News SpaceX heavy-lift vehicles: Launch Thread

[Romulan_spy]

I am still blown away that the first stage is able to land vertically on the drone ship so perfectly. When you take into account how high the stage is when it begins reentry and how fast the stage is going and how small the drone ship is, it is a remarkable feat of engineering.

 

[XCV330]

Looks like they got the fairing halves back this time too.

 

[publiusr]

One failure of recovery--but the payload made it all the same:
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=39471

 

[publiusr]

The Star Hopper
https://twitter.com/b0yle/status/1083648618576281600?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1083649851366158337&ref_url=https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/01/elon-officially-unveils-the-starhopper.html
https://twitter.com/kimitalvitie/status/1082785572568137733/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1082785572568137733&ref_url=https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/01/spacex-super-heavy-starship-starhopper-and-falcon-9-compared.html

I was hoping Starship was going to have more of a friendly, cetacean-like look, as seen here, with the "mouth" open.
https://www.gravitationinnovation.com/wallpaper
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/...lows-1950-award-winning-destination-moon.html

But I'll take "shiny."

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Are we taking bets for February yet? I put my money on an end to the shutdown, successful flight, and the three landings us the viewers were robbed of the first time around (damn you Elon for raping my childhood, I was promised three landings, and you delivered only two). I don't know if you can do all landings from GTO, but that's my bet anyway. The boosters hit the centres of LZ1 and LZ2. The stage hits Of Course I Still Love You slightly off-centre at 45% on the short side and 38% on the long as viewed from an orientation in which the ship name is readable.

 

[XCV330]

That is never, EVER going to happen. Most of Musk's crap like Hyperloop and BFR are just marketing his own ego as a "visionary".
A lot of that stuff was already explored by NASA and the Soviets in the 70s and found it largely unfeasable due to G-forces involved along with safety and the NASA designed commercial space plane is far, FAR more feasable than nightmare BFR. "HEY GRANNY, LETS WANNA EXPERIENCE BETWEEN 6 TO 14G's!?"

NASA X-30 commercial space plane.


It's basically a marketing gimmick.

What does crow taste like, exactly?

 

[publiusr]

Almost got back the fairing. Hopper hat blown off (Sea Dragon wouldn't have faced that)

Some art showing what a three core superheavy might look like:
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/...vy-configuration-for-superheavy-starship.html

That would allow Starship some margin--maybe a little overbuilt. Maybe the refueling craft can be balloon tank.....Musk considering fins at the bottom of super heavy too, though....

 

[Tom Hendricks]

So I’m going to be down in Orlando are the time they are predicting the next Falcon Heavy launch to take place. It’s all speculation at this time but if it does, I’m so there. I already told my wife I would be abandoning our Disney trip to see the launch. One of my greatest sorrows is never getting there for a Shuttle launch, if I have the ability to see the Falcon Heavy launch, I’m not going to miss it.

 

[publiusr]

The latest landing had: "highest reentry heating to date. Burning metal sparks from base heat shield visible" in landing video

Good Nusantara Satu launch, a very high energy stage landing (took 3 engines to land) and now in coast before payload deployments.
http://forum.cosmoquest.org/showthread.php?149827-SpaceX&p=2476532#post2476532

 

[publiusr]

What starship will look like
https://www.universetoday.com/14187...l-starship-will-look-like-returning-to-earth/

Mars is tough
https://www.universetoday.com/141844/the-incredible-challenge-of-landing-heavy-payloads-on-mars/

 

[XCV330]

The latest landing had: "highest reentry heating to date. Burning metal sparks from base heat shield visible" in landing video

Good Nusantara Satu launch, a very high energy stage landing (took 3 engines to land) and now in coast before payload deployments.
http://forum.cosmoquest.org/showthread.php?149827-SpaceX&p=2476532#post2476532

Did they say what the radio blackout length was on it? i havent seen that anywhere for any of the dragons but I may not have looked hard. Shuttle was able to stay in contact with TDRSS cause they had a bit of a window through plasma off the tail on reentry but I dont know if there is one on the shape capsule they're using. Orion and Starliner should both experience blackout, though, using the Apollo shape.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

So these have the shape of an Apollo capsule only much bigger?

 

[XCV330]

So these have the shape of an Apollo capsule only much bigger?

