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

beachBOYken said:
I thought that was the Dragon, lol. How often can the ISS be seen?
Click to expand...

When passing over or near UK probably a couple of times a night at dusk, while it's still in view of the sun. It'll pass over many times a day and at night, but most of the time won't be visible.

Needs to be dark enough so we have enough contrast from our viewpoint, and the ISS needs to still be in the direct path of sunlight so we can pick up the reflected light.

As an example, it'll be back over us at about 1140, but wont be visible because it will be fully in shade.

Looks like the orbit is tracking progressively South, so in a week or so I suspect we won't be able to see it for another few months.
 
Last edited:
ic1male said:
Space Station is rubbish. If it was a Coriolis model, I would have been in on the first attempt. :p
Click to expand...

I did everything perfectly on my first go, speed 0.16m/s, all numbers in the green - Said I failed for speed too high - Balls!

Edit - I think I busted the "lower than 0.2m/s speed" BEFORE 5m distance as I think i slowed to 0.16 at around 4.5m. Did it again, passed no problems.

I cured Pitch, Roll, Yaw to start and then you don't need to use that RH pad again. Then I used LH pad lateral controls to line up on Diamond, then just move forward "quite fast" until 50m, then very slow at 20m then <0.2m/s at 10m and all the time using tiny corrections on the LH pad to keep the diamond in the centre.
 
Last edited:
SourChipmunk said:
As a live witness to the Challenger disaster in '96, I have to say I was a little tense watching this launch. Especially after another SpaceX prototype explosion just yesterday. Was wonderful to see it go off without a hitch.

They put a lot of effort into redesigning the suits to something lighter, more comfortable, and more maneuverable. I think they looked great!
One article about them: https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-design-spacex-spacesuits-worn-nasa-astronauts-2020-5

Seems every time I see one of the engine landings, the camera always fails right at the moment of landing. I wasn't able to see the Twitter post SDK linked about it. Must be electrical interference right at that time?
Click to expand...
You of course meant ‘86 :p

Here is the video of why the Landing video always cuts from the drone ship.

 
Saw ISS and Dragon last night, dragon was much smaller and fainter than ISS and flickered constantly in and out of view.

was easily able to photograph ISS but no luck capturing Dragon
 
SpaceX are the only launch company right now doing the booster landings. Everyone laughed at them before they actually managed it, Jeff Bezos New Origin company will be also doing landings but they aren't quite there yet.
 
Huggie86 said:
SpaceX are the only launch company right now doing the booster landings. Everyone laughed at them before they actually managed it, Jeff Bezos New Origin company will be also doing landings but they aren't quite there yet.
Click to expand...
I imagine it's a big money saver because they can obviously be serviced and used for many more launches.
 
robfosters said:
I imagine it's a big money saver because they can obviously be serviced and used for many more launches.
Click to expand...


Got these stats from another space thread!

  • 52 successful landings. (19 on land; 33 on barge)
  • 35 stage reuses across 23 first stages. (11 used 2x; 6 used 3x; 5 used 4x; 1 used 5x)
  • Designed to be used up to 10x before major refurbishment.
  • Best estimate of the price of a new first stage is $25M (plus $16M for the second stage, and $6M for fairings)
  • By contrast, a reused first stage costs about $1M to inspect between flights (per Elon's latest interviews).
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom