The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond

Cosimo · 26 Feb 2016 at 05:58

Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA about the accomplishments of his year long mission:

deuse · 26 Feb 2016 at 07:01

Cosimo said:
Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA about the accomplishments of his year long mission:

Well don Scott Kelly. I'm jealous

Cosimo · 26 Feb 2016 at 11:17

Jan Woerner, Director General of the European Space Agency wants to build a permanent base station on the Moon:

Glaucus · 26 Feb 2016 at 12:25

I hope we do, as much as I want us to go to mars, a base on moon makes far more sense, Leo - lunar infrastructure first, redirect an asteroid for even more resources.

Cosimo · 27 Feb 2016 at 05:48

This week:

Cosimo · 27 Feb 2016 at 06:27

Expedition 47-48 Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams of NASA press conference:

Scheduled to launch on March 19.

Glaucus · 28 Feb 2016 at 23:41

Another attempt in about 6mins. Webcast is live.
Winds are still a worry, hopefully they've fixed the propellant loading problem.

Glaucus · 28 Feb 2016 at 23:50

FFS range issue, hold hold hold call at -1:33
Wonder if someone has sailed a boat into exclusion zone that has happened before.
Annoying as propellant was gully loaded and winds within safety range.

96minute launch window so we wait to see what happens now.

Edit - yep stupid ship.

Glaucus · 29 Feb 2016 at 00:11

Count down is back on 00:19
However ship is still in the range. If it isn't cleared then that's the last opportunity tonight and it'll be scrubbed.

Glaucus · 29 Feb 2016 at 00:21

Something went wrong, launch aborted after ignition.

Never seen that before. Wonder if that has happened.

Spitfir3 · 29 Feb 2016 at 00:23

Oh another abort...

Rosbif · 29 Feb 2016 at 00:25

Damnit, does this mean the launch is a no go for today?

Glaucus · 29 Feb 2016 at 00:26

Spitfir3 said:
Oh another abort...

Worryingly after ignition.
Until they issue a reason can only assume on board computer saw errors in one it more of the Merlins thrusts.

Glaucus · 29 Feb 2016 at 00:28

Rosbif said:
Damnit, does this mean the launch is a no go for today?

Does indeed and will probably be at least a few days, depending what the issue is.

Glaucus · 29 Feb 2016 at 00:36

Aborted due to low thrust alarm.

Wont see this baby launch for a while.

Cosimo · 29 Feb 2016 at 07:25

Rising oxygen temps due to hold for boat and that triggered the alarm:

CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that a low thrust alarm led computers to cut off the rocket’s nine Merlin 1D main engines about a second before it would have lifted off from Launch Complex 40.

That was caused in part, Musk said on Twitter, by the rocket sitting on the pad an extra 35 minutes longer than expected, after a boat wandered into its flight path.

“Hold, hold, hold!” an Eastern Range safety officer called shortly before a planned 6:46 p.m. ET liftoff.

No description of the boat was given, but Musk said helicopters were scrambled to clear it from the hazard area.

The launch time was pushed back to 7:21 p.m.

The wait caused liquid oxygen loaded into the rocket’s propellant tanks to heat up, and a “helium bubble triggered (the) alarm,” Musk said.

It was not clear how quickly the rocket would be ready for a fourth launch attempt.

Glaucus · 29 Feb 2016 at 07:48

That I just don't believe and only part of the reason.
I mean a fraction if a second went from fine to high come on. The clock had hit 0 and the engines where lit.
It also wouldn't be the first time spaceX has tried to hide the real cause back on the og mission 2 launch soacex declared high winds at landing zone reason fir scrub. Yet og mission 2, says spaceX scrubbed the launch due to erroneous static fire test data.

Cosimo · 29 Feb 2016 at 08:16

The aborted launch:

chris.tarry85 · 29 Feb 2016 at 10:52

Had a great day at the National Space Centre on Saturday with my ten year old.

Attended breakfast and a Q&A with Don Thomas (a four time shuttle astronaut who was also slated for an early ISS mission) and also an object handling session including some shuttle tools, space flown heat tiles from Buran and various other bits and pieces.

It seems these places attract the worst behaved kids though! - even my ten year old commented on it.

Cosimo · 29 Feb 2016 at 14:50

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, as he and crewmates Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos, prepare for their mission (March 19):

** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond