Ultimate Steve

Prop transfer demo in a minute or two. Engine relight in 15-20. Splashdown in 40.

Looks to be some sort of oscillation on SH, possibly propellant slosh plus aero stuff that the computer didn't know how to deal with. Having taken two intro controls classes, that stuff is daunting. But ORBIT! Well... Not going into that debate, so NOMINAL SECO!

Under 2 minutes. Here we go...

T-5 minutes!

Boats, 32 minute delay. More boats, 8 minute delay

Launch targeted for half an hour into the window, currently in just over an hour from now. Probably gonna be pretty foggy.

Flight 1 had problems. Flight 3 they are trying hard to fix those problems and have individually tested every tile. We will see how it goes for them. Flight 2 they kinda gave up to focus on flight 3 and a LOT of the tiles fell off.

Chapter 55.5 - With All Further Ado (Status Update and Story Recap) Chapter 56 - The Final Countdown

Anyone have a picture of the fake tweet? All I've seen are people referencing it and not what it actually is.

So... Webcast starts at 7:30 (unless I'm blind and that's the launch time). No idea how long the window is but knowing how nerdy they are I wouldn't put it past them to be targeting 7:59:26 as a liftoff time (1:59:26 PM GMT) for maximum Pi day shenanigans. Edit: Never mind, webcast starts at 6:30 CST, I must have originally seen the time from a screenshot of someone in a different time zone.

I might be misunderstanding, but doesn't ICPS already do what this tug would do?

Update, after more closely reading the blog post it appears that a bunch of raptors shut down before one shut down explosively, so I retract my previous comment, although one engine RUD causing a booster RUD even not through an engine cascade is still alarming. People are discussing a few possible causes over on a Discord server. 1. They got "best part is no part" crazy and deleted the heat exchanger and are using pump exhaust directly as pressurant gas. This exhaust, which is partially water, froze and created ice. This wasn't a problem until the flip, which shook everything up and pinned a large chunk of ice against the LOX inlet. The new weld marks on the newest boosters are comically large filters. 2. Air bubbles in the propellant formed during the flip maneuver and caused chaos in the inlet. This isn't a blockage though. 3. Piece of baffle broke off during the flip and fluid hammer event and blocked the filter.

Hmm, filter clogging. If that engine failure cascade was as a result of one engine failure, then they must be far less isolated than I thought they would be. I guess I was wrong about it being one issue affecting multiple engines.

That makes sense! One thing in case you haven't thought of it already. This is a bit of a long shot. Did you happen to send Parkaboy the save file for the Plan Kappa crosover? By the looks of it probably not as by skimming it, it looks like not much was transferred, so it was probably done just by recreating situations. On the off chance that it was a full save file transfer, and you still have access to the DMs, maybe an early version of the save file still exists on whatever hosting site was used to share it?

The pages have returned!!! Have no qualms about remaining in the mission reports section - Voyage wasn't even trying to be a mission report for the second half and nobody has seemed to notice yet! I'm curious to know how the Maru set and the Humblebee escaped the hard drive before its untimely destruction!

Man, we all loved this universe so much that we're collectively resurrecting it! The uniform mods, the planet pack, and now all the craft files... I might take a stab at a few of those if they are needed. Welcome back, @Mister Dilsby! I still remember checking this story almost hourly for updates back in the day. I'll have to go back through it and reread the whole thing when I have time!

More on topic, Kimbal posted his view of the 2014 F9R Dev failure, gives a bit more context than the last few seconds of drone footage we had previously.

I think I'm missing something. Granted I'm not too great at looking at art much deeper than surface level right away, but could you explain what you find so objectionable? My understanding is: Each stainless steel model of the Moon is either a phase as seen from Earth, a phase as seen from somewhere in space, or an eclipse Each model is associated with an important person from history Each model has a larger version that's staying on Earth with a gemstone to mark the landing site Each model also has an NFT associated with it Perhaps I'm missing some context, but the last bullet point is the only one I have any particular objection to.

Not entirely sure what metal that is, but perhaps the idea was to make something that could survive a medium velocity crash?

Hmm, I did a double take and thought it was an Electron for a second.

The Apollo capsule was also at 100 percent oxygen, 1/3 atmospheric pressure. As most capsules today are focused on transfers to and from long term LEO habitats, you're going to end up with a heavier structure and environmental control system for something that is sea level pressure nitrogen and oxygen. You also state that the service module would not be needed for LEO missions. While if they had done this a lot, they doubtless would have made a smaller service module, they would have certainly needed a service module to do anything more than a suborbital hop. That thing provides power generation, I think oxygen and water, propulsion, rcs to dock with, and a lot more. If you just wanted the clout of having sent people to space, sure, but such a spacecraft would be utterly incapable of doing anything more than that.

https://www.nasa.gov/foia/nasa-e-libraries/headquarters-foia-library/ WB-57 videos got released, but with the hot staging and flip removed, likely ITAR or trade secrets or something (smh). Looks like the heat shield teams have got a lot of work to do. I know they have heat shield upgrades already assembled on one of the upcoming ships, hopefully they figured it out this time. That is not a happy looking heat shield.

As far as a paying for college job goes, I am paid 20.79 an hour to sit in a comfy chair in an air conditioned structure, entrusted with a complicated mechanical machine, with consistent hours. The job is contractually required to schedule around my classes (I've had to exercise that right three times this month because my arranged classes kept changing, lol), and I can go from my dorm to punching in, with a ~10 minute bike ride. Much preferable to working in a dining hall or retail or grading papers or tutoring, for me at least. The only other thing I could ask for would be an easier time getting time off. The only caveat is that I don't really like driving, but given that no space company exists in a small town, driving with significant vehicular and pedestrian traffic is a skill I'll likely need, and I'm being paid to learn it! Right now, it is looking like I will graduate without debt, which is a massive win and a huge source of relief. The 100 grand price tag scared me so much going in, and now it has been chipped away scholarship by scholarship, grant by grant, and bus driving shift by bus driving shift into basically nothing. Now all I have to do is not fail any classes this semester (and, you know, get a job in this economy with a resume that could be significantly better).

Step AWAY from the bus. Your S needs to get to Mars. And not as a bus driver. Gotta pay for the degree somehow! Edit: Been doing this for a year and a half now, I intend to drop it the instant I get an actual space job. Today was just the first time I got to drive the bendy buses (and the electric ones too), I basically got "niche bus" trained today.

Are you sure that number in the figure is the mass and not the maximum mass of payload you can stick into it?