** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
China's first manned space docking mission, Shenzhou 9, is due to launch at 11:37 BST (06:37 EDT).
Watch it live here:
More on the mission:
Watch it live here:
More on the mission:
Shenzhou 9 launch:
Soldato
In preparation for their LES test, which is (i believe) on Friday. I haven't seen any sketches for what sort of rocket would carry this, theoretically...
The Shenzhou 9 spacecraft docked with the Tiangong 1 laboratory module at 07:08 BST. Start at 06:00:
Ticks his checklist at 08:00
Commander Jing Haipeng and Liu Yang will enter the Tiangong 1 module at 10:22 BST.
Ticks his checklist at 08:00
Commander Jing Haipeng and Liu Yang will enter the Tiangong 1 module at 10:22 BST.
Soldato
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/diy-capsule-drop-test-evaluations/
Now while this doesn't seem to be a particularly ideal scenario, i guess it's workable. You just wouldn't want to stay there for a long time
Now while this doesn't seem to be a particularly ideal scenario, i guess it's workable. You just wouldn't want to stay there for a long time
The three astronauts are now aboard Tiangong-1 space laboratory:
OTV-2 returns after its 468 day mission:
Soldato
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/diy-capsule-drop-test-evaluations/
Now while this doesn't seem to be a particularly ideal scenario, i guess it's workable. You just wouldn't want to stay there for a long time
The hatches are underwater - even if the crew were able to force them open against the pressure differential, the capsule would start flooding. It's very likely this would cause the astronauts to drown.
Here is what happens when a space capsule starts taking on water even with the capsule itself oriented correctly. The hatch blew prematurely, and the lone pilot nearly drowned since his space suit made swimming difficult.
It would be salvageable if the rescue ship was able to re-orient the capsule in the water or lift it out. But those hatches are designed to stop air going out, not to stop water coming in. It's a bit of a hairy situation.
Soldato
I believe the capsule was designed to exist in both Stable I and Stable II situations. Although since Stable II is obviously a lot less desirable they have a system of uprighting bags which can flip the capsule over, only they didn't completely inflate (probably) due to a short. They're working on it. As tests go, i'm pretty sure they found out what they needed to find out.
The difference between this an Mercury is that this doesn't have an explosive hatch. For simplicity's sake they basically bolted on the hatch as many times as they could. In fact, i think it can only be opened from the outside. This is liable to change in future iterations though (as in, the iterations that might eventually carry a person). You can read up on the hatch design, it was largely crowd sourced. Come to think of it, if you have a legitimate concern/suggestions for improvement then post them in the comments, Kristian often replies.
The difference between this an Mercury is that this doesn't have an explosive hatch. For simplicity's sake they basically bolted on the hatch as many times as they could. In fact, i think it can only be opened from the outside. This is liable to change in future iterations though (as in, the iterations that might eventually carry a person). You can read up on the hatch design, it was largely crowd sourced. Come to think of it, if you have a legitimate concern/suggestions for improvement then post them in the comments, Kristian often replies.
Soldato
Well yes, NASA took the explosive hatch feature out of future spacecraft after that incident. It's a rather cruel twist of fate that the astronaut who survived the incident of the hatch opening too easily, was incinerated in Apollo 1 because the hatch wouldn't open.
So yeah, you have to be careful about these things.
Soldato
Which in turn caused them to do away with all Oxygen environments (where possible) and flammable materials (like Gus told them to from the start).
More testing:
An Atlas 5 is going up at 13:28 – 14:27 BST from Cape Canaveral. The launch is live here:
http://www.livestream.com/spaceflightnow
http://www.livestream.com/spaceflightnow
GO has been given for launch.
The Atlas 5 with NROL-38 is on its way:
Soldato
What's that satellite for?
Classified mission for the US National Reconnaissance Office.
Soldato
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2116436,00.html
Just saw this... some good news for a change? I doubt the lack of shuttle would make launching too much of a problem, seems most modern launch vehicles would be capable of it.
Just saw this... some good news for a change? I doubt the lack of shuttle would make launching too much of a problem, seems most modern launch vehicles would be capable of it.