Space transportation general. A general to cover all things spaceflight related. Since spaceflight is increasing exponentially, since we are up to at least a launch per week and since we are days away from a industry revolutionizing fully reusablesuper heavy lift launch vehicle. Upcoming launches:>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_launches_in_January%E2%80%93June_2023Upcoming NASA operations:>https://www.nasa.gov/launchschedule/SpaceX Mars goal:>https://youtu.be/921VbEMAwwY>https://www.spacex.com/human-spaceflight/mars/Starbase 24/7 streams:>https://www.youtube.com/live/mhJRzQsLZGg?feature=share>https://www.youtube.com/live/60YnbafD6vY?feature=shareStarbase tour from last summer:>https://youtu.be/t705r8ICkRw>https://youtu.be/SA8ZBJWo73E>https://youtu.be/9Zlnbs-NBUI>https://youtu.be/3Ux6B3bvO0w
Starship launch scrubbed today, should attempt again in a few days
>>1904648Scrubbed for a single frozen valve
>>1904657Some valves are more important than others. Could have been on the rocket or the ground support equipment. If it was a 19" methane supply valve, you wouldn't want that gushing into the BQD box with the hood down at liftoff.
>>1904658>Some valves are more important than others#allvalvesmatter
it was always supposed to launch on 4/20
>>1904738I unironically belive this.
>>1904646Is it just me or does this look more like a model rocket than a real one? Maybe I'm just married to the Saturn V aesthetic
>>1904738Is that Hubble?
>>1904797It's because it is simplified for mass manufacturing and reusability. But honestly it will be so much more kino
>>1904849>It's because it is simplified for mass manufacturing and reusabilityThat makes sense. Thanks.
>>1904849Neat.
>>1904935Its honestly incredible how simple it is while being the cutting edge. Its the model T of rockets with a huge payload.
>>1905041To advance, the space industry needed this kind of simplification. Something that couldnt be done by boeing because they grew fat off of government subsidies.Lets hope it picks up pace and evolve the same way planes did, meaning we'll get warp capable crafts by 2060.I fully believe warp capable crafts using the alcubierre method are the space equivalent to jet planes.
>>1905100I don't think we need that yet desu.(also who knows if its possible) there is lifetimes of infrastructure to build in the solar system.
>>1905107It is possible, the energy requirements arent reachable yet.
>>1905153>It is possibleIt's possible in principle, but in reality there is the problem that you probably couldn't steer your ship (because there is no known way of sending a signal to the front of such a bubble from inside of it), that everything inside the bubble will probably be fried by hawking radiation and that you will destroy everything at your destination with a burst of highly charged particles when you decelerate.
>>1905100I saw a talk where an LHC scientist laughed at the plot of the DaVinci Code sequel. The total amount of anti-matter created by humanity if unleashed at once is barely enough to boil a cup of tea. Also since we don't even know how gravity works, I think there are a few gaps in our knowledge before we get to warp drives. The theories also rely on hypothetical exotic particles / matter that may or may not actually exist.
>>1905178>The theories also rely on hypothetical exotic particles / matter that may or may not actually exist.I think some German physicists argued that you could possibly create it without exotic matter by using soliton waves or something, but it's all highly theoretical.
A lot of workers at the booster today for there being a launch attempt tomorrow. Starting to feel like go fever setting to to blaze it on 420. Maybe a delay until next week is in order.
>>1904849the arms won't move downward while catching the rocket
Ends in FTS. Lost 5+ engines on the ascent, then went into a spin at 2000 kph. Pretty good for a first booster flight.Rover2 cam showed massive chunks of concrete flying near the camera.
"Your vehicle was damaged how?"https://twitter.com/i/status/1649050806577164293
Can the concrete survive a launch? Uh, no. Holy crater.
>>1905397Saved some digging work for exhaust tunnel.
>>1905416>ablative excavation
Holy shit that launch was sooo kino
Huge slab of concrete landed on the tank farm helium tanks.
>hey let’s launch the most powerful rocket ever built with no way to safely deflect/transfer the massive amounts of energy it releases in a safe manner>Newton’s_third_law.exe>”Oh no, how could this happen!?”Seriously, what were they thinking?
