MinimumSky5

Also, with handy, preassembled rust, for that video game level aesthetic every sailor loves!

Is this just more rack space for companies to rent, or will there be commercial astronauts sent up as well?

It's gonna be quite funny seeing their reaction to China getting their moon base set up, while NASA are forced to change priorities every two years. This is why I see the new space race as being between China and SpaceX, not because I think that SpaceX are inherently better than NASA, but because they have a clear, unchanging goal in mind (Yes, I know that SpaceX aren't aiming at the Moon, I'm talking more broadly about getting humans actually living in space.)

Well, that'll teach me for trying to sum up an article while running on very little sleep. I can't actually see where i went wrong with my summing up, but that's probably the best reason for me to just post the links.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/01/nasa-and-boeing-are-closely-looking-at-starliners-thruster-performance/ Well, this isn't good. Note that this is coming from an anonymous source within NASA, and Boeing is denying everything.

If they're not careful with this pace of launches, they might start to become routine!

What is it with these tests and the camera operators? Do they deliberately turn the camera away during the most important stages of flight?

This booster: Was the first Bloc 5 booster Launched the first Bangladeshi satellite (Bangabandhu 1) Launched the most satellites on one launch by the US, and SpaceX (SSO-A) Why does it have to be B1046!

1500 UTC for everyone not using Freedom Timetm

Yeah, given what this booster is about to go through, high explosives do seem a little redundant when it comes to destruction.

While The X-Files was a great TV show, it has a lot to answer for in how it altered peoples perceptions of possible extraterrestrials. That being said, I'm on the extreme sceptic side of the Fermi Paradox, so maybe I'm a little biased!

I think that there is a lot of the people calling for a second OFT aren't asking for that because of the failure, they're just angry at Boeing mismanagement of SLS, and they want Boeing to pay for it in some way. I'd ask Boeing to delay the crewed mission until we have the fault chain for this nailed down, then, as long as it's a simple error (which it is looking like, just a simple oversight in the MET clock), the program can continue without a new flight. Safe crew access to the ISS must be the priority here, not settling scores with a megacorp. That being said though, given what we've been hearing about the 737 MAX, looking at the corporate culture of ULA after this incident may be warranted.

I doubt that the best first step for ISRU of water on the Moon is to blast away the insulating regolith that has kept it stable for millions of years, using superheated gases from a rocket (not to mention all of the safety problems highlighted above). Making your own barriers allows much more flexibility in base design, and given that permenant bases will likely be buried, you will need earthmoving equipment there to build the thing anyway. Also: how much ejecta is sent up in that simulation? If it isn't that much, it's not likely to be a stumbling provided that we can get a landing pad built relatively quickly.

How big a net are you willing to make, and how big of a ship are you willing to use? You definatly could make a big enough net, but I doubt that it'd be work it.

The first stage engine of the Sea Dragon was very much a Big Dumb Booster engine, so it may have that much particulates in it. But seriously guys, stop nitpicking about the plume, that's an awesome clip!

Would have been nice to actually see Starliner floating freely in space.

Nope. based on comments from up the thread, it's to move the shock reattachment on the Centaur to a stronger area of skin, to prevent tank rupture. AFAIK, the only air there is entrained.

Pivoting back to B1048... I've been wondering why the legs were removed, and I've just had a thought: Is this the booster for the in flight abort test? Given that one of the big changes recently in the first stages was mods to make retraction of the legs easier, and there aren't that many solidly scheduled launches coming up, I can't see why they'd rush to get the legs off, unless the next flight doesn't need them.

Its really quite shocking to compare this to the equivalent plans from NASA, which just seam to amount to 'Let's land someone on the moon, then maybe we'll make use of lunar ice.' That's a very good goal, but without being slotted into a larger overall plan like this, it's kind of pointless.

I know that we rightly mocked the bad camera views in one of they Cygnus livestreams, but i think that Boeing just took that award. Here comes abort engine cutoff -- Nope That pitch up manoeuvre looks cool -- Nope This is a really interesting parachute system --- Nope Well, at least we get to see the service module crash -- Nope Also, i do believe that they had a parachute failure on one of the mains, I thought that there were meant to be three mains?

I'll bet you $53 million that it doesn't launch on Wednesday.

How long would it take for Starship to get to Saturn? AFAIK, it would be multiple years.

Ars did an interview with Musk after the press event, and they expanded on a couple of points: https://arstechnica.com/features/2019/09/after-starship-unveiling-mars-seems-a-little-closer/ The big one for me is that SpaceX has learnt a lot about life support from working on Crew Dragon, and Elon is at least dimly aware that a full regenerative system is needed for Mars transfers.

Q.How do you envision the further development of the launchsite? A. More buildings.