Space News thread

[Takeovers]

no sources

There are no single sources. There are as many as there were incidents. I read space websites and space related news sites all the time.

For sources:

Google Proton failure

Google Briz-m failure

Those upper stages failed repeatedly and they never bothered to get to the reasons. After failing at a launch for ESA they were forced to to investigate more deeply and found a very damning fault in the production line. Hopefully their successrate will now get better. Instead of blaming US-radar like in their Phobos Grunt mission.

Google Sea Launch.

They are going out of business after several launch failures. The com sat providers no longer trust them and did not place orders.

Russian space organizations are in the middle of a major shakedown and reorganization. Heads are rolling as we speak. Fortunately at this time not literally though.

[Bettyboo]

Nice artist's images; the reality is kinda 'Milton Keynes' though...





Looks like a secondhand apple bin storage facility...

[Markus]

no sources

There are no single sources. There are as many as there were incidents. I read space websites and space related news sites all the time.

For sources:

Google Proton failure

Google Briz-m failure

Those upper stages failed repeatedly and they never bothered to get to the reasons. After failing at a launch for ESA they were forced to to investigate more deeply and found a very damning fault in the production line. Hopefully their successrate will now get better. Instead of blaming US-radar like in their Phobos Grunt mission.

Google Sea Launch.

They are going out of business after several launch failures. The com sat providers no longer trust them and did not place orders.

Russian space organizations are in the middle of a major shakedown and reorganization. Heads are rolling as we speak. Fortunately at this time not literally though.

I'm not googling a thing. If you wanted to be something more then just a SpaceX fanboy in this thread, you would post your claims yourself

Roscosmos is on a whole other level. Part of the deal with the turn key setup that they sold to the Euopeans is that they get to use that facility. Which is close to the equator , which makes it ideal for certain launches.

[BaitongBoy]

I'm not googling a thing

Fair enough...Up to you...I'm interested in SpaceX...And Takeovers has an excellent thread here...

Good to hear your opinion, though...

[Takeovers]

DISCOVR has launched on wednesday. Unfortunately the weather in the landing region was severe so the barge could not hold its position. The stage did a precision landing despite the wind conditions, within 10m of the target. But into the sea, so it is lost.

A photo of the flight from a commercial airliner shot by a passenger. This shot could easily be in the amazing photos thread. You can see the second stage accelerating. The two fairing halfs dropped and falling away. The dimmer spot lower is the first stage after stage separation on its way to landing.

Edit: On second thought those two spots may not be the fairings. The color may indicate it is just reflections in the plane window. There were other photos with the fairing.

I have never seen anything like it. That is why I post it despite it being huge.

[Luigi]

Not exactly news, but deserving of being posted for those becoming interested in such things.

The Habitable Zone of our Solar System, and what it may hold.

[BaitongBoy]

I have never seen anything like it

That is wild...What a pic...Thanks for the play-by-play...

[Necron99]

Bet they shat themselves MH17 style initially....

[thailazer]

Some great photos here of the early days when steely eyed missile men ruled ....

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/sc...1419773522000#

[Takeovers]

Mission DAWN

https://teakdoor.com/the-teakdoor-lou...ml#post2947171 (Space News thread)

See this post for earlier information on the mission.

DAWN is now closing in on Ceres. Some beautiful and very detailed photos.





This coming monday will be a NASA press conference about the mission.

JPL | News | NASA Briefing to Discuss First Spacecraft Arrival at a Dwarf Planet

On the 6th of march DAWN will enter an orbit around Ceres and remain there for the rest of its life researching Ceres.

Those white spots raise the curiosity of the researchers. They expect it to be water ice laid free by recent impacts of smaller asteroids.

[Latindancer]

A black hole 12 billion times as massive as the sun has been found in a glowing quasar that existed when the universe was just a fraction of its current age, scientists said.


https://au.news.yahoo.com/technology...arly-universe/

[Cujo]

If the universe started with a 'big bang' and is expanding outward as many scientists believe, I wonder where ground zero is and what's there.

[Takeovers]

If the universe started with a 'big bang' and is expanding outward as many scientists believe, I wonder where ground zero is and what's there.

It is hard to grasp but there is no such place in the universe. The whole universe is that place.

[thailazer]

Building a rain gauge.....

[Jesus Jones]

ooops. posted already

[Necron99]

Biggest aircraft in history begins construction




It will be powered by six 747-class engines during first flight in 2016

Will deliver satellites weighing up to about 13,500lbs (6,124 kg) into orbits between 112 miles and 1,243 miles (180 km and 2000 km) above Earth

Stills taken from footage shot for a news story shows its huge fuselage

Microsoft, Paul Allen, says it could eventually take humans into space

The world has received its first glimpse of a gigantic airplane that will serve as an airborne launch pad for putting satellites – and eventually people – into orbit.

The aircraft, which has a wingspan of 385 feet (117 metres) and will be powered by six 747-class engines, is currently being assembled at Mojave, California.

Dubbed the Roc, the megaplane is the brainchild Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who is creating it under start-up firm Stratolaunch Systems.

The plane will climb to 30,000 feet and launch a rocket at high altitude, avoiding the huge fuel costs of launching from Earth.

This will then go into orbit as normal and deliver a satellite.

