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

It might be the first time anyone has used gyro's only to orient a small satellite against an expanded thermosphere. Other satellite at such low level might have previously used reaction to orient themselves. I'm going to guess it's a fairly unique set of circumstances.
 
Human for scale.

Hu9GvGe.jpg
 
Just been watching the Astra launch... That 2nd stage didnt look too healthy at all :eek: I dont know what the stage separation sequence usually looks like on the Astra rocket, but it seemed to stall, and when the 2nd engine started it got sent tumbling. To be fair its only their 8th launch vehicle and 1st commercial launch. I guess boo-boos are bound to happen it'll take a few tries to get it nailed.
 
steve45 said:
Just been watching the Astra launch... That 2nd stage didnt look too healthy at all :eek: I dont know what the stage separation sequence usually looks like on the Astra rocket, but it seemed to stall, and when the 2nd engine started it got sent tumbling. To be fair its only their 8th launch vehicle and 1st commercial launch. I guess boo-boos are bound to happen it'll take a few tries to get it nailed.
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Yeah, definitely not right.
 
looking back at it, I think there was an issue with fairing release, I dont think it fully seperated. Then when the 2nd stage fired it has knocked into it it caused an uncontrolable spin.

I feel bad for them. The commercial space flight market is bloody tough, especially when you have the likes of SpaceX reliably launching and recovering like clockwork. I get that they are aiming at a different end of the market but people have begun to expect a certain level of reliability thats clearly going to be difficult for a smaller new operation like Astra. I hope this failure dosnt hit them too hard. I'd imagine the payload will be insured anyway. Must be frustrating for the universities who had a payload onboard though. Guess thats all part of the game though, there will always be inherent risk when it comes to spaceflight.
 
Raptor-2, smaller than Raptor-1, far less complicated than Raptor-1 and yet gives and extra 45t of thrust at sea-level (outputs 230t, the Raptor-1 did 185t). And also appears to screw into the rocket like a light bulb.

T5BQswX.jpg
 
Malevolence said:
Raptor-2, smaller than Raptor-1, far less complicated than Raptor-1 and yet gives and extra 45t of thrust at sea-level (outputs 230t, the Raptor-1 did 185t). And also appears to screw into the rocket like a light bulb.
Click to expand...
:D It's a metallic bellows that allows for movement like expansion and contraction, from first impressions anyway.
 
steve45 said:
looking back at it, I think there was an issue with fairing release, I dont think it fully seperated.
Click to expand...

Yep.


Short version - fairing failed to separate, when the second stage ignited the pressure blew it open, second stage tumbled away, mission lost.
 
There will be (weather depending etc) a Space X launch to the ISS when I'm in the US so I am going to see it, cant wait. Think it was Apr 15. It says its a Falcon 9, probably means more to you guys. My brother in law was lucky enough to see the shuttle launch during a previous holiday.
I didn't even consider checking for any launches, sort of happened by accident.
 
Been looking at them over the past year or so, still can't comprehend how anything can handle the Gforces involved, mental :)
 
I like reading up on space related stuff. I have spoken to the astronauts on the ISS a couple of times when they pass over the UK on the 2M VHF Ham band. Uplink frequency is 145.200 MHz and there downlink frequency is 145.800 MHz
 
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