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Blue Origin Thread (merged)


Aethon

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1 hour ago, SargeRho said:

That's a bullseye if I've ever seen one! Robin Hood, hang your head in shame!

Nah, SpaceX is still behind Robin of Sherwood. I'll look forward to them splitting an F9 with another F9 at the upcoming FH test though.

Improbable feats of marksmanship aside, congrats on absolutely successful return to flight SpaceX!

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I was sadly unable to watch the launch live, so I plugged my ears until I got home and watched it as if it was live.

 

That landing - that camera view! A link to the rocket all the way down! YEAH! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That is the highlight of this year so far for me. THAT WAS AWESOME!

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3 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I was sadly unable to watch the launch live, so I plugged my ears until I got home and watched it as if it was live.

 

That landing - that camera view! A link to the rocket all the way down! YEAH! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That is the highlight of this year so far for me. THAT WAS AWESOME!

And the year has only begun.

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What's the deal with the instantaneous launch window? Those ten sats are bunched up after separation and each has to adjust its own orbit anyway. Is it due to plane change caused by Earth's rotation? But, even in the worst case scenario - polar orbit (which happens to be the case with Iridium NEXT) the change in plane is only 0,25° per minute, surely they can manage such plane change.

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21 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

What's the deal with the instantaneous launch window? Those ten sats are bunched up after separation and each has to adjust its own orbit anyway. Is it due to plane change caused by Earth's rotation? But, even in the worst case scenario - polar orbit (which happens to be the case with Iridium NEXT) the change in plane is only 0,25° per minute, surely they can manage such plane change.

Has to do with lining the launch trajectory up with the barge.

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8 minutes ago, Frybert said:

Has to do with lining the launch trajectory up with the barge.

Hmm, hadn't considered that.

 

Also worth noting, IIRC all ten of those sats are going into the same plane, so mucking about with changing the plane of all ten after launch is probably impractical, hence the window.

 

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I totaly forgot the launch until i looked at reddit. Watching a launch while knowing it wont explode is only half as exciting, just like sports when you know the outcome. But that stage 1 camera was awesome, i wished it was fullscreen.

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5 hours ago, Frybert said:

Has to do with lining the launch trajectory up with the barge.

Incorrect.  They wouldn't limit the success of a paying customer's launch based on an attempted landing.  Also, if that were true, then ALL of their launches with attempted barge landings would require instantaneous launch windows, which we know is not the case.

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Good to see the SpaceX flying again !

They pointed out that the barge landing is "just" an experimental part of the mission, which first and foremost is to put the payload into orbit. Is it about the word "instantaneous" ? Maybe the instantaneous launch window was just was the name suggest, the possibility to launch into desired orbit at a certain time under certain conditions ...

Just a guess.

 

Edited by Green Baron
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15 hours ago, Shpaget said:

What's the deal with the instantaneous launch window? Those ten sats are bunched up after separation and each has to adjust its own orbit anyway. Is it due to plane change caused by Earth's rotation? But, even in the worst case scenario - polar orbit (which happens to be the case with Iridium NEXT) the change in plane is only 0,25° per minute, surely they can manage such plane change.

I thought all the Iridium NEXT satellites were targeting a particular longitude? In which case it would be an instantaneous window, or as narrow a one as can be managed.The launch vehicle can compensate to some extent during ascent but it (obviously) only has a finite amount of fuel to waste.

Assuming a circular orbit and taking the orbital velocity from the SpaceX feed, I make it a 33m/s delta-v for a 0,25° plane change.  For comparison, the Shuttle OMS could put out about 300m/s total delta-V, so on that scale, 33m/s is not trivial. It also requires fuel that could otherwise be used for stationkeeping over the lifetime of the satellite. 

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50 minutes ago, KSK said:

I thought all the Iridium NEXT satellites were targeting a particular longitude? In which case it would be an instantaneous window, or as narrow a one as can be managed.The launch vehicle can compensate to some extent during ascent but it (obviously) only has a finite amount of fuel to waste.

Assuming a circular orbit and taking the orbital velocity from the SpaceX feed, I make it a 33m/s delta-v for a 0,25° plane change.  For comparison, the Shuttle OMS could put out about 300m/s total delta-V, so on that scale, 33m/s is not trivial. It also requires fuel that could otherwise be used for stationkeeping over the lifetime of the satellite. 

I assume that the second stage would do that correction burn. 
However an instant launch window would probably imply that if its any hold during the final part of countdown they abort and wait for the next window. 
The shuttle- mir missions had an less than 2 minute window who would be much of the same.

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5 hours ago, Veeltch said:

Where do they deorbit the second stage? Is it always over Pacific?

For polar launches from Vandenberg, in the Pacific. For eastward launches from KSC, into the Atlantic.

Edited by Nibb31
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