** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

[Malevolence]

And we're away.

 

[Malevolence]

That shot from the drone on lift-off was epic.

 

[darkgen]

Such a mad difference in propulsion optics between spacex and other normal looking NASA launches. Must be the fuel mix / gimbal mechanics.

 

[picnic]

Mr Musk plans to deliver broadband internet around the world, using 42,000 satellites.
His Space X company has launched more than 800 into orbit already and hopes to have 12,000 in the sky by 2026.

Quoted from the BBC Tech webpage, I'm sure the service will be great but really, another 42,000 satellites! We kept getting told of all the junk already floating around up there, is this really worth it?

You think that's bad, there are at least 2 competing systems going up at as well. Maybe not using the same number of satellites but still considerable numbers. The UK state has an interest in Oneweb, saved it from administration, which I read somewhere they were hoping to use as a GPS type system as well as we've lost access to the Galileo with Brexit.

 

[neil_g]

2 Raptors need replacing on SN9, possible flight pushed back to 18/19th.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1349956371127672834

 

[Minusorange]

Rocket porn later this evening when Nasa test their new rockets for the first time

 

[Malevolence]

Rocket porn later this evening when Nasa test their new rockets for the first time

4x RS25 engines burning for 8 minutes? That's nearly 3.5M lbf of thrust. Man, wish I could be there to see. hear and feel that in person.

 

[Minusorange]

4x RS25 engines burning for 8 minutes? That's nearly 3.5M lbf of thrust. Man, wish I could be there to see. hear and feel that in person.

Me too, also wish I could have seen a Saturn V launch

Nasa official feed

 

[Malevolence]

6 mins to firing.

 

[Minusorange]

Pretty cool ignition

 

[bliss]

Early shutdown due to TVC violation? Hopefully not too much of a setback.

 

[Techen]

They'll have to static fire again, 60 seconds of a 8 minute burn does not seem like a lot of information but am no rocket scientist.

So over comms they stated the shut down was due to "major component failure"

 

[Monkeynut]

Here's a dumb question...

So Virgin Orbit apparently have a test tomorrow - LauncherOne can apparently deliver a 300kg payload to 500km Sun-synchronous orbit. The International Space Station is 400km high - if LauncherOne attempted to deliver some kind of payload to the ISS, would it be at the wrong speed and just smash through it? I'm aware Virgin are aiming at micro satellites, but it's just a technical question I find fascinating.

 

[Techen]

Here's a dumb question...

So Virgin Orbit apparently have a test tomorrow - LauncherOne can apparently deliver a 300kg payload to 500km Sun-synchronous orbit. The International Space Station is 400km high - if LauncherOne attempted to deliver some kind of payload to the ISS, would it be at the wrong speed and just smash through it? I'm aware Virgin are aiming at micro satellites, but it's just a technical question I find fascinating.

Sadly they’d need a bigger rocket to even dock at the ISS and that’s just not possible with that design.

 

[Minusorange]

So they need to get it launch ready by the end of February ? Cutting it short aren't they ?

 

[Malevolence]

At least they tested it, Congress was pushing them to just launch it without testing.

 

[Malevolence]

Some amazing close-up shots of SN9 here @14:00

 

[Malevolence]

SN9 'might' be doing a 12.5km flight later. Looks a tad windy though.

 

[andy_mk3]

Watching being hopeful. Hopefully the wind won't delay it.

 

[Randomface74]

seems like it's not happening