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News SpaceX heavy-lift vehicles: Launch Thread

It really is amazing.
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=58568.msg2475118#msg2475118

Raptors compared
https://forum.cosmoquest.org/forum/...ploration/126015-spacex?p=3698811#post3698811

New rocket fuel to look at?
https://www.spacedaily.com/m/report...to_make_supercharged_new_rocket_fuel_999.html

Embercore—-nuclear option
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2022/...space-propulsion-in-the-3-kilowatt-range.html

Starship aerodynamics
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=56619.0

Tesla foam
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2022/07/tesla-4680-structural-pack-cement-like-foam.html

Steel coatings
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-key-coating-multilayered-corrosion-resistance.html

A little rocket history
https://v2rockethistory.com/

I wonder what this space debris came from
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/arti...it-by-chunk-of-metal-that-plummeted-from-sky/

Ground tests
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/08/booster-7-additional-tests/

GSE Hound strains at the gnat over Musk's SpaceX facility--yet we are told Nord Stream is no big deal
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-negligible-climatic-impact-methane-leak.html

The Saturns used gravity turns to lessen lateral stresses…article here: https://www.saic.com/
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.A35314

VAST
https://payloadspace.com/vast-space-station-interview/
 
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NASA has raised another concern with the Starship launch.

It's going from Pad 39A at KSC which is also where the Crew Dragon missions are launched from and the concern is that if Starship goes wrong, the other facility could be damaged and that would bring manned missions to the ISS to a screaching halt.

Starliner isn't certified and SpaceX don't have any other pads capable of Crew Dragon launches.

Back in 2016 a Falcon went boom at 39A and the resulting explosion caused serious damage to pad 40.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/us/n...pc=U531&cvid=1086f70f3d294c8c84c8630a7a595b38
 
I saw that. Dish looks to wreck Starlink,
https://spacenews.com/spacex-warns-5g-plan-would-deny-starlink-to-most-americans/

--and I hear that Tesla plants are "losing billions."
https://www.seattletimes.com/busine...la-plants-are-money-furnaces-losing-billions/

Space Force must help fund Starship.

Some ideas:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/image...5a93f343d6a9b083e8997364f80be6b0952da87b8.jpg
https://driveteslacanada.ca/spacex/pentagon-militarized-spacex-starships/
https://spacenews.com/op-ed-deterring-aggression-in-space/
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22060238-distro-c-ustranscom-spacex-midterm-report_redacted

Rats—Falcon model sold out
https://shop.everydayastronaut.com/...roducts/falcon-9-model?variant=42858005823731

Funny stuff
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Because they are still not their own true branch of the military. Marines have the same problem. USN is still over them…and Air Force budgets are huge compared to Space Force’s dregs.

Girl in space club
https://wwd.com/eye/people/nasa-engineer-girl-in-space-founder-1235225630/

Future missions
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ISRU papers
https://rascal.nianet.org/2022-teams/

Super Heavy’s business end:
https://mobile.twitter.com/spacex/status/1543289714022678528

Engine talk
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/spacex-general-discussion.13774/page-129#post-541330
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Bit of a hiccup
https://spacenews.com/starship-booster-test-ends-in-fiery-anomaly/

Pez dispenser
https://mobile.twitter.com/ErcXspace/status/1548328860403437569?t=-HclNtIdfKMxPb05cZFqdA&s=19
https://api.starlink.com/public-files/BrightnessMitigationBestPracticesSatelliteOperators.pdf

Going for electrics over hydraulics on thrust vector control.

Starship Compendium
https://www.elonx.net/super-heavy-starship-compendium/

Starship
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Moonbase selection
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/space.2015.0023

Lunar Starship
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/image...6801ad5c6e6df16dec6c8858f6f121618dbb424bd.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/image...d85e09f738e0221f7b7d6df868121d85bd685d4c8.png

Dragon
https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/2346/86364/ICES-2020-333.pdf

Winning the space race
https://spacenews.com/state-of-the-...alls-for-national-plan-to-compete-with-china/

The loss
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Oh, great!

https://spacenews.com/crew-dragon-mission-delayed-after-booster-damaged-in-transport/
NASA is delaying the next commercial crew mission to the International Space Station by nearly a month after the Falcon 9 booster that will launch it was damaged during transport across the country for testing.

Must be a J.B. Hunt driver...

Falcon Heavy gets another win
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SpaceX toys?
https://corporate.mattel.com/news/m...-with-spacex-to-produce-toys-and-collectibles

Anti-icing finds
https://phys.org/news/2022-08-sanded-powdered-surface.html
ttps://phys.org/news/2022-08-machine-enables-optimal-anti-biofouling-polymer.html

Elon needs to see this breakthrough to glue steel:
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-supramolecular-adhesive-usable-temperature-range.html

Steel plates glued together withstood high shear forces at room temperature, in liquid nitrogen, and at 200 degrees Celsius. The adhesive worked for different materials, and under water as well. Such a broad spectrum of working conditions is seldom achieved, even with specialist adhesives, and is certainly a first for supramolecular adhesives. Promisingly, the interlocking components could be broken apart and recycled again, and the reused adhesive lost virtually none of its power.

This was developed by China--it may be used here:
https://spacenews.com/china-could-shift-to-fully-reusable-super-heavy-launcher-in-wake-of-starship/
https://kevinjamesng.com/2022/04/25/cnsa-chinanationalspaceadministration-国家航天局-beltandroadinitiative-apirl2022中国天文日-chinaspaceday-长/

There has also been an advance on carbon fibers:
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-rewriting-history-k-carbon-fiber-carbon.html

These carbon nanotube fibers produced in such a way are expected to have various applications, as they simultaneously exhibit ultra-high strength (6.57 GPa) and an ultra-high modulus (629 GPa) characteristics, which could not be achieved with conventional carbon fibers. The fibers also showed high knot strength, indicating flexibility.

