Since a number of cool things are happening in space exploration these days, we'll widen the scope of this thread a smidge. Conversation about all things space exploration are welcome, whether it be from NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Blue Origin, or anyone else. Chances are most of the discussion will still be about SpaceX since they love to make things public and fun, but nothing's off limits. I'll eventually get around to modifying the OP to include resources for other companies too, but in the meantime, feel free to post any cool stuff you run across.
Tim Dodd (Everyday Astronaut) - A "random dude" who got really into space (particularly SpaceX). He's a great resource for simple explanations of this stuff, as well as live hosting launches.
USLaunchReport - Lost of videos of the more mundane stuff (e.g., booster recovery operations). Not a ton of commentary.
NASASpaceFlight - Live hosting of most launches including a ton of video of Starlink operations.
Glossary
Spoiler!
Space discussions tend to get a little bogged down in jargon, so here's a list of terms you might encounter. (Others, please let me know of others that should be added.)
ASDS - Autonomous Spaceport Droneship - The "barges" that they sometimes land rockets on.
Dragon - The cone-shaped capsule that sits at the top of the rocket for ISS-bound launches that holds the cargo (or, in the future, humans).
F9 - Falcon 9, the name of the rocket itself.
FH - Falcon Heavy, the three-booster version.
GTO - Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, a type of orbit that will eventually result in the satellite orbiting the earth as it turns so that it seems to be in the same spot from the ground (such as DirecTV or Dish satellites). These types of launches are particularly challenging because they require a lot of power to get them into the right orbit, leaving very little fuel left for landing.
HIF - Horizontal Integration Facility - the building near the launch pad where they put all of the pieces of the rocket together before rolling it out to the pad.
ISS - The International Space Station
JRTI - Just Read The Instructions, the name of the "barge" that they land on for west-coast launches.
LEO - Low Earth Orbit, a fairly low orbit shared by many satellites and ISS. These launches usually require less power to achieve the proper orbit, so the first stage can often be landed back on land rather than on a drone ship.
LZ1 - Landing Zone 1, basically a big open slab of concrete at Cape Canaveral where the first stage will attempt to land (for some launches).
NET - No Earlier Than, basically the date they're hoping to launch, but rocket launches have a tendency of getting delayed.
OCISLY - Of Course I Still Love You, the name of the "barge" that they land on for east-coast launches.
RTLS - Return to Landing Site, a mission where the first stage comes back and lands at LZ1.
Starship - SpaceX's next-generation rocket (and spacecraft) that will hopefully one day take us to Mars. Starship is the "second stage" that will carry cargo or people, but also refers to the whole system. (It's confusing, but think of it like the Space Shuttle, which was both the shuttle itself and the entire launch system.)
Super Heavy - The giant booster that will carry Starship to space.
Heard a "recovery vessel AOS" in the callouts a bit ago. Guess that means they're still experimenting with fairing recovery. No one has seen the crazy spider arm ship on the east coast, though, so tough to tell what they're trying. [Reply]
This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn’t hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived. We will try to tow it back to shore. pic.twitter.com/hipmgdnq16
This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn’t hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived. We will try to tow it back to shore. pic.twitter.com/hipmgdnq16
Holy shit that is awesome. Even when they aren't trying they succeed.
Curious. How far ahead of everyone is spacex time wise. It doesn't seem like any other company is anywhere near ready to land rockets yet (out side of blue origin but they are still pretty far from spacex's scale). How far before other people catch up. Over or under 5 years? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Chitownchiefsfan:
Holy shit that is awesome. Even when they aren't trying they succeed.
Curious. How far ahead of everyone is spacex time wise. It doesn't seem like any other company is anywhere near ready to land rockets yet (out side of blue origin but they are still pretty far from spacex's scale). How far before other people catch up. Over or under 5 years?
Blue Origin is a weird one. On the one hand, they're far behind. But on the other, they have done a ton of R&D that hasn't come to anything yet, but probably will soon. Couple that with a basically endless pile of money that Bezos could throw at it, and it wouldn't surprise me to see them catch up in 5 years.
This was the first launch I've watched live, YouTube sent me a notification about 30 prelaunch or I would have missed it. Really insightful and informative coverage. Exciting first 10 minutes. I was pulled away so I missed the fairing separation, I'll go back and try to find it.
Can someone explain the significance of how difficult it was to recover the booster? Elon sounded like it was pretty impressive it survived [Reply]
Originally Posted by Cornstock:
This was the first launch I've watched live, YouTube sent me a notification about 30 prelaunch or I would have missed it. Really insightful and informative coverage. Exciting first 10 minutes. I was pulled away so I missed the fairing separation, I'll go back and try to find it.
Can someone explain the significance of how difficult it was to recover the booster? Elon sounded like it was pretty impressive it survived
Rocket boosters - especially empty rocket boosters - are very strong vertically, but they're really weak horizontally. If you watch the old explosive landing videos, a lot of them almost land, but when they hit the deck horizontally, the entire thing immediately ruptures.
The expectation is that the booster would tear and explode after hitting the water, but this one apparently slid down into the water so smoothly that it remained pressurized and intact.
Mind you, this booster is trashed and will absolutely never fly again. The salt water will damage pretty much everything even ignoring it'll be dragged through the water 100 miles.
But they might be able to get some good data from it or otherwise learn from it. [Reply]
SpaceX confirms it will try to land all of Falcon Heavy's boosters
Elon Musk's outfit has confirmed that it will attempt to land all three boosters on Falcon Heavy's launch, which is now slated for a 2.5-hour window starting at 1:30PM Eastern on February 6th.
Originally Posted by aturnis:
Any guess how likely it is the FH will launch the 6th or 7th? I'm thinking of taking my 7yo down, but really worried about wasting the money.
Pure gut feeling, I'd say 60% for the 6th and 75% for the 7th. It's definitely a risk. [Reply]
Originally Posted by aturnis:
Any guess how likely it is the FH will launch the 6th or 7th? I'm thinking of taking my 7yo down, but really worried about wasting the money.
Weather will be a Sunny 75 degrees with 10 MPH winds. The weather will not delay this launch. Any of the South beaches or the Titusville river front parks will give you a good view without the sun in your eyes. [Reply]
