Space and Science BS Thread

The article also said the engineers failed to install a pressure relief valve and last time I checked engineers don't touch tools. Engineers write the paper that dictate what technicians are able to do. Media likes acting like engineers are turning wrenches and that's about the funniest thing I've heard all day. Most of these engineers don't know a spanner from a spud. I'm not going to say anything else about it.

 

Funny what’s not reported in the MSM.

Decision day today….. I say the next Dragon has 2 empty seats.

 

It’s Dragon for Butch and Suni!
Safety before corporate incompetence!!
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/n...rliner-spacecraft-back-to-earth-without-crew/

 

I mean, Boeing should still be able to land the pod autonomously, and they better hope when they try it doesn't blow up. Even if it survives, they surely will have to do an unmanned mission to prove they've fixed it.

 

I dunno about unmanned but I’d agree they definitely didn’t “certify” it. It’s my understanding that it isn’t configured(software) to undock and deorbit autonomously. I guess they’ll have to figure that one out as well.

 

Early Tuesday!
https://x.com/spaceflightnow/status/1827680742601588862?s=46
https://x.com/spacex/status/1827667505600667924?s=46
https://x.com/gillis_sarahe/status/1827634930106712287?s=46
https://x.com/kiddpoteet/status/1827670683683262613?s=46
https://x.com/rookisaacman/status/1827665461502193930?s=46

 

From this week’s Rocket Report:
Blue Origin experiences rocket stage incidents. Blue Origin sustained failures in recent weeks of testing, including a factory mishap, that damaged a portion of a future New Glenn rocket, Bloomberg reports. The upper portion of one rocket crumpled into itself, in part due to worker error, while it was being moved to a storage hangar, the publication reported. In a separate incident, another upper rocket portion failed during stress testing and exploded. Repairs are underway, another person said, noting there were no injuries during either episode.

Running into a tight timeline ... Notably, the incidents with these stages involved hardware that had been intended for use on the second and third launches. The upper stage that will be used by the first launch of New Glenn appears to not have been impacted. It is unclear whether these incidents will impact the debut launch of New Glenn, which is facing a tight deadline in mid-October to launch a Mars mission for NASA. More on this in the next item. (submitted by brianrhurley)

 

The problem with “step by step, ferociously” is when there’s a misstep you aren’t equipped to rapidly replace hardware laboriously constructed over the course of many months. I wonder if they included this probability in their calculations on maximizing savings through hardware reliability. It needs to be robust enough to handle the knock arounds that come with repeated use. I’m sure they’re smart enough to learn from this but are they too stubborn or are they also flexible enough as well. Shit will happen(and has), that much is a given. Time will tell how well they deal with it and how hard the articles are to repair.

 

Consumer confidence in Blue Origin teeeetering...best they have is repairs are underwayyeh no shat, to the building, the tank is scrap...

Meanwhile Polaris Dawn will be using equipment of my shop, as SpaceX does for every crewed mission. It's not sleek or sexy but it is functional. So they tuck them behind the seats. What you see is the tube by her right hand providing "comfort air"
#nowyouknow

 

Hey could salvage a few things. I mean a mostly empty vessel going from warm air to cold air crushing like a soda can isn't exactly rocket surgery, but maybe the engines and such are intact.

That said.. are they using a wet/dry vac for 'comfort air'? That'd be amazing.

 

The technology isn't drastically improved from these 60 years ago. Not a wet/dry vac, youd be surprised how much what we hand to X looks like an anodized version of this...

 

So, a fan, a battery, and a block of ice?

 

Wow you nailed it!


Zero electronics

 

Okay, ngl, but I now want to be in an elevator where the top floor is marked "Space".

 

Unless insomnia hits, I’m going to rely on the replay…
https://x.com/spacex/status/1828156805958299680?s=46

 

https://x.com/spacex/status/1828225406996287814?s=46

 

It was inevitable…

 

https://oig.nasa.gov/office-of-inspector-general-oig/audit-reports/nasas-management-of-the-mobile-launcher-2-project/

“NASA is developing a second mobile launcher (ML-2)—the ground structure used to assemble, transport, and launch the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew capsule—to support larger variants of the SLS beginning with the Artemis IV mission. ML-2’s cost and schedule are not sustainable despite NASA’s efforts to improve project performance.”

 

It gets roasted and shock waved each launch but being mobile can’t be constructed or reinforced to the same extent as the mechazilla and OLM which also need repairs but only weeks worth not months or years. I’ve no idea whether stacking at the pad is a possibility or could become one for Artemis but it’s obvious the simpler and more rapid SPMTs represent an enormous upgrade and cost savings over mobilizing the entire assembly/launch infrastructure. Granted there are no SRBs to deal with but KSC at least has the land available to build what’s needed. This seems to be a Peter Principle issue. Is there any possibility that mobile launchers will be relegated to use below a certain thrust exposure?

 

An empty SLS, even with solids attached, should be transportable on a crawler of sufficient size. The whole tower thing is ridiculous especially for a rocket that’ll be obsolete in a year or two.