Ultimate Steve

About the same as what they do before falcon 9 launches. The engines presumably have been fired for a long duration before integration with the vehicle, the static firings are likely to test performance and quality while integrated, and not "can the engine burn the required amount of time." Plus, they are launching from a launch pad that was basically thrown together, it probably wouldn't withstand a much longer burn.

Any idea what the crew capacity is?

Is it supposed to be a black screen with scrolling Chinese now? Unfortunately, I can't read it.

So, two hours from now? I assume there won't be a stream, but I know they sometimes stream the launches of very important missions. I don't know if this counts as very important, but it wouldn't hurt to ask if there is a stream.

Notebook Space Program - 1979 AAAAGH DELAYSSSSSSS

That dragon clone crew capsule is supposed to launch sometime early this month on a long March 5b. It will be encased in a fairing and won't have a LES for this mission.

I think, on the NASA site, it says Vulcan is the intended LV so if that's true it can be split up.

Time to find out what hat tastes like...

It allows for a greater chance of Artemis continuing beyond the first few missions. Having an asset out there that multiple companies and countries are using makes Artemis a lot more difficult to cancel. It certainly becomes a lot less crucial if Starship pans out, but if it doesn't then I would still classify it as very important from a political standpoint, if not an engineering standpoint.

But then they couldn't come back unless the Crew Dragon's heat shield was upgraded, as this proposal is specifically between Moon and Gateway, and it lacks heat shielding and flaps.

How so, specifically? Is it the height?

Well assuming that picture is accurate, there's your answer!

Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, is developing the Integrated Lander Vehicle (ILV) – a three-stage lander to be launched on its own New Glenn Rocket System and ULA Vulcan launch system. Dynetics (a Leidos company) of Huntsville, Alabama, is developing the Dynetics Human Landing System (DHLS) – a single structure providing the ascent and descent capabilities that will launch on the ULA Vulcan launch system. SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, is developing the Starship – a fully integrated lander that will use the SpaceX Super Heavy rocket. Launch Vehicles are New Glenn, Vulcan, and Super Heavy. Interesting that Falcon Heavy is not utilized. Also, audio quality of the stream is awful.

Well that was unexpected!

Eric Berger is saying on Twitter that SpaceX bid Starship for the Artemis lander program. If true, and I hope I'm wrong, that is a surefire way to not be chosen.

We are talking about Starships tps like it is the final design. I can almost guarantee you that it isn't.

What if stars are just starlink for the beings who live in black holes

So yeah this didn't end up happening. I'm still months from college but I don't anticipate continuing with this, as much as I'd like to. I have had almost zero motivation for productive things recently despite having all the free time in the world. Thanks, Corona. Anyways, here is the summary of what I had planned for this story. If it had came to fruition, I think it would have likely been one of the best things I'd ever written, because unlike all of my other stories, it had themes and questions and plots planned out from the beginning, and aims to say something deeper about the world we live in (then admittedly goes against it? Kinda reasonable both in-context and for the sake of a happy ending but ehh). The core thing that made me start writing this is twofold. The first would be the quote from the Reddit thread, which is, IIRC, "We can't all be Kerbonauts, can we?" The second was the idea that, for most of us, there is a day where we have to give up on our dreams. Especially amongst the members of the KSP forums, there is a sizable proportion of people who dream or have dreamed of becoming astronauts. However, as we mature we realize that the odds of us actually going to space are very close to zero, unless some huge revolution occurs in the space industry... Which is pretty much why I am now foolishly putting most of my hope in a dubious crumply flying water tower with no abort system... But what happens when someone has no hope, then finds it, then has it abruptly crushed, along with nearly everything else in his life? Yeah. Unfortunately I never got to finish this. If anyone wants to do something with the idea by any chance, please contact me, but be warned that I tend to be quite protective of my ideas and visions.

If I remember correctly, there are several known large asteroids out there with lots of precious metals readily accessible. Granted, how economical it would be would be questionable if the influx of resources crashed the market, but if we get to the point where we can make stuff in space, asteroid-mined materials *can* be easier to access than materials launched from Earth in the right circumstances, if it is cheaper to get from space than from Earth. Granted, this requires an economy of stuff built in space, which is admittedly dubious and several steps beyond the barriers we are talking about.

Another thing I haven't seen mentioned right now: Starship may be inexpensive enough to make asteroid mining feasible.

Starlink will be a market, but not the way you think. Once those starlink sats have died and become hypervelocity impactors, they will have to be removed in order to de-Kesslerize Earth. I wonder what launch vehicle could pull that off... Oh yeah,... Starship, coincidentally made and flown by the same government -subsidized corporation that made the mess in the first place. And also coincidentally, because not all the space trash up there is SpaceX 's, then it will be perfectly justifiable to pay SpaceX to remove it. I'm under the impression that as of right now at least, the plan is to put most of the starlinks in low orbits where they will decay fairly quickly if they fail. I don't think many people think that at all. As dubious as the Mars plans are, there will likely be many, many volunteers. Look at how many people signed up for Mars One, which was pretty much a 100% one way trip. If all goes well, with this plan there is the availability of a return even though that isn't really the intent. Someone talked about the tourism killer app earlier, this is what I'm most excited about personally. It's highly probable that the market will be far bigger than those wanting to go to Mars. If they can get the price per seat down to something reasonable for a once-in-a-lifetime trip, you have a lot of people who would pay up. If we assume 5 million dollar flight cost and 50 passengers (more pessimistic than the current numbers), that's 100k per passenger. Tough to save, yes, I'm panicking over the same-order-of-magnitude amount I'll need for college, but unless we fall into economic ruin (sadly a possibility) it is a doable amount for the space-obsessed.

Here we go!

How long would pad turnaround take for the SLS, and would that duration be a problem for cryogenics assuming the lander is cryo?

Is there a site where you can see when they will pass over?

Hmm. For some reason, if I go Eva from the parked vessel, the vessel becomes unparked. Maybe I have to approach from a different vessel, I'll try that.