Space News thread

[Takeovers]

The moon lander has launched the samples back into orbit. Next is rendezvous with the Earth return stage and landing capsule.

https://twitter.com/LaunchStuff/stat...32444884766720

With a short video sequence of liftoff.

[Saint Willy]

Hayabusa to land in Australia this weekend.

Japanese probe to light up the sky as it lands in outback Australia

Japan is about to bring back samples of an asteroid 180 million miles away | MIT Technology Review

[harrybarracuda]

The moon lander has launched the samples back into orbit. Next is rendezvous with the Earth return stage and landing capsule.

https://twitter.com/LaunchStuff/stat...32444884766720

With a short video sequence of liftoff.

..... From 2013.

[Takeovers]

Hayabusa 2 reentry video.



Helicopters are searching for the landed capsule in the australian outback.

[Takeovers]

Hayabusa capsule recovered. Full mission success.

https://twitter.com/AusSpaceAgency/s...76557947248642

[Takeovers]

The Chinese Moon lander ascent vehicle has docked with the Earth return vehicle and the samples transfered into the landing capsule. It will be a few days until the return window.

[harrybarracuda]

The Chinese Moon lander ascent vehicle has docked with the Earth return vehicle and the samples transfered into the landing capsule. It will be a few days until the return window.

.... because they've got to dig out the landing video from 2013

[Takeovers]

The Chang'e 5 return capsule landing will be tomorrow, Dec. 17.

ESA ground station Maspalomas had contact. All seems good so far.

China has a few stations around the world, they have a tracking ship too. But not enough to track Chang'e 5 continuously.

[Takeovers]

The return capsule has landed.



Infrared, the capsule is still warm. Obvious Soyuz heritage, but much smaller.

[OhOh]

^
Two reports in the Chinese press:
Xi congratulates complete success of Chang'e-5 mission

Xinhua | Updated: 2020-12-17 06:2

Chang'e 5's reentry capsule lands with moon samples - Chinadaily.com.cn

Uncle Xi's finishes with "China's first lunar surface sampling and sealing, first liftoff from the moon, first rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, and first spacecraft carrying samples to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere".

Note, not "manned spacecraft"

Chang'e 5's reentry capsule lands with moon samples

By ZHAO LEI | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2020-12-17 02:15

Chang'e 5's reentry capsule lands with moon samples - Chinadaily.com.cn
The more detailed China National Space Administration repot includes:

"China's most sophisticated and challenging space adventure – the Chang'e 5 robotic lunar mission – ended successfully early Thursday morning with its load of rocks and dust from the moon landing on the grasslands in northern China."

and

"According to the space administration, the Chang'e 5 mission was designated to fulfill several objectives. In terms of space engineering, it should demonstrate and verify technical plans and apparatus for autonomous lunar sampling and packing, moon-based launching as well as lunar orbital docking."

[Takeovers]

A short video of the full mission. Beginning with the launch and ending with the return capsule landing and recovery.

A few comments. The rocket is a chinese development, no more copy of early Soviet designs. It looks very similar to US rockets but US rockets have solid side boosters, similar to ICBMs, which has some disadvantages. Solid boosters introduce a lot of vibration, not good for sensitive probes or for humans. Some safety issues for manned flights too. China uses additional side boosters too, but they have liquid propellant engines, similar to the central main stage. Not as useful for ICBM but better for spaceflight. Moon orbiter and lander are modern chinese developments. The only part of the mission that shows clear Soviet heritage is the Earth return capsule which has an aerodynamic shape similar to Soyuz.

But their new coming manned capsule has a much more modern aerodynamic shape, a fully chinese development.

[Saint Willy]

Great video, thanks for posting. So the oribtoer, lander and ascender are now moon junk, or do they have other missions or tasks to perform?

[Takeovers]

They have crashed the ascender on the Moon, which is good practice compared to leaving it in Moon orbit. The orbiter is the return vehicle that pushed the lander back to Earth. So, being on the same trajectory as the return capsule it must have burned up in the Earth atmosphere. The lander is still on the Moon. I don't know if it still has any function, don't think so.

