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Excellent production as always. Worth a watch, lots of good nuggets and images of space stuff.
One of my faves is the balloon offloaders for the reflector deployment test. Most of the industry does this kind of thing for large deployables--its the easiest way to create a near zero-G environment for a gizmo that would otherwise not be able to self-support in 1g. 1:27:30 or so.
I've also always loved the Thales solution for horizontal lifting of their satellites. 2:04.15 or so.
Rocketlab will have another launch on Friday. First step in recovery. EA moderating the launch.
Official livestream from Rocketlab:
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One of the best launch photos I've seen in a long time:
Here's the original article for completeness, but don't bother reading...its exceedingly unremarkable.
Proton launches Russian weather satellite - SpaceNews.com
Here's the original article for completeness, but don't bother reading...its exceedingly unremarkable.
Proton launches Russian weather satellite - SpaceNews.com
e-FTW
New electron smell
I agree. It looks like there is a captive black cloud in the middle of it.One of the best launch photos I've seen in a long time:
Here's the original article for completeness, but don't bother reading...its exceedingly unremarkable.
Proton launches Russian weather satellite - SpaceNews.com
Antares CRS mission launch. Midday Saturday out of Wallops.
Everyday Astronaut will be a livestream play by play of the launch as well:
Up to date stats on Antares and Cygnus:
This is the 13th resupply mission for Orbital (now Northrup Grumman) with one successful test flight and one spectacular failure. The Antares rocket now uses RD-181 engines sourced from Russia in a similar way as the RD-180 engines for ULA.
The plan is for these resupply missions to happen twice a year. This will be the first for 2020 and the second is tentatively scheduled for October.
Everyday Astronaut will be a livestream play by play of the launch as well:
Up to date stats on Antares and Cygnus:
This is the 13th resupply mission for Orbital (now Northrup Grumman) with one successful test flight and one spectacular failure. The Antares rocket now uses RD-181 engines sourced from Russia in a similar way as the RD-180 engines for ULA.
The plan is for these resupply missions to happen twice a year. This will be the first for 2020 and the second is tentatively scheduled for October.
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Credit where credit is due, this is objectively cool, and props to the CEO's passion and knowledge. Super long, so...sorry about that.
Brando
Active Member
Just compare to Falcon 9 (OK, too small??) Falcon Heavy and of course reusability AND cost to tax payers.
Now compare to StarShip. It will be astounding to watch StarShip develop.
And it is of course astounding to watch StarLink building up.
Just under 300 StarLink as of Feb. 2020. And continuously improving as per Elon Musk design/build approach.
Elon has said he hopes to have ~5% of internet traffic. We shall see how it goes.
Now compare to StarShip. It will be astounding to watch StarShip develop.
And it is of course astounding to watch StarLink building up.
Just under 300 StarLink as of Feb. 2020. And continuously improving as per Elon Musk design/build approach.
Elon has said he hopes to have ~5% of internet traffic. We shall see how it goes.
Maybe a little light on content, but...desperate times, and all...
Watch This Rocket Engine's 3D-Printed Thrust Chamber Ace a 'Hot Fire' Test — Popular Mechanics
Watch This Rocket Engine's 3D-Printed Thrust Chamber Ace a 'Hot Fire' Test — Popular Mechanics
I watched that one yesterday; that config with 5 SRBs looks so weird. I assume they use the angles of the various booster nozzles to compensate for asymmetric thrust? Or do the main Atlas engines gimbal to offset the thrust from the SRBs?
With that big fairing the rocket looks like it should be like 30% longer to get the proportions to look nice. It's nice that not all rocket designs look exactly the same, but this configuration in particular just looks strange to my eye.
With that big fairing the rocket looks like it should be like 30% longer to get the proportions to look nice. It's nice that not all rocket designs look exactly the same, but this configuration in particular just looks strange to my eye.
RD180 is gimbaled.
Atlas 5 SRBs have always looked goofy to me. They can do 0-5 boosters and no configuration (other than no boosters) is completely symmetrical. I think there might be some offset with the gravity vector that's complimentary the acoaxial SRB thrust vector.
And the 5m fairing has always looked goofy too. The fairing is so long because it also covers the Centaur in the 5m configuration (it doesn't with the 4m). I think that's mostly because there's no clean, structural way to attach the 5m to the top of Centaur.
Atlas 5 SRBs have always looked goofy to me. They can do 0-5 boosters and no configuration (other than no boosters) is completely symmetrical. I think there might be some offset with the gravity vector that's complimentary the acoaxial SRB thrust vector.
And the 5m fairing has always looked goofy too. The fairing is so long because it also covers the Centaur in the 5m configuration (it doesn't with the 4m). I think that's mostly because there's no clean, structural way to attach the 5m to the top of Centaur.
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