PJYoung said:

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It's worth noting there was absolutely zero Russian war propaganda to be seen in the Soyuz landing zone, or in Moscow Mission Control. I'd take this as further evidence that Russia would like to continue the ISS partnership.

— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) March 30, 2022

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The head of the Russian space agency says differently.

He backtracked. But hopefully we've caught our last ride with the Russians.

Build It said:

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He backtracked. But hopefully we've caught our last ride with the Russians.

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We still have an astronaut over there training and they have one over here training on dragon.

Build It said:

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He backtracked. But hopefully we've caught our last ride with the Russians.

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That must have been some backtrack that was so sincere and heartfelt and public that I've heard nothing about.

How, as head of the Russian space agency in a partnership over the ISS, do you come back from threats to let it fall on the US or Europe?

Let me guess. He mumbled some weak retraction and our government instantly caved (though 'caving' assumes that we actually did tell them to go take a hike in the first place), and told the Russians "nah we're all good".

This is BS

T-50 for Bezos ***** launch

He was giggling with glee about that tweet on the livestream.

The FAA has altered the deal. Pray they don't alter it further.

Meanwhile, in Low Earth Orbit…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10678705/Russia-END-cooperation-International-space-station.html

The Russians are making noise about pulling out of ISS.

No, Russia is not ending cooperation on the International Space Station.https://t.co/K9y3aR9ncy

— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) April 2, 2022

Some of the ISS bluster is the same pot banging they've been doing for several years now. The last round was claiming they where going to abandon it and go in with the Chinese.

That's why, at least from what ive listened to, the new modules we're planning to add will be able to phase out the need for the Russian segment......once we get that and a reboost plan in place, they can stay or go as they see fit.

Flying Crowbar said:

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Meanwhile, in Low Earth Orbit…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10678705/Russia-END-cooperation-International-space-station.html

The Russians are making noise about pulling out of ISS.

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Amazing that we haven't already made that choice for them

https://365thingsaustin.com/2022/04/01/elon-musk-unveils-austin-to-la-hyperloop-proposal/

Pretty decent April fools.

Chinese rocket re-enters atmosphere over India.

NEW - Chinese rocket re-enters Earth, burns up in skies over India.pic.twitter.com/tIjcM0DpLV

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 2, 2022

SLS had it's second straight scrubbed wet dress rehearsal. That's why they do them I guess.

Okay this is kinda joking, kinda asking... How do you scrub that?

Decay said:

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Okay this is kinda joking, kinda asking... How do you scrub that?

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Given recent events...valves or computers. I'm betting it was a GSE problem....probably some 9 million dollar multiport double-redundant hose that spacex could have gotten to work from bubbas lawn care, feed store and legal advice
....

Elon's mom with some pretty funny comments re: his skipping the White House rocket/electric car stuff.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10686099/Stop-ignoring-boy-Elon-Musks-mother-slams-Biden-Harris-completely-unaware.html

Quote:

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On Monday, Maye Musk, 73, berated the U.S. government for failing to acknowledge SpaceX's latest launch on Friday - the firm's 150th.

Maye, who is a model, tweeted: 'Sharing this remarkable achievement with @JoeBiden @POTUS @VP @KamalaHarris who are completely unaware of the world's most advanced rockets and spacecraft.'

She added the hashtags: '#MadeInAmerica #JustSaySpacex.'

The company's Falcon 9 rocket delivered 40 spacecraft to orbit on Friday - SpaceX's fourth 'dedicated rideshare mission' and their 150th successful launch. The ridesharing program sees national space agencies like NASA and Germany's national space agency pay SpaceX to launch their satellites for them.

Musk, the 50-year-old founder of SpaceX and Tesla, has always had an antagonistic relationship with Joe Biden, given Biden's strong support for unions and Musk's refusal to allow his workforce to unionize.

At White House events promoting electric vehicles, Musk has been notable in his absence - something he has repeatedly joked about on Twitter.

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Of course, the WH is beholden to both unions and loves the censorship in big tech of conservatives, so I am pretty sure Elon isn't gonna be invited to the WH until/unless it is occupied by a republican again. Frankly, I think this is counter-productive for him as it will only slow/worsen relations with various agencies holding up starship launch approval.

Ag_of_08 said:

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Decay said:

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Okay this is kinda joking, kinda asking... How do you scrub that?

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Given recent events...valves or computers. I'm betting it was a GSE problem....probably some 9 million dollar multiport double-redundant hose that spacex could have gotten to work from bubbas lawn care, feed store and legal advice
....

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Space.com reporting that it was a stuck vent valve on the mobile launcher....so yeah, GSE. Looks like they're standing down until after Axiom-1 launches on Wednesday.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/05/amazon-signs-rocket-deal-with-blue-origin-arianespace-ula-for-project-kuiper-internet-satellites.html

Bezos signs a historic deal with himself to launch a Starlink competitor. So is it really fraud when you sell launch space to yourself on a vapor ware launch vehicle?

I'm sure Amazon shareholders won't mind Bezos transferring a few billion dollars over to one of his vanity projects.

The main humor is that he only assigned 12 launches to his New Glenn vapor ware. ULA and Arianespace should be at least twice the per launch actual cost, I'd guess, if New Glenn somehow worked as advertised by 2026.

