Space News thread

[harrybarracuda]

All of this stuff is travelling at several kilometres per second - sufficient velocity for them to become damaging projectiles if any were to strike an operational space mission.

That strikes me (excuse the pun) as a huge understatement.

[OhOh]

the US and the UK.

Oh dear, another military skill, satellite killing, they don't have.

[harrybarracuda]

Oh dear, another military skill, satellite killing, they don't have.

The real irony would be if a piece of this Russian space shit killed a Russian cosmonaut or two.

Would you still be smug then hoohoo?

[Looper]

The rare penumbral lunar eclipse with the moon at apogee this evening

...getting brighter

...and brighter

The last shadow of earth at the end of the marathon 3 hour and 28 minute partial eclipse

The longest partial eclipse since 1440.

Over a century before Galileo was born and 160 years before Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the ironically named Pope Clement VIII

[Takeovers]

Right after the russian anti sat missile test Roskosmos director general Dmitry Rogozin published this photo.

The head of this weapon wielding robot is the new multiple docking port Roskosmos will launch shortly to the ISS and dock to the new russian ISS module Nauka, the one that almost destroyed the ISS.

[Takeovers]

James Webb was in the last steps of payload integration for launch from Kourou on an Ariane rocket. But they dropped it and now conduct tests to find if there are any damages. Launch scheduled now Dec. 22, assuming they don't find any damage.

What's the odds that any damage will become apparent when it is in its target location and they try to unfold it?

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1462..._discussion%2F

UPDATE:
@NASAWebb
is now targeted to launch no earlier than Dec. 22 to allow additional testing after a sudden, unplanned release of a clamp that secures the spacecraft to its rocket adapter sent vibrations throughout the observatory: NASA Provides Update on Webb Telescope Launch – James Webb Space Telescope

2/nasa-provides-update-on-webb-telescope-launch

[Edmond]

James Webb was in the last steps of payload integration for launch from Kourou on an Ariane rocket.

Fantastic. Have been waiting for this for years.

But they dropped it

The fokwits.

[Latindancer]

There's a bit of fake news around about that. According to Wikipedia, the telescope's sunshield ripped during a practice deployment

[harrybarracuda]

There's a bit of fake news around about that. According to Wikipedia, the telescope's sunshield ripped during a practice deployment

According to NASA:

The incident occurred during operations at the satellite preparation facility in Kourou, French Guiana, performed under Arianespace overall responsibility. Technicians were preparing to attach Webb to the launch vehicle adapter, which is used to integrate the observatory with the upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket. A sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band – which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter – caused a vibration throughout the observatory.
A NASA-led anomaly review board was immediately convened to investigate and instituted additional testing to determine with certainty the incident did not damage any components. NASA and its mission partners will provide an update when the testing is completed at the end of this week.

There is a bit of a gap between "an unplanned clamp release" and "a vibration throughout the observatory".

This may have been caused by "the fucker hit the ground".

[OhOh]

What's the odds that any damage will become apparent when it is in its target location and they try to unfold it?

The photo shows a lot of debris/loose ends already. Are they normally so poorly stuck together?

[Topper]

Won't the vibration during launch be far more severe?

[Takeovers]

Won't the vibration during launch be far more severe?

Yes, but in a defined, well known way, the whole setup is designed for. Maybe the whole event is harmless, maybe not.

[Simon43]

According to NASA:



There is a bit of a gap between "an unplanned clamp release" and "a vibration throughout the observatory".

This may have been caused by "the fucker hit the ground".

I remember doing AIT (Assembly, Installation and Test) of Envisat, a scientific satellite back in the late 1990's. We were testing the parabolic antenna and motor drive system. Since it was intended to operate in a low gravity environment, the motor can't actually 'hold' the antenna against the gravity force down on the Earth. So we had to use a big rubber band to hold it up and my test manager was strategically lying flat on the floor under the dish with his hands in a "I will catch the fcucka if it falls" configuration.....

[harrybarracuda]

Won't the vibration during launch be far more severe?

I think the "vibration" was from the "incident".

[harrybarracuda]

NASA launched the mission to smack into an asteroid and divert it.

Wouldn't it be ironic if they accidentally diverted it towards earth? I hope they've got another one ready just in case.

[Takeovers]

I think the "vibration" was from the "incident".

Sure, but vibration from launch is quite intense. The telescope is designed to take that. Vibration from a drop is different, we will know when it expands as planned in a few months.

[Takeovers]

NASA launched the mission to smack into an asteroid and divert it.

While watching the launch live this morning, I learned why they target a binary of 2 asteroids. This way they can observe even very small differences in their orbiting to determine, what the hit achieved.

Payload a few seconds after separation from the second stage.

[Looper]

This way they can observe even very small differences in their orbiting to determine, what the hit achieved.

