SpaceX rockets and launches
- Thread starter rover07
- Start date
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
SpaceX have had over $15bn in government money.
Despite what the shitlord says in a drug induced mania it's going to be a long time before they are allowed to repeat this stunt.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
How do you mean?
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
It's going to take a long time to repair the launch pad and the FAA are going to be a lot more cautious about issuing a new PEA and launch license.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
For products supplied and services rendered. They get good value, especially compared to Boeing, ULA, Lockheed etc.
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Or just have the whole lot explode in a really cool fireballSpacex are, that's for sure
Honestly it's not as crazy as it sounds. The chopsticks have three degrees of freedom to move the landing point, the rocket can throttle low enough to hover (unlike the falcon 9 which has to time the landing burn precisely with no room for adjustment). For the early attempts, it will come in very gently, and if it looks like it won't line up they can throttle back up and yeet it into the ocean.
editor
hiraethified
Oops!
petapixel.com
Photographer Loses $40K Worth of Gear After it was Blown Up by SpaceX Rocket
'It turns out Elon was wrong'
Yossarian
⏭️
I hope Musk and SpaceX get fined billions for this
The officials, biologists working with the Fish and Wildlife Service, privately expressed disbelief at the extent of the scene, records obtained by Bloomberg News show ... The wildlife agency couldn’t begin its review until 48 hours after the failed launch. Some of their observations show that behind the scenes, officials at times questioned whether they were blocked from accessing the site. And they puzzled over why SpaceX had opted not to use flame-suppression technology long considered the gold standard in the launch industry
The officials, biologists working with the Fish and Wildlife Service, privately expressed disbelief at the extent of the scene, records obtained by Bloomberg News show ... The wildlife agency couldn’t begin its review until 48 hours after the failed launch. Some of their observations show that behind the scenes, officials at times questioned whether they were blocked from accessing the site. And they puzzled over why SpaceX had opted not to use flame-suppression technology long considered the gold standard in the launch industry
2hats
Dust.
Though the FAA have something to say about that:
arstechnica.com
Looks like they might try hot-staging on the next flight.
Starship is stacked and ready to make its second launch attempt
During this test flight, Starship will carry no payloads.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
They were going to try a crazy "flip toss" maneuver where the whole stack would pitch down then up and "fling" the upper stage clear.
In both cases, the aim is to keep the booster engines running during stage separation. The reason is complicated but interesting:
As the engines drain the tanks, the empty space has to stay pressurised in order to keep the vehicle rigid and the engines fed. For most rockets, this "ullage" pressure is provided by a dedicated supply of compressed helium. This is ok on a smaller rocket, but helium is not super cheap and supply is limited. For the flight rate that Starship requires to do its thing, the cost would be prohibitive. So instead they use the less common technique of "autogenous presurisation" which taps off some hot fuel and hot oxidiser gas rom the engine while it's running. You can only do this with certain kinds of engine, but the Shuttle did it and so does SLS.
So what you have is fuel/oxidiser tanks with super cold liquid at the bottom and hot high pressure gas being added at the top. That gas cools and condenses on the surface of the liquid, so you have to keep adding it to compensate. That's fine, because the engines have got more than enough hot gas to spare. But when you turn the engines off two things happen: 1. You lose your hot gas supply. 2. The liquids slosh around separating into free-floating globs and spray. This massively increases the liquid's surface area and so massively increases the rate of condensation. All the hot gas condenses out rapidly and pressure drops to essentially zero in a process called "ullage collapse." The booster is fine because it's in space and there's no air pressure to crush it. But now you need to turn the engines on to fly home and land. So you need to have stored a whole bunch of hot gas to repressurise. That gas and its tanks weigh a considerable amount.
If however you can keep the engines running and the booster accelerating, then all that liquid stays where it belongs at the bottom of the tanks, you don't get ullage collapse, and you can steer straight into your fly-home maneuver, saving all that weight and systems complexity. The plan on the first flight was to start that fly-home turn and separate the ship part way into it. The rotation would allow enough distance for the ship to light its engines (which would actually help "blow" the booster around in its turn). After the separation failure on that flight, they changed the plan. The new plan is to just keep flying forwards and light the ship while it's still attached, with vents at the interstage to let the exhaust out. Still "sporty" compared to regular staging, but it's at least something that other rockets have been doing for decades.
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a_chap
When the world came apart, where were you?
You're kind of conflating two terms.
Stopping tanks collapsing due to reduced tank pressure as the propellants are used isn't called ullage. Ullage is keeping the propellants at the engine-end of the tanks. When the engines are running ullage happens naturally. During staging or after coasting in orbit something (usually solid rocket motors) needs to accelerate the rocket to cause the propellants to settle before liquid-fuelled engines can be started. Often called an ullage burn.
Propellant tanks collapsing was a major problem for early Atlas rockets. The tank walls were so thin that they had to keep the tanks pressurised all the time else they'd collapse simply under their own weight.
By the way, "ullage" is a historic term which comes from the space at the top of barrels of wine/brandy/sherry/etc. caused by evaporation. Useless fact of the day.
