Space X

Shlippery · 26-03-2021 8:42pm

aaaaaand scrub for today.

Roads are reopening apparently!

AMKC · 26-03-2021 9:29pm

jogdish wrote: »

....:( and the road is open, scrubbed for today I wonder if the bad weather might have been an issue.

Yes I would say so. The fog just kept getting heavier. Will be Monday now at the earliest before next attempt I would say.

Westernyelp · 28-03-2021 5:39pm

Road closures posted for Monday from 12 central time

jogdish · 28-03-2021 5:55pm

Westernyelp wrote: »

Road closures posted for Monday from 12 central time

Cool, just as a reminder we are again on the 6hr time shift since we are both gmt+1 now, I imagine it will be between 7 and 10pm Irish as previously. again space flight now is handy for notifications.

Shlippery · 28-03-2021 9:45pm

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1376235871989551105

Elon giving a bit of hope too. Fingers crossed for a clear day and a safe landing! It'd be so cool to see a landed SN11 with BN1 rolled out beside it ..just to compare the scale of the two!

Marlow · 29-03-2021 2:36am

I know the NASA Spaceflight guys are looking for right that there ...

well .. so do we.

/M

Shlippery · 29-03-2021 5:00pm

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1376558233624666120

One day more..

Westernyelp · 29-03-2021 7:00pm

Shlippery wrote:

One day more..

That's ridiculous

jogdish · 29-03-2021 9:40pm

So we have had bad weather, bad raptor and an awol FAA guy, hopefully that's all the delays.

Westernyelp · 30-03-2021 9:08am

Targeting a 2pm Irish time Starship launch today. According to Musk

Westernyelp · 30-03-2021 1:38pm

Very foggy in Boca Chica!

SpaceX countdown for launch at 2pm still though

Shlippery · 30-03-2021 1:54pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjCSJIAKEPM
Foggy, will they go ahead in 7 mins?

Who knows!

Looks like they're going for it in the fog!! live now.

Wanderer78 · 30-03-2021 1:56pm

Shlippery wrote:

Foggy, will they go ahead in 7 mins?

Jesus they can hardly launch in that!

Westernyelp · 30-03-2021 1:59pm

Going for it!

Shlippery · 30-03-2021 2:01pm

off the ground.. now we wait!!

Capt'n Midnight · 30-03-2021 2:07pm

rud

feelings · 30-03-2021 2:08pm

boom?

Shlippery · 30-03-2021 2:08pm

Sooo any guesses what happened after final frame?

Onto SN15..

AMKC · 30-03-2021 2:21pm

Well that was Stupid with a capital S. What were they thinking? SN 12 next I suppose.

Westernyelp · 30-03-2021 2:26pm

AMKC wrote:

Well that was Stupid with a capital S. What were they thinking? SN 12 next I suppose.

What do you mean by stupid?
It will be SN15 next.

That looks like the flight termination system was activated to me.

Shlippery · 30-03-2021 2:43pm

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1376891464333017090
Seems like fog or no fog that Raptor issue would have happened

SN12-14 were scrapped in favour of SN15 which will be an upgraded model as such.

Sure we'll get a look at BN1 soon, be cool to get a look on a clear day.

AMKC · 30-03-2021 4:00pm

Westernyelp wrote: »

What do you mean by stupid?
It will be SN15 next.

That looks like the flight termination system was activated to me.

I mean it was stupid to launch on a foggy day when they could see nothing or very little. Surely waiting till later or the next day would have made more sense.

Why no SN 12, 13 and 14?

jogdish · 30-03-2021 4:55pm

AMKC wrote: »

I mean it was stupid to launch on a foggy day when they could see nothing or very little. Surely waiting till later or the next day would have made more sense.

Why no SN 12, 13 and 14?

Well technically the visual information is not that useful when you have everything else, but yes still odd then again maybe they wanted to do it as a test to see what conditions it can handle?