CST-100 Starliner, on the left, has a diameter of 15 feet. Dragon in the middle is about 12 feet wide at its widest and is taller than it is wide (not counting the service modules on any of these for height). Orion on the right is about 16 feet wide.

Apollo CM was 12 feet in diameter at the base.

Another vehicle that used the Apollo capsule shape is not nearly as well known but pretty interesting. This is ESA's ARD being loaded with hydrazine fuel before it's only flight. ARD was a small technology demonstrator launched suborbitally. It's part of a series of development programs that have currently led to ESA's Space Rider program.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I've seen the Apollo 14 capsule twice -- once in the UK on its world tour in the 70s and once on the USS Hornet in Alameda. Both times, I wondered at how small and discomforting the interior must have seemed for three men to occupy for several days at a time. The couches folded up to a small extent but I can't imagine it would be a pleasant experience even in microgravity.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

CST-100 Starliner, on the left, has a diameter of 15 feet. Dragon in the middle is about 12 feet wide at its widest and is taller than it is wide (not counting the service modules on any of these for height). Orion on the right is about 16 feet wide.

Apollo CM was 12 feet in diameter at the base.

Another vehicle that used the Apollo capsule shape is not nearly as well known but pretty interesting. This is ESA's ARD being loaded with hydrazine fuel before it's only flight. ARD was a small technology demonstrator launched suborbitally. It's part of a series of development programs that have currently led to ESA's Space Rider program.

Oh wow that's really interesting to see. Thanks.

How much bigger can a capsule get though I wonder?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Oh wow that's really interesting to see. Thanks.

How much bigger can a capsule get though I wonder?

Have you not been watching Elon Musk working on Starhopper down in Texas? That's something straight out of the 1950's concepts of a spaceship. I'm also hoping Dream Chaser makes it to orbit. It would be sad not to have a working shuttle-like vehicle for this part of the 21st century.

 

[XCV330]

Oh wow that's really interesting to see. Thanks.

How much bigger can a capsule get though I wonder?

I'm not sure. I imagine if too much wider it is there's a chance that the center section would get more heating issues on reentry with nowhere to radiate the the excess heat. That might be resolable with better thermal materials or some sort of heatsink shield instead but I don't know. The Starship craft Asbo Zaprudder mentions is gigantic by any stretch of the imagination but the crew-carrying part reenters atmosphere on it's side, more or less, where the ceramic shielding will be used. The rest of the ship is, amazingly, going to be stainless steel. It looks like it popped out of an old Buck Rogers serial. I love i.

For another really big capsule, you could google Big Gemini. It was a proposal to modifty the Gemini spacecraft. It went no further than a cool looking mockup but it was pretty big: crew of 12. It's one of those strange "what its" that spaceflight is full of.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Have you not been watching Elon Musk working on Starhopper down in Texas? That's something straight out of the 1960's concepts of a spaceship. I'm also hoping Dream Chaser makes it to orbit. It would be sad not to have a working shuttle-like vehicle for this part of the 21st century.

No I haven't sorry

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'm not sure. I imagine if too much wider it is there's a chance that the center section would get more heating issues on reentry with nowhere to radiate the the excess heat. That might be resolable with better thermal materials or some sort of heatsink shield instead but I don't know. The Starship craft Asbo Zaprudder mentions is gigantic by any stretch of the imagination but the crew-carrying part reenters atmosphere on it's side, more or less, where the ceramic shielding will be used. The rest of the ship is, amazingly, going to be stainless steel. It looks like it popped out of an old Buck Rogers serial. I love i.

For another really big capsule, you could google Big Gemini. It was a proposal to modifty the Gemini spacecraft. It went no further than a cool looking mockup but it was pretty big: crew of 12. It's one of those strange "what its" that spaceflight is full of.

Oh cool. In my head I was imagining a giant ship that looked like a capsule but had thrusters on the bottom for landing and landing gear so it could do a controlled landing.

 

[XCV330]

Oh cool. In my head I was imagining a giant ship that looked like a capsule but had thrusters on the bottom for landing and landing gear so it could do a controlled landing.

Starhopper. It fell down in a storm a couple of months ago and crushed the top cone section. They just took the cone off, fo rnow, as its not really needed. The crane in front of it gives a little idea of its size. And that would be, as I understand it, the second stage of Starship, not the entire vehicle.