Starship inforgraphic
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=47144.0;attach=2094049;image
 
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A few missing tiles from the latest test....I hate to say it---but maybe asbestos/rockwool fibers to link tiles, chain-mail style?
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/spacex-general-discussion.13774/page-132#post-551421
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2022/09/soon-three-fully-finished-spacex-starship-super-heavies.html

Some art goodness here
https://up-ship.com/blog/?p=50509

There was a concept called Orbital Antenna Farms:
https://up-ship.com/blog/?p=49953

BlueWalker 3 seems pointing to way back to that:

“The reason why our satellite is large is because in order to communicate with a low-power, low internal strength phone, you just need a large antenna on one side with a lot of power, and so that's a critical part of our infrastructure," AST SpaceMobile Chief Strategy Officer Scott Wisniewski told Space.com in an interview. "We think that's really important for communicating directly with regulars handsets, with no change to the handset, with no extra burdens on the user."
https://www.space.com/spacex-bluewalker-3-starlink-satellites-launch-success

Even larger dishes would be more useful

SuperHeavy tougher
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2022/09/spacex-improving-toughness-of-super-heavy-booster-7.html

Lunar Starship
https://twitter.com/m_tijn/status/1571981679497187329?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1571981679497187329|twgr^5684e28f0a6fb4089eb3fe22927678e96d5f7678|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=47144.1420

Pad alternative
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LOFTID
https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-...t-test-of-an-inflatable-decelerator-on-jpss-2
 
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Now that one worries me a bit.

With something of Shuttle/Buran mass--the dog is certainly wagging the tail--in terms of wrangling something Hubble sized.
Hubble and Dragon are on more even terms. Like Agena and Gemini--

There should be two Falcon launches:

1.) A rump, capsule free Cargo Dragon bus--flat-top, with arm.

2.) Crew Dragon to supervise things---don't forget to ground things. Put extra batteries in upper part of Hubble, perhaps to counterbalance the cargo dragon bus--which takes over station keeping duties. Flat plat left behind on Hubble---rump dragon de-orbits and is replaced by another docking with that new plate---and/or de-orbit itself and Hubble at end of life---if not retrieved by Starship.

Nice model of Starship here
https://twitter.com/AnDuong_91/status/1517324779027681280?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1517324779027681280|twgr^3b0f64eecc014a90a1b511be370970e10cd0994b|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https://disqus.com/embed/comments/?base=defaultf=spacenewsinct_u=https3A2F2Fspacenews.com2Fdennis-tito-and-wife-to-be-on-second-starship-flight-around-the-moon2Ft_d=Dennis20Tito20and20wife20to20be20on20second20Starship20flight20around20the20moont_t=Dennis20Tito20and20wife20to20be20on20second20Starship20flight20around20the20moons_o=defaultversion=03e8631e8214a2edd80523cac162e88b

More
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/03/starship-debut-reusability/
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They still have to figure how to hook on to the telescope. Theres only the shuttle arm connector. Maybe a special service module for the Dragon with a small arm?
But true, maybe a cargo dragon with a special nose for docking and carrying spare parts. And a manned one to do repairs?
 
A soft dock was left attached on the final shuttle mission to it:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope#/media/File:Soft_Capture_Mechanism_installed_on_Hubble_(illustration).jpg

That’s enough to allow a reboost, but that’s it.

Take a cargo Dragon service module…with maybe a cage with instruments inside I’m place of the capsule…and a docking collar underneath.

There is a side “door” in the flank of the cage…
a lady susan deal with a telescopic arm. Maybe that can be left in place.

In the news
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SpaceX 5 minutes from launch attempt.

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ETA Success!
 
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In the news
https://www.theinformation.com/arti..._email&utm_content=article-8993&utm_source=sg

Two weeks ago, Musk’s hopes nearly came crashing down in an incident that caused employees to question whether the world’s most important rocket company was moving too fast.

A day after technicians had “fully stacked” the rocket, loading one part of it on top of another into the form it will take when it one day blasts into orbit, an incident occurred that could have caused one section to cave in, according to two people briefed on the events.

In other news:
https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-delays-starlink-launch-after-falcon-9-static-fire/
It’s not the first time SpaceX has delayed a launch indefinitely after a static fire test, but it is the first time in years.

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Sorry Elon....
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i still think Starship is a good idea, but the way he manages SpaceX has made turnaround a revolving door. I considered applying for a position i had the quals for at the cape but a. 1: didn't want to live there and 2: figured my employment would be brief.
The rapid build-and-test is fine but when it comes to an all up test of something that can blow up with the force of a small atomic bomb, they can't handle it with that same level of high school science team gusto. SpaceX is Musk's most reliable moneymaker, a I worry that he'll drive it into the ground as he starts to bleed money destroying twitter.

The best use for starship is getting musk to mars so he can leave our planet alone.
 
Look's like Texas' site is expanding
https://twitter.com/JoeTegtmeyer/status/1597293218542260224

Starship got permission for a big sat drop
https://www.space.com/spacex-fcc-approval-7500-starlink-satellites

Static test
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=56074.0;attach=2151204;sess=0

Rocket comparisons
https://m.facebook.com/fossbytes/videos/rocket-size-comparision/353755809961433/
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/image...d75995ab2faad93041a4f173290163475bf6ecac9.png

LM-9
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/image...709205897f1dca52ab71bc794403f3b1ff4459892.jpg

Musk distracted?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4501/1

New puck
https://twitter.com/ringwatchers/status/1606763376029405185

Structure problems?
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the future?
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