They must not be actually worried about chutes, crew 3 is 200km up and nearly inserted to orbit!

Abort system is disarmed and in orbit, look like they got the booster as well.

I continue to marvel at the NASA channel and their inability to broadcast in anything beyond 480p.

First time I was actually able to see it.

300 miles to the north. I could see the main engine for 2 seconds after it cleared the trees before MECO.

Then could see the second stage continue on. It was barely visible, but followed it across the sky for a few minutes.

If Elon offered to upgrade them for free Bezos would probably sue him.

Mathguy64 said:

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I continue to marvel at the NASA channel and their inability to broadcast in anything beyond 480p.

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Easier to fake a low res video.

Mathguy64 said:

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If Elon offered to upgrade them for free Bezos would probably sue him.

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Because he offered them an alternative that was only capable of 720p, and had a 700# power supply, but was CLEARLY the superior choice.

Not going to link the video here because he effed up a bunch of facts in it, but angry astronaut is talking about NASA exploring cost saving measures to force thebprice of SLS down. Anyone hearing anymore about it?

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43079/space-launch-start-up-just-used-a-giant-centrifuge-to-hurl-a-projectile-into-the-upper-atmosphere

I've been watching these guys for a little while now wondering what this would look like. I'm no rocket surgeon but I can't figure out how any payload could ever survive the g forces.

Jock 07 said:

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https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43079/space-launch-start-up-just-used-a-giant-centrifuge-to-hurl-a-projectile-into-the-upper-atmosphere

I've been watching these guys for a little while now wondering what this would look like. I'm no rocket surgeon but I can't figure out how any payload could ever survive the g forces.

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You can fire pretty advanced electronics in artillery shells nowadays so you're talking about pretty robust systems that already exist. I'm sure lots of spacecraft don't make sense in those kind of launchers but some are probably feasible.

Jock 07 said:

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https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43079/space-launch-start-up-just-used-a-giant-centrifuge-to-hurl-a-projectile-into-the-upper-atmosphere

I've been watching these guys for a little while now wondering what this would look like. I'm no rocket surgeon but I can't figure out how any payload could ever survive the g forces.

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Scott just did a video on these.... in short, yes, it would survive.

Everything old is new again. Gerald Bull (and Jules Verne way before him) of course wanted to literally fire satellites into orbit (and probably could have succeeded if he'd been miracled the funding), but instead eventually got frustrated with the US Gov't, went to work for Saddam Hussein, and probably earned the enmity of the Mossad...oh well. I didn't see any credits for the HARP program in Scott's video, but am amused he showed an image.

Great update on lot's of stuff from Berger/ars technica. Key bits include FH launch cadence discussion, spin launch, and yes, Webb proceeding well with the Ariane 5 fairing separating well/as intended so mid-December we could see Webb...head up. I believe this is really the next exciting launch to happen, and again the orbital launch itself represents a very small amount of the technical risks to the deployment.

Oh, and Hubble is apparently still really in trouble now, though one instrument is back online.

Quote:

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Webb's Ariane 5 rocket is nearing readiness. According to the European Space Agency, the rocket that will launch the James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, for final processing. On November 6, the Ariane 5 core stage was taken out of its shipping container and raised vertically. As a next step, two side-mounted boosters are being attached. The momentous Webb launch is scheduled for no earlier than December 18.

Meanwhile, the fairing is faring well ... The payload fairing on the most recent Ariane 5 launch last month worked perfectly, Spaceflight Now reports. It helped clear concerns about the shroud before liftoff of the Webb telescope. On two Ariane 5 missions last year, the payload fairing separated from the launcher in a "less than fully nominal" manner, causing vibrations on the rocket's satellite passengers above safety limits. Although there was no damage to the satellites, Arianespace paused launches to investigate the fairing problem.

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Ag_of_08 said:

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Jock 07 said:

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https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43079/space-launch-start-up-just-used-a-giant-centrifuge-to-hurl-a-projectile-into-the-upper-atmosphere

I've been watching these guys for a little while now wondering what this would look like. I'm no rocket surgeon but I can't figure out how any payload could ever survive the g forces.

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Scott just did a video on these.... in short, yes, it would survive.

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An interesting point that Scott Manley brings up is how important the 'release' of the rocket from the spinning thing is. It's going at 1000 RPM, and all of a sudden it loses a huge weight on the end. Totally messes with the moment of inertia, so how does this system handle that?

I was thinking maybe they release two weights - one is the rocket into the sky, and the other would just be a big mass that's shot into a deep tunnel in the ground to keep the forces balanced on the system.

Malachi Constant said:

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Ag_of_08 said:

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Jock 07 said:

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https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43079/space-launch-start-up-just-used-a-giant-centrifuge-to-hurl-a-projectile-into-the-upper-atmosphere

I've been watching these guys for a little while now wondering what this would look like. I'm no rocket surgeon but I can't figure out how any payload could ever survive the g forces.

