totm nov 2023 SpaceX Discussion Thread

[tater]

 

twitter cuts off the pic:

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by tater

[Minmus Taster]

1 minute ago, tater said:

 

twitter cuts off the pic:

 

Is that a record?

[cubinator]

11 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Dang, missed it because I was out buying bigger hockey gear for my son. Love the mascot!

 

I loved seeing that face from her!

1 minute ago, Minmus Taster said:

Is that a record?

For orbit, yes!

[tater]

McArthur has a PhD

Edited September 16, 2021 by tater

[Guest The Doodling Astronaut]

2 minutes ago, cubinator said:

For orbit, yes!

Just wait in 3-10 years when they will be launching 20-100 people.

[mikegarrison]

12 minutes ago, Minmus Taster said:

Is that a record?

Sort of?

When the Virgin Galactic flight was happening there were 16 people in space -- depending on your definition of space. When the New Shepard flight went up, there were 14 people in space.

But this is the most people that have been in orbit all at one time.

Edited September 16, 2021 by mikegarrison

[tater]

Yeah, suborbital doesn't really count for me, but records are all about parsing, so definitely needs "in orbit" appended.

[Lewie]

43 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Dang, missed it because I was out buying bigger hockey gear for my son. Love the mascot!

 

Is she laughing or screaming? I can’t tell lol

anywhos, I missed the launch happy to see t went off without a hitch!!

[CatastrophicFailure]

14 minutes ago, Lewie said:

Is she laughing or screaming?

Yes. 

[Ultimate Steve]

 

 

 

 

[tater]

^wins the internet for today

[Spaceception]

41 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

 

 

 

 

[tater]

 

[mikegarrison]

Non-lunar altitude record is still Gemini XI, which hit 1369 km. But 585 is higher than most astronauts have ever gone.

[Beccab]

12 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

Non-lunar altitude record is still Gemini XI, which hit 1369 km. But 585 is higher than most astronauts have ever gone.

Yep, this is higher since STS-31 I think which happened in 1990. The Gemini XI mission would only be overcome by the Space Adventures dragon flight next year, what's interesting is that at that altitude you're getting close to the van Allen belts so there will be an actual maximum altitude that will be unlikely to be overcome by an earth orbit mission

[mikegarrison]

6 minutes ago, Beccab said:

Yep, this is higher since STS-31 I think which happened in 1990. The Gemini XI mission would only be overcome by the Space Adventures dragon flight next year, what's interesting is that at that altitude you're getting close to the van Allen belts so there will be an actual maximum altitude that will be unlikely to be overcome by an earth orbit mission

The belts come all the way down to the upper atmosphere in the South Atlantic Anomaly, so it's not like nobody ever interpenetrates them. The ISS flies through that routinely.

[Beccab]

 

[SOXBLOX]

Wow, they're way up there. Cool!

[tater]

1 minute ago, SOXBLOX said:

Wow, they're way up there. Cool!

Wide angle lens.

 

[tater]

STS-82 image of Hubble:

Definitionally the view from above a sphere of a sphere is going to have a circular horizon, it's just at what point as humans we subjectively decide we're sufficiently high to see "all" of the Earth—even though that's not actually a thing, measuring at a tangent to the Earth's limb, you get increasing % of the half facing you. At 585km I think they're seeing ~4% of the Earth's area at a time.

(max approaching 50% of the Earth's surface as you approach infinite distance above Earth)

[SOXBLOX]

26 minutes ago, tater said:

Wide angle lens.

I figured it was like a fisheye or something. But they're still pretty high up...

[kerbiloid]

As there is no crew onboard, only passengers, should they add a new spaceflight category between the "crewed" and "uncrewed", the  "passengered"?

[RyanRising]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

As there is no crew onboard, only passengers, should they add a new spaceflight category between the "crewed" and "uncrewed", the  "passengered"?

I think these people count as the crew. “Crewed spaceflight” doesn’t mean “spaceflight with people vital to its function on board,” it means “spaceflight with people on board.”

Edited September 16, 2021 by RyanRising

[mikegarrison]

2 hours ago, tater said:

STS-82 image of Hubble:

Definitionally the view from above a sphere of a sphere is going to have a circular horizon, it's just at what point as humans we subjectively decide we're sufficiently high to see "all" of the Earth—even though that's not actually a thing, measuring at a tangent to the Earth's limb, you get increasing % of the half facing you. At 585km I think they're seeing ~4% of the Earth's area at a time.

(max approaching 50% of the Earth's surface as you approach infinite distance above Earth)

Yeah, people don't grasp that you have to go really far away (like, Moon far) to see the "whole" hemisphere. Otherwise you still have a horizon you can't see over. Just like when you go up high in a building you can see a little farther over the ground horizon, but you still have a horizon.

[RealKerbal3x]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

As there is no crew onboard, only passengers, should they add a new spaceflight category between the "crewed" and "uncrewed", the  "passengered"?

 

10 minutes ago, RyanRising said:

I think these people count as the crew. “Crewed spaceflight” doesn’t mean “spaceflight with people vital to its function on board,” it means “spaceflight with people on board.”

Also, the Inspiration 4 crew isn't just along for the ride, they're trained to intervene and safely return the spacecraft to Earth manually should something go wrong. Dragon does so much autonomously that they shouldn't need to, but nevertheless they need to know what to do in an emergency.