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

Terminal_Boy said:
Just goes to show what you can do with a fat bag of cash and the government isn’t involved.
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It does help when the fat bag of cash is going to the right people, rather than just as a way of preserving jobs/contracts for those people and companies that worked on the Shuttle program (SLS).

The fact that after throwing the fat bag of cash at the initial developments, they've been able to successfully commercialize launches speaks volumes for how SpaceX has been run as a successful Business (~$3 Billion profit last year)


Penfold101 said:
It’s a weird one - I prefer how NASA launched the SLS at its first attempt and it succeeded in getting to orbit and sending the capsule round the moon on its planned mission. Due to all the checks, audits, accountability etc that go with government programs they have to get it right first time and has a lot of overhead checks which is good. It just takes a horrific amount of time and is subject to many political problems which I hate.
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You'd have to hope though that it would go right first time, since it's not exactly new technology or design being used (being largely based on Shuttle components), even if it is being used in a slightly different way.


ic1male said:
Today's the day for the launch of Europa Clipper at 1706 BST


www.bbc.co.uk

Europa Clipper: Spacecraft blasts off to hunt alien life on a distant moon

Nasa's spacecraft could change what we know about life in our solar system.
www.bbc.co.uk
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And launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy :)
 
Blackjack Davy said:
Blew up at the end though, even though it wasn't supposed to be a recoverable unit
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That may have been deliberate using the flight termination system - otherwise you have to go and disarm a floating bomb n the middle of the ocean…

Richard - London said:

The water landing looks crazy, the ship was underwear and the camera still going
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The camera survived launch, the vacuum of space and re-entