Frida Space

First light for TGO's CASSIS hi-res camera! www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/First_light_for_ExoMars

And now they signed an agreement with ULA to launch a B330 module in LEO (SpaceX didn't have big enough fairings to accomodate for the size of the module). I'm wondering who's going to pay for it -- it seems like Bigelow is silently hoping NASA will (partially) fund it. spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/11/atlas-5-to-launch-commercial-space-habitat-for-bigelow-aerospace/

I'm not really sure what to make of this. All of your questions have been answered several times already in the posts above. Pluto is not a planet again, Planet Nine is still a hypothetical planet (just like Uranus and Vulcan were before being respectively confirmed and denied), the Sun's Hill sphere extends far beyond Planet Nine's computed orbit, hence why it orbits the sun.

...aaand she's back. www.nasa.gov/feature/mission-manager-update-kepler-recovered-from-emergency-and-stable

Each of what? Pluto is 100% a dwarf planet.

There are several problems with what you say. Some have already been posted, but here's my take on them: 1) Pluto is not a planet again. Just because we've discovered it's a beautiful, complex and maybe even dynamic world doesn't mean it gets its planet-status yet. And even before the flyby, no one thought it would get back its title just because we now know what it looks like up close. The current definition states, amongst other things, that a planet must have cleared it's orbit. While its not 100% unambiguous (see Trojan asteroids or orbit-crossing NEOs etc), I find it fair enough that Pluto isn't a planet anymore -- there are so many other similar bodies out there. I love Pluto, but no, it's not "basically a planet again", and I'm not sure where you read that. 2) "Planet Nine" has only been theorized up to now. Scientists have found tantalizing evidence of its gravitational perturbations amongst the TNO population. However, we haven't managed to see it so far, and it may very well not exist. A similar thing happened with Neptune: astronomers first calculated its existence and position via its perturbation on Uranus, and later on actually observed it. But the opposite story happened with Vulcan, a planet which astronomers hypothesized to explain Mercury's perihelion precession. However, it was later found no such planet existed, and a guy called Einstein explained the weird stuff going on with Mercury's orbit. So, historically, such claims can go either way: either the planet actually gets discovered, or we just find out something totally different was responsible for what we were observing. 3) The Sun's Hill sphere extends far beyond "Planet Nine" (if it even exists). According to calculations, Planet Nine would be some 665 AU from the Sun. The Oort Cloud, for instance, extends up to 200 000 AU from our star. The comets in the Oort cloud are somewhat loosely bound to the Sun, but even at those incredible distances (some 300 times further away than Planet Nine) the Sun's influence is still greater than any other star's. I hope what I said is useful

Oh, everything's clear now. Cheers!

Oh ok, thank you for the clarification. However some sources say a two-staged Rohini, others a one-stage S9/PSLV. I'm guessing the latter?

Yes, it's going to happen pretty soon although it has been postponed from over a year ago

Do you mean you want a link to an article with this news? I've already put five sources in the post right above yours.

Choose one The Times of India SpaceFlightInsider New Indian Express Indian Express The Hindu Unfortunately the New Indian Express says the launch vehicle will be a PSLV. So now, after S9 and Rohini, we have a third potential launch vehicle Plus, some of these sources say Avatar is going to be a two-stage to orbit rather than an SSTO. However, I believe anything about Avatar at this moment in time is just pure speculation. It might as well become an aircraft carrier by the time we see it.

Elon: reusability gives 100-fold reduction in marginal costs (not fixed costs, obviously).

Same problem here Elon: "We could fly the same booster 10-20 times. With minor refurbishment, probably 100 times". Well then...

Today's barge pitch roll was 2-3 degrees. Maximum withstandable by the rocket is probably double or triple that, according ot Elon. But there's also translation, not only rotation. The barge today could keep position with a precision of <1 metre. Rocket is being secured, the crew is welding it down with steel shoes. Heavy winds are expected.

Asked whether it's going to be a test flight or a flight with a paying costumer, Elon said he thinks the latter, but still has to discuss with the clients.

Yea, nevermind what I said Elon just said the rocket is going to get back in port on Sunday, fire it ten times and launch it in May-June!!

*redacted*

Absolutely, it's actually quite smart to let the viewers decide. Those hosted webcasts were one of the few things I didn't enjoy about SpaceX...

It's cool that they have both a technical and a "popular"/hosted webcast.

Over the last two hours, ground winds (only meteorological concern so far) have increased from 10 to 18-20 knots.

Of course also because, being in the trunk, BEAM would be lost in the event of a launch failure

Well, the plan is to make it an orbital vehicle, so once it reaches orbit, it can land basically anywhere along the orbit's inclination. The Space Shuttle launched from Cape Canaveral and landed back at Cape Canaveral. I hope I understood your question

Oops, I must have missed that. I had heard Elon Musk saying he might implement that feature, but I didn't know they had approved it yet. Either way, this is going to be the first flight featuring the abort procedure.

India could launch as soon as May its first prototype of a reusable spaceplane. The program, known as RLV-TD (Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstration), was announced four years ago and consists of four flights to test powered hypersonic flight, autonomous landing and atmospheric reentry. The program will set the foundations for the Avatar program, a full-scale unmanned SSTO (single stage to orbit). Avatar could fly as soon as 2025, depending on the timescale of the technology demonstration program. The first flight (HEX, or Hypersonic Flight Experiment) will feature a 1.5 ton RLV. Liftoff is set from the Satish Dhawan space centre on the island of Sriharikota. The launch vehicle will be a one-stage S-9, basically a solid rocket booster that will propell the spaceplane up to Mach 5.9. The spaceplane will separate from the launch vehicle (which will be lost upon reentry) and coast up to 70 km on a suborbital trajectory. Immediately after, it will start reentering. Its scramjet motor will guide it to a landing in the Bay of Bengal. In the near future, a landing strip capable of accomodating vehicles returning from orbital or suborbital flights will be built in the Satish Dhawan space centre. The images appear to be very similar to Europe's IXV which flew last year on top of a Vega rocket. Well then, good luck to India! Looking forward to following this mission.

Interesting. Do you recall the mishap in June and everyone saying "is that thing coming off the rocket actually Dragon? could it have landed on parachutes?" Well, now it (maybe) can. Starting from tonight, SpaceX will use a code that introduces an abort function which will allow Dragon to deploy its parachutes in case something goes horribly wrong. http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/07/spacex-adds-abort-function-for-dragon-cargo-flights/