SpaceX rockets and launches

[cybershot]

sorry.
it's much more informative than the official channel though. but if you're really into the countdown then yeah ^

oh the Spaceflight guys Are awesome andvery informative. It’sjust the official video usually has much better angles, closer and higher quality.

 

[cybershot]

Small fire again. Is it gonna blow! Or will it survive!!! How awesome though.

 

[Crispy]

About time Fingers crossed the fire's not serious. Given the landing wasn't such a crunch it should be ok

 

[Ahlan]

post analysis still ongoing. these guys really love it

 

[weltweit]

So, a result! still a bit of a fire, but no big explosion at least.

I didn't see any SpaceX commentators saying what they thought, presumably they are chuffed?

 

[paul mckenna]

Hello, I'm Scott Manley

 

[Crispy]

Fly safe

 

[Yossarian]

Apparently there's been so much leaked piss sloshing around SpaceX's capsules that they're worried it could have compromised the spacecraft, especially the one that carried space tourists last month.

As for the Dragon capsule in orbit, less urine pooled beneath the floor panels than the one that carried a billionaire and three others on a three-day flight, Gerstenmaier said. That’s because the NASA-led crew only spent a day living in it before arriving at the space station.

SpaceX needs to tame toilet trouble before weekend launch

SpaceX is resolving toilet spills in its capsules before it launches another crew for NASA. Liftoff is currently set for early Sunday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

apnews.com

 

[Limejuice]

Elon is taking the piss...

I mean, leaking.

 

[a_chap]

SpaceX needs to tame toilet trouble before weekend launch

SpaceX is resolving toilet spills in its capsules before it launches another crew for NASA. Liftoff is currently set for early Sunday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

apnews.com

"the company’s newest capsule, named Endurance by its U.S.-German crew."


Presumably now re-named Urinendurance...

 

[WouldBe]

Elon is taking the piss...

I mean, leaking.

Just wait until there's a hiccup during launch and he'll be shitting himself instead.

 

[Epona]

Just wait until there's a hiccup during launch and he'll be shitting himself instead.

I hope the engineers have taken account of that sloshing around under the floor panels

 

[WouldBe]

I hope the engineers have taken account of that sloshing around under the floor panels

It would have to be very liquid to get under the floor panels. It would end up floating around in the capsule with them.

 

[StoneRoad]

It would have to be very liquid to get under the floor panels. It would end up floating around in the capsule with them.

depends where the leak is, surely ...

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Why didn’t they go before they went?

 

[MickiQ]

The Inspiration 4 mission was up there for 2-3 days, not everyone's bladder is as weak as mine but that's pushing it for anyone to hold it that long

 

[WouldBe]

depends where the leak is, surely ...

Usually from the arsehole.

 

[HAL9000]

The Falcon 9 rocket has now launched a total of 139 times. Of those, one mission failed, the launch of an International Space Station supply mission for NASA, in June 2015. Not included in this launch tally is the pre-flight failure of a Falcon 9 rocket and its Amos-6 satellite during a static fire test in September 2016.


Since the year 2020, the Falcon 9 has been the most experienced, active rocket in the United States, when it surpassed the Atlas V rocket in total launches. Globally, the still-flying Russian Soyuz and Proton rockets have more experience than the Falcon 9 fleet. The Soyuz, of course, remains the king of all rockets. It has more than 1,900 launches across about a dozen variants of the booster dating back to 1957, with more than 100 failures.


The Falcon 9 reached a notable US milestone in January, equaling and then exceeding the tally of space shuttle launches. During its more than three decades in service, NASA's space shuttle launched 135 times, with 133 successes. To put the Falcon 9's flight rate into perspective, it surpassed the larger shuttle in flights in about one-third of the time.

The Falcon 9 may now be the safest rocket ever launched

The Falcon 9 also recently surpassed the space shuttle in total flights.

arstechnica.com

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

Can anyone show me a realistic video of this supposed rocket?

 

[NoXion]

The Falcon 9 may now be the safest rocket ever launched

The Falcon 9 also recently surpassed the space shuttle in total flights.

arstechnica.com

I don't think the comparison being made is a fair one. The Space Shuttle was manned for (almost?) every one of its launches, whereas most Falcon 9 launches have been unmanned. The Falcon 9 hasn't really proved itself yet as a manned launch vehicle.

 

[Crispy]

I don't think the comparison being made is a fair one. The Space Shuttle was manned for (almost?) every one of its launches, whereas most Falcon 9 launches have been unmanned. The Falcon 9 hasn't really proved itself yet as a manned launch vehicle.

"Most reliable" would be a better way to put it.
Shuttle was always manned, but it was also very flawed and inherently more dangerous than the capsules that came before and after it.

 

[HAL9000]

For those who are interested, this article written in 1980 explains in detail why the shuttle was a very bad idea (its very long)

"5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Goodbye, Columbia" by Gregg Easterbrook

The Washington Monthly:

www.iasa-intl.com

Shuttle only had the ejection seats fitted for the early flights, I believe the ejector seats were removed for later flights (I suspect its not very sporting if the pilots can eject and the passengers are stuck inside)

During blast-off, unlike those capsules and modules with escape rockets to pull the pilots free in case of trouble, there is no way out of the shuttle. Columbia has ejection seats like a jet fighter, but they're useless during take-off. Punching out at several thousand m.p.h. doesn't work. If the slab of rushing air doesn't kill you, the engine exhaust flames will.

But you're in luck--the launch goes fine. Once you get into space, you check to see if any tiles are damaged. If enough are, you have a choice between Plan A and Plan B. Plan A is hope they can get a rescue shuttle up in time. Plan B is burn up coming back.

