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  1. #2601
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    Thanks.

  2. #2602
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    The day of US astronauts launching on a US rocket instead of hitching a ride on russian Soyuz is drawing near.

    This is a demo flight, but because crew on the ISS is already critically low for lack of vehicles it will stay until the first full crew mission is ready to go. The first crew mission will also be SpaceX.

    In parallel Boeing Starliner will make another unmanned test flight after the first one failed. They will also do a short manned testflight and then if things go right will do the crew flight after the Spacex crew flight ends.

    https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/s...78705633841167

    Teslarati article.

    SpaceX, NASA ready for first astronaut launch from US soil in nearly a decade


    The two astronauts on this flight, training in the capsule


    NASA and SpaceX have confirmed that the private spaceflight company’s historic astronaut launch is officially set to blast off on May 27, marking the return of human spaceflight to U.S. soil for the first time since 2011.


    During the mission, known as Demo-2, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will launch to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This flight will mark the first time astronauts have launched from American soil in nearly a decade, following the retirement of the shuttle program.


    Amy Thompson
    ByAmy ThompsonPosted on April 17, 2020
    NASA and SpaceX have confirmed that the private spaceflight company’s historic astronaut launch is officially set to blast off on May 27, marking the return of human spaceflight to U.S. soil for the first time since 2011.


    During the mission, known as Demo-2, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will launch to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This flight will mark the first time astronauts have launched from American soil in nearly a decade, following the retirement of the shuttle program.


    Space Crew Dragon (Credit: NASA)bob and doug
    It is also the final test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. If all goes as planned, the gumdrop-shaped capsule will carry a crew of four astronauts later this year.


    Liftoff for Demo-2 is set for 4:32 p.m. EDT (2032 GMT) from NASA’s historic launch pad 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida — the same site that hosted NASA’s storied Apollo and shuttle programs.

    Amy Thompson
    ByAmy ThompsonPosted on April 17, 2020
    NASA and SpaceX have confirmed that the private spaceflight company’s historic astronaut launch is officially set to blast off on May 27, marking the return of human spaceflight to U.S. soil for the first time since 2011.


    During the mission, known as Demo-2, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will launch to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This flight will mark the first time astronauts have launched from American soil in nearly a decade, following the retirement of the shuttle program.


    Space Crew Dragon (Credit: NASA)bob and doug
    It is also the final test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. If all goes as planned, the gumdrop-shaped capsule will carry a crew of four astronauts later this year.


    Liftoff for Demo-2 is set for 4:32 p.m. EDT (2032 GMT) from NASA’s historic launch pad 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida — the same site that hosted NASA’s storied Apollo and shuttle programs.

    NASA has not set a specific duration for the mission yet; that will likely be determined once the crew arrives on station. NASA launched a new web page dedicated to the mission, describing it as simply “an extended stay at the space station,” for now.


    Behnken and Hurley will join fellow NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, who launched to the station on April 10. Many of the details are still being ironed out, but we do know that Hurley will be the mission’s commander, and Behnken will serve as joint operations commander. Each will be tasked with specific duties during flight, with Hurley focusing on launch, landing, and recovery. Behnken will handle docking and undocking, as well as any activities while the Dragon is docked with the station.


    Once the crew finishes its mission, Behnken and Hurley will return to Earth, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Florida coast. From there, the capsule will be retrieved by a SpaceX recovery ship.


    SpaceX made history in 2012 by becoming the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Now, that cargo-carrying Dragon has been upgraded to carry a new type of cargo: people.


    To prepare for the historical journey, SpaceX had to prove that the craft was capable and safe to transport astronauts. To that end, the company launched an uncrewed test flight in March 2019. Dubbed Demo-1, that mission was a huge success, with the Crew Dragon capsule performing as expected.


    Earlier this year, in January, SpaceX completed a crucial test of the Falcon and Dragon’s safety system. Known as a launch escape system, the technology is designed to push the capsule to safety in the event something goes wrong during the climb to orbit. Musk and NASA described that launch as “picture-perfect.”

