Space X

Timmaay · 06-08-2020 12:02am

Hmmzis wrote: »

The motor (Raptor engine) is off axis in this vehicle, hence the odd looking flight profile.
The full Starship configuration will have 6 engines, 3 sea level and 3 vacuum optimized.
The Starship motors are called Raptor(s) and they are an entirely different beast than Merlin(s). Raptor uses methane and LOX, while Merlin uses RP-1 and LOX, Raptor is also a lot more efficient due to its full-flow staged combustion cycle with much higher chamber pressures and is bigger and therefore more thrust is produced.

The most significant difference between this and the star hopper which did a similar 150m jump last August is the legs have shrunk to only a fraction of the size of the overall structure, and indeed a fraction of the size of the legs on the falcon 9 also. That's the most amazing part of last night's flight for me, the fact that it largely nailed the landing (aside from being out afew degrees, but maybe that was due to the single offset engine?). I assume Spacex has made a big advancement in the flight control system to allow a much more precise landing?

Capt'n Midnight · 06-08-2020 12:14am

Timmaay wrote: »

I assume Spacex has made a big advancement in the flight control system to allow a much more precise landing?

DC-X was doing similar manoeuvrers back in 1993

It's incremental engineering. For space flight, like airliners the heavy lifting was done in the 1950's. 737's and R7's are still being built and still flying. They are mostly better than the earlier versions but only because of a lifetime of incremental improvements.

Methane is an interesting fuel. You need bigger tanks because of it's lower density so it's not half way to hydrogen. It's much better at regenerative cooling on reusable engines because it doesn't create as much gunk at high temperatures, as it's much easier to purify than RP-1.

New Origins are also using methane, but the proof of the pudding is the eating.

josip · 06-08-2020 12:26am

Will Starship need a hard packed landing area on Mars?
At the moment the Falcon lands on an 80m+ diameter landing pad made of concrete/asphalt.

Cookiemunster · 06-08-2020 9:26am

josip wrote: »

Will Starship need a hard packed landing area on Mars?
At the moment the Falcon lands on an 80m+ diameter landing pad made of concrete/asphalt.

The drone ships where most of the Falcon 9s land are roughly 90mx50m.

MayoForSam · 06-08-2020 12:32pm

josip wrote: »

Will Starship need a hard packed landing area on Mars?
At the moment the Falcon lands on an 80m+ diameter landing pad made of concrete/asphalt.

I'm sure someone will send a few robot landers in advance to find a nice, flat, hard surface before Starship touches down, might even lay a bit of "marscrete" if that's what it takes. That will be some occasion.

xper · 06-08-2020 9:47pm

Timmaay wrote: »

The most significant difference between this and the star hopper which did a similar 150m jump last August is the legs have shrunk to only a fraction of the size of the overall structure, and indeed a fraction of the size of the legs on the falcon 9 also. ...

josip wrote: »

Will Starship need a hard packed landing area on Mars?
At the moment the Falcon lands on an 80m+ diameter landing pad made of concrete/asphalt.

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) Tweeted: @TrevorMahlmann @arstechnica V1.1 legs will be ~60% longer. V2.0 legs will be much wider & taller — like Falcon, but capable of landing on unimproved surfaces & auto-leveling.

(Edit: of course, everything future that Elon tweets is subject to change)

Capt'n Midnight · 08-08-2020 3:14am

SpaceX and Boeing win launch contracts and quasi-legal subsidies for the 737 debacle respectively IMHO. :pac:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/07/spacex-and-ula-win-2022-pentagon-rocket-launch-contracts.html

The U.S. Air Force on Friday awarded rocket builders United Launch Alliance and Elon Musk’s SpaceX contracts worth billions to launch national security missions.
ULA, which won 60% of the launches, and SpaceX, which won the remaining 40%, beat out Northrop Grumman and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
The military has said it expects to spend about $1 billion per year on launches.

jogdish · 25-08-2020 12:40pm

SN6 had a static test fire, and seems to be due a hop this weekend. Will be amazing to see the whole then when the payload/nose is also on it - then you have it ontop of the super heavy.

Timmaay · 25-08-2020 7:56pm

Sn5 outside, so I wounder will it see action again soon also?

The whole twitter debate about the water tower or starship heavy base is interesting also, it's an absolute monster. Elon hinted it's the starship heavy base but I wounder was there some sarcasm there.

jogdish · 25-08-2020 8:29pm

How many raptors will a full starship have ?

Also can some explain what all the fuss about the high bay is? what is a high bay? Im getting mixed up with various steel tanks.

Itssoeasy · 13-11-2020 5:32pm

The first four person launch of crew dragon will happen at 12:49am Sunday morning Irish time on a six month mission to the ISS.

jogdish · 13-11-2020 9:16pm

Anyone been keep up with SN8 starship, seems to be a minor delay but seeing the 15k hop will be something.

