Space and Science BS Thread

I thought NASA requires so many successful flights before certifying the frame for human flight?

 

NASA does but if SpaceX is launching a private mission not associated with NASA they can do what they want.

 

I was wondering about that - does the FAA have a say?

 

Yes, yes they will.

 

Possibly not if they launch from the oil platform out in international waters.

 

They are currently with the red tape they're currently stringing out on the environmental impact.

 

Us company with US passengers will go through the FAA regardless of the launch site... but if it's a US registered vessel in US waters... I think I know another agency that might be interested too.

That said, the current 'commercial spaceflight' regulations are pretty 'buyer beware' so if Issacman wants to be the guinea pig, it's on him.

 

There’s so much to learn and so many different starship iterations and projected uses that they won’t run out of uncrewed needs any time soon. Aside from lunar missions having it available for next gen habsats even as a drone ship will be huge. Finding missions should be the least of their problems. On the contrary, fitting all the necessary testing into the missions they have available might be more of an issue. I sincerely hope that Spacex engineers are up to the task of proving a new vehicle and all it’s assorted paraphernalia. It’s like the mother of all motherships(not earthbound).

 

I'm gonna assume they're mostly gonna throw tankers or cargo missions first. Everything else.. it's a space pickup truck. Throw what you want into the bed fairing and weld it down.

 

So basically it will be what they originally hoped the space shuttle would have been.

 

I don’t think it’s quite that simple.

 

Crewed? I’d have a hard time thinking SpaceX would risk all they’ve built over the past two decades by loopholing (if that’s truly the case) by sending it up from a platform.

 

Is it possible to have too many Apollo pic books? I think not:

https://twitter.com/andysaunders_1/status/1493935261218131971?s=21

 

I've been up and down SLS this morning and there's no way they roll for wet dress March 8 like the schedule says. I was able to take a look around the white room as well, the clean room they have surrounding the Orion hatch. That was my first time in there. I'm calling a July-August launch, when Florida is 400 degrees during the day.

 

Yup. Except cheap to build and run. No external tank to throw away, no SRBs that were 'reused' at a cost higher than just building a new one...

 

That's encouraging. /s

 

How big of a booster can I fit without cutting the capsule mount?

 

ULA union heading for a strike? (contact negotiations haven’t started yet - it’s about unity going in)
https://www.waff.com/2022/02/14/uni...rkers-gets-historic-100-strike-sanction-vote/

 

ULA is the same union as I am in, different lodge. First vote should almost always be unanimous to show how much leverage they have.

 

Huh….

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1494021603147108353?s=21