SpaceX News

[choff]

Looks like the lost Apollo 11 footage was found. Not only found, but in 65mm, restored, and turned into a documentary. Should silence the faked moon landing crowd.

http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-0 ... miere.html

I don't generally take in the theater. I can still remember a time when you could buy movie tickets for an entire family, plus drinks and popcorn for all, for less than what modern day theaters will charge for one small soft drink. This looks like it could be worth it though.

[krenshala]

Looks like a F9 will be used to launch a lunar lander tomorrow evening at about 1945 central (US) time. Hopefully I'm home from work in time to watch the launch (via PC).

[krenshala]

SpaceX DM-1 flight is to launch tomorrow (2 Mar) at 07:49 UTC (02:49 EST) from Florida, heading to the ISS (with a very small amount of cargo). If this happens, it means SpaceX got a man-capable capsule into orbit before Boeing could fly the Starliner. I won't be awake for this, but hopefully it will go well (and boring ).

[Giorgio]

Successful launch and first stage landing. I love this boring stuff!

[ladajo]

I bet the splashdown will be excitingly boring.

[ladajo]

On another note, wasn't SpaceX thinking to dirt land the dragon with retros after a parachute braking in the past?
Has this been discarded to the trash heap of developmental tangents?

[krenshala]

As I understand it, they decided not to fund retropropulsive landing of the capsule so they could throw that money toward BFR (or whatever its called this week ). If something comes up to change that, however, - say, NASA wanting to have Dragon 2 land on the moon - I'm sure SpaceX will be more than happy to dust off the plans for it and get back to work on making it work. As I understand it, the thrusters are still there, its just a matter of getting the software tweaked for targetting the landing spot, and getting the legs to work they way they wanted. Part of the problems they ran into were plasma bleed-through around where the legs would poked through the heat shield as originally designed.

[TDPerk]

As I understand it, they decided not to fund retropropulsive landing of the capsule so they could throw that money toward BFR (or whatever its called this week ). If something comes up to change that, however, - say, NASA wanting to have Dragon 2 land on the moon - I'm sure SpaceX will be more than happy to dust off the plans for it and get back to work on making it work. As I understand it, the thrusters are still there, its just a matter of getting the software tweaked for targetting the landing spot, and getting the legs to work they way they wanted. Part of the problems they ran into were plasma bleed-through around where the legs would poked through the heat shield as originally designed.

To the best of my knowledge, there were no "plasma bleed through" problems. Such were mooted to be possible, and this was a justification for NASA requiring SpaceX at it's own expense to conduct 7 test flights which were solely test flights to certify the propulsive landing capability. Meaning, NASA would not permit cargo flights to test the ability even to ditch in the ocean after hovering. It was NASA saying, "Drop Dead", to the idea.

[paperburn1]

Back in the early days of space flight, the Soviets did not have large expanses of warm water available to them the Soviets needed to land on land. They use parachutes, and solid rockets that fire in the last second or three of flight to slow down the final touchdown.
The US on the other hand, used water to cushion the landing as it is much simpler.
It is easier to NOT rely on something always working, with no time for backups to take over. So the US took the easy way out historically. a fail of one parachute over water is just a rough landing but over land it most likely would result in injury to the crew.

Orion is not very 'revolutionary' and is not really doing anything new. So it is no surprise they did not try to change the landing mode.
Every pound you send toward the moon is a precious thing from an efficiency point of view The tyranny of the rocket equation carrying 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms)of landing bags to the moon and back when I have a perfectly viable mode of landing in the water near a U.S. coastal site. (US launched craft also had to be capable of a water landing, in the Atlantic off Florida, in the event of a launch failure) As a idea of saving, for every kg of mass you want back, you need to send an additional 17 kg "Est." of mass to get it back from the moon.

Of course the Commercial manned space providers were not planning on water landings, since they must do something revolutionary : make an affordable business case. And landing on land would probably allow refit and reuse of the crew compartment. (NASA does not have to deal with petty things like that, they have a navy at their disposal for recovery and a huge budget).
So SNC with Dream Chaser is a runway lander. Boeing with CST-100 is a land lander, but with the final blow cushioned by air bags. SpaceX planned initially on powered landings for Dragon V2 but that plan has changed. now all over time went back to water landings because NASA is the Queen Bee and that is the way she wants it..
Now in summary Nasa wants everything to be basically the same so everyone lands on water. With nasa budget for SLS ,cost savings and reusability to lower cost are not a highlighted priority. The soviets are willing to accept a higher risk factor as well.

[ltgbrown]

One step closer to commercial based manned missions!

https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-drago ... allow.html

[krenshala]

Minor news: Looks like SpaceX has successfully started testing the Raptor engine in the StarHopper. It was a short, tethered, burn, but you gotta start somewhere with new engines and rocket.

[ltgbrown]

3 for 3 on the booster landings and they recovered the fairing! Awesome day for space exploration.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch 11 April 2019

https://www.spacex.com/webcast

[krenshala]

Looks like the center core for the FH tipped over on the way back to port due to high seas, though. Apparently the OctaGrabber hasn't been reconfigured to hold down FH center cores yet, though its supposed to be ready to do so by the next FH launch.

[Maui]

Welp, I’m guessing this will end up being a full year delay. Glad this didn’t happen with astronauts onboard tho:

https://youtu.be/crqPsqk2VdQ

[Aero]

Welp, I’m guessing this will end up being a full year delay. Glad this didn’t happen with astronauts onboard tho:

https://youtu.be/crqPsqk2VdQ

Huh! This was a booster. No one rides the boosters, ever.