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

Malevolence said:
Looking at the weather at Cape Canaveral, it looks like we might get a decent condensation effect as the rocket passes MaxQ. Assuming, of course, we can see it through the cloudbase.

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Amazing.


steve45 said:
I dont care how "routine" these launches get, it never gets old.
This launch just seems ruthlessly efficient, stream start minutes before launch, as soon as the first stage disconnects its already flipping and starting its first entry burn. Every manoeuvre just seems effortless and routine.
8th trip for the first stage as well...:eek:
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+1
 
If I were a multi-billionaire I'd be looking at buying a replacement. All the design work and research is done so it's just a matter of manufacturing another one. A mere couple of hundred million. And there's a certain cachet that you get from large telescopes that you don't get from other toys like yachts. Like having your name splashed around the world. "And here we have the latest stunning picture from the Branson space telescope..."
 
Quartz said:
If I were a multi-billionaire I'd be looking at buying a replacement. All the design work and research is done so it's just a matter of manufacturing another one. A mere couple of hundred million. And there's a certain cachet that you get from large telescopes that you don't get from other toys like yachts. Like having your name splashed around the world. "And here we have the latest stunning picture from the Branson space telescope..."
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Gosh, yeah, easy street. Just got to get PerkinElmer to grind you another mirror trying very hard to get it perfect this time since there's no crewed launch vehicle and system capable of facilitating servicing missions any more...
 
mrk said:
To infinity and beyond?


Infinite universe is interesting, it would also mean that all other types of universe are also true because to be infinite means every possible scenario can and will play out infinitely.
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What a good way to spend 30 minutes, although I do feel much smaller afterwards!
 
It's great isn't it? Always love watching Kipping's videos like this, always makes you wonder, and explained in a way that's easy to digest but all the match and ideas shown clearly.
 
Quartz said:
If I were a multi-billionaire I'd be looking at buying a replacement. All the design work and research is done so it's just a matter of manufacturing another one. A mere couple of hundred million. And there's a certain cachet that you get from large telescopes that you don't get from other toys like yachts. Like having your name splashed around the world. "And here we have the latest stunning picture from the Branson space telescope..."
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The James Webb telescope, the successor to the Hubble telescope, was supposed to have launched by now. There’s been delays but it’s supposed to be launched later this year.

From memory, the James Webb focuses less on visible light and more on infra red. So the original plan was to keep Hubble running alongside it.
 
Greboth said:
The James Webb telescope, the successor to the Hubble telescope, was supposed to have launched by now. There’s been delays but it’s supposed to be launched later this year.
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And the JWT is a state funded (NASA / ESA /CSA) project. Lots of cost overruns, delays, and whatnot thanks to all the barriers they've been discovering and breaking. A replacement Hubble would be old science, so have none of those problems. And a replacement Hubble would complement the JWT very nicely as they operate on different wavelengths.
 
Quartz said:
And the JWT is a state funded (NASA / ESA /CSA) project. Lots of cost overruns, delays, and whatnot thanks to all the barriers they've been discovering and breaking. A replacement Hubble would be old science, so have none of those problems. And a replacement Hubble would complement the JWT very nicely as they operate on different wavelengths.
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Cool.

Now launch it. No shuttle, so you need a heavy lift vehicle and ideally a proven one given the expense and trouble you've gone to in building the telescope.

So you've launched it. And maybe it's initially fine, but a year on develops the kind of gremlin that these things do. Or maybe it's a full-on Donnybrook and you need to do a servicing mission almost immediately. How are you gonna get a crew up there, with parts, to work on the damned thing?

To do all that as NASA is a pretty big deal. To do it privately?

C'mon...
 
JRS said:
Now launch it. No shuttle, so you need a heavy lift vehicle and ideally a proven one given the expense and trouble you've gone to in building the telescope.
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SpaceX. It weighs 11 tonnes. SpaceX' Falcon 9 can carry 22 tonnes to LEO.

JRS said:
And maybe it's initially fine, but a year on develops the kind of gremlin that these things do.
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Tough. Or maybe you get some bright spark to build a robot you can launch to fix it. But it probably won't because the technology is tried and tested. In case you mised it, NASA can't do a servicing mission either. It might even blow up on the launchpad; that happens too, you know, but for a mega-billionaire that's an affordable loss.

The JWT might go boom on the launchpad too.
 
Quartz said:
SpaceX. It weighs 11 tonnes. SpaceX' Falcon 9 can carry 22 tonnes to LEO.
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Yeeeeeessss...that maybe gets it up high enough - Hubble is on a 334mi by 336mi orbit after all. Last I checked Falcon hadn't tried anything quite like kind of mission profile on the regular.

Quartz said:
Tough. Or maybe you get some bright spark to build a robot you can launch to fix it. But it probably won't because the technology is tried and tested.
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I swear to God, SpaceX are breeding a generation who think this **** is genuinely easy...

Quartz said:
In case you mised it, NASA can't do a servicing mission either.
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Actually, I didn't miss it. You know how I didn't? The posts I've been making noting how bloody wild it'd be if NASA tried the trick again. The posts you've been replying to.

Quartz said:
It might even blow up on the launchpad; that happens too, you know
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Oh, so you do accept it's actually pretty difficult getting to space. Jolly good, I was getting rather worried for you.

Quartz said:
but for a mega-billionaire that's an affordable loss.
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Maybe if you find someone very independently wealthy. But the Musks, Bezoseseseses etc do have the odd shareholder to answer to. And they do tend to get a bit narky with huge money being spaffed on stuff with no apparent RoI. Especially when it could be reduced to its component atoms in a rocket explosion...

Quartz said:
The JWT might go boom on the launchpad too.
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Naw, not with Ariane. That usually waits until a little ways into flight before exploding ;)
 
The sheer scale of this thing. I can't even imagine what it'll look like with Starship on top of the booster.

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I'm still amazed its not going to crumple like a tin can when all those raptors fire up and try and lift the mass of it and a fully fuelled starship off the pad. That is a lot of thrust for the thrust puck and super heavy body to take.
 
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