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:
Yeah, that's part of what I was getting at earlier. It seems HIGHLY unlikely to me that SpaceX actually thinks they'll be launching this thing in the next couple of weeks. In fact, if the FAA comes back and says that they've got some environmental violations, it could be months before it's all worked out.
However, the optics of the most innovative space company in the world, with contracts for both NASA and the DOD that are relying on this thing, having to sit there with this monstrosity of a rocket on the pad "ready to go" as soon as the FAA approves it...
Yeah, you have to imagine the FAA is going to try and speed things up a bit.
Agreed, and ballsy as all get out. Love it.
"You can't build an almost 500 foot launch tower without approval!!"
Yeah, pretty much. I 100% understand why people hate Elon, but there's no question that he's willing to be abrasive in order to get shit done.
Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if the raptors on the bottom of the thing right now aren't even fully connected. They just want it to look like the FAA is dragging them down. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaFace:
Yeah, pretty much. I 100% understand why people hate Elon, but there's no question that he's willing to be abrasive in order to get shit done.
Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if the raptors on the bottom of the thing right now aren't even fully connected. They just want it to look like the FAA is dragging them down.
Yeah, he mentioned needing to do a fit check between the booster and the orbital launch table a few days ago. I imagine once that clears they'll start running cryo checks and sequential static fires. I have no doubt they'll be ready to launch long before FAA approval. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Donger:
The grid fins aren't going to be folded in like with Falcon 9? What's the time he discusses?
It starts around 13:15, but it's a long, drawn out explanation. The gist is that the loss in drag isn't worth the weight of all of the stuff that would be required to fold them up and down. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaFace:
It starts around 13:15, but it's a long, drawn out explanation. The gist is that the loss in drag isn't worth the weight of all of the stuff that would be required to fold them up and own.
Originally Posted by Donger:
Interesting. I wonder if that will hold.
Yeah, time will tell. This discussion was started by #2 in his engineering process. Try to delete the part, since no part is better than any part that can fail. I believe he said something to the effect of, "if you're not having to add 10% of the things you remove back in, you're not removing enough."
So definitely they could come back at some point, but for now, they're trying to do without. [Reply]
Well, that doesn't sound promising. But again, they CANNOT fuck this up. If anything were to go wrong with this launch, it would be almost impossible to recover.
