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.
Originally Posted by DaFace:
Check out the video. Elon's caption suggests that it might have been related to the fog from launch, as weird as that sounds.
Now I feel bad for my "Love the mist" post... Ugh! [Reply]
Here's a fan-created video that compares the three barge landing attempts. It's pretty clear from this that it's not just random chance - they're definitely getting things fine-tuned each time. I'll give the February 6th launch a 75% chance of sticking the landing on a barge finally.
Originally Posted by DaFace:
Here's a fan-created video that compares the three barge landing attempts. It's pretty clear from this that it's not just random chance - they're definitely getting things fine-tuned each time. I'll give the February 6th launch a 75% chance of sticking the landing on a barge finally.
Originally Posted by Donger:
Hope I'm not breaking a rule here (Blue Origin vs. SpaceX), but the New Shepard just flew again. The same one that flew in November:
Meh, no real rules here. As far as I'm concerned, anything about cool space stuff is more than welcome.
It's cool that they were able to reuse it relatively easily, and I hope that bodes well for SpaceX's reusability program as well. It almost seems inevitable that reusable rockets are the way of the future at this point.
I do hope that Blue Origin eventually figures out how to do something more useful than shuttling tourists up and down to "space," but more innovation is certainly what we need in the industry, so they're to be commended regardless. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaFace:
Meh, no real rules here. As far as I'm concerned, anything about cool space stuff is more than welcome.
It's cool that they were able to reuse it relatively easily, and I hope that bodes well for SpaceX's reusability program as well. It almost seems inevitable that reusable rockets are the way of the future at this point.
I do hope that Blue Origin eventually figures out how to do something more useful than shuttling tourists up and down to "space," but more innovation is certainly what we need in the industry, so they're to be commended regardless.
Woohoo, no space geek rules rules.
Indeed, it's almost like the early days of the space race between us and the Soviets. The race to be first. I welcome the competition. [Reply]
Launch is scheduled for 5:46 p.m. Central on Wednesday (2/24). Weather's looking a little iffy at the moment, though - currently a 60% chance of favorable conditions. That said, there's about a 1.5-hour launch window, so hopefully they'll find a break in the weather there somewhere long enough to get it off the ground. [Reply]