12/13/14 started construction, then improvements were made during 15's construction and no point wasting time on older versions so they scrapped 12-14 and 15 onwards are the most recent in terms of improvements.
I reckon SN15 will be waiting a while, they are chewing thru raptors and the landing portion seems to be a persistent issue.
BN1 is pathfinder so at best a static fire, BN2 and 3 have started but still a way off in terms of being ready for hops.
I guess the July orbit goal is truly gone now lol

Westernyelp · 30-03-2021 5:36pm

jogdish wrote:

12/13/14 started construction, then improvements were made during 15's construction and no point wasting time on older versions so they scrapped 12-14 and 15 onwards are the most recent in terms of improvements. I reckon SN15 will be waiting a while, they are chewing thru raptors and the landing portion seems to be a persistent issue. BN1 is pathfinder so at best a static fire, BN2 and 3 have started but still a way off in terms of being ready for hops. I guess the July orbit goal is truly gone now lol

Doubt BN1 will even make it to launch site for static fire. Musk has tweeted today that it is just a production pathfinder and will be scrapped

Lcomps · 03-04-2021 10:08pm

Looking forward to the next launch. Was a shame we didn't get to see the explosion. Would have made for excellent footage

jogdish · 05-04-2021 12:57pm

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1379022709737275393

Beeker · 06-04-2021 12:49pm

Rillout the week for SN15. Hopefully the new improvements will see a successful flight and landing.

Marlow · 07-04-2021 5:36pm

Falcon 9 Liftoff ......

Todays launch will complete the first StarLink shelf.

/M

Shlippery · 07-04-2021 8:35pm

Musk loves to slip out the odd interesting tweet in reply to people.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1379874956343828485

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1379876450744995843?s=20

jogdish · 09-04-2021 5:53pm

Nice article:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/09/tech/spacex-starship-livestream-youtube-scn/index.html

I still do know how Tim Dodd makes money, he has been tweeting about his new rig set up for a while and cheap is not the word, drives a nice Tesla too and talks about buying a new upgrade. Clearly the business model works, and fair play to him he makes excellent videos. But my brain cannot comprehend spending that much cash on streaming, especially when the SpaceX stream is pretty dam good.
I guess I just feel the set up from HD video to fancy graphics and 4/8k video regards youtube is diminishing returns. I see this with a lot of high end youtubers, the push for 4/8k HDR etc, I know the arguments about being able to crop and no lose res etc, but at a certain point it's youtube.
Don't get me wrong I like Tim and NSF and the rest, I don't support them with money only views but I understand why people do.

Marlow · 10-04-2021 9:55pm

There are plenty of angles out there, that are not covered by SpaceX stream + what happens before and after.

And once you get the subscriber base and watchtime, YouTube ads pay quite well these days. You need that critical mass though.

Now .. the issue being, that on livestreams in-video ads aren't quite possible. You don't want to miss that critical moment. People who watch the content know and appreciate that.

Now, uploading the content in 4k or 8k isn't so important. But recording it in 4k or a little over 5k is. Because as you mentioned yourself, you can crop in. Basically digitally zoom in later to get certain moment further up close, even though your optical zoom wasn't quite focused on that little bit.

And then, I should mention, that 200k in camera gear is normal. As you can read from the article, he was doing international wedding photography before. So he would have had a ton of gear to begin with. I mean, a camera body for a professional DSLR or mirrorless will set you back 3-4k a pop. That's before you invest in optics for said camera. And it has to be fullframe for most of these shots today. A Panasonic GH-4 or GH-5 won't hack it, because it looses too much light with it's 2:1 crop.

So .. 200k ... is not bad.

To give you an idea: i'm an amateur photographer and videographer. If I tally up the gear, I have, I've gear in excess of 50k, between 2 mirrorless, 1 full frame DSLR, 40 GoPros, 2 HD camcorders, 1 4k camcorder, lenses for the cameras. Then add stuff like tripods, gimbals, tracks, flashes and lights, whitewalls etc. Add another 10-15k for drones on top of that, if not more. That's just a tally of the top of my head.

I don't mean to brag. I'm just saying, that if you're into that sort of thing, it adds up very very quickly.

/M

jogdish · 10-04-2021 10:12pm

Thanks, I know gear adds up fast! it's just I guess I can't imagine myself thinking, ya I'll invest into this and make it my living.

Marlow · 10-04-2021 10:15pm

jogdish wrote: »

Thanks, I know gear adds up fast! it's just I guess I can't imagine myself thinking, ya I'll invest into this and make it my living.