    Amy Thompson
    ByAmy ThompsonPosted on April 17, 2020
    NASA and SpaceX have confirmed that the private spaceflight company’s historic astronaut launch is officially set to blast off on May 27, marking the return of human spaceflight to U.S. soil for the first time since 2011.


    During the mission, known as Demo-2, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will launch to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This flight will mark the first time astronauts have launched from American soil in nearly a decade, following the retirement of the shuttle program.


    Space Crew Dragon (Credit: NASA)bob and doug
    It is also the final test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. If all goes as planned, the gumdrop-shaped capsule will carry a crew of four astronauts later this year.


    Liftoff for Demo-2 is set for 4:32 p.m. EDT (2032 GMT) from NASA’s historic launch pad 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida — the same site that hosted NASA’s storied Apollo and shuttle programs.




    Jim Bridenstine

    @JimBridenstine
    BREAKING: On May 27, @NASA will once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil! With our @SpaceX partners, @Astro_Doug and @AstroBehnken will launch to the @Space_Station on the #CrewDragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Let's #LaunchAmerica ����


    Embedded video
    18.7K
    6:00 PM - Apr 17, 2020
    Twitter Ads info and privacy
    6,819 people are talking about this



    NASA has not set a specific duration for the mission yet; that will likely be determined once the crew arrives on station. NASA launched a new web page dedicated to the mission, describing it as simply “an extended stay at the space station,” for now.


    Behnken and Hurley will join fellow NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, who launched to the station on April 10. Many of the details are still being ironed out, but we do know that Hurley will be the mission’s commander, and Behnken will serve as joint operations commander. Each will be tasked with specific duties during flight, with Hurley focusing on launch, landing, and recovery. Behnken will handle docking and undocking, as well as any activities while the Dragon is docked with the station.


    Once the crew finishes its mission, Behnken and Hurley will return to Earth, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Florida coast. From there, the capsule will be retrieved by a SpaceX recovery ship.




    SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft has won its first real space tourism contract, scheduled to launch perhaps just a year or so from now. (SpaceX/NASA)
    SpaceX made history in 2012 by becoming the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Now, that cargo-carrying Dragon has been upgraded to carry a new type of cargo: people.


    To prepare for the historical journey, SpaceX had to prove that the craft was capable and safe to transport astronauts. To that end, the company launched an uncrewed test flight in March 2019. Dubbed Demo-1, that mission was a huge success, with the Crew Dragon capsule performing as expected.


    Earlier this year, in January, SpaceX completed a crucial test of the Falcon and Dragon’s safety system. Known as a launch escape system, the technology is designed to push the capsule to safety in the event something goes wrong during the climb to orbit. Musk and NASA described that launch as “picture-perfect.”




    Technicians prepare SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Demo-2 spacecraft for its historic launch debut in February 2020. (SpaceX)
    That brief test was the last major hurdle that SpaceX had to complete before it was given the go-ahead to launch the crewed test flight. In the intervening months, the crew, as well as team members in launch control, have been busy running simulations and practicing essential launch day procedures.


    While SpaceX will be the first to launch people, they are not alone in the quest to return human spaceflight to American soil. In 2014, NASA selected SpaceX and Being to design and build spaceships capable of transporting astronauts to and from the space station. Boeing launched its uncrewed test flight in December 2019; however, that flight failed to reach the station because of some issues with the vehicle’s software.


    As such, Boeing has decided to fly a second uncrewed flight before astronauts climb aboard its Starliner spacecraft.











    "don't attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence"

  3. #2603
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    SpaceX launched another Starlink sat mission. This flight achieved a few important milestones.

    One is Falcon 9 has now done a larger number of launches that their US competitor Atlas V. This makes the claim of more experience and service reliablity from ULA no longer valid. Though it is true that there were 2 early failures of Falcon while there were no full failure of Atlas V. But Falcon has continuously improved on capabilities and on reliability. To the point where Falcon is now certified by NASA to fly crew.


