.50calBMG

So, they learned from OFT-1 then?

Also wouldn't be getting a 1G constant acceleration, not worth doing.

I guess that's one way to bypass the raptor's OBOGS problems...

It is, but one that was supposed to have some limited altitude capability so it could be used over land as well as water.

Dogleg on the return may be easier than you would think with all the aerodynamic control it has, just crank it over after the entry burn. Falcon 9 glides pretty well for a rocket, and they already do somewhat of a dogleg anyway for their normal landings, just more vertical than horizontal. Besides, a bit of extra lateral G loading won't hurt, not after seeing what CRS-17 made it through without breaking up. Makes you wonder if that mission gave them the confidence to try a launch like this?

That would add nothing but complexity, weight, and failure points, and would be nothing but a hindrance on any planet but earth. There is a reason roton didn't get developed further.

Even as one of the ones on the forums known for bashing SLS, it certainly has a cool factor for looks. The block 1 with the tiny upper stage for a rocket a third the size still looks wrong though.

Ask the Titan IV.

So more or less the same test they already did when the pad abort test parachute "succeeded because it never had a chance to fail"?

Don't think so, but iirc, they will be a few launches from now

So for everyone saying SLS is a complete rocket, they still don't have a production piece for mating stage one with stage two. They have a quarter of a pathfinder test article. You may counter with the fact that it is a fairly simple thing to make relative to the rest of the rocket, to which I respond "then what took so long?"

Because it seems the only thing it can do well is burn money

Hearing that thing scream will never get old. Wish more rockets did that.

Speaking of Ares V, makes you wonder if had they stuck with developing the regenerative cooling version of the RS-68 and carrying that over to SLS would have been cheaper. If they would have done that, I think I would have much less of a problem with the non reusability issue.

And yet people still find ways to defend it

Cease

Think he meant West coast, but they have one there too, and it's so close to the launch pad they don't even have to switch cameras IIRC. Think they have used it twice now

Man, that's way cooler looking than in the original video for some reason. Can't wait to see it for real now.

This is what Tater and I have repeated over and over again. While SLS components exist, they haven't been fully tested together, and the only useful versions of SLS are still nothing but PowerPoints right now, and for the foreseeable future, seeing as IIRC Boeing is the one "building" EUS

But Orion isn't fully tested. It isn't getting life support integrated until flight two, and IIRC they are switching it's heatshield after A1 as well

Man, it really is impressive just how much can be spent on basically nothing

Well, I'm gonna start saying Starliner Launch Service. If it's starting to look and act like it's bigger brother, we might as well call them both SLS. Oh, hey, look at that, both have Boeing as a prime contractor, it can't be a coincidence.

I would like to reiterate that Boeing got more than twice the money SpaceX got so they could compete "fairly" against them, and IIRC so they could be ready first...

Does the word pre-alpha mean anything to you? I remember a time when DCS World was a stuttery mess that looked as bad if not worse than ksp 1 in beta, and that was an engine specifically designed for it. Now, DCS is arguably the best looking flight sim you can play, just because they had time to work on it. I have serious doubts that KSP 2 at release will look like it does in the pre-alpha gameplay.

I believe they also said that plume expansion at lower atmospheric pressure (aka real plume) is going to be a thing in stock as well. If we could get plume-plume interaction on vessels with multiple engines, that would be pretty great.