But that's you. If we all did the same thing, there would be no money to be made for anyone

And especially in the creative world, that being photography, video, but even all arts and music, people aren't precisely working 9-5 jobs and generally put a lot of passion and money into their job.

Imagine, the amount of money a musician spends on instruments and recording gear for their home studio. Same story. You don't get very far with just buying a guitar and then that's that.

Or somebody being into woodwork. How much do you think they've spend on tools, if they are into their hobby. Nevermind making it their job.

/M

Marlow · 10-04-2021 10:23pm

And just to add. Even if they have no in-stream ads on their videos, they will still get revenue from people, that have subscribed to YouTube Premium based on watch time.

It actually pays more than the ad payments.

And that's where the space flight footage is special. You might have people watching the stream for hours and hours, not to miss a bit.

So even if you aren't a patron, just watching lets say the NASASpaceflight stream and being a YouTube premium subscriber will generate income for them. As long as the channel has more than 1000 subs and 4000 watch hours per year, which is what you need to get monetised.

/M

AMKC · 11-04-2021 11:03am

Elon Musk not holding back on his latest tweet,

https://www.facebook.com/groups/spaceXverse/permalink/2553726094932400/?sfnsn=mo

jogdish · 11-04-2021 11:15am

AMKC wrote: »

Elon Musk not holding back on his latest tweet,

https://www.facebook.com/groups/spaceXverse/permalink/2553726094932400/?sfnsn=mo

Maybe with a Falcon heavy (i think that's possible?), but not a chance with a starship anytime soon.

AMKC · 11-04-2021 11:22am

jogdish wrote: »

Maybe with a Falcon heavy (i think that's possible?), but not a chance with a starship anytime soon.

Agreed.

Capt'n Midnight · 11-04-2021 1:25pm

Thought it was this, but it's not soon ?
SpaceX wins contract to launch first pieces of NASA’s Gateway lunar outpost

The $331.8 million launch services contract, awarded by NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy, includes the Falcon Heavy launch and “other mission-related costs,” the agency said in a statement. The $331 million contract value is nearly three times the price NASA is paying for a Falcon Heavy launch in July 2022 with the Psyche asteroid probe.

Shlippery · 11-04-2021 3:04pm

AMKC wrote: »

Elon Musk not holding back on his latest tweet,

https://www.facebook.com/groups/spaceXverse/permalink/2553726094932400/?sfnsn=mo

Figured he could be just talking about his crypto too, he's fond of the ****posts, unrelated to space too!

jogdish · 11-04-2021 9:36pm

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1381336793249878019

So two companies will go thru, I remember hearing the Dyanetics was favoured, I wonder will starship lose out. There has been very little if any progress on that lunar NASA mock up nose cone at Boca.

jogdish · 12-04-2021 12:15am

Really nice video on 'Dear Moon' by Angry Astronaut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyvvfgTHbII&t=1260s

The One Doctor · 12-04-2021 9:42pm

Marlow wrote: »

But that's you. If we all did the same thing, there would be no money to be made for anyone

And especially in the creative world, that being photography, video, but even all arts and music, people aren't precisely working 9-5 jobs and generally put a lot of passion and money into their job.

Imagine, the amount of money a musician spends on instruments and recording gear for their home studio. Same story. You don't get very far with just buying a guitar and then that's that.

Or somebody being into woodwork. How much do you think they've spend on tools, if they are into their hobby. Nevermind making it their job.

/M

I'm a professional woodworker (well, I make jewellery from wood) and it really does add up.

It's fun to watch Space X rockets explode though.

Shlippery · 13-04-2021 1:59pm

Ctrl+Z
Bye BN1 - a slow scheduled disassembly!
https://twitter.com/BocaChicaGal/status/1381944855333593098/photo/1

Beeker · 15-04-2021 9:25am

July 1st for orbital flight! Elon time I think. Don't see this happening anytime before late Autumn. Its going to be amazing to watch.

jogdish · 16-04-2021 8:24pm

https://twitter.com/wapodavenport/status/1383125840184115203

I'm mainly reading from the nextspaceflight twitter, my reading is:
Of the three bidders for HLS, everyone was too much for NASA's budget and then spaceX dropped there bid to match the budget and have hence won the bid. I wonder what compromise if any they will make to lunar star ship ?
Personally I just think spaceX will bid on anything and figure it out later if ever, I don't think the above is good news?

