Space and Science BS Thread

Just a year ago…

https://twitter.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1469011955230953473?s=21

 

I met Gene Cernan some years ago at the Reagan library. Nice guy. Very passionate about space exploration.

 

The last thing Cernan did before leaving the moon was to write his daughter's name in the dirt

 

I still want the first Falcon heavy to explode so I can see if I can feel that blast wave all the way in Canada.

 

Starship/superheavy ... FH is already flying and the first one sent the roadster to interplanetary space.

 

Still want splosions.

 

Guessing you watch hockey for the fights, NASCAR for the crashes…

 

Ref hockey, fighting should be banned. NASCAR is like watching your neighbour mow his lawn but he can only turn one direction.

Still like big booms in the private space industry.

 

Not really something I’d wish for since often someone(s) pay dearly. It will happen though.

 

https://twitter.com/senbillnelson/status/1469053054121136130?s=21

 

RUD's are flashy, but it sets the timeline to space back so many months.

 

And sometimes people die…

 

The first couple of Starships will likely explode. They may try to simulate landing over water, but one 1 rocket that i can recall has actually survived a water landing, and they blew that one up iirc. Then you get into them trying to catch a booster with that arm, so many potential outcomes there, and reality is there is probably one ONE outcome there that doesn't end in explosions. It looks as though they are focusing on getting orbital, then launch Starlink v2, then fine tune the landings. There's even the chance that we won't see a ground based landing for a while depending how far they are with the oil rig retrofits. On the rig there is a good chance the launch platform would be the only really vulnerable piece. Everything else will probably be below deck.

 

Has EM or SpaceX released any info/updates on the oil rigs?

 

Slight timeline issue -

Every 'test' launch will release a batch or two of starlink v2s. That and rtls is pretty proven right now - I'm gonna bet flight 2 will involve a superheavy catch attempt (if the splash works well).

 

Nope. Sounds like 'they were cheap and we'll need them', no active work so far.

 

Oh. Phooey.

 

Last update I saw on them they were still stripping the old equipment off of them getting them ready for the retrofit. Most of the focus has been on Boca Chica and the prototypes that are very near ready to fly.

I believe Spacex does more drone ship landings than rtls landings. It usually works out better to land at sea. Uses less fuel, and there is little to no clean up if a rud happens. I just don't see them risking their only launch site until they are fairly certain they have as much control as they can get. Then again, once everything is fully built it wouldn't surprise me to see them do some booster hops/hovers and catch attempts so maybe we will see a real catch attempt sooner rather than later.

 

You get more upmass when you land on a drone ship, that’s why there are fewer RTLS missions. It doesn’t have anything to do with working out better. If you don’t need the upmass you RTLS.