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

[PermaBanned]

I'm just trying to understand the staging, since the Delta II can launch to HCO and interplanetary - just a guess but is it a case of the boosters and first stage get it off the ground, second stage gets it to LEO and third stage gets it to lunar orbit? Or is the third stage only used when breaking free of the Earth-Moon system?

Anyway, i've been reading up on Gemini - apparently there were proposals to land on the moon with it for 1/20th of the cost of the Apollo project. And while it's a bit cramped (Gusmobile ) i don't think you'd see modern day NASA turn down something like that.

http://astronautix.com/articles/bygemoon.htm

That's a good site by the way, tons of interesting articles. Bit time consuming though

 

[Greg0986]

Just seen the space station going over (again!) and it is really bright. Great view as well, directly over head

 

[PermaBanned]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/17/us-russia-space-idUSTRE77G5GQ20110817

Not good. Where's people's hearts nowadays?

 

[Marine Iguana]

ISS seems a waste of space now then.

 

[Cosimo]

ISS & Satellite Tracking

Just seen the space station going over (again!) and it is really bright. Great view as well, directly over head

The NASA space station tracker:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/

Here's a nice real time tracker:

http://www.n2yo.com/?s=25544

and it has a five day predicition:

http://www.n2yo.com/passes/?s=25544

 

[PermaBanned]

ISS seems a waste of space now then.

Well at least they said they'll fulfil their obligations on the ISS, but still... the US won't have anything for a good few years, Russia seems to be pulling out, what do we have to look forward to? Watching rich people pay for rides on private suborbitals? No thanks

 

[GarethSouthgate]

Surely the ISS will need maintaining though?

 

[PermaBanned]

How is everybody missing literally the first sentence in that article? This is like that time when NASA scrapped the Shuttle and everybody was like "omg so the ISS is abandoned now?".

 

[Cosimo]

How is everybody missing literally the first sentence in that article? This is like that time when NASA scrapped the Shuttle and everybody was like "omg so the ISS is abandoned now?".

Skim and assume is the name of the game.

Don't panic folks:

(Reuters) - Moscow no longer sees manned spaceflight as its top priority but remains committed to its International Space Station obligations, the head of Russian space agency Roskosmos said on Wednesday

 

[PermaBanned]

Well on the plus side they found their missing satellite... on a completely different orbit than it's supposed to be*

http://www.space.com/12688-lost-russian-satellite-wrong-orbit.html

 

[GarethSouthgate]

Well excuse me for not knowing what those obligations are! I assumed they were short-term obligations.

 

[PermaBanned]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14625362

It's worth ten times that anyway, plus it doesn't say just how much of that has already been spent or how much it would cost to operate (not much with the systems already in place i'm guessing).

 

[PermaBanned]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14653371

Roscosmos haven't had much luck with getting into the right orbit lately... still, the article implies that it's in an orbit, i wonder if there'l be some sort of rescue mission mounted, be it from the ground or from the station using the Soyuz' docked there as runabouts.

 

[Tefal]

Well at least they said they'll fulfil their obligations on the ISS, but still... the US won't have anything for a good few years, Russia seems to be pulling out, what do we have to look forward to? Watching rich people pay for rides on private suborbitals? No thanks

all the rich people funding commercial services, and offering huge prizes for people to reach orbit, the moon and Mars?


the massive commercial bodies producing orbital craft, the companies producing spacecraft to transport men and materials to the ISS?


what about the commercial group planning lunar orbit missions soon? heck they're planning their first flight to the moon in 2015 that's sooner than any government as far as i know.


Don't know about you but I'd much prefer to see 20 competitors with 20+ designs than just 2 with decades old stuff.

 

[Cosimo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14653371

Roscosmos haven't had much luck with getting into the right orbit lately... still, the article implies that it's in an orbit, i wonder if there'l be some sort of rescue mission mounted, be it from the ground or from the station using the Soyuz' docked there as runabouts.

Looks like it came back down and crashed:

August 24, 2011 18:40

Progress spacecraft wreckage falls in unpopulated area in Altai
MOSCOW. Aug 24 (Interfax) - The wreckage of the Progress resupply spacecraft came down in the Republic of Altai, causing no destruction.

"The Progress resupply vehicle that failed to reach the target orbit crashed in the Choisk region of the Republic of Altai," a source in the regional law enforcement agencies told Interfax.

The crash caused neither loss of life nor destruction. There are no populated areas near the crash site, he said.

sd eb
(Our editorial staff can be reached at [email protected])

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=268143

 

[PermaBanned]

what about the commercial group planning lunar orbit missions soon? heck they're planning their first flight to the moon in 2015 that's sooner than any government as far as i know.

Source? They all say they can do these amazing things to get publicity but the only one that's even close to doing anything is SpaceX.

How about this:

http://www.copenhagensuborbitals.com/tychobrahe.php

From what i can tell it lands head first. You can barely move your arms. But still, it's amazing back yard engineering. I don't know when that stopped being something us brits were known for...

 

[Cosimo]

Enjoy the ISS:

​

 

[PermaBanned]

I saw that "World" in Space video yesterday, notice it's "Be careful what you wish for" - cut straight to Soyuz

 

[Greg0986]

The NASA space station tracker:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/

Here's a nice real time tracker:

http://www.n2yo.com/?s=25544

and it has a five day predicition:

http://www.n2yo.com/passes/?s=25544

I use this Just choose the city you live in or the closest one and it will show a list of all the sightings for the next month or so

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/region.cgi?country=United_Kingdom&region=England

 

[PermaBanned]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14659005

Right, so all Soyuz launches are grounded until they figure out what went wrong. Would i be right in saying that this is the first time since Yuri Gagarin's flight that humanity has had no manned space flight capability?