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Space Launch Megathread

iamwearingpants

By iamwearingpants
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Kryten

Kryten

Posted
Posted

Well, we\'re moving into a quiet period now; next scheduled launch isn\'t till the 13th, and it\'s a pegasus launch, which I don\'t think are streamed. After that, it\'s a Chinese launch, Shenzou 9, on the 15th; it\'s an important one (first crewed visit to Tiangong), so we can at least expect that to be broadcast, probably on CCTV.

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VincentMcConnell

VincentMcConnell

Posted
Posted

After that, it\'s a Chinese launch, Shenzou 9, on the 15th; it\'s an important one (first crewed visit to Tiangong), so we can at least expect that to be broadcast...

Yeah. I\'m sure that will be real. I can\'t wait to see the Chinese model rocket go off and then pretend there are people inside lol.

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Endeavour

Endeavour

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Yeah. I\'m sure that will be real. I can\'t wait to see the Chinese model rocket go off and then pretend there are people inside lol.

Are the Chinese as bad as the North Koreans? Or will they get their Taikonauts into space?

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Agamemnon

Agamemnon

Posted
Posted

will be real, they launched taikonauts successfully before... they even managed automatic docking before (something which has been successfully performed so far only by russia, esa and china, afaik)

just a few numbers - statistics for the last few years:

2010 - china launched 15 rockets, all successful... to compare... russia had cca 30 launches with 1 failure, the us had cca 10 launches - all successful...

2011 - china launched 19 rockets, 1 failure... russia had cca 35 launches with 4 failures... the us had cca 15 launches, with 1 failure...

2012, so far - china had 9 launches, russia 10 and the us had 5 launches... all successful...

esa launches every year about 6-7 rockets... ariane\'s last failure was in 2002...

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Kreuzung

Kreuzung

Posted
Posted

esa launches every year about 6-7 rockets... their last failure was in 2002...

This looks somewhat odd with all the european bureaucracy doesn\'t it? I mean, they didn\'t get the A380 cables to connect right... And their spacecraft is also built by EADS.

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Agamemnon

Agamemnon

Posted
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not the same subsidiary of eads... :)

afaik: ariane 5 currently has the lowest insurance prices for the payload (because of the reliability/launch record, i guess) and launches half of all world commercial gto satellites...

but... ariane 5 had its share of problems in the beginning... i guess similar to a380... and it/she (?) overcame them all and now is one of the most successful launcher...

btw... bureaucracy is not just european thing... works all over the world... we just see european\'s more and the rest less as we live in europe...

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deadshot462

deadshot462

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I\'m surprised there was no one on the plan to observe the rocket as it flied away, but it probably went so fast it disappeared from view in seconds.

Amazing how achieving orbit went from a monumental task in the 50\'s to just launching a rocket from a regular airliner.

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Agamemnon

Agamemnon

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Amazing how achieving orbit went from a monumental task in the 50\'s to just launching a rocket from a regular airliner.

except pegasus is a one of a kind launcher and the only one launched from a 'regular airliner' (which the aircraft is not, but good enough for the merit of the discussion)

otoh, i agree launching a rocket is a little bit easier now, because we understand it much better... but still a really difficult task with a lot of things possibly going wrong

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Agamemnon

Agamemnon

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So when was the last failure other than North Korea?

(SpaceX doesn\'t count.)

23. dec 2011 - soyuz 2-1b with a russian govt sat...

so far, spacex does not fly enough to influence this statistic... :) if we don\'t count the may\'s launch, the last spacex launch was in dec 2010 :)

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Endeavour

Endeavour

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23. dec 2011 - soyuz 2-1b with a russian govt sat...

so far, spacex does not fly enough to influence this statistic... :) if we don\'t count the may\'s launch, the last spacex launch was in dec 2010 :)

Thanks. And I said SpaceX because I knew somebody would claim the launch abort was failure.

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