Blue Origin Thread (merged)

[tater]

 

 

[Lukaszenko]

I don't understand, is the webcast starting in 1 minute or is the rocket already taking off?? 

[Streetwind]

1 hour ago, Scotius said:

Guys, recently i've read a news\gossip in Polish press that the contract between NASA and Roscosmos for the transport of astronauts to ISS ends in 2018, and the Russians declared they will not prolong it or sign another. Anyone heard anything about it? Because the source that published it isn't the most professional when it comes to serious science or high-tech stuff. If it's true, it would be big for SpaceX, since they're closest to fielding crew-rated capsule before the current contract deadline.

Well, NASA bought seats for all the non-Russian crew members that will fly until the end of 2018 (source). So unless that contract reserves the right for NASA to cancel at their leisure (I haven't read it that closely), no Commercial Crew vehicles will transport crew before 2019. By then, both SpaceX and Boeing will be ready.

Besides, just because Boeing is the only one who publicly admitted to schedule slippage, it doesn't mean SpaceX is doing much better. There are persistent rumors that Dragon V2 may slip by as much as a year. Of course, those are indeed rumors; we should probably consider them hearsay until more information comes up. But the point I'm trying to make is: this is a difficult and complex task, and the program was massively underfunded every single year of its existance before this one. And while Boeing has done this kind of thing multiple times before, SpaceX hasn't. So just as you should take the rumors with a grain of salt, you should also take SpaceX's silence on the topic with a grain of salt.

After all, Falcon Heavy was supposed to launch in early 2013...

[PB666]

2 minutes ago, Lukaszenko said:

I don't understand, is the webcast starting in 1 minute or is the rocket already taking off?? 

"LIve stream is starting soon". I still have some fingers left before I hit knuckle. Need to see boom-boom.

[Arcturusvfx]

hold

 

[tater]

The hosted webcast is giving the same message

 

[Streetwind]

Countdown has been on hold for a while now:

But they have plenty of time in this window.

 

Sadly, it will mean I will miss the launch, because I have work tomorrow and require sleep.

[Cuky]

does that mean that they are targeting lift off at around 2AM UTC+2 ?

[winged]

On 25.05.2016 at 6:16 PM, Spaceception said:

I was on the Falcon heavy page on SpaceX's website, and here's what I saw

Payload to Pluto

2,900kg, 6,390 lb

Weight of New Horizons;

478 kilograms (1,054 pounds)

 

That means SpaceX could launch 6 New Horizons to Pluto!! A Pluto orbiter someday?

Atlas V 551 is capable of sending 1500kg  - 2000kg or so towards Pluto. That means Atlas V 551 could launch 3 new Horizons or more to Pluto - using Jupiter gravity assist.

[Robotengineer]

Do we know what they are waiting on?

[sevenperforce]

1 minute ago, Robotengineer said:

Do we know what they are waiting on?

Rumor was of a boost in the range, but now there is talk of propellant loading issues. Could be the boat made the pause the prop loading, resulting in a temperature spike and a need to rechill. 

If they load all the propellant and then have to hold, dumping and rechilling the entire load might take too long.

[Robotengineer]

Just now, sevenperforce said:

Rumor was of a boost in the range, but now there is talk of propellant loading issues. Could be the boat made the pause the prop loading, resulting in a temperature spike and a need to rechill. 

If they load all the propellant and then have to hold, dumping and rechilling the entire load might take too long.

Okay, thanks.

[Robotengineer]

Scrubbed for tonight. Try again tomorrow.

[Delta_8930]

Awww

[Spaceception]

1 hour ago, Delta_8930 said:

Awww

You and me both

[StrandedonEarth]

And how do I embed tweets here?

Elon has tweeted:  "There was a tiny glitch in the motion of an upper stage engine actuator. Probably not a flight risk, but still worth investigating."

Edited May 27, 2016 by StrandedonEarth

[Robotengineer]

57 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

And how do I embed tweets here?

Elon has tweeted:  "There was a tiny glitch in the motion of an upper stage engine actuator. Probably not a flight risk, but still worth investigating."

Edit: Just copy paste the tweet's URL.

Edited May 27, 2016 by Robotengineer

[Streetwind]

4 hours ago, Robotengineer said:

Edit: Just copy paste the tweet's URL.

Adding to that: you can easily get the tweet's URL from rightclicking the timestamp and copying the address from the resulting menu.

[PB666]

http://phys.org/news/2016-05-spacex-postpones-rocket-tiny-glitch.html

 

[insert_name]

So what time is the launch?

[tater]

The next BO flight will intentionally use a faulty parachute.

http://spacenews.com/blue-origin-preparing-to-land-new-shepard-with-a-bum-parachute-next-time/

“On this upcoming mission we also plan to stress the crew capsule by landing with an intentionally failed parachute, demonstrating our ability to safely handle that failure scenario,” Bezos said in an email update.  “It promises to be an exciting demonstration.”

[tater]

40 minutes ago, insert_name said:

So what time is the launch?

No earlier than 5:39pm ET. Think it has the same 2 hour window.

[Robotengineer]

So are they just lithobraking or do they have retro-rockets? I've seen both reported.

[tater]

They will have intentionally screwed up parachutes... how I don't know. Poorly packed, and a secondaries test? Maybe just a streamer (chute intentionally sewed together or something)? The BO capsule has retrorockets, so presumably those would fire regardless, slightly mitigating the impact (unless they have something up their sleeves we don't know about).

[Nibb31]

It nominally lands on 3 main parachutes, so I guess the idea is either to land on 2 chutes (and see how it goes) or to pop a backup chute.

Edited May 27, 2016 by Nibb31