Space Exploration

[Hunerwadel]

I'll do that, thanks.

Our drive to the moon culminating with the landing must have been an exciting time to be alive. Hope I'm still kicking when we get to Mars.

The three things that stand out most from my youth (news wise) are the The Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy assassination, and Sputnik. Nothing since then has even come close to capturing the attention and imagination of the entire country like any of those three events.

Of course the moon landing was big but we were pretty much ready for and expecting that. 9/11 was like a time of national hate and disgust.

 

[CagleMtnVol]

 

[VolStrom]

Personally I'm surprised that any rocket that Boeing has their name on can launch successfully. Why do they have valve problems you ask? Well when you build a piece of equipment that has mechanical moving parts and then they sit unused and immobile for years until you then want magically to work all at once and they don't, why are people surprised? SpaceX turns rockets around in a few months, Boeing has 47 layers of management and they still can't figure out which button to push to get their thumb out of their ass.

 

[Hunerwadel]

Personally I'm surprised that any rocket that Boeing has their name on can launch successfully. Why do they have valve problems you ask? Well when you build a piece of equipment that has mechanical moving parts and then they sit unused and immobile for years until you then want magically to work all at once and they don't, why are people surprised? SpaceX turns rockets around in a few months, Boeing has 47 layers of management and they still can't figure out which button to push to get their thumb out of their ass.

Is your Chevette still up on blocks?

 

[Grand Vol]

SpaceX turns rockets around in a few months

Weeks

 

[Matt2496]

Here's a cool animation

 

[Orangeburst]

Here's a cool animation

My gosh that will be epic. Hope Mechazilla wears a face mask and santizes those hands.

 

[twoffo]

Exclusive: Pentagon Poised To Unveil, Demonstrate Classified Space Weapon - Breaking Defense

 

[LouderVol]

Exclusive: Pentagon Poised To Unveil, Demonstrate Classified Space Weapon - Breaking Defense

Please be a death star, please be a death star, please be a death star.

 

[Velo Vol]

Ariane 5 upper stage for Webb heads for Europe's Spaceport

 

[twoffo]

Good view of the current state of the build and launch sites at Boca Chica:

 

[twoffo]

 

[CagleMtnVol]

 

[OrangeTsar]

Personally I'm surprised that any rocket that Boeing has their name on can launch successfully. Why do they have valve problems you ask? Well when you build a piece of equipment that has mechanical moving parts and then they sit unused and immobile for years until you then want magically to work all at once and they don't, why are people surprised? SpaceX turns rockets around in a few months, Boeing has 47 layers of management and they still can't figure out which button to push to get their thumb out of their ass.

Don’t worry, they have their best team hard at work on it

 

[OrangeTsar]

I have decided that Blue Origin is totally a scam of a company. Poor ULA is never going to get a single working BE-4 engine. Vulcan and it’s Huntsville assembly facility are in serious doo doo right now

 

[Matt2496]

 

[Matt2496]

Whelp. It failed.

 

[Matt2496]

Rocket science is hard folks. SpaceX makes it look easy, but it ain't.

 

[Matt2496]

I can't believe that thing regained control after liftoff. It literally slid off the pad.

 

[Matt2496]

Their Guidance and Controls engineer deserves a raise I know that much.

 

[twoffo]

 

[twoffo]

 

[Hunerwadel]

While no one was paying attention NASA is preparing this fall to launch a solar sail with a shoebox size cubesat to process and return date from an asteroid. With the JWST, the return to the Moon and preparations for Mars missions dominating space news this has received little press coverage. Anyway I think its cool and solar sails will have a niche in future space exploration.

EarthSky | NEA Scout, NASA’s solar sail mission, readies for launch on Artemis 1

 

[LouderVol]

While no one was paying attention NASA is preparing this fall to launch a solar sail with a shoebox size cubesat to process and return date from an asteroid. With the JWST, the return to the Moon and preparations for Mars missions dominating space news this has received little press coverage. Anyway I think its cool and solar sails will have a niche in future space exploration.

EarthSky | NEA Scout, NASA’s solar sail mission, readies for launch on Artemis 1

It's great where speed/fine control isnt required. I do worry about punctures but I guess you minimize that risk by choice of deployment location.

 

[OrangeTsar]

Boca Chica progress is moving faster than any other space project since the 1960s (if not even faster), but it feels sooooo slow because I want to see that first orbital flight TOMORROW darn it!!!!!