Didymos and Dimorphos have both been scanned using Hubble and no clangers or soupdragons have been observed, thank goodness.

[OhOh]

Many new launches of satellites appear to have smaller diameter rockets, compared to the diameter of the satellite.

Is it dependent on to what altitude the satellite is launched to, or are the rockets more powerful these days?

One example:

[Takeovers]

Many new launches of satellites appear to have smaller diameter rockets, compared to the diameter of the satellite.

Is it dependent on to what altitude the satellite is launched to, or are the rockets more powerful these days?

Not more powerful. But high capacity satellites are becoming smaller due to advanced electronics. This rocket, the Long March 3B, launched a geostationary weather satellite recently. Geostationary is as high energy as they get in cislunar space. Similar to sending a payload to Mars. The side boosters help.

Always interesting to note that China, like Russia, uses side boosters with liquid propellant engines. US and European rockets use boosters with solid propellant in the tradition of ICBMs.

[malmomike77]

Elon Musk Says SpaceX In "Genuine Risk Of Bankruptcy"

(RTTNews) - SpaceX, the space-tourism company that was supposed to make Elon Musk the first trillionaire, might be at the brink of bankruptcy. In an internal letter sent to the SpaceX employees during Thanksgiving, obtained by Space Explored, Musk explained the dire situation that his high-flying space-tourism company is at a "genuine risk of bankruptcy."


According to the communique, the production of the raptor engine is draining the company and therefore, SpaceX will have to launch one shuttle every couple of weeks to stay in business in the near future. "Unfortunately, the Raptor production crisis is much worse than it had seemed a few weeks ago," Musk said. "As we have dug into the issues following the exiting of prior senior management, they have unfortunately turned out to be far more severe than was reported. There is no way to sugarcoat this. We face genuine risk of bankruptcy if we cannot achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year."


The Raptor engine is being built for the Lunar Artemis project in which SpaceX is collaborating with NASA. The engine will power the Starship which will take cargo and people to the Moon and Mars. While the Starship has taken multiple short test flights, for it to really make the jump to orbit, the Raptor engine is crucial. The Starship will require as many a 39 Raptor engines to run. While the mail did put the workers under a lot of pressure, Musk himself is also not going to take celebrate Christmas. He asked the employees to stay back during the holidays to work on the project ensuring that he himself will also be with them on the Raptor line. "Unless you have critical family matters or cannot physically return to Hawthorne, we will need all hands on deck to recover from what is, quite frankly, a disaster. I was going to take this weekend off, as my first weekend off in a long time, but instead, I will be on the Raptor line all night and through the weekend," Musk wrote in the email. The mail added more sense to the departure of former VP of Propulsion Will Heltsley, who left the company earlier this month. Heltsley was removed from the project shortly before his departure. Apart from the Starship project, the mail also shed light on another super ambitious Starlink internet project. Musk said that though the V1 satellites are launched, they are not equipped with lasers. V2 satellites are going to have the lasers but they cannot be delivered by the present Falcon space shuttle. Instead, Musk has sought the permission of the FCC to deliver the second-generation Starlink satellites on Starship rockets. So he wants to ramp up the production of Raptor engines to solve the problem. "The consequences for SpaceX, if we can't get enough reliable Raptors made, is that we then can't fly Starship, which means we then can't fly Starlink Satellite V2 (Falcon has neither the volume *nor* the mass to orbit needed for satellite V2). Satellite V1 by itself is financially weak, whereas V2 is strong," said Musk. This has somewhat been the pattern of Musk's companies. Tesla also had its back on the wall during the production of Model 3. It is to be seen whether SpaceX can also bounce back in a similarly spectacular fashion as the EV company or not.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/elon-musk-says-spacex-in-genuine-risk-of-bankruptcy

[Takeovers]

Elon Musk Says SpaceX In "Genuine Risk Of Bankruptcy"

Yes. Though Elon Musk is slightly exaggerating.

If there is a major crash of the world economy, worse than the last one. And if it seriously affects the ability of SpaceX to raise capital. And Tesla crashes so that Elon can not sell some of his Tesla shares. And if they can not fix some production issues with the Raptor engines. Then there could be a non zero risk of SpaceX failing.

None of these are very likely. They all would have to happen at the same time to endanger SpaceX.

[malmomike77]

Yes, too big to fail and musk can't exactly be trusted to tell the truth

[Takeovers]

Yes, too big to fail and musk can't exactly be trusted to tell the truth

Musk companies can not count on being bailed out. They are not Boeing or GM. Elon does not lie, he exaggerates sometimes or plays up risks. For example when he said he will be happy if Falcon Heavy clears the tower without exploding. Then the first FH performed flawless through a series of complex maneuvers.

[malmomike77]

TO, i was referring to the US space sector, if you took SpaceX out it would br a huge setback. No i didn't mean hd outright lies rather ne has a habit of sensationalism