    The other is they have now the minimum required number of sats in space they need to get their Starlink Internet constellation operational. It is a total of 420 sats, though a few of them are not operational. It will take another 3-4 months at least to get them all into their operational position to form a constellation that can provide continuous service for the north of the USA and for Canada. To improve the robustness of their constellation SpaceX needs to double the number of their sats in orbit which they plan to achieve this year.

    About 6 months from now they will begin to offer a beta version of their service.

    The Falcon rocket on the pad, ready for its fourth flight. See the soot from previous flights.


    60 Starlink sats shortly after deployment from the rockets second stage.


    The first stage landed after the successful mission.


    They are experiencing bad weather near the landing area. Let's hope they get the stage safely to the port. They have lost one core to bad weather after a successful landing.

  4. #2604
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    Another set of contracts given out by NASA for their Artemis manned lunar landing concept. The plan is to have humans land on the Moon in 2024. Though it is still very doubtful that Congress will provide the funding needed for that timeframe.

    As a reminder. Artemis is the sister of Apollo. The name was chosen because there will be a woman going to the Moon this time.

    Once again the Boeing offer did not even make it to a more detailed evaluation. It was eliminated in the first round.

    This is a contract for the early phase of the project, lasting only 10 months. Based on the merits of the selected projects and available funding from Congress they will select the concept or concepts for more development after the 10 months period.

    The 3 winners are

    Blue Origin with partners Northrup Grumman and Northrup Grumman. Called the "National Team". Got over $500million. Picture on the right.

    Dynetics with Sierra Nevada and a lot of other partners. Got about $250 million. Picture in the middle.

    SpaceX on the left. Got about $130 million.


    A picture of the 3 winning concepts, roughly scaled to size by a forum member, may be slightly off but not by much.



    On the left, a SpaceX Starship variant modified for Artemis. It can not land back on Earth and is painted white for the lunar thermal environment.
    Last edited by Takeovers; 03-05-2020 at 02:20 PM.

  5. #2605
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    Another fan graphic. SpaceX Starship docked with NASA Orion space ship. The concept has both Starship and Orion going into a lunar orbit, docking, the Astronauts transfer into the lander from Orion, land on the moon, come back for docking again and then return to Earth in the Orion capsule.

    Orion will launch on the SLS NASA launch vehicle. One launch will cost no less than $2 billion, likely much more. It is really tiny compared to the Starship lander.


  6. #2606
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    It came as a shocking news that NASA actually chose Starship, even at the low price. NASA does not like it much. Probably selected them because it would just be too embarassing to leave them out and have Spacex doing it on their own.

  7. #2607
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    A few more photos.

    Starship on final landing approach to the Moon. They switch off the main engines and land on smaller thrusters. The main engines may dig out a crater and even throw a lot of dust into space.




    The Dynetics lander



    The Blue Origin lander



    The SpaceX lander. All three landers have astronauts in spacesuits for size comparison.
    Last edited by Takeovers; 03-05-2020 at 03:42 PM.

  8. #2608
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    Elon Musk posted a lovely underskirt photo on twitter. Can't post twitter pictures here directly. Would be great if the forum could work with these.

    If you want to see that shot just click the link.

    https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/...622400/photo/1

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    ^^ Why does the SpaceX lander have to be so big, it's monsterous!

    Twitter pics - right click, save as. Then upload photo from my computer.

    Space News thread-underskirt-photo-jpeg

  10. #2610
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    Takeovers, what was the test that SpaceX did on SN4 yesterday?

  11. #2611
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheRealKW View Post
    Twitter pics - right click, save as. Then upload photo from my computer.
    Thanks. How do you make that big? Has that changed? When I uploaded from my computer they were the tiny preview version.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Topper View Post
    Takeovers, what was the test that SpaceX did on SN4 yesterday?
    They are doing a series of tests.

    First a test with gaseous nitrogen to minimum flight pressure.

    Then a test with loading liquid cold nitrogen, simulating propellant loading. Not as dangerous as real propellant if something fails.

    Then last night they actually loaded liquid oxygen and liquid methane into the tanks. Should probably have ended with a static fire of the Raptor engine but was aborted. Elon Musk said the methane became too warm. Looks like right now they make a second attempt.