The fact space x has managed 112 launches, plus it has a reasonable escape system, suggests its a good rocket

Soyuz escape system has saved astronauts lives, so we will have to wait and see if the dragon escape system is needed in future. The escape system was tested, but not with astronauts on a failing rocket.

The other item is the rate of space x launches, it will be interesting to see how reliable the falcon 9 is after 200 launches, if starship doesn't kill off falcon 9, what will its reliability be like after 400 launches?

 

[2hats]

A geomagnetic storm has b0rked most of the Starlink satellites from the most recent launch. Consequent high atmospheric drag saw them drop into safe-mode on the initial deploy orbit and they won't now be recovered from that so will shortly re-enter:

FEBRUARY 8, 2022
GEOMAGNETIC STORM AND RECENTLY DEPLOYED STARLINK SATELLITES
On Thursday, February 3 at 1:13 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Falcon 9’s second stage deployed the satellites into their intended orbit, with a perigee of approximately 210 kilometers above Earth, and each satellite achieved controlled flight.

SpaceX deploys its satellites into these lower orbits so that in the very rare case any satellite does not pass initial system checkouts it will quickly be deorbited by atmospheric drag. While the low deployment altitude requires more capable satellites at a considerable cost to us, it’s the right thing to do to maintain a sustainable space environment.

Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday. These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase. In fact, onboard GPS suggests the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches. The Starlink team commanded the satellites into a safe-mode where they would fly edge-on (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag—to effectively “take cover from the storm”—and continued to work closely with the Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron and LeoLabs to provide updates on the satellites based on ground radars.

Preliminary analysis show the increased drag at the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving safe-mode to begin orbit raising maneuvers, and up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere. The deorbiting satellites pose zero collision risk with other satellites and by design demise upon atmospheric reentry—meaning no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts hit the ground. This unique situation demonstrates the great lengths the Starlink team has gone to ensure the system is on the leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation.

Source.

SpaceX says a geomagnetic storm just doomed 40 Starlink internet satellites

The satellites launched on Feb. 3, only to be hit by the storm a day later.

www.space.com

Some have already re-entered, quite spectacularly - here over Puerto Rico yesterday:


Might just be worth keeping an eye out for any over the UK; there is potentially a good candidate tomorrow evening and the latest UKV run/UKMO forecast look fairly promising.


In separate news, the F9 upper stage that placed the NASA DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) into a libration point orbit at Sun-Earth L1 (this is the exact opposite, sunward, side of Earth from the JWST), will impact the farside of the Moon on 4th March as it descends from a 688,000km apogee (it is just passing through perigee for the last time at around 45,000km). The ~4 tonne stage will hit the Moon at around 2.5 km/s.

Prepare For Impact! Here’s How You Can See SpaceX’s Rogue Rocket On Its Way To Smashing Into The Moon

Space junk from Elon Musk's SpaceX is set to crash into the Moon. Those with telescopes will be able to glimpse it for themselves.

www.forbes.com

 

[Maggot]

The deorbiting satellites pose zero collision risk with other satellites and by design demise upon atmospheric reentry—meaning no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts hit the ground. This unique situation demonstrates the great lengths the Starlink team has gone to ensure the system is on the leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation.

So they burn up before reaching earth?

 

[Crispy]

So they burn up before reaching earth?

Yep, totally vaporised. Compared to the tons of space dust/rocks that burn up in the atmosphere every day it's completely insignificant.

 

[2hats]

Yep, totally vaporised.

Well, perhaps not quite entirely - especially judging from the PR video. Pretty much every re-entry event results in material reaching the surface. Of course, whether anyone notices (or is anywhere nearby) is another matter.

 

[teuchter]

I imagine there's a bunch of people somewhere who spent months of their lives meticulously assembling each of those satellites. All vaporised in a matter of seconds.

 

[Crispy]

Considering this is just 40 out of 1000 already on orbit (and 10x that still to come) I don't think anyone's losing any sleep.

 

[2hats]

Starlink-1668 (from a different launch in Oct 2020) re-entered a few hours ago over the Iberian Peninsula. One orbit earlier and it would have been pretty spectacular over the UK.

Sightings from across Spain:

Una estela de fuego cruza el cielo de la Región y sorprende a los murcianos | La Verdad

Por ahora no se conoce con precisión si se trata de un cuerpo celeste o de un satélite terrestre

www.laverdad.es

 

[2hats]

In separate news, the F9 upper stage that placed the NASA DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) into a libration point orbit at Sun-Earth L1 (this is the exact opposite, sunward, side of Earth from the JWST), will impact the farside of the Moon on 4th March as it descends from a 688,000km apogee (it is just passing through perigee for the last time at around 45,000km). The ~4 tonne stage will hit the Moon at around 2.5 km/s.

Prepare For Impact! Here’s How You Can See SpaceX’s Rogue Rocket On Its Way To Smashing Into The Moon

Space junk from Elon Musk's SpaceX is set to crash into the Moon. Those with telescopes will be able to glimpse it for themselves.

www.forbes.com

As a good illustration of how hard it is to methodically keep track of all objects much beyond geosynchronous orbit, from lunar out to L1/2 transfer orbits (though also to a degree an indication that no one, at least in the public domain, is inclined to bother) - since they are variously metastable/unstable and tend to be increasingly so with increasing apogee...

It now looks like that object is the Chang'e 5 T1 Long March 3C/E upper stage (originally launched October 2014).

Astronomers now say the rocket about to strike the Moon is not a Falcon 9

It’s probable that the impact object comes from a Chinese rocket launched in 2014.

arstechnica.com