Initially, the system is intended to deliver satellites weighing up to about 13,500lbs (6,124 kg) into orbits between 112 miles and 1,243 miles (180 km and 2000 km) above Earth.

Rare stills taken from footage shot for a recent news story by KGET 17, a Bakersfield TV station, show its huge size, according to a report by Guy Norris in Aviation Week.

The images show one of the two twin fuselage sections under assembly.

Initially, the system is intended to deliver satellites weighing up to about 13,500lbs (6,124 kg) into orbits between 112 miles and 1,243 miles (180 km and 2000 km) above Earth.

The plane will climb to 30,000 feet and launch a rocket at high altitude, avoiding the huge fuel costs of launching from Earth.

In the news report, Scaled Composites president Kevin Mickey says the company has so far built ‘roughly 200,000lbs of composite structure’ for the vehicle.

A debut test flight is expected in about a year with launch operations beginning in 2018.

Instead of a satellite, the Stratolaunch airplane could launch a Dream Chaser spaceship, which would be outfitted with an as-yet-unspecified upper-stage rocket motor.

‘Dream Chaser seemed to be the logical way to go,’ Stratolaunch Executive Director Charles Beames said in October.

In November, Sierra Nevada Corporation confirmed that it was working with Stratolaunch Systems to launch a the scaled-down version of Dream Chaser launched into orbit.

The Roc’s 385 feet (117 metres) wingspan compares to 320 feet for the Hughes H-4 Hercules and 225 feet for the Boeing 747-8.

Each of the twin fuselages of the Roc is 238 feet long and, when complete, will be supported by 12 main landing gear wheels and two nose gear wheels.

Stratolaunch has produced computer-generated images and videos of the Roc, but the TV footage is the first time images of the real vehicle have been shown.

Allen has previously said his Rock project would ‘keep America at the forefront of space exploration and give a new generation of children something to dream about’.

Several companies are competing to develop spacecraft to deliver cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.

The Microsoft billionaire criticised the fact that government-sponsored space programmes are waning.

Nasa is paying Boeing and SpaceX to build the capsules and fly them from Cape Canaveral, which hasn’t seen a manned launch since the shuttles retired in 2011.

[Takeovers]

An interesting project. I am and the whole space community is waitig for it to go forward. Already a significant amount of money has been invested. It is generally wondered what kind of payloads this will attract. Maybe military, because it may be able to launch out over the sea undetected.

avoiding the huge fuel costs of launching from Earth.

Fuel cost is below 1% of total launch cost. But blame the journalist, not the project.

About Dream Chaser. I would love to see it fly. However it really seems dead beside some flailing like mentioning a version going up on Strato Launch. They lost the contract for Commercial Crew to Boeing and SpaceX and they lost the legal challenge to the contracts. There is little chance they can go it alone without NASA money. Unless Paul Allen puts many hundreds of Millions into it which I severely doubt.

[Necron99]

I imagine that beside the stealth(ish) option, it's big benefit may be speed for multiple launches without all the fussing about with heavies on the launchpad waiting for weather etc.
Perfect for launching hunter killer sats too!

[Topper]

Perfect for launching hunter killer sats too!

I would think the term would be "Emergent Orbital Tasking"

[Neo]

The traditional view of our solar system is of a set of planets in fixed orbits that has been stable for millennia. New scientific discoveries show that is not the case and that the formation of our system was far more chaotic than previously believed.
And that as more planetary systems are discovered the stability of our system is the exception, not the norm.

It's on iPlayer, so proxy or torrent.

BBC iPlayer - Horizon - 2014-2015: 8. Secrets of the Solar System

[palexxxx]

"BBC iPlayer videos are available for viewing by only people in the UK"

[BaitongBoy]

the stability of our system is the exception, not the norm.

Interesting phrase, here...Tend to agree; however, keeping an open mind on the matter...

The only colossal event, arguably, has been the impact of a huge meteorite/asteroid...

[Takeovers]

The DAWN probe has now entered Ceres orbit. However the low thrust ion engines will run a while longer until the planned low circular orbit around Ceres is achieved. The approach was initially planned in a different and faster way. A glitch with the ion drive upset the plans. Fortunately they got them working again in a short time and worked out a new approach. It just takes a few weeks longer. Not important after the long tour through the solar system.

[Neo]

"BBC iPlayer videos are available for viewing by only people in the UK"

It's on iPlayer, so proxy or torrent.

[Neo]

the stability of our system is the exception, not the norm.

Interesting phrase, here...Tend to agree; however, keeping an open mind on the matter...

The only colossal event, arguably, has been the impact of a huge meteorite/asteroid...

If you watch the documentary you will see there is evidence for far more colossal events caused by having a giant planet in a system, such as Jupiter in ours, whose gravity can effect the creation and position of other planets. Uranus and Neptune for instance couldn't have been formed where they are with the composition they have and must have been formed closer to the sun, Mars is smaller than it is because Jupiters position changed and pulled material away from it as it formed, creating the asteroid belt in the process. Jupiter itself couldn't have formed where it is due to it's composition. Looking at other solar systems in the search for exoplanets shows the majority of solar systems to have chaotic orbits where giant planets affect the others in the system. It's like a planetary game of pinball. Interesting stuff that throws all of what was previously thought out of the window. The lack of stability also reduces even further the probability of habitable Earth like planets.