>>1905564If I had to guess they knew even their first flame diverter would probably have gotten fucked so they decided to go with the cheap disposable option. It'll probably take at least 4 launches to figure it out.
>>1905600Figures, they will have to make those flame diverters on Mars and even on the Moon if they want to do quasi regular flights to and from.You have to do it as cheap and simple as possible, the big operations are not an option here.
>>1905471Oh boy, they will have to rebuild the entire complex...
>>1905471Those cameras were a lot further back than normal too. The vehicles were temporarily moved to the back of the SpaceX parking lot. Usually they are up at the road where those cones are and towards the left.
>>1905619>cheap and simpleDigging a basic trench would help already. Tossing some steel mesh or fiberglass+epoxy to keep big chunks down would help immensly. Its not like they gonna launch from bare sufsce anyway.Water supression system OTOH might be trickier.
Saw on Twitter that non-SpaceX sources indicated that the Florida OLM ring is going to be sent by Barge to Boca Chica. Wouldn't be surprising as they are probably looking at a major redesign before they proceed with the Florida launch site.
Starship Gazer posted a bunch of post launch pics on Twitter. Here's the OLM door that got blown off, bent in half.
Some big chunks of concrete were flying. Entire slabs went airborne.
>>1905726>>1905960Even this is positive IMO
A few shots of the damage. Honestly it doesn't look that bad.
>>1906078See>>1905726Foundation is fucked, concrete was clean blown off the rebar support. Launchpad is very much in bad shape, it is unusable, can’t be fixed only demolished and rebuilt with a flame diverter trench
>>1906235Also chopsticks looked droopy after launch so there could be problems within the tower structure as well
why no launch table ?
It would be nice to see a sub-orbital Starship launch while they fix the orbital launch site. Might be able to do a ballistic trajectory into the gulf to test reentry.
>>1906278Regulations probably would require too much time and starbase is more of a test facility.
For those of you that don't know. Its called the Starship and its about to change everything. Normies are focusing on the launch pad breaking and SpaceX terminating the flight after losing control from engine loss(due to debris). But that is not significant. SpaceX just proved the concept and passed huge milestones in this test flight. Now that the concept is proven, it will simply take some time to perfect it. >but muh explosion That is how SpaceX develops so quickly. It is called iterative design philosophy. It fleshes out problems faster and more thoroughly than traditional methods. They did this with their other products, which are now the safest on the market. See https://youtu.be/bvim4rsNHkQ for proof. >but it's not even close to operational It is close. Maybe a year away from its first operational iteration taking commercial payloads. Pic related is a brief summary of the testing, iteration, and progress they have made(with their future vision).>Why is this important As calculated right now, it will put 250 tons in LEO and 150 tons to the surface of the moon or mars. It is entirely reusable, and they designed it to be mass manufactured. That means space infrastructure, habitation, and industrial ventures will become available/affordable. Starship is the caravel of the modern era. We are on the precipice of national expansion, nation building, solor colonization, earth domination, and industrial expansion on a scale we have NEVER experienced before.
>>1906279I really don't think they'll ever need to do one again..
>>1906556>>but muh explosion >That is how SpaceX develops so quickly. It is called iterative design philosophyIt's also what NASA did sixty years ago. Before Neil and Buzz walked on the moon there were A LOT of rockets that went pop.
>>1906575Exactly, its how things are done fast and done well. The shuttle era philosophy was out of necessity. It should never have been an industry standard
Any aviation nerds here have ideas on starship seat configuration?For reference 747-8F is ~ 750 cubic meters of pressurized volume and Starship is ~ 1,000
NEW LAUNCH PIC JUST DROPPED
Also, Skyora revealed some tech.
>>1906816
>ispace update:"the lander was in a vertical position as it carried out the final approach ... it has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the Moon's surface."https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=4655Oof
>>1906802park benches
>>1906076keep simping, you'll be just like elon some day! any day now!
Looks like RGV got some nice launch site shots today after being clouded out last week.
SpaceShipTwo makes first flight in nearly two years
We also got a picture from blue orgin. May be project jarvis
>>1906814Damn it's going to look sexy with proper pad without dust. Unless they go full Shuttle with water supressions and it's gigant steam cloud instead.
>>1905619Implying their actually using this logic when it come to testing a base ship for the 2025 lunar landing mission... Risk the biscuit for that.. Sure sure
>>1906802Not possible with current starship design and the required insulation/shielding. Plus there will be more tanks for a crewed version.
