SunlitZelkova

The Shuttle main tank was a first stage though. Updating an old system costs money, and it is usually easier just to go develop a new one. But an old system is never just thrown away, especially if there is a demand for it. An example is the Space Shuttle. NASA could have updated it to have some sort of launch escape system post-Challenger but did not, and continued to fly it after Columbia despite the major design flaws because it was necessary for building the ISS. It did not make sense to update the design despite the risk posed to astronauts, it made more sense to fund Orion and then Commercial Crew.

The rockets that are doing these things largely date from the 1980s or 1990s. The Long March 2D mentioned in the article you posted had its first flight in 1992. I tried to look up when controlled reentry of stages became a thing but couldn’t find it. In any case, due to the economic situation in China at the time the designers main focus was probably getting to orbit, not getting down. Getting down would require extra funding, funding that probably did not exist. If several proposals for crewed spaceflight like Project 863 were shelved due to financial reasons in the late 80s, I can imagine booster development had its fair share of denied projects too. It would be nice if they could have done that it the late 80s and early 90s, but that hard reality is that they probably could not have. To give an idea of the Aerospace industry’s state, even today it is still a country that operates license built MiG-21s, despite having stealth fighters and the like. Right now there is a mix of old and new, but hopefully as the old goes away things will get better. Unlike in the 80s, space now has a huge priority, so I’m sure that newer rockets like the LM-7 and LM-8 will have booster deorbit soon enough. The presence of the parachute recovery system on the LM-4’s boosters is a good sign that their designers do have some regard for where debris goes. It’s just a matter of how long it takes them to retire the old ones.

Interesting. The US would either have to trade off the “next man” or “first woman” accomplishments if that’s the case. Current PR suggests both are supposed to be Americans. This would change if they decide to use Starship HLS’s full capacity and land all four astronauts on the Moon.

For such an innovative company to get Glenn’s pad is the most awesome thing ever.

This was my guess

Note this is the same newspaper that said with absolute certainty that the J-20 was chosen as China’s carrier based stealth fighter (for those that don’t know, the FC-31/J-31/J-35 ended up actually being chosen).

I’m excited for the excellent looking surfaces of the planets, new effects like dust rising upon landing, and everything else that will create an immersive experience!

My first interstellar craft will be called Outbound Flight in honor of the Star Wars Legends story surrounding it.

Before KSP2 launches, I thought I would make a small tribute to the original game by putting together a small craft and taking pictures. Thank you KSP and the dev team for 2 and a half years of fun and memories! Whether you plan to move on to KSP2 or not, feel free to share your thanks for the game and its devs below. P.S. This is intended as a tribute post rather than a focus on the craft, so I put it here, but it can obviously be moved if it belongs better in the Spacecraft Exchange.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230218_04/ First stage anomaly and thus no booster ignition. They are going to retry in March.

Hovering is certainly a euphemism. It probably actually flew in racetrack pattern over the state. I suggest taking a hot air balloon ride if you are interested in how balloons can control their speed and direction.

[snip] I don’t think this applies to any certain *system* tries to stay on topic, it is just a feature of bureaucracy everywhere. Space Shuttle is to American aerospace bureaucracy as spy balloon is to Chinese intelligence bureaucracy.

This became Thread of the Month (TOTM) apparently.

Russian segment is only funded until 2024, ESA and NASA have received an okay to continue until 2030, nothing has been done on JAXA’s part but presumably they will continue until 2030 too. Nauka is supposed to become part of the ROSS (Russian ISS replacement). For NASA, probably ESA, and presumably JAXA, commercial space stations will replace it. The original idea was to use a modified Progress spacecraft to push it out of orbit. It’s unclear what is going to happen with that though.

*that news* makes me wonder why the USSR did not make any efforts towards reconnaissance aircraft capable of reaching the US (apart from the obvious elephant in the 1950s CPSU meeting room of satellites). Tsybin RSR has been called a Blackbird counterpart but it’s range made it only useful in Europe, likewise I think the Beriev S-13 did not have any provision for refueling that would allow it to reach the US. I haven’t heard of any balloon projects. SAMs made aircraft unattractive, but in the early 50s, when U-2 development began, that wasn’t clear. How come there was no similar effort in the USSR until later?

In Japanese- https://www.jaxa.jp/press/2023/01/20230126-1_j.html H3 first launch is now scheduled for February 13th JST.

I was thinking this might be the designation

Gemini derived Mars lander http://www.astronautix.com/b/bygeminitomars.html This mission is interesting as it uses a ballistic descent at a time when most proposals made use of gliders, meaning it is one of the few crewed Mars mission proposals that remained viable after Mariner IV's discovery of how thin the atmosphere actually is there. For some reason, despite the proposal using a ballistic descent, the illustrations they included used wings. Assuming the lander would have been similar in configuration but without the wings, it gives off Starship vibes given how elongated it would be, IMO. It would have spent only five days on the surface, with two crew landing and two remaining in orbit. There is no Earth return capsule, it was planned to propulsively brake into Earth orbit and presumably be picked up by a shuttle (perhaps Big Gemini if this proposal had gone through ). Given the lander is mounted on the front of the craft, the landing astronauts would likely need to spacewalk to their lander, N1-L3 style. It is propelled by a single NTR. It would use a series of drop tanks, with the number of tanks differing depending on the required amount of fuel stipulated by the chosen launch window. Inspired by this proposal, I intend to create a working (if absurd) Gemini derived Callisto expedition proposal, and perhaps even greater proposals. This proposal also makes me wonder if there is a Vostok derived Mars mission hiding somewhere in the RSC Energia archives...

Does Tianhe only have those ion engines for experimental purposes, or are they actually the main orbital adjustment system?

What sorts of concepts was ULA toying with in 2009-2011? For a fictional world I'm working on, I am trying to use proposals from the era just after Constellation got cancelled, and there are no tensions so the reason for Vulcan existing in the way it does isn't a thing. I'm looking for something with a payload to LTO of 11,000 kg or so. Wikipedia says "ULA looked at numerous proposals to replace Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy since the company's founding in 2006" but I have no idea where to find them. If possible, I'm trying to find the proposal they thought they might go with at the time, or a main series of proposals, rather than radical concepts.

@steve9728 Thank you for the translations! This has been an amazing source of info!

None? In relation to finding inspiration for science fiction (say that ten times fast), I read The Invisible College by Jacques Vallée recently. Regardless of his reliability (which I am not going to comment on as I don’t feel comfortable fully trusting someone so “onboard” with UFO research- and at the time even psychic phenomena), he makes some interesting observations in it. In the “more reputable” reports (not someone with a blurry photo going to The National Enquirer, groups of military professionals seeing odd things) the occurrences are bizarre at times or seem unbelievable. He theorizes that even if something is worthy of research, people will be less inclined to study it if it is totally unfamiliar to them, vs. something familiar. So a new weather phenomena is more “digestible” than a glowing oval that zigzags over the farm and disappears into thin air. I don’t agree with what he writes, but it is an interesting thought.

You fill in the left eye when you set a goal, and fill in the right one when it is complete.

Second test of the solid fuel launch vehicle. It was visible across Korea and Japan, and reportedly caused widespread UFO reporting in both countries. https://m-en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20221230008753325?section=national/defense