Space and Science BS Thread

Random idea came to me: Falcon 9 launches from Vandenburg land on the boat/back at Vandenburg depending on which way the wind was blowing that day?

 

Depending on the orbit needed. Some orbits require more fuel and don't leave enough fuel for a return to launch site so they have to land on a drone ship.

 

Ugg, RFA lost their first stage. I hope they have the resources to bounce back:
https://x.com/rfa_space/status/1825634436794245548?s=46

Yikes:
https://x.com/spacevoyaging/status/1825642940716183660?s=46

 

I have Teams meeting from 9:30a-10a. I'm hoping they don't launch during it!

 

Got outta the shop for one....

 

At least Tim Dodd’s tour gave us some insight to BE-4 production with I think 3 Vulcan sets(6 total) ready and the first New Glenn set(7 additional) in production. That’s a far cry from the rate they’ll need to sustain operations so we’ll still have to wait to see if they can reach 1 a month let alone 1 every 3 days. Even 1 a week would sustain a higher level of operations than most of us seem to expect. Maybe part II will have more current production info.

 

You mean for crewed? They already do that for unmanned launches. Though, for crewed, 1) you need to put in a crew access arm, 2) you need to figure out abort modes and have areas planned for your abort scenarios. See https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/202...-launch-abort-modes-and-splashdown-locations/

 

I have been rather vocal as of late on how much BO wasn't going fast enough, that I didn't like them, that SpaceX was better. After watching Tim's walkthrough with Bezos....I'm starting to swing back the other way. They certainly are further along than what I thought. And I was SUPER surprised at how knowledgeable Bezos was regarding the different manufacturing processes. Either his team prepped him well, which didn't seem to be the case, or he's actually as big a rocket nerd as the rest of us. And not just a billionaire playing with his money.

We'll have to see how fast they can ramp up after the first New Glenn launch.

 

I've got a family member that is fairly high up at Blue and Bezos sits in on their Teams meetings pretty regularly, he's definitely hands on as much as a billionaire can be.

They have kind of hit a wall as far as staffing goes, they are struggling to fill B and C shift support.

 

I mean I'm not /anti/ blue or anything, I just note their demonstrated lack of progress for now, and think that NG has some weird design choices and will be expendable for longer than expected. That said, here's hoping they make the launch window for escapade.

 

Who’s first to get a payload to space is still up for grabs but BO might get it done first if they can launch this year. I think Spacex could if they wanted to but it’s just not their highest priority. It was certainly nice to get a look at what’s going on finally

 

Yeah they're at orbital velocities with the last launch, but I think they want to get booster recovery going (hey even if all 33 engines on the Raptor 2s are obsolete, getting back test samples would be nice) and getting back intact Ship to inform further iterations, are the primary goals, followed by demonstrating orbital engine relight so that they can circularize and safely deorbit, as well as do fuel transfers. There's NASA money riding on those goals, and that likely will beat Starlink V2 deployment, at least for a few more launches.

 

Looks like it’s pushed back a day…
https://x.com/spacex/status/1826401360776232989?s=46

 

^ This.

BO has been in business longer than X and it’s amazing they’ve secured the launch and lander contracts they have without ever getting something into orbit.

Their suborbital program has been completely disrupted due to a failure 2 years ago and hasn’t resumed flights to the level before the failure.

They’re missing a huge chunk of their business plan. The part that has them delivering things to orbit.

It still seems like a pet project. Wheras SpaceX could survive without Musk, I doubt the same is true for BO without Bezos.

 

I read an article this morning that said that BO had some issues in their Hangar Blue facility? Something to do with damaging a 3rd flight hardware? Did you hear anything about that from a few weeks ago?

 

Yes I mentioned it to Pz in Creeds thread a week or so ago. In the words of Elon, unscheduled rapid disassembly

 

I was going to do some digging then post here. Life got in the way

 

What they are saying happened isn't what happened. They are using words to minimize it and sweep it under the rug.

 

They be learning things from Boeing...

 

The article mentioned it was partly due to employee error? Are you able to say anymore than that?