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ULA launch and discussion thread


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3 hours ago, Entropian said:

Wow, compared to the $50 million SpaceX got that seems pretty disproportionate.  What's their reason for giving ULA so much more profitssssssss?

SpaceX is doing it anyway, and are throwing a decent amount of their own money into it, but ULA (Boeing) wants assurance that they'll get something out of it?

Idk, I'm just being a little tongue in cheek. Maybe the hardware differences between Hydrolox and Metholox, and SpaceX is willing to be leaner on top of that. But ~$30 million isn't that big a difference compared to the Lunar lander proposal funding.

Edited by Spaceception
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4 hours ago, Scotius said:

Understood. Pumping liquid hydrogen from one ship to another - IN SPACE - does pose some interesting engineering problems. Like leak-proofing the armature to minimize propellant losses etc.

Additionally, the flow rate of propellant when re-fueling the ISS is entirely too low to use the same method for larger tanks.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Anyone have a clue why the NROL-101 patch has elvish script? Why Tolkien?

EDIT: Turns out that it translates to "goodness persists", like the words above it in the stream background. Does anyone know the significance?

Edited by Clamp-o-Tron
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43 minutes ago, Clamp-o-Tron said:

Anyone have a clue why the NROL-101 patch has elvish script? Why Tolkien?

EDIT: Turns out that it translates to "goodness persists", like the words above it in the stream background. Does anyone know the significance?

I don't know, but I do know that the NRO loves to be cryptic and or misleading with their mission patches.

I don't have a source for this, but if I remember right, they used to be really clever, but then someone cracked the "code" on one of the patches and figured out what a spy satellite was for or something, so now most of what they put on the patches are red herrings trying to look like clever allusions.

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19 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I don't know, but I do know that the NRO loves to be cryptic and or misleading with their mission patches.

I don't have a source for this, but if I remember right, they used to be really clever, but then someone cracked the "code" on one of the patches and figured out what a spy satellite was for or something, so now most of what they put on the patches are red herrings trying to look like clever allusions.

It probably has something to do with the "Perseverance" name given to crew-1.  I'm guessing that it also means that they are getting much closer to the all-seeing eye of Mordor (but that's *every* NRO mission, so little new).

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If you have ever played Civ VI, it is very clear that the "launch earth satellite" rocket is an Atlas V.

I've gotta say, SpaceX is so much better with their PR production values. Watching a SpaceX launch stream versus a ULA launch stream is like watching a Hollywood movie versus a college school project video.

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