Space Flight Updates - Russia pullingout of ISS?

deuce

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Strike 2 !!!!!!


On a related topic: Everytime Bill Nelson opens his mouth, I change channels! The man is an idiot!
 

ThreatMatrix

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Strike 2 !!!!!!


On a related topic: Everytime Bill Nelson opens his mouth, I change channels! The man is an idiot!
He's no Jim Brindenstine. Bill's the worst kind of politician. An ancient, career politican with lots of favors to repay.
 

deuce

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Looks like they are scrapping the entire Artemis program altogether.

:headslap:

That's good, you know the Astronauts couldn't survive going through the Radiation Belts around the world.

:bananadance2:
 
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ThreatMatrix

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If SLS wasn't so massively important to some congressman to get re-elected it would be canceled. NASA didn't really want it but congress forced them into the world's largest Frankenstein's monster.

Development to this point has been well over $20 Billion.
The launch towers alone are $1.5-2 Billion. To put that in perspective some of the world's largest skyscrapers were built for less.
And of course SLS itself. Although reusing Shuttle engines Boeing is charging over $150M ea. Over half a billion per booster in engines. Throw in the fuel tank and the SRBs and over $1B gets thrown in the ocean with each launch.
And Boeing only built one full Orion Capsule. They pull the avionics off of the old capsule to put it on the new capsule (to save money) LOL.
 

jeeping8r

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We had our fam reunion in Satellite Beach last weekend hoping for an Artemis launch, nope.
Thankfully Elon can be counted on to actually put bright flaming orbs into the sky. Looked nice from the beach
 

ThreatMatrix

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I think that we've discussed before that Russia has been wanting out of the ISS for a while. Officially they are to stay through 2028 but just recently claimed they'd pull out by 2025 to build their own Space Station (not likely).
How does this affect the ISS? The Russian modules do two important things: 1) Periodically boost the ISS. 2) Re-orientate the ISS to avoid debris. I don't think re-orientation is that big of a deal although I believe the Russian modules contain the computers that do those calculations.
The issue is boosting. On our side, we have the Cygnus cargo module. The problem with Cygnus is that it launches on Antares (an American company but Ukrainian and Russian parts). Or on the Atlas V that has been discontinued because it used Russian engines*. The replacement rocket is the Vulcan Centaur which relies on BO BE-4 engines that have yet to fly. God only knows when that will happen.
  • Another option is Starliner which is supposed to have that capability however that thing has been delayed until next year (after failed test in 2019) and some wonder if Boeing might abandon it because at this point they are not going to make any money from it.
  • The 3rd option is Dream Chaser. However, it has yet to fly. It also needs the Vulcan so it is also a few years off. Dream Chaser, I will remind you, was originally chosen over Starliner as the companion crew vehicle to SpaceX Dragon. However at the last minute, one of Bezos's lobbyists got to congress and the contract award was switched to Boeing
  • Spacex has claimed they could do it with a Dragon. but there are a whole lotta gotchas with that.

The ISS itself would stay in orbit for something like 4 years before re-entering the atmosphere.


* The Russian engines are very reliable. And we have enough experience with them that we can run them without Russian help. However, after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 congress wisely decided to stop using Russian engines, thus the Vulcan program was born. Unwisely Tony Bruno decided to use Jeff Bezos's engines. ULA has a stockpile of engines for Atlas V however all the remaining flights have been bought up, get this, by Bezos to launch his own Starlink constellation.
 
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ThreatMatrix

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I'm bored. Let's see. Capstone.
A main goal of the Artemis program is to use the Gateway orbiting in a NRHO about the moon. However, it's not something we've done before and is tricky. Capstone, launched June 28th on a Rocket Lab Electron Rocket to try and maintain a NRHO. However, after a course correction on the way to the moon the spacecraft began to tumble. NASA is working to try to stop the spin. If Capstone fails what happens next? :dunno: It was very cheap and the nice thing about the moon is that its launch window is just about always open.
 

bradgator2

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Was on the lake tonight during sunset and got a pretty good photo of the launch with the moonrise:

37F36C55-89A1-4DC0-8BC4-9D327A767D15.jpeg
 

NOLAGATOR

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I love the space exploration.

However, 75% of the globe is underwater and we've explored less than 3% of the oceans floor.

The potential is vast.
 

ThreatMatrix

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Interesting perspective. It's really simple if you think about it. The booster just follows a parabolic path. So you have the landing ship facing the launch site just far enough downrange that the booster practically can't miss.

So much to see here.
1) Launch
2) Notice the contrails are wiggly at lower altitudes as they are affected by winds.
3) As the rocket rises, air pressure decreases, and you can see how the rocket's bloom expands.
4) Surprisingly I don't definitively see separation. The booster shuts off, separates, then 2nd stage engines start up. But I don't really see a gap like that. It looks continuous.
5) The ship is something like 3-400 miles down range and separation happens at around 13 miles in altitude. All rough numbers just to prove to myself it happens at a very low angle.
6) I think separation happens somewhere around the clouds.
7) After the 2nd stage clears the frame I think you see the booster. At first, it's just reflecting sunlight.
8) Here's where it confuses me. We see the booster briefly fire the engines for the entry burn. However, it looks like the booster is still gaining altitude. That entry burn shouldn't happen until the booster is on its way back down.

What you think?

Here are some flight profiles for reference.

And just for fun here's a Falcon Heavy profile with two boosters doing an RTLS and one landing on a barge.
 

ThreatMatrix

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Missed the launch by a day. I had business out at the cape yesterday and woulda had a great view. No fog yesterday.
 

Gatordiddy

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I had an interesting conversation with a buddy of mine that works at JPL...

We got on a tangent about the Perseverance Rover and how NASA HQ wouldn't let JPL attach any of their logos to the rover.
So the JPL engineers got creative and put the JPL logo into the tire treads, but in binary numbers.
Not sure if that's the gospel truth, but... take it for what it's worth.
 

ThreatMatrix

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I had an interesting conversation with a buddy of mine that works at JPL...

We got on a tangent about the Perseverance Rover and how NASA HQ wouldn't let JPL attach any of their logos to the rover.
So the JPL engineers got creative and put the JPL logo into the tire treads, but in binary numbers.
Not sure if that's the gospel truth, but... take it for what it's worth.
I've heard something like that about the parachutes. If you can imagine the alternating orange and white stripes like a bar code I guess.
 

Treebeard

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Artemis Launch
If you have never seen (and felt) the launch of a large rocket like the space shuttle at night, you really don't realize that it is just like the sun coming up with the lighting of the whole horizon.
1668656736100.png
 

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