Space Flight Updates - Russia pullingout of ISS?
- Thread starter ThreatMatrix
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- Aug 28, 2014
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Entertaining video of development from Hoppy a year ago to Starship Hop last week.
You have to blow up a lotta rockets to make a Starship that can fly.
You have to blow up a lotta rockets to make a Starship that can fly.
- Jun 11, 2014
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Founding Member
- Jun 19, 2014
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- Aug 28, 2014
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The "Flying Anvil".I give you the F-4 Phantom--
"The Triumph of Thrust over Aerodynamics"
Alex.
- Aug 28, 2014
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What's new since last week's hop?
Starlink 9 launched on Thursday. I was at the beach this weekend hoping to catch a glimpse of the booster but sadly it wasn't back in port yet. I did however see the two fairing catching ships in port no doubt trying to hide their shame at not catching any fairings.
Back in Boca Chica, SN5 has been moved back to the hanger for inspection and SN6 has been rolled out to the pad.
You can see the thrust puck ram sticking out through the center of the test stand. So SN6 will go through the same steps as SN5 before it hops - to what altitude, we don't know.
Elon did give us a tweet to let us know what to expect in the near future.
SN6 will do a few hops for them to get practice at quick turnarounds.
SN7.1 is a test tank of the new steel alloy 304L. That will be tested to failure. woot woot!
SN8 (which is mostly built) will get a fairing, nose cone and fins and will do the high altitude test (20km?). SN8 will be the next big deal milestone, hopefully next month. SN8 will be 30% taller and look like a rocket. Now picture that sitting atop an even bigger rocket (Super Heavy). We hope to see that by the end of the year.
Starlink 9 launched on Thursday. I was at the beach this weekend hoping to catch a glimpse of the booster but sadly it wasn't back in port yet. I did however see the two fairing catching ships in port no doubt trying to hide their shame at not catching any fairings.
Back in Boca Chica, SN5 has been moved back to the hanger for inspection and SN6 has been rolled out to the pad.
You can see the thrust puck ram sticking out through the center of the test stand. So SN6 will go through the same steps as SN5 before it hops - to what altitude, we don't know.
Elon did give us a tweet to let us know what to expect in the near future.
SN6 will do a few hops for them to get practice at quick turnarounds.
SN7.1 is a test tank of the new steel alloy 304L. That will be tested to failure. woot woot!
SN8 (which is mostly built) will get a fairing, nose cone and fins and will do the high altitude test (20km?). SN8 will be the next big deal milestone, hopefully next month. SN8 will be 30% taller and look like a rocket. Now picture that sitting atop an even bigger rocket (Super Heavy). We hope to see that by the end of the year.
- Aug 28, 2014
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Height comparison
Saturn V - 60's technology that took us to the moon.
SLS - Billions of dollars and years behind. Boeing's boondoggle maybe flys a year from now.
Long March - Chink rocket - in development
Blue Origin - Jeff Bezo's (Amazon) mystery rocket shrouded in secrecy. Only Jeff knows when it will fly.
Saturn V - 60's technology that took us to the moon.
SLS - Billions of dollars and years behind. Boeing's boondoggle maybe flys a year from now.
Long March - Chink rocket - in development
Blue Origin - Jeff Bezo's (Amazon) mystery rocket shrouded in secrecy. Only Jeff knows when it will fly.
- Aug 28, 2014
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So a Delta 4 was a suppose to launch 2AM Friday night and got real close but ended in a hot-fire scrub. The delta 4 is famous for dumping a lot of hydrogen, which ignites and the rocket launches in a fireball. Purty cool.
Then there was suppose to be a Starlink launch this morning that got canceled. No sure why.
And in Boca Chica there was suppose to be a Starship prototype hop that got all the way up to firing the engines but was aborted possibly due to wind conditions.
Finally this evening there was a Starling launch (two were scheduled for today). Notably for this one the booster landed back at the cape. I wanted to go see this but it was raining in Orlando all day and I fugured it would have been scrubbed.
Then there was suppose to be a Starlink launch this morning that got canceled. No sure why.
And in Boca Chica there was suppose to be a Starship prototype hop that got all the way up to firing the engines but was aborted possibly due to wind conditions.
Finally this evening there was a Starling launch (two were scheduled for today). Notably for this one the booster landed back at the cape. I wanted to go see this but it was raining in Orlando all day and I fugured it would have been scrubbed.
- Aug 28, 2014
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What's new? Not much really.
The Chinese did what they do best: Drop rockets on their own people. Unlike us silly western capitalists who try to drop our spent rockets in the ocean where it won't hurt anybody China just lets them fall where ever. Sometimes on villages.
