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This WSJ article positions China’s lunar exploration missions as a “race” with the US, and Bill Nelson’s recent Congressional testimony does as well, with national security implications, as that is the way he can get more money for NASA. China Launches Moon Mission in Base Race With U.S. He...

Actually, I stand corrected. Here are some Apollo heat shields. This is XII: This is VII: And this is XI: However, what was an acceptable risk in the Apollo era is often not acceptable today. But all Apollo crews survived reentry.

Eric Berger:NASA says Artemis II report by its inspector general is unhelpful and redundant NASA does not like criticism. But it is only through independent review boards that the public learned the actual cost of a single SLS/Orion mission: $4.2 billion! Which is an obscene amount of money in...

I couldn’t make it past the 50 second mark due to a rising epigastric disturbance… :rolleyes:

All those functions seem critical to expanding the Supercharger network. Could they be outsourced? I suppose so, but I have difficulty envisioning how that approach could be cheaper or more efficient. Agreed.

Fair point, but the complete elimination of Supercharger admin personnel is different because of the negative publicity generated and the anxiety it is producing among Tesla owners and potential buyers (Today all my Tesla friends are emailing me asking what the heck is going on). A major...

It can only hurt the expansion of the network. Seems like a really bad decision. It was only a few months ago that Elon was touting the SC network as being a revenue generator and how it would be a major company if it was a stand alone business. And yet now all those people are disposable? Makes...

Thanks. I wonder what the efficiency loss will be, i.e. what percent of the prop needs to be lost to boil off to maintain the needed differential? We shall see…

Okay but that won’t lead to the ship having a full tank. The tanker ship will never arrive in orbit with a full tank. So how does the ship needing prop ever get full if no pumps are used?

Road closure tomorrow from 7AM to 7PM CDT, possibly to move S30 to the suborbital pad for a static fire.

Wonderful photo on that page of what I assume is an Inspiration 4 mission crew member using their iPhone to take a photo of Earth through the Dragon dome window! And also a video showing the reaction of the crew when looking out the dome. Hayley seems overcome with wonder. I’d probably be crying.

Glad you guys got that sorted. ;) In this new NSF video at the 16:05 point, Jack starts talking about ship propellant transfer and what NASA showed at a recent presentation. Here’s the NASA slide.

China to launch sample-return mission to the moon's far side on May 3 This is impressive: NASA needs to contract with Starlink to build and launch a lunar sat comm system.

So one ship will be planned to have significantly more prop mass remaining after reaching orbit, and the other ship will launch with just enough prop to reach orbit?

Thanks for posting that. Another indication of just how serious the Chinese are about lunar exploration.

Reviving this thread because it seems more appropriate than the ‘SLS capitulation” thread for discussing the Artemis missions, as the idea that SLS is going to go away any time soon seems fanciful. NASA still doesn’t understand root cause of Orion heat shield issue NASA says that Artemis II...

Yes, as much as I admire and respect her, I find little of interest in most of her public presentations.

Spacenews.com reports China on track for crewed moon landing by 2030, space official says Unlike meaningless announcements from Roscosmos, I take what China is saying very seriously and expect them to reach their goals. It won’t be long before key members of Congress wrap their heads around...

Seems a bit risky for NASA to entrust a pair of Mars-bound sats — no matter how small they are — to the first launch of an all new rocket.

Thanks. It would not surprise me in the least to learn that Novus Prime Properties is just a land speculator. Which isn’t necessarily illegal. I suppose it comes down to the nature of the alleged agreement between Novus and SpaceX and if it was legally binding or not.

From that video; It’s incredible to see the change in Boca Chica Village from a few years ago to now. This is a piece of property not owned by SpaceX. The video implies that it is the subject of a legal case and that SpaceX anticipates owning it soon?

Thanks, but actually I’m more boggled by the fact that the graphic only shows about 0.06% of the distance to the nearest star. Check my math. ;)

Ars technica report on Voyager coming back to life, with a very cool graphic. My brain experiences buffer stack overflow trying to envision the scale involved.

Voyager 1 transmitting data again after Nasa remotely fixes 46-year-old probe The JPL Voyager team never ceases to amaze me with their dogged persistence and innovative problem solving skills!

I would not describe it as the “discovery of a fundamental new force” when no explanation is provided as to what the force is. If there is a “new force” I’ll believe it when a plausible theoretical explanation is made and it is then verified independently by multiple researchers with peer review.

Thank you. What a great story!

