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Skylon

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51 minutes ago, Skylon said:

Next up: Falcon 9 Mk6

Why not - it's a naming scheme like that of the Spitfire, or B-17 (or where those A,B,C,D etc?).

Both of those were fine aircraft...

 

Really, SpaceX should extend the droneship name system to the rockets, or at least the Dragons.  I'd love to see a news article along the lines of "Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall docks with ISS"

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25 minutes ago, tater said:

Also, the core was landed for future reuse. It feels normal that you drive the new car home from the dealership and don't immediately have it towed away as junk :wink: 

You didn't see my last car. :) 

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6 hours ago, KSK said:

You didn't see my last car. :) 

giphy.gif

 

OK serious question time: This, IIRC, the second time they've shipped mice up on a Dragon. So... how much "life support" capacity does the current Dragon have? Obviously it's enough to keep mice alive up & down for a few days. If a person managed to sneak aboard, would they survive the trip?

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12 hours ago, Skylon said:

Falcon 1

Falcon 1e

Flacon 5

Falcon 9

Falcon 9 V1.1

Falcon 9 Full Thrust

Falcon 9 Block 5 (why 5?)

Whats up with that SpaceX?

Blocks is common on military planes to indicate version. 
Guess they did not come up with some good names and fought that block was an better standard than version number. 
The new stuff is mostly that they can service the engines without taking off the legs. 

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19 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Blocks is common on military planes to indicate version. 
Guess they did not come up with some good names and fought that block was an better standard than version number. 
The new stuff is mostly that they can service the engines without taking off the legs. 

Also tougher legs and tougher titanium grid fins that won't burn during reentry 

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Well, their engine naming system is regular...

  • Kestrel- a bird of prey
  • Merlin-1A- Merlin is another bird of prey
  • Merlin-1B
  • Merlin-1C
  • Merlin-1D
  • Raptor.....is another word for a bird of prey

Then Falcon

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Merlin was also the name of the Rolls Royce engine that practically won WWII, as it was used in the Spitfire, the Hurricane, the Lancaster, the Mosquito, and the P-51 Mustang, which were probably the best allied planes in WWII. It was even used in tanks.

Incidentally, Rolls Royce also named their engines after birds of prey. They had a Kestrel engine, but also Eagle, Hawk, Vulture, Peregrine, Buzzard, and so on. There wasn't a Raptor, but there was Rolls Royce R, which was a huge engine used in seaplane races in the 1930's. I'm pretty sure that SpaceX's engine naming is a hommage to these legendary engines.

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3 hours ago, Lukaszenko said:

I didn't see anybody say anything about this, but it seemed really clear in this launch:

 

Very nice catch.

10 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

OK serious question time: This, IIRC, the second time they've shipped mice up on a Dragon. So... how much "life support" capacity does the current Dragon have? Obviously it's enough to keep mice alive up & down for a few days. If a person managed to sneak aboard, would they survive the trip?

I was actually going to ask this question myself.

In a really, really ridiculously bad situation -- like, meteoroid impact that takes out the Soyuz lifeboat and the life support systems and gives the astronauts only a matter of hours -- would a docked Dragon 1 be enough to get the crew home safely? They'd need to bring their own air and such, obviously.

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49 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Very nice catch.

I was actually going to ask this question myself.

In a really, really ridiculously bad situation -- like, meteoroid impact that takes out the Soyuz lifeboat and the life support systems and gives the astronauts only a matter of hours -- would a docked Dragon 1 be enough to get the crew home safely? They'd need to bring their own air and such, obviously.

Dragon 1 berths, not docked. Someone would have to remain onboard the ISS to unberth it.

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Just now, sevenperforce said:

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that they figured out a way to remotely trigger the unberthing mechanism.

it has an system for circulating air and temperature control, I doubt it have the actual life support as in scrubbing co2 and supplying oxygen, removing co2 is most important here. 
11 m^3 of air maximum, less if room is taken up. looks like you could do an emergency deorbit before running out of air. 
 

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1 hour ago, sevenperforce said:

Very nice catch.

I was actually going to ask this question myself.

In a really, really ridiculously bad situation -- like, meteoroid impact that takes out the Soyuz lifeboat and the life support systems and gives the astronauts only a matter of hours -- would a docked Dragon 1 be enough to get the crew home safely? They'd need to bring their own air and such, obviously.

No. Beyond the fact that it can't unberth (you need someone inside to close the CBM and use the Canadarm), there certainly isn't enough CO2 scrubbing inside to hold 6 people for several hours.

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33 minutes ago, Nibb31 said:

No. Beyond the fact that it can't unberth (you need someone inside to close the CBM and use the Canadarm), there certainly isn't enough CO2 scrubbing inside to hold 6 people for several hours.

And if they brought their own air, and figured out a way to remotely unberth?

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