Official NASA conference at 9pm IST

jogdish · 16-04-2021 9:10pm

Yup officially announced as SpaceX as the only winner of the HLS contract (see previous post why)

Hopefully they will work with SpaceX and help them get to a working starship soon, but I don't see this has human ready by their moon landing date.

Just after seeing the new render of the SpaceX lander, and it has a flat nose tip, like the one recently seen at BocaChica.
And Falcon type legs!

Capt'n Midnight · 17-04-2021 6:06pm

jogdish wrote: »

I wonder what compromise if any they will make to lunar star ship ?
Personally I just think spaceX will bid on anything and figure it out later if ever, I don't think the above is good news?

All of them required development of brand new human rated rocket and that's not cheap. SpaceX were already developing reusable ones anyway so are forking out most of the R&D costs anyway.

Starship is designed to stand the vacuum of space for a journey to Mars so thermal insulation and leak proffing. And land on Earth and Mars. You can't use aero braking on the moon, so very rough rule of thumb half you mass will need to be propellant for landing or take off. Working back if you take off with no cargo then 120t, so you need 120t propellant. So landing with 120t ship + 120 propellant + 100t cargo (worst case) means an all up weight of 680t which is about half it's max weight.

Moondust may be an issue ?

I found this comment too
https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2021/04/16/nasa_spacex_moon/

There will be in orbit refuelling, but not explicitly defined by NASA. NASA wanted many details about prospective human landing systems but left how each HLS gets to Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit to the each provider.

Starships can put 100+t in low Earth orbit. The maximum payload drops rapidly for higher energy orbits because of the propellant that must be reserved for re-use. Getting the lunar Starship to NRHO requires refuelling in LEO for a "small" cargo and further refuelling in a highly elliptical orbit for the full 100+t. Getting a tanker Starship with a full cargo of propellant to meet another Starship in that elliptical orbit requires refuelling the tanker in LEO.

After the uncrewed test trip from NRHO to the Moon and back the lunar Starship will need refuelling for then next (crewed) mission. That will require sending a tanker Starship (or several) to NRHO (and back) and that tanker will need to be refuelled at LEO to get to NHRO. The payload for the second trip to the Moon also has to get to NRHO - by cargo Starship, which again requires more refuelling.

One of NASA's concerns with the SpaceX HLS was the large number of refuelling launches required for each trip to the Moon. The SpaceX bid overcame this because the vast majority of refuelling events take place in LEO so scheduling and extra refuel to cover a failure does not cause a huge delay or cost increase compared to any trip to NRHO.

One of the bits I liked was what happens if you are on the Moon and decide your ascent vehicle is busted. With a Starship you have a massively oversized cargo bay for extra food, a large LOX tank to breath and a methane+LOX to burn to stay warm and to provide water. The really scary thing about the Lunar Gateway is if you miss your launch window from the Moon you have to wait another 7 days for the gateway to get back to where you can meet it. Starship gives you three places to wait that out: the crew habitat and each of the two airlocks has independent life support.

Capt'n Midnight · 17-04-2021 6:16pm

jogdish wrote: »

Hopefully they will work with SpaceX and help them get to a working starship soon, but I don't see this has human ready by their moon landing date.

That could be said of the other candidates too.

Fast / Cheep / Good ? pick two

Apollo wasn't cheap
https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/cost-of-apollo

jogdish · 17-04-2021 6:51pm

Hopefully we are not just building a 2020's apollo, but rather a system that allows for orbital re fueling and mars/lunar trips regularly using the 'railway' we are building.

Itssoeasy · 24-04-2021 9:00pm

So after nine years of having no launches from American soil and no vehicle to get to the ISS, space x now has two dragon capsules docked to the ISS. I mean you can’t say much more than fair play. There are now 11 astronauts/cosmonauts on board the ISS which I think is one or two over the capacity for number of beds but the dragon capsule that went up six months ago is to return on April 30th. So it’s a really busy time on the ISS because there was two Soyuz and one space X docked until a couple of days ago and now it’s reversed. There are also three cargo spacecraft docked so it’s been used well is the ISS.

Space X

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