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 Dave Lane:
I think people underestimate the difficulty factor here.
The difficulty is exactly why I mentioned that accidents will happen.
I was just throwing out the possibility that maybe there is or will be some industrial espionage going on, and that the security now that we're in the realm of public industry might not be the same as what it was and is with NASA and the Air Force. And I was thinking more along the lines of possible sabotage by Russian interests, than say domestic competition between SpaceX and Orbital ATK, since the Russians stand to lose a good chunk of money to launches by domestic enterprises.
Originally Posted by keg in kc:
The difficulty is exactly why I mentioned that accidents will happen.
I was just throwing out the possibility that maybe there is or will be some industrial espionage going on, and that the security now that we're in the realm of public industry might not be the same as what it was and is with NASA and the Air Force. And I was thinking more along the lines of possible sabotage by Russian interests, than say domestic competition between SpaceX and Orbital ATK, since the Russians stand to lose a good chunk of money to launches by domestic enterprises.
Just a theory...
Russia lost an ISS launch recently as well. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chefsos:
Seems that all scores are settled, then. If I'm sitting up there in the ISS I'm hoping they're done fucking with each other now.
Friday is a key launch. Same vehicle as the Russian one that went haywire a month or so ago (Pegasus) for another ISS resupply mission. They have plenty of supplies up there normally, but they've lost two in a row and (I think) 3 of the last 4 at this point. If the one on Friday has issues, things may start getting dicey up there. [Reply]
Preliminary conclusions are that a strut from a third-party supplier (unnamed) snapped well below certified load, causing a helium tank to roll around all over the place and eventually rupture the second stage LOX tank. Wouldn't want to be that supplier right now.
One kind of cool outcome - they determined that the Dragon capsule itself survived and could have been saved entirely if the software program had been written to deploy the parachutes upon rocket failure. They're building that in so that, in the future, it should be able to save itself if this were to happen again.
They're not committing to any particular time frame, but launches could resume as early as September.
Originally Posted by DaFace:
Preliminary conclusions are that a strut from a third-party supplier (unnamed) snapped well below certified load, causing a helium tank to roll around all over the place and eventually rupture the second stage LOX tank. Wouldn't want to be that supplier right now.
One kind of cool outcome - they determined that the Dragon capsule itself survived and could have been saved entirely if the software program had been written to deploy the parachutes upon rocket failure. They're building that in so that, in the future, it should be able to save itself if this were to happen again.
They're not committing to any particular time frame, but launches could resume as early as September.
:-)000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">Illustration of Dragon in Mars orbit
:-)c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A photo posted by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on
Originally Posted by Donger:
Pretty amazing, but that looked a little hairy at the end. Engines looked like they were gimballing like crazy.
They also have a long way to go before getting too excited about this. It takes a lot more effort to slow a rocket down from an orbital launch. [Reply]