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Scott just did a video on these.... in short, yes, it would survive.

---

An interesting point that Scott Manley brings up is how important the 'release' of the rocket from the spinning thing is. It's going at 1000 RPM, and all of a sudden it loses a huge weight on the end. Totally messes with the moment of inertia, so how does this system handle that?

I was thinking maybe they release two weights - one is the rocket into the sky, and the other would just be a big mass that's shot into a deep tunnel in the ground to keep the forces balanced on the system.

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10,000g... Holy crap.

But apparently even standard eletronics like our phones can handle it, wow.

Sn20 just did a six engine static fire

Good static fire with all six engines!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2021

He mentions HARP and the Iraqi "gun".

And yeah, I don't see hubble making it much longer unfortunately :-(. Like most nasa projects, it's way past its expected life though

Yeah. It's gone way past it's deligned lifespan. NASA is really good at that. The problem is they have no way to get anyone up to it anymore to perhaps maintain it. And NASA is really bad at that.

NASA coulda supposedly gotten a second keyhole for 'free' which was surplus, but…politics. (And yes, they would have had to find funds to modify it etc.).

One of the interesting facts to me to come out was that Keyholes were essentially Hubbles. The HST was not a one off.

The Keyholes are what the shuttle was designed around correct? Nasa didn't want that massive of a shuttle, but the air force insisted in exchange for funds, and promptly dumped them for EELV after Challenger. That's what I was eluding to in my satire above lol.

It's highly(and very darkly) amusing that the airforce killed Ares 1 because the SRB was dangerous, but the airforce is the reason the shuttle used the idiotic twin SRB strapped to a tank system, with the payload riding piggyback, which is a direct causal factor of both shuttles being lost. If they had not demanded THAT configuration, and such a huge shuttle, we probably would have seen something just larger than dreamchaser, and may have been able to take a stab at Mars 20 years ago.

Government sucks at everything they do. This is yet another example.

Mathguy64 said:

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One of the interesting facts to me to come out was that Keyholes were essentially Hubbles. The HST was not a one off.

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Yes, this is correct.

The spy satellites we had looking down at Earth at the time were better than Hubble. What we have now undoubtedly blows it away.

aTmAg said:

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The spy satellites we had looking down at Earth at the time were better than Hubble. What we have now undoubtedly blows it away.

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I have no first or even second hand knowledge of the KH tech but have heard rumors that 51L was being viewed during launch and that the images were clear enough to see crew faces in the windows. If that was possible in 1986, we can probably read the fingerprints left by the close out teams of every satellite in orbit today.

lb3 said:

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aTmAg said:

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The spy satellites we had looking down at Earth at the time were better than Hubble. What we have now undoubtedly blows it away.

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I have no first or even second hand knowledge of the KH tech but have heard rumors that 51L was being viewed during launch and that the images were clear enough to see crew faces in the windows. If that was possible in 1986, we can probably read the fingerprints left by the close out teams of every satellite in orbit today.

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But it would be a waste of time to inspect heat shields..right? Just foam after all

Wow. This is a neat video from this mornings starlink launch.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/MiNSTNWNx0

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 13, 2021

Falcon 9's 25th launch of 2021 pic.twitter.com/hq1835HEgJ

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 13, 2021

I keep forgetting that you’re still alive

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2021

Hey Elon, did you know that you’re so wealthy, you’d be able to give every person in America $100,000 & you wouldn’t even feel the loss? Instead of building space rockets, why don’t you help more people on Earth? (PS, lmk if you want my Venmo or PayPal) pic.twitter.com/WLNBnRADgk

— Tara Dublin (@taradublinrocks) November 14, 2021

Kenneth_2003 said:

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$100,000 x ~300,000,000

= $300,000,000,000,000

Tara's lack of intelligence is her only strength

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If Google is right about Musk's net worth, he could give everyone about $850 dollars.

Or he could fund the entire US budget for less than two weeks.


Of course the real economic fallacy, is thinking that you could solve anything by giving every American $100,000. Or a million.

All you would have is trillions of extra dollars chasing the same number of goods, which is textbook inflation.

Sure, you'd have $100k in your bank account. But new cars would be $200k, a house would be $5 million, and bread would be $1000 a loaf.

Get out of here with all that talk about things and stuff. It'd work!

Musk is one of the favorite targets for the commies right now. Self made man, and making huge accomplishments in an important scientific field, that also happens to be popular, and that the dens routinely **** all over

Im in the Houston area. There's supposed to be a chain of starlink satellites going south to north with the high point at 53 degrees elevation from the east, magnitude 3.

I haven't seen these things in a while. Has anyone else since SpaceX started making them darker & non reflective?