of metal? It's famously heavy. Wind is light, but pushes other light things strongly

Wind is free 

 

ETA: little grammar. I was being mean, not volcanic 

Edited by BBB Jacelyn
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  • 2 weeks later...

On Monday SpaceX stacked the Starship on Superheavy and did a full wet dress rehearsal of launch procedures, filling the stack with 10 million pounds of propellants.

The cold temperatures of the supercooled liquid oxygen and liquid methane caused the stack to shrink by about a half a meter!

Nothing blew up!  Huzzzah!

A further sign that the test went well is they've announced they're moving on to do a full 33-engine static fire test for the Superheavy booster, possible in the next week or two.

If that goes well, then next will be the first orbital launch attempt.  Could be end of February, could be end of March.

 

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58 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

20 years ago today, the space shuttle Columbia broke up on descent, losing all her crew.   R.I.P. Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, David Brown, and Ilan Ramon.

20 years?!!?  Wow.  That doesn't seem that long ago to me.

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Investment in the space industry took a turn in 2019 when Virgin Galactic became the first space technology company to be acquired by a Special Purpose Acquisitions Company (SPAC).  SPACs have a long history of being poor investments, as their trading price typically fall well below their IPO.  SPACs are a way for private businesses to quickly become publicly traded by merging with an investment company that's already public.  Since that first acquisition, more than a dozen other launch or satellite companies have been acquired by SPACs, as listed in the index here.  (Virgin Orbit was spun off and acquired by a different SPAC separately.)

Well, now Virgin Galactic's shareholders are suing the company's board for withholding information that cost them money, information relevant to assess the company's viability, such as safety defects.

Furthermore, VG board members has been accused of insider trading, with the SPAC's CEO and Richard Branson himself both selling off hundred of millions of dollars of their shares right before bad news was revealed publicly.

Former Virgin Galactic Chairman Accused of Insider Sale of Shares Worth $315M

Virgin Orbit, on the other hand, has recently received some tiny investments from Branson, not enough to pay the payroll for more than a few weeks.  What's going on with that?  These are secured investments, which if I understand correctly means he has first dibs on assets if VO goes bankrupt.  A sketchy and shitty manoeuvre that's going to get him sued for sure.

 

Out of all the other companies on that SPAC index, I only know somewhat of Rocket Lab and Planet as two great companies that actually launch, and have viable businesses.  Their share prices however are below their IPO just like all the other ones.  This makes me wonder what's going on behind the scenes.

 

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Tangentially topical to a "space" thread. Tonight people in the Northern hemisphere can view a rare sight in the skies, a green comet passing its closest to earth in several millennia.

How to view 

"It's the patch of sky immediately to the right of North, bounded between the Dippers," Ben Burress, an astronomer at Chabot Space and Science Center in California, told KQED(opens in new tab). "Right now the comet is between the Big and Little Dippers. It will look like a small fuzzy patch of light, possibly slightly greenish."

Edited by DireWolfSpirit
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On 2/2/2023 at 2:50 PM, DireWolfSpirit said:

Tangentially topical to a "space" thread. Tonight people in the Northern hemisphere can view a rare sight in the skies, a green comet passing its closest to earth in several millennia.

How to view 

"It's the patch of sky immediately to the right of North, bounded between the Dippers," Ben Burress, an astronomer at Chabot Space and Science Center in California, told KQED(opens in new tab). "Right now the comet is between the Big and Little Dippers. It will look like a small fuzzy patch of light, possibly slightly greenish."

What time is the best view?

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23 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I just tried to view it… the full moon plus a light haze are making it very difficult.  No luck.

Eta: Yes moonlight was an issue. Fortunately a symphony of professional astronomist tracked everything for us with telescopes at sites in both hemispheres around the globe.

This video explains and shows from various vantages.

Edited by DireWolfSpirit
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