[harrybarracuda]

A short video of the full mission. Beginning with the launch and ending with the return capsule landing and recovery.

A few comments. The rocket is a chinese development, no more copy of early Soviet designs. It looks very similar to US rockets but US rockets have solid side boosters, similar to ICBMs, which has some disadvantages. Solid boosters introduce a lot of vibration, not good for sensitive probes or for humans. Some safety issues for manned flights too. China uses additional side boosters too, but they have liquid propellant engines, similar to the central main stage. Not as useful for ICBM but better for spaceflight. Moon orbiter and lander are modern chinese developments. The only part of the mission that shows clear Soviet heritage is the Earth return capsule which has an aerodynamic shape similar to Soyuz.

But their new coming manned capsule has a much more modern aerodynamic shape, a fully chinese development.

0:49 clearly a digital simulation, and video from their old missions.

That is why they cut the live feed.

All fake, like the rest of the shit the chinkies knock out.

[Takeovers]

All fake, like the rest of the shit the chinkies knock out.

Is this just trolling or are you serious? That's on the level of the ancient moon hoax conspiracy theories. A lot of nations today and even a lot of private amateurs have the means of tracking the mission. I posted that ESA tracked the return capsule.

[OhOh]

A short video of the full mission

An improvement on their usual videos. Good mix of simulation and real images, pity no human/lander shots to illustrate it's size.

The successful lander/orbiting return craft mating, looked a bit "heavy".

Are the launch rocket engines Chinese design, not Russian?

Thanks.

[harrybarracuda]

Is this just trolling or are you serious? That's on the level of the ancient moon hoax conspiracy theories. A lot of nations today and even a lot of private amateurs have the means of tracking the mission. I posted that ESA tracked the return capsule.

That doesn't mean it landed. The whole thing was faked, they couldn't work out how to land it, that's why they didn't show the landing.

They just sent the thing orbiting around the moon, sent it back and they'll present some convincing-looking dust and rocks from Outer Mongolia as evidence.

[Takeovers]

That doesn't mean it landed. The whole thing was faked, they couldn't work out how to land it, that's why they didn't show the landing.

They just sent the thing orbiting around the moon, sent it back and they'll present some convincing-looking dust and rocks from Outer Mongolia as evidence.

They have landed before. Lots of data received from landers and rovers, even by amateurs.

They will make samples available to foreign scientists. Fakes would be detected quickly.

[TheMadBaron]

They just sent the thing orbiting around the moon, sent it back and they'll present some convincing-looking dust and rocks from Outer Mongolia as evidence.

Outer Mongolia isn't a thing anymore. It's called Mongolia now.

[harrybarracuda]

Outer Mongolia isn't a thing anymore. It's called Mongolia now.

The outer part of Mongolia then. Who gives a fuck?

[TheMadBaron]

The outer part of Mongolia then. Who gives a fuck?

Me. I'm a dreadful pedant.

[David48atTD]

The great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, the first of its kind in 400 years

Jupiter and Saturn have been close all week as seen here, but soon they will be in a very rare conjunction.(Supplied: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

In a rare spectacle, Jupiter and Saturn will have one of their closest alignments on Monday — so close that a pinkie finger at arm's length will easily cover both planets in the sky.

Key points:

• The two planets won't appear this close to each other again until 2080
• Jupiter and Saturn will appear in the evening twilight about half an hour after sunset
• They will only be visible for an hour before disappearing below the western horizon

The great conjunction of the planets, appearing on the evening of December 21, is mistakenly called the Christmas Star.


When and where to look

This is what you could see through a telescope: Jupiter, Saturn and moons from Sydney at 9:00pm (AEDT) on December 21.(Stellarium/Genelle Weule)

Here

[Latindancer]

I bet Looper uses this conjunction and having a telescope as an excuse to lure some young Asian girl into his den, to have his evil way with her.

[harrybarracuda]

So when does the US Ambassador to London start slaughtering newborn boys? I knew that bloke was a wrong 'un.

[Latindancer]

What ?

Are you referring to astrology ?