>>1907336>Unless they go full Shuttle with water supressions and it's gigant steam cloud insteadReally doubt theyd do that. its not cheap enough
>>1905619They won't be using superheavies on mars
https://youtu.be/mmIqSPux3FYMusk talking about the results of the Starship OFT
FH launch. This is insanely fast expendable.
Does anyone know what happened with the second Axiom mission?
They made Buzz Aldrin a Brigadier General.
NASA and @RocketLab are targeting 9pm ET Sunday, May 7 (0100 May 8 UTC), for the first launch of our cyclone-studying TROPICS CubeSats.Tune in here and at http://nasa.gov/live at 8:40pm ET (0040 May 8 UTC) for live launch coverage from New Zealand: https://go.nasa.gov/42xYE3n
>>1909455SUCCESS
Starbase construction is really ramping up. From today's RGV flyover it looks like instead of tearing down the production tents one at a time to build the factory, they are going to tear down some older buildings and build an entire Star Factory beside the tents. The first building segment that was already built will just be extra workspace.
Henlo!
Down at Starbase they did a booster FTS test on a barrel section filled with water, went boom, fell over.https://twitter.com/i/status/1658226544668553216
>>1911900>>1910553
>>1911913I signed up for RGV's patreon a few weeks ago which has been nice. The evening after each flyover / ground photos session they do a discussion on discord and stream it on youtube. The air photos one ends up being around 4 hours so I just skim through it on youtube. With even the lowest patreon tier you can watch the youtube stream which I find more useful than looking at the raw images, and you get to see more than the limit galleries available for the lowest tiers.
>>1911972How much did it cost
>https://spacenews.com/republican-senators-claim-nasa-being-distracted-by-climate-change-and-diversity-initiatives/Woke NASA element going down
>>1912052Cheapest tier is $2 a month, I went with a higher tier because I was thinking in terms of gallery size when I signed up.
>>1912057Not bad. Probably not worth it for me but decent
NEW PRODUCTION DIAGRAM
Immensely complex & high risk
Honestly the new BO lander looks decent and it seems that starship forced them to go bigger
For the lurkers, Blue Origin was named as the HLS for the Artemis V mission.
Still embarrassing compared to starship HLS though
>>1912559yeah but it looks way cooler and has a docking port. they're both so cool though, we live in such an interesting time
>>1912559But the wind loading.
>kill it with firehttps://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1659599720761950208
>>1912603Is that a raptor 3?
>>1912594Wind load this
>>1912650Nope just them testing the water cooled steel plate design they want to install under the launch pad.
>>1912659Very nice, but didn't the old launchpad fail because the earth underneath buckled? How will steel fix that?
>>1912661A bunch of new deep concrete columns under and around the OLM support the water cooled structure. The old columns were quite feeble with just a single piece of rebar in each.
It's looking like they are going to use a lot of huge nitrogen cylinders to push water through the system instead of pumps.
>>1912662Excellent. Thanks for the info. Sounds like a quick fix too.
Axiom AX-2 mission pre launch briefing (today at 6:00pm EST)>https://www.youtube.com/live/XrNaO9OXod8Launch stream (starts at 2:10 pm EST on the 21st)>https://www.youtube.com/live/dp2U6GG04Hs
I want to be on mars so bad bros.
2 RGV flyovers this week, did a second one today.
>>1913107Hows it look?
>>1913133I gave up watching their review tonight and the images aren't posted yet. The person streaming the images wasn't the person discussing them so things were moving pretty slow. I'll just watch their weekly show tomorrow which was rescheduled to tomorrow.Steady progress all around, more caisson drilling at the launch site, and concrete work at the build site. Moving pretty quick with the foundation for the factory expansion. Preparing a base for a stamping machine press is slowing things down on one end of it. The Florida site didn't get a base for one of those so bringing production of those parts (probably stringers) in-house must have been a recent decision.
Booster 9 and Ship 25 announced as next flight hardware.
RIP low bay. https://twitter.com/i/status/1662992937850904579All the buildings beside the fabrication tents are getting removed for the factory expansion. I guess they can't afford downtime so they are making a complete second factory before finishing the first one.
