Space Exploration

Are NASA's future missions and budget justified?

  • It's worth the time and expenditures

    Votes: 223 66.0%

  • Complete waste of money

    Votes: 41 12.1%

  • We need to explore, but not at the current cost

    Votes: 74 21.9%
  • Total voters
    338
#4,055
#4,055
What a week for SpaceX! It just launched its 2nd Falcon 9 this week. Launching 53 more Starlink satellites to orbit after launching 4 astronauts to orbit on Wednesday and bringing 4 astronauts home Monday.







 
#4,058
#4,058
twoffo said:
I didn’t have the Russians shooting down the space station on my 2021 bingo card.
All kidding aside, hopefully none of the debris causes an issue.
Click to expand...
It kinda feels like they are "accidentally on purpose" sabotaging" the ISS since they announced they were leaving. The continued leaks and maintenance. That booster that randomly went off. Now they are causing debris.

They may not be trying to sabotage it, but they arent being good partners anymore. Which is a shame.
 
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Reactions: CagleMtnVol and 825VOL
#4,059
#4,059
twoffo said:
I didn’t have the Russians shooting down the space station on my 2021 bingo card.
All kidding aside, hopefully none of the debris causes an issue.
Click to expand...

Not just the Russians...

A chunk of a Chinese satellite almost hit the International Space Station. They dodged it — but the space junk problem is getting worse

Last week, the International Space Station (ISS) was forced to maneuver out of the way of a potential collision with space junk. With a crew of astronauts and cosmonauts on board, this required an urgent change of orbit on November 11.

Over the station's 23-year orbital lifetime, there have been about 30 close encounters with orbital debris requiring evasive action. Three of these near-misses occurred in 2020. In May this year there was a hit: a tiny piece of space junk punched a 5mm hole in the ISS's Canadian-built robot arm.

Last week's incident involved a piece of debris from the defunct Fengyun-1C weather satellite, destroyed in 2007 by a Chinese anti-satellite missile test. The satellite exploded into more than 3,500 pieces of debris, most of which are still orbiting. Many have now fallen into the ISS's orbital region.
Click to expand...
 
#4,065
#4,065
It's always something...



The large, space-based telescope's "no earlier than" launch date will slip from December 18 to at least December 22 after an "incident" occurred during processing operations at the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. That is where the telescope will launch on an Ariane 5 rocket provided by the European Space Agency.

"Technicians were preparing to attach Webb to the launch vehicle adapter, which is used to integrate the observatory with the upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket," NASA said in a blog post. "A sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band—which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter—caused a vibration throughout the observatory."
 
#4,072
#4,072
Got the dreaded Starlink email that my scheduled order completion was being moved from mid to late 2021 to late 2022....Elon had my 99 for months on pre-order status
 
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