sh1pman

That’s great. Maybe NASA will allow to reuse the capsule as well?

Rogozin sometimes talks too much. That, and the general lack of innovation in Russian space industry for the past 30 years. Crew Dragon launch further illustrated this growing lag.

Probably not the right thread for it, but here’s one example. See replies (I think there’s a translate option) Nothing competitive with Falcon 9 or Starship, that’s for sure.

If only you guys could see the crazy ****storm happening right now in Russian social media after this launch and Elon’s comment about trampoline. People from all political sides bashing Rogozin and Roscosmos for incompetence. My entire feed turned into space experts’ battleground. Looks like Elon has much more support here than I thought.

Holy cow, that fireball!!! RIP SN4, but that explosion was spectacular!

Saturnship should have NTRaptors!

It’s burning prograde to return to Earth.

Found me some nice new wallpapers!

It’s still unclear to me how STS has more “Cargo to LEO (uncrewed)” than SLS Block1. Both drop the core stage before LEO, engines don’t count in both cases. Would SLS get more cargo to LEO if they removed upper stage completely?

122t is almost as much as Saturn V could put into LEO. How is it possible that SLS that, compared to Shuttle, has stretched tanks, bigger SRBs and an upper stage, can put less mass into LEO?

Can you burn to TLI from ISS orbit without an insane inclination change maneuver?

Only if their communication was discovered before deciding the winners (otherwise Boeing would get a contract). But he only quits now. Why wait and quit just before the historic crew launch?

BA didn't get any of it, that might be the problem.

KSP taught me that they need more struts to keep this noodle stable!

He writes about some “choice” and the “risk” he took earlier this year, what else can it be? 99% sure it’s about HLS contracts.

So, flight around a spent ICPS?

Shuttles (and Buran) are cool. Much more so than boring space capsules. So sad that their era seems to have ended.

Political reasons, I guess. Anyway, the only sensible reason that I see to go to Moon orbit first is to refuel large interplanetary ship. If you have an ISRU plant on the Moon that produces large amounts of props and a highly efficient surface-to-orbit tanker, a reusable hydrolox or NTR-powered Mars ship can park at Lunar orbit, get refilled and then depart to Mars. Eliminates the need to brake from interplanetary speed all the way to LEO and then burn to TMI again for another trip. But, obviously, it requires the Moon infrastructure first. Refilling a Starship in LEO doesn’t.

What’s the point of going to the Gateway in high lunar orbit first and then to Mars? Why not go straight to Mars from LEO? To add more complexity, more potential failure points, spend more props, irradiate the crew for a bit longer?

Didn't know that. What did he lie about? I don't read his stuff much, or twitter in general lately. Prefer our domestic channels on Telegram about space and astronomy news Forgot to address - so now you care about reusability, isn't that a surprise!

[snip] Why do you guys dislike Berger so much? I mean, why him specifically. He's not the only one on space twitter who dislikes SLS.

EOR and docking is done routinely at ISS by Soyuz, previously by Shuttle, and will soon be done by SpaceX. What’s so crazy about it? More $$$ - than what, SLS? For two FH launches? (Orion and naked S2). Sorry, can’t agree. Additional risks - perhaps. I didn’t participate much in the discussions about EOR instead of SLS for Artemis missions, so can’t comment about additional risks and if they were acceptable or not.

Still not a reason to be depressed. It's not reusable in CCP, but SpaceX can use it for whatever it wants afterwards. How much money have US taxpayers spent on Falcon Heavy? Now that SLS is almost complete, probably true. *mission built specifically around the capabilities of SLS. Doesn't mean they couldn't come up with another mission utilizing commercial rockets and EOR.

Also, I read somewhere that space-based solar power (microwave power transmission to Earth) can become a very profitable and competitive field, if launch prices drop significantly.