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.
Surprisingly, this is actually real. It's known as the Rosette Nebula (Caldwell 49) is about 5,000 light-years distance from Earth, 130 light-years wide, & has a mass ~10,000 × the Sun [Reply]
It is, but my understanding is that this was the Russian military and not Roscosmos. Would not surprise me if Roscosmos learned of it the same time NASA did. :-) [Reply]
Astra just reached orbit! 7.61km/sec at our targeted 86.0 degree inclination at an altitude of 500km. The team worked hard for this. We’re just getting started, folks. #AdAstrapic.twitter.com/NiMhCEsuCI
It essentially puts a payload in an enormous vertical centrifuge, spins it to hypersonic speeds, and then throws it up into space. I'm curious how something like a satellite could hold up to those forces, and I'd think that's a hard sell. But if you want to move a bunch of steel or uranium into orbit, this seems like a good way to do it.
You really want to be sure this baby releases on the vertical part of the spin cycle, though, or you're going to rip a big swath through Albuquerque. [Reply]
It essentially puts a payload in an enormous vertical centrifuge, spins it to hypersonic speeds, and then throws it up into space. I'm curious how something like a satellite could hold up to those forces, and I'd think that's a hard sell. But if you want to move a bunch of steel or uranium into orbit, this seems like a good way to do it.
You really want to be sure this baby releases on the vertical part of the spin cycle, though, or you're going to rip a big swath through Albuquerque.
Yeah, the accuracy requirements for angle of release must be insane. I pretty much dismissed this tech due to that, the satellite hardening required to survive the stresses, and the price of launch continuing to drop as SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Astra, and others push for more/cheaper launches, The idea of launching raw materials (like a chunk of steel for in-orbit manufacturing) seems like a good use case though. I'm curious to know how fast the projectile is moving as it leaves the centrifuge and if it's fast enough to have to deal with the heat from friction that things entering the atmosphere deal with. [Reply]
Originally Posted by unlurking:
Yeah, the accuracy requirements for angle of release must be insane. I pretty much dismissed this tech due to that, the satellite hardening required to survive the stresses, and the price of launch continuing to drop as SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Astra, and others push for more/cheaper launches, The idea of launching raw materials (like a chunk of steel for in-orbit manufacturing) seems like a good use case though. I'm curious to know how fast the projectile is moving as it leaves the centrifuge and if it's fast enough to have to deal with the heat from friction that things entering the atmosphere deal with.
Probably. He likes to be a bit dramatic in order to motivate his employees. Still not a great sign that they're having production issues with Raptor, but hopefully they'll get it worked out. [Reply]
It's hard to believe, but there's actually a good chance that JWST gets off the ground in a few weeks. Definitely one of the highest-impact (and highest-risk) missions we've seen in a while.
The James Webb Space Telescope is on track for a launch date of Dec. 22.
Additional testing, which was conducted due to an incident in launch preparations, concluded no observatory components were damaged. Observatory fueling operations begin on Nov. 25: https://t.co/3E4UopkVZGpic.twitter.com/aPZJPIBtCQ
Originally Posted by DaFace:
It's hard to believe, but there's actually a good chance that JWST gets off the ground in a few weeks. Definitely one of the highest-impact (and highest-risk) missions we've seen in a while.
The James Webb Space Telescope is on track for a launch date of Dec. 22.
Additional testing, which was conducted due to an incident in launch preparations, concluded no observatory components were damaged. Observatory fueling operations begin on Nov. 25: https://t.co/3E4UopkVZGpic.twitter.com/aPZJPIBtCQ
Originally Posted by Berger:
This process will involve nearly 350 single-point failures, and if something goes wrong, it would scuttle the deployment without hope of repair.