Basically admitting...this stuff isn't gonna work.

Lol, so Amazon went with 3 different vehicles which are not flight-proven and a launch cadence that has only been proven possible once in history (and not by any of the three launch providers they chose), all for a number of satellites in orbit that exceeds what SpaceX has in orbit right now by only 1000.

bthotugigem05 said:

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Lol, so Amazon went with 3 different vehicles which are not flight-proven and a launch cadence that has only been proven possible once in history (and not by any of the three launch providers they chose), all for a number of satellites in orbit that exceeds what SpaceX has in orbit right now by only 1000.

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I hadn't seen it when I posted, but damn.... how did I guess that one?

I mean.... notnlike valving seems to be an issue for certain companies lately is it? I realize that the shuttle also had scrubs for valving issues, as has spacex.... but cmon, you know this is a big deal, and you scrub TWO stupid DRESS REHEARSALS because of it?

Either they're stalling because something else is bad wrong and they know it, or they've gone above and beyond playing the contractor game.

Decay said:

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Okay this is kinda joking, kinda asking... How do you scrub that?

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Yesterday's scrub was due to lightening. Knock them all you want, and goodness knows they deserve it, but when your launch tower (or one of the lightening arresting towers) is struck by lightening, you stop fueling ops.

I was (halfway) listening to their press conference just now, and it turns out that the valve wasn't "stuck" per se, but there was a manual hand valve that fed the automatic valves that was closed when it should have been open. So it doesn't appear to be anywhere near as bad as what Boeing is going through (thank God).

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Decay said:

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Okay this is kinda joking, kinda asking... How do you scrub that?

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Yesterday's scrub was due to lightening. Knock them all you want, and goodness knows they deserve it, but when your launch tower (or one of the lightening arresting towers) is struck by lightening, you stop fueling ops.

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That is literally not what they said. They (NASA) stated they had a stuck valve and they were at the end of the shift and decided to shut it down.

Mathguy64 said:

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https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/05/amazon-signs-rocket-deal-with-blue-origin-arianespace-ula-for-project-kuiper-internet-satellites.html

Bezos signs a historic deal with himself to launch a Starlink competitor. So is it really fraud when you sell launch space to yourself on a vapor ware launch vehicle?

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Competition is good.

techno-ag said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/05/amazon-signs-rocket-deal-with-blue-origin-arianespace-ula-for-project-kuiper-internet-satellites.html

Bezos signs a historic deal with himself to launch a Starlink competitor. So is it really fraud when you sell launch space to yourself on a vapor ware launch vehicle?

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Competition is good.

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Oh please. This isn't a situation where Bezos is competing. He's mouthing off about a competitive service but has no launch platform. His whole launch system is vaporware. He's got no BE-4. He's got no launch platform. All he has is a glorified E ticket ride from Disneyland.

But, but, supposedly they have FIVE hours of burn time in the test stand....any day now *eyeroll*


Maximus: in some ways that makes it even worse. They've had the GSE for how many years, and can't get hand valve sequencing right?

Ag_of_08 said:

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But, but, supposedly they have FIVE hours of burn time in the test stand....any day now *eyeroll*


Maximus: in some ways that makes it even worse. They've had the GSE for how many years, and can't get hand valve sequencing right?

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I get what you're saying, but keep in mind that most of the guys who were probably working on the GSE side of things for the WDR were probably not around for Shuttle. It's been 10 years since NASA actually loaded a rocket. And to top it off, I'd bet dollars to donuts they wrote new procedures for this as well. There were always going to be stupid procedural mistakes on the first attempt.

Not necessarily excusing it, but I'm not losing my crap over it, either. At least it wasn't "the valve is stuck and we don't know why."

I swore the other night they showed a lightning strike on the evening news... Maybe I mis-heard though, i was cooking dinner with the TV on.

Edit... Ok, thunderstorms got them on the 2nd. They had lightening strikes on the protection towers that surround the pad. On the 3rd it was a fan issue. The fans that keep gasses from accumulating on the pad weren't working.
https://spacenews.com/nasa-scrubs-first-attempt-at-sls-countdown-rehearsal/

Quote:

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Even before the fan problem NASA was running behind schedule with the test, where the core and upper stages of the SLS are filled with propellants and go through a countdown that stops at approximately T-10 seconds. Severe thunderstorms April 2 delayed WDR activities at Launch Complex 39B, including several lightning strikes on protective towers at the pad.
There were four lightning strikes, including one particularly powerful one that hit a catenary between two lightning protection towers, said Mike Sarafin, NASA Artemis mission manager, on the call. All four were cleared before the the decision early April 3 to proceed with the WDR.

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There's always going to be something going wrong with this ludicrously complex $4 billion single-use dinosaur they have constructed from outdated frankenstein parts at elaborate cost.

It will be a miracle if it ever takes off and performs as advertised, just as one would expect from an evolution of the grossly more expensive than planned space shuttle launch system it is descended from. As though we didn't waste enough money on the space shuttle for 4 decades, when we coulda just kept doing Saturn V launches. At least the shuttle was nominally re-usable. I hope they at least get some great camera shots/video of the tank/RS-25's plunging haplessly into the ocean.

But anyway, it's a big rocket, built without using Russian parts. I just wanted to say something nice about it on this thread.