AMKC · 13-11-2020 9:26pm

Itssoeasy wrote: »

The first four person launch of crew dragon will happen at 12:49am Sunday morning Irish time on a six month mission to the ISS.

Any chance we might be able to see it in the Sky?

Capt'n Midnight · 14-11-2020 12:13am

Pictures https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/11/11/photos-falcon-9-rocket-rolled-out-to-pad-39a-for-crew-1-launch/

irishgeo · 14-11-2020 9:16am

AMKC wrote: »

Any chance we might be able to see it in the Sky?

we only see rockets in the sky because the sun is reflecting off them. Not going to have much chance at 1am.

Itssoeasy · 14-11-2020 11:11am

It’s been scrubbed until the same time but Monday morning.

MonkieSocks · 15-11-2020 11:11pm

SpaceX Crew1 launches tonight at 00:27 Irish time

josip · 16-11-2020 1:35am

Losing a bit of altitude around the 200km mark.
Went from 201 to 197.
Why is that?
Velocity is increasing beyond 15,000kph

MayoForSam · 16-11-2020 1:44am

Went off clean as a whistle, nailed the Stage 1 landing again.

Donegal Overlanding · 16-11-2020 1:46am

We ran outside when they mentioned it was over Shannon in the hope we might catch a glimpse of it.....didnt though.

Itssoeasy · 16-11-2020 1:52am

josip wrote: »

Losing a bit of altitude around the 200km mark.
Went from 201 to 197.
Why is that?
Velocity is increasing beyond 15,000kph

Levelling off according to the commentary to get into orbit. Launch went off sweet as a nut it seems. Another first for nasa and space x in that tonight’s launch was the first time an American capsule(not a shuttle) had four astronauts on board. It couldn’t happen before on a non space shuttle launch because Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, or Vostok or Soyuz have had more then three.

Itssoeasy · 16-11-2020 1:54am

Donegal Overlanding wrote: »

We ran outside when they mentioned it was over Shannon in the hope we might catch a glimpse of it.....didnt though.

It wasn’t over Shannon. Shannon is the orbit call out replacing Zaragoza in Spain should an issue happen down range of Florida.

Donegal Overlanding · 16-11-2020 1:55am

Itssoeasy wrote: »

It wasn’t over Shannon. Shannon is the orbit call out replacing Zaragoza in Spain should an issue happen down range of Florida.

So I got wet feet for nothing! hahahaha

Smiles35 · 16-11-2020 2:56pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Methane is an interesting fuel. You need bigger tanks because of it's lower density so it's not half way to hydrogen. It's much better at regenerative cooling on reusable engines because it doesn't create as much gunk at high temperatures, as it's much easier to purify than RP-1.

It really is a great clean burn compared to the earlier rockets. I'd really like a walk around that pad and a look up at it before a launch.

AMKC · 16-11-2020 3:57pm

So glad I caught this last night. Nearly forgot about it but switched on Sky News and there it was so went on You-Tube them as well. It's crazy but amazing how far it has come in the last decade. It was such a faultless even perfect launch. I think the progress over the next two decades will be immense and great. Can not wait till we are all watching the rocket that will be going to Mars.

Donegal Overlanding · 17-11-2020 4:09am

What a sight looking down at Dragon from the ISS as Earth whizzes around below, just incredible.

ps200306 · 18-11-2020 2:27am

Remembered this just after launch as well, and went viewing online. Kept an eye on it all the way through docking at 4am and hatch opening at 6am.

I hadn't realised that Dragon is going to stay attached to the ISS for the entire next six months. I assumed they'd be doing a crew rotation and bringing people back immediately. Though I suppose none of the guys already on the ISS would have any training in Dragon ... not that it seems to need much human control. So does that mean they're going to continue to intersperse Russian crew rotations via Soyuz with Dragon ones?

Cookiemunster · 18-11-2020 10:00am

ps200306 wrote: »

Remembered this just after launch as well, and went viewing online. Kept an eye on it all the way through docking at 4am and hatch opening at 6am.

I hadn't realised that Dragon is going to stay attached to the ISS for the entire next six months. I assumed they'd be doing a crew rotation and bringing people back immediately. Though I suppose none of the guys already on the ISS would have any training in Dragon ... not that it seems to need much human control. So does that mean they're going to continue to intersperse Russian crew rotations via Soyuz with Dragon ones?

The capsule that brings you up, brings you home. That's the way it works with the Soyuz. There are always multiple capsules docked at the station.

The plan for the next rotation is that the three current crew (two Cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut) will return to Earth in April and be replaced by 3 Cosmonauts. So from now on it looks like Russians will launch exclusively on the Soyuz and Americans will launch exclusively on Dragon or the Starliner.

firemansam4 · 08-12-2020 11:56pm

The first high altitude test flight for starship SN8 has just been aborted.
Seems that it experienced a raptor engine abort in the last second before takeoff.

