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RocketLab Discussion Thread


Kryten

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43 minutes ago, Starman4308 said:

When would making a mission patch for an orbital launch become as silly as making a mission patch for a trans-Atlantic 747 flight?

24 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

When Facebook users start doing it for them...<_<

Oooh! Oooh! Time to start making my mission patch for my upcoming trip to Mejico!

Good for Elektron to really start cranking them out and up!

 

 

Edited by StrandedonEarth
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I saw the Humanity Star tonight! It was a bit harder to spot than I thought it would be, though. The flashes were bright and far apart (making it hard to gauge speed and direction) at the beginning, but then shifted to dimmer but every second or two (less interesting but easier to track).

Relevant to story but not to Rocket Lab:

I also saw a pretty bright (mag 1.5) spy sat tonight (USA 186, all we know is that it's a spy sat) which stayed in view for several minutes. It was launched on the last ever Titan IV. I attempted to view the Hubble, but the cluttered horizon didn't allow me a view. Then while looking for a centaur stage I accidentally saw NOSS 2-3 E which is part of a formation of ocean signals intelligence satellites. That particular sat was launched with NOSS's 2-3 C and 2-3 D, a few seconds apart, but D has long since fallen out of sync. The thing was, it was visible for less time and was dimmer than the centaur, but I couldn't find the centaur, even when a second one flew over that night. :P It also crossed paths with another satellite, Meteor 1-15 which is an old Soviet weather satellite launched in 1973 on a Vostok 2M rocket, although it was very dim and I only saw it for a second because I was too busy timing the highest point of the NOSS so I could figure out what it was later on (and I had a hard time distinguishing the two based on data because their orbits were pretty similar-ish from where I was standing).

And I only have two more usable days in Spring Break and I still haven't done my homework yet. However, I'm probably learning more not doing it than I would be doing it. :P

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1 hour ago, Ultimate Steve said:

The Humanity Star is expected to fall out of orbit sometime today according to a few various sites. I guess someone didn't do the orbital decay equations right, we're a few months early.

That... doesn’t seem right. You sure it’s not maybe the Chinese space station? I thought the HS was supposed to stay up most of a year. 

 

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31 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

That... doesn’t seem right. You sure it’s not maybe the Chinese space station? I thought the HS was supposed to stay up most of a year. 

 

Quote

The exact moment of re-entry is challenging to predict. Based on the current rate at which its altitude is dropping, the Humanity Star is predicted to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere on Thursday, 22 Mar 2018 UTC. 

-Humanity Star website

Quote

"In the coming days, The Humanity Star will begin its final descent into the Earth’s atmosphere where it will burn up on re-entry, leaving no trace.

Launched on 21 January 2018 NZT, The Humanity Star was designed to be a temporary symbol in the night sky that encouraged everyone to look up, ponder humanity’s place in the universe and think about how we can work together as one species to solve the challenges facing us all.

During its time in space, the Humanity Star orbited the Earth every 90 minutes and could be seen from around the world as a brief, glinting light in the dawn, dusk and night sky.

-Also from the website

 

Yeah, it's sad. :(

Edited by Ultimate Steve
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31 minutes ago, cubinator said:

The Humanity Star has probably deorbited by now.

;.; Sigh. 

Oh, the....

 

 

 

 

wait for it...

 

 

 

 

keep waiting....

 

 

 

wait some more...

 

 

 

 

...humanity! :sticktongue:

 

 

Wait a sec... I wonder what the chances are that it survived? It’s presumably hollow and incredibly light, with a large surface area... might it have slowed down fast enough to avoid overheating? I remember hydrazine tanks from Skylab survived to the surface, similar size and construction...

Edited by CatastrophicFailure
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41 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

 

Wait a sec... I wonder what the chances are that it survived? It’s presumably hollow and incredibly light, with a large surface area... might it have slowed down fast enough to avoid overheating? I remember hydrazine tanks from Skylab survived to the surface, similar size and construction...

Good luck finding it. :P I'd check in eastern Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Arabian Sea, if Satflare and Satview are to be believed.

Edited by cubinator
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4 hours ago, NSEP said:

Wait, they are already working on FLIGHT 6? Is that going to be the Sixth Electron?

Oh, I imagine they’ve got even more than that in the pipe at various stages of assembly.  But right now they still seem to be bogged down with that issue delaying Flight 3. 

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12 hours ago, NSEP said:

Wait, they are already working on FLIGHT 6? Is that going to be the Sixth Electron?

Go to their website, go to "Book a launch," go to "rideshare," then "cubesat"... check out the "% booked" figure.

It does seem like they've got plenty of business to support them in the near future!

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