It certainly does. A conclusion based on baseless assumptions. Is the slashdot commentator seriously saying that?

News report: Tesla’s biggest retail shareholder is voting against Elon Musk’s $55 billion package

Revisiting this old thread from late 2017: The Artemis 1 mission took place in November 2022, so late but not absurdly so. Costs were/are absurd. Okay, so not even close. He didn’t say “land an uncrewed Starship on Mars” which would be hard enough. He wanted humans on Mars in 2023! My...

And that is the core of the problem. If the Chinese weren’t accelerating their human space program so rapidly, and impressively, I don’t think NASA would have the funding that it does. That said, NASA is having to cut space exploration robotic missions to keep SLS going as near as I can tell...

Eric Berger: NASA may alter Artemis III to have Starship and Orion dock in low-Earth orbit No surprise there. So a multibillion dollar SLS launch that doesn’t even get humans to lunar orbit? This is not sustainable.

Eric Berger: Boeing says it will cut SLS workforce “due to external factors”

Thanks for your comment. As someone who bought TSLA before it started its steep climb in 2020, as of now I’m still way ahead despite it being down over 60% from the late 2021 peak. So at this point I’m not looking for further gains. What I’m looking for is a rational plan from the CEO for the...

I did not realize that the CCC had any authority over what happens on US Air Force property that has been there decades before the commission was established. According to this recent article in the issue, the commission cannot limit the number of launches.

As a long time shareholder I’m voting against Elon’s pay package and against the two board members up for reelection; Kimbal and James Murdoch. I’m very concerned about Elon’s apparent decision to cancel/postpone the lower cost “Model 2” in favor of introducing the “robotaxi” on August 8th and...

This news report came to my attention today: By “it” the reporter means any Level 3 capabilities present in the car. Here is the BC bylaw which specifies the fines to be imposed in cases of “Drive or permit driving of” a Level 3/4/5 equipped vehicle. For those not familiar with the various...

And lots of interesting speculation about the hardware changes between the various versions. Well worth watching.

Darn auto correct. :rolleyes: In case anyone is confused, what @Young intended to type is Boltzmann Constant.

It’s unclear exactly what SpaceX is doing to the chopsticks, but the interesting part of this video is at about the 23:00 point showing closeups of a guy working on the tiles at the nose of S29.

As @Oil4AsphaultOnly stated, which is what Elon has stated repeatedly for about a decade. The basic idea is that there are existential threats to humanity if our species is confined to a single planet. These threats fall into two categories: From humans: various types of environmental...

Thanks for posting that link. From the press release: Well…I don’t think that statement is entirely accurate. Starship will be able to reach Mars using chemical propulsion, but will need to be refueled on Mars to return to Earth. So the nuclear reactor is boosted to orbit with a conventional...

Great analysis. Given the level of expertise that SpaceX has acquired in successfully landing over 200 boosters with fairly high precision, I’m confident that they have a pretty good idea of what will be safe weather conditions for catching a Starship booster and ship. Of course the catching...

Elon is only 53 years old. Given the average American male lifespan is currently around 73 years, if SpaceX is able to begin Martian colonization in about a decade it appears that he will be around to see it. If you mean will he be alive to see a million people on Mars — his stated goal — I...

The video states that Astrolab has “already signed an agreement with SpaceX” to take their Flex vehicle to the Moon in 2026. I don’t think anyone seriously believes that Artemis III will happen by the end of 2026. But I did not know that mission is planned to have a lunar rover onboard and...

Eric Berger’s analysis of Elon’s latest SpaceX presentation which was focused on Mars colonization. He then summarizes the main points of the presentation, as @JB47394 has already done in the Starship general development thread. He concludes with: SpaceX has made impressive progress over the...

YouTube channels that steal videos and post them without attribution really tick me off.

I did not realize Starlink sats had a camera. And if this is actually real, how did a YouTube channel get this video?

The difference is that handicapped parking spaces are mandated by state law and everyone knows that. Tesla putting up signs at a Supercharger location, with no way to enforce it, won’t have much of an effect.

Which will happen basically all the time because many Tesla drivers have likely never even seen a Tesla towing something. Only a tiny fraction of Teslas ever tow something, primarily just X owners. Model 3 owners basically never tow anything (there are of course extremely rare exceptions). A...

We do not know if the test flight hot stagings have worked “flawlessly” or not. It is possible that SpaceX had sensors at the top of the booster that indicated damage occurred. Or perhaps the new diagonal design is lighter and just as strong. It also provides increased spacing between the ship...