I was watching the live feed on it and was looking forward to seeing how they got on with this one.
Hopefully it won't be too long before they can make another attempt at it.

tipp_tipp_tipp · 08-12-2020 11:59pm

Was watching the stream. Sickened it was aborted with 1 second to go. Looking forward to the next attempt.

firemansam4 · 09-12-2020 12:05am

tipp_tipp_tipp wrote:

Was watching the stream. Sickened it was aborted with 1 second to go. Looking forward to the next attempt.

Yea I was too, I've been keeping tabs on when the launch might happen, I was glad to catch the stream just before the attempted lift off.
Hopefully we won't have to wait too long until the next attempt.

Covid19 · 09-12-2020 9:16am

Next attempt will be today, as long as the weather holds. The Spacex feed was glorious when it went live, but the three other top feeds to watch it on are,

Whataboutit with Felix. This guy is good as he talks less bull**** plus uses NasaSpaceFlights feed. I found him excellent.

NasaSpaceFlight. Multiple cameras in the area. The lads go off topic way too much though. Plus the Americans cannot understand Chris's Yorkshire accent. ..and I quote " that Texan accent is weird man..."

EverydayAstronaut. Normally very good, when his equipment actually works. Quite technical. Musk follows him.

Flick between these feeds for the next attempt. Which should be today.

jogdish · 09-12-2020 10:54am

Covid19 wrote: »

Next attempt will be today, as long as the weather holds. The Spacex feed was glorious when it went live, but the three other top feeds to watch it on are,

Whataboutit with Felix. This guy is good as he talks less bull**** plus uses NasaSpaceFlights feed. I found him excellent.

NasaSpaceFlight. Multiple cameras in the area. The lads go off topic way too much though. Plus the Americans cannot understand Chris's Yorkshire accent. ..and I quote " that Texan accent is weird man..."

EverydayAstronaut. Normally very good, when his equipment actually works. Quite technical. Musk follows him.

Flick between these feeds for the next attempt. Which should be today.

Good round up, my own opinions:
Nasa Space flight - Really good set up, but the 'banter' gets a little too grating at times. would be happier with just Das and uk Chris. Some of the one field guys are similar to Tim (everyday astro) in their over waxing of how great everything is.

What about it - Yet to watch his live stuff, always find his weekly videos the 'humor' and delivery is odd, but he is good - you rock.

Everyday - far too happy over amazed and positive American for me, his single topic long form videos are excellent.

Fair play to all of them really got me into all the above over the summer. One thing I don't like is the Elon love, which all the above seem(?) to have.

tipp_tipp_tipp · 09-12-2020 9:57pm

SpaceX feed about to go live so take 2 coming up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap-BkkrRg-o

Timmaay · 09-12-2020 10:16pm

I love the angry astronauts YouTube channel, plenty of very interesting ideas.

irishgeo · 09-12-2020 10:38pm

haven't been following so what's SpaceX testing now?

Ghost Train · 09-12-2020 10:55pm

irishgeo wrote: »

haven't been following so what's SpaceX testing now?

Take off and landing of starship, SN8. Up to 12.5km altitude

First attempt called off 30mins ago. Now trying for launch at 22.40

Quantum Erasure · 09-12-2020 11:31pm

15 minutes

Nate--IRL-- · 09-12-2020 11:34pm

Thanks for the heads up, caught the stream just in time it seems.

Nate

Thargor · 09-12-2020 11:41pm

4 minutes...

tipp_tipp_tipp · 09-12-2020 11:52pm

That was worth the wait

Thargor · 09-12-2020 11:52pm

Holy fook!

Kiith · 09-12-2020 11:53pm

Bye bye rocket

Nate--IRL-- · 09-12-2020 11:53pm

So close!

Nate

Ghost Train · 09-12-2020 11:57pm

That was great to see... A bit of everything

MayoForSam · 09-12-2020 11:58pm

Almost, add another Raptor and they would have nailed the landing. It was tres cool to see it travelling horizontally then flip upright again before the landing.

On to SN9, lots of data to review no doubt.

namloc1980 · 10-12-2020 12:00am

Looked like one of the raptors failed to burn correctly just at the end. Still awesome though. Onwards and upwards.

.

tipp_tipp_tipp · 10-12-2020 12:02am

Don't they had much hopes for this one so to be close is a great result. Flip at the end was very impressive.

The engines seemed to gimbal like crazy on the ascent as they shut down an engine. Was that expected? I wondered if they'd prematurely lost an engine.

Timmaay · 10-12-2020 12:12am

Holy **** that was totally worth the month or so delay and like 3days of watching YouTube scrubs!!

afatbollix · 10-12-2020 12:26am

Loved the 'Awesome test congrats guys' at the end.

Space X

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