Stopping tanks collapsing due to reduced tank pressure as the propellants are used isn't called ullage. Ullage is keeping the propellants at the engine-end of the tanks. When the engines are running ullage happens naturally. During staging or after coasting in orbit something (usually solid rocket motors) needs to accelerate the rocket to cause the propellants to settle before liquid-fuelled engines can be started. Often called an ullage burn.
Propellant tanks collapsing was a major problem for early Atlas rockets. The tank walls were so thin that they had to keep the tanks pressurised all the time else they'd collapse simply under their own weight.
By the way, "ullage" is a historic term which comes from the space at the top of barrels of wine/brandy/sherry/etc. caused by evaporation. Useless fact of the day.
2hats
Dust.
Long tradition with the R-7 family (ie Soyuz). See around 3m08s here (a Soyuz ST-A/ESA launch out of French Guiana), rocketcam video clearly illustrating that hot-staging process between the 1st and 2nd stages (note flame/exhaust from the interstage area just prior to separation):
2hats
Dust.
FAA investigation now complete but no launch license yet.
www.space.com
FAA closes investigation of SpaceX's Starship launch mishap
But that doesn't mean the giant vehicle has been cleared for its second liftoff.
www.space.com
Storm Fox
Trying the find the next noun to verb
Just seen a Starlink train pass overhead. There is patchy thin high cloud, so when I first saw it, the satellites appeared as a bright line, until it cleared the clouds and I could see each satellite. They then promptly disappeared into the Earth's shadow. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few 'ufo sightings' being reported.
As for some people, depending on their location, this bright line in the sky appears and disappears.
As for some people, depending on their location, this bright line in the sky appears and disappears.
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2hats
Dust.
A Falcon Heavy is due to loft the Psyche spacecraft today at 15:19:43 BST (instantaneous launch window which slips forward a few minutes each day). Weather forecast is 40% favourable for launch, rising to 70% on Saturday (when launch would be at 15:24:08BST). The FH core will be expended on this trip whilst the two boosters will return to land at Canaveral.
This is a mission to the metallic-rich, M-type, asteroid 16 Psyche, located in the asteroid belt (mineral resources speculatively valued at $10 quintillion). First signal from the spacecraft is expected around 3 hours after launch, though carrier signal might be spotted a little after 1 hour post launch. Due to arrive for orbital insertion around the asteroid in August 2029.
psyche.asu.edu
Interestingly, the spacecraft will carry an experimental laser communications data downlink to test high-bandwidth optical communications for future deep space missions (an IR laser which will be picked up by a sensitive receiver attached to a large astronomical telescope). This might achieve around 250+ Mbps data rates, compared to current spacecraft radio transceivers which typically peak at a few Mbps up to 20-30 Mbps (depends on mission profile and hardware selected).
www.jpl.nasa.gov
This is a mission to the metallic-rich, M-type, asteroid 16 Psyche, located in the asteroid belt (mineral resources speculatively valued at $10 quintillion). First signal from the spacecraft is expected around 3 hours after launch, though carrier signal might be spotted a little after 1 hour post launch. Due to arrive for orbital insertion around the asteroid in August 2029.
Psyche Mission | A Mission to a Metal World
The Psyche mission will explore, for the first time ever, an asteroid made not of rock or ice, but of metal. The mission will investigate planet formation.
psyche.asu.edu
Interestingly, the spacecraft will carry an experimental laser communications data downlink to test high-bandwidth optical communications for future deep space missions (an IR laser which will be picked up by a sensitive receiver attached to a large astronomical telescope). This might achieve around 250+ Mbps data rates, compared to current spacecraft radio transceivers which typically peak at a few Mbps up to 20-30 Mbps (depends on mission profile and hardware selected).
Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC)
The experiment will aim to demonstrate high-bandwidth communications in deep space for the first time.
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2hats
Dust.
Successful launch, burn to escape trajectory, payload/upper stage separation and low-gain antenna carrier signal has now been acquired from the spacecraft. Currently coasting on that hyperbolic escape trajectory which will lead to it leaving the Earth's Hill sphere on 16 October and so entering a 1.0x2.5 AU heliocentric orbit resulting in a Mars flyby in 2026.
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2hats
Dust.
Spotted from Europe, Psyche and upper stage en route to heliocentric orbit. Relative brightness upper stage v spacecraft suggests solar panels are out.
View attachment psyche8hout.mp4
View attachment psyche8hout.mp4
2hats
Dust.
Eight launches (= ~175 individual satellites) in the last 26 days. Though only two of them have been to orbits visible from the UK (the most recent 10 days ago).Has there been another starlink launch recently?
Monday night I saw 5 lights moving in a line heading ESE close together, 25 hours later I saw another (same) lights moving in the same direction but spaced further apart.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
There's one every three days or so. You probably saw the set launched on Sunday.Has there been another starlink launch recently?
Monday night I saw 5 lights moving in a line heading ESE close together, 25 hours later I saw another (same) lights moving in the same direction but spaced further apart.
edit: of course 2hats knows the orbital data
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WouldBe
Dislicksick
Chesterfield looking SWish.
2hats
Dust.
Assuming that's a Chesterfield in the UK, you're not going to see the 6/8 clutches that went to the 43° shell then, only the pair that went to the 53.1° shell.
WouldBe
Dislicksick
Must be UFO's then.