Over in Boca Chica SpaceX hopped another vehicle (SN6) 150M. And last night they pressure tested a tank made of a new steel alloy. They were suppose to test it until it popped but no pop so maybe in the next day or two. Then we are likely to see another 150m hop out of SN5 or SN6.
The big event in the next few weeks will be when they roll out SN8 with a nose cone and aerodynamic fins. They'll do a 20 KM hop with that. Starship does a tricky belly flop maneuver before it lands. This is what it should look like:
The Chinese did what they do best: Drop rockets on their own people. Unlike us silly western capitalists who try to drop our spent rockets in the ocean where it won't hurt anybody China just lets them fall where ever. Sometimes on villages.
Over in Boca Chica SpaceX hopped another vehicle (SN6) 150M. And last night they pressure tested a tank made of a new steel alloy. They were suppose to test it until it popped but no pop so maybe in the next day or two. Then we are likely to see another 150m hop out of SN5 or SN6.
The big event in the next few weeks will be when they roll out SN8 with a nose cone and aerodynamic fins. They'll do a 20 KM hop with that. Starship does a tricky belly flop maneuver before it lands. This is what it should look like:
- Aug 28, 2014
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Test tank go pop SpaceX is experimenting with a new steel. In order for the Starship to eventually get man-rated it must first be able to withstand 8.4 Bars so theytest it until failure. And then hopefully in a few days Elon will tweet what pressure it obtained. This is the last test before we finally see an aerodynamic version of Starship (SN8) rolled out to the pad hopefully within the week.
- Aug 28, 2014
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Sunk cost and politics.
1) Congress views NASA budgets as job programs that will get them re-elected. So from the beginning SLS was boondoggle. Congress required that SLS reuse Shuttle technology so they could keep jobs in their districts. And those companies milked NASA for everything they could.
2) Boeing was given a cost-plus contract meaning they could spend as much as they wanted for as long as they wanted so naturally they've strung it out for as long as possible and use up as much money as they can each year.
3) NASA developed the entire Artemis program around using SLS to build the Lunar Gateway and deliver the Orion crew capsule to the Gateway. At the time SLS was the only game in town.
Fast forward to today and there are cheaper alternatives. However NASA is so far down the rabbit hole that they have to finish what they started. Boeing will supposedly (finally) launch next year. Pressure is building though as the average layperson is beginning to question the expense. Why is NASA using $1B expendable rockets when SpaceX can launch just as much payload for $10's of millions?
If SpaceX has an orbital Starship before SLS launches (which could very well happen) it's going to make news and hard questions are going to be asked. At the press conference discussing Boeing's test failure of it's ISS crew mission the press was asking very pointed questions about why SpaceX succeeded where Boeing failed. The sharks are circling. One more failure by Boeing and it will be a feeding frenzy.
- Aug 28, 2014
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Today's launch scrubbed due to a technical issue. Falcon 9 has launched ~100 times yet rarely on time. It makes you wonder because Elon talks about multiple daily launches of Starship. We will see.
Speaking of Starship, SN8 sits on the launch pad. As you can see it has aft fins attached. Within the month it will get a nosecone with fins and be about 30% taller and launch to 50,000 feet. And maybe even land.
In the next weeks it will be pressure tested, 3 engines will be mounted and static fired, nosecone placed, and then...
After 50,000 ft comes heat tiles and suborbital flight to test reentry. SNs 9, 10 and 11 are already being built. One of those will end up on top of a Superheavy which is also already being built In the newly constructed high bay
Also under construction at Boca is the SuperHeavy launchpad which will require flame diverters. Starship will have 6 raptor engines in it's final configuration. But SuperHeavy will have about 30. It has been determined that Superheavy will be too loud to launch from land so SpaceX is in the process of figuring out how to build launch platforms at sea. So the Superheavy that launches from Boca should have a minimum compliment of engines.
Speaking of Starship, SN8 sits on the launch pad. As you can see it has aft fins attached. Within the month it will get a nosecone with fins and be about 30% taller and launch to 50,000 feet. And maybe even land.
In the next weeks it will be pressure tested, 3 engines will be mounted and static fired, nosecone placed, and then...
After 50,000 ft comes heat tiles and suborbital flight to test reentry. SNs 9, 10 and 11 are already being built. One of those will end up on top of a Superheavy which is also already being built In the newly constructed high bay
Also under construction at Boca is the SuperHeavy launchpad which will require flame diverters. Starship will have 6 raptor engines in it's final configuration. But SuperHeavy will have about 30. It has been determined that Superheavy will be too loud to launch from land so SpaceX is in the process of figuring out how to build launch platforms at sea. So the Superheavy that launches from Boca should have a minimum compliment of engines.
- Jul 16, 2018
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Too loud? Srsly? When has that even been a thing? They can't find some place in texas or nevada or arizona? They have to try and build something offshore?