    If all goes well and they receive permission from the FAA they will do a short hop with just the one engine. After that SN4 will probably be retired and tests continue with the almost ready SN5, which may have upgraded landing legs and maybe even the movable aero surfaces for a flight to higher altitude. But maybe some of the improvements will be only on SN6, which will probably be ready later this month. They have an incresingly efficient production line going.

  13. #2613
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    Thanks!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Takeovers View Post
    Thanks. How do you make that big? Has that changed? When I uploaded from my computer they were the tiny preview version.
    when you see that little pic, double click on it and a setting box will appear in which you can select small, medium, large or full size.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TheRealKW View Post
    when you see that little pic, double click on it and a setting box will appear in which you can select small, medium, large or full size.
    Thanks I will try that.

    Great, it works.
    Last edited by Takeovers; 04-05-2020 at 10:06 PM.

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    Absolutely agree, I believe the award dollars were based on the each companies individual request for funds. SpaceX wants their vehicle to be a commercial venture, not a NASA project, just like Falcon. They will likely be late, as history has shown, so will all the others.

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    Trump administration drafting 'Artemis Accords' pact for moon mining - sources

    WASHINGTON(Reuters) - The Trump administration is drafting a legal blueprint for mining on the moon under a new U.S.-sponsored international agreement called the Artemis Accords, people familiar with the proposed pact told Reuters.

    The agreement would be the latest effort to cultivate allies around NASA’s plan to put humans and space stations on the moon within the next decade, and comes as the civilian space agency plays a growing role in implementing American foreign policy. The draft pact has not been formally shared with U.S. allies yet.


    The Trump administration and other spacefaring countries see the moon as a key strategic asset in outer space. The moon also has value for long-term scientific research that could enable future missions to Mars - activities that fall under a regime of international space law widely viewed as outdated.


    The Artemis Accords, named after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s new Artemis moon program, propose “safety zones” that would surround future moon bases to prevent damage or interference from rival countries or companies operating in close proximity.


    The pact also aims to provide a framework under international law for companies to own the resources they mine, the sources said.

    MORE Exclusive: Trump administration drafting 'Artemis Accords' pact for moon mining - sources - Reuters

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    I have a new post on the Starship tests in the On to Mars thread, with video.

    SpaceX - On to Mars

    They successfully did a test fire of a Raptor engine. The test objecct SN4 is still standing.

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    Nice to see this, on to SN5 which is just about ready to go....

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    mining on the moon, what possibly could go wrong?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dragonfly View Post
    mining on the moon, what possibly could go wrong?
    It's brilliant, the next step !

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    BTW, the first country to introduce laws regulating space mining, was Luxemburg.

    Probably in an attempt to lure companies for space mining to register there.

  23. #2623
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    The 2020 NASA Mars rover, now named Perseverance, is getting finished for take off in a few months.

    This is the rocket descent stage with the rover installed below it so it can be craned down to the surface.
    Space News thread-preview_mary_rover_1-jpg

    From below with the protective aeroshell on top. The aeroshell has the parachutes for the descent phase before the rocket stage.
    Space News thread-preview_mary_rover_2_0-jpg

  24. #2624
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    China has launched a new type of manned spaceship. No longer looking like the russian Soyuz but much more like the US type capsules. It is designed to not only return from LEO like from the new space station they are planning but also for high speed return coming back from the Moon. To be clear it is a manned capsule design but this is an unmanned test flight.




    After launch the spacecraft performed a number of maneuvers to raise the apogee of its orbit so it will reenter at higher speed than from LEO to test the vehicle under more stress than LEO return. It is expected to land soon.

    There was also a secondary payload with an experimental reentry system. It is a twitter video so only a link, very interesting, I recommend to klick the link. This experiment failed. You could say the Chinese copy everything, a similar test of NASA failed too. But this failure is no indication for any problem with the main payload, the manned capsule.

    https://twitter.com/starmil_admin/st...48486281076736

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    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Space News thread-up071724-jpg   Space News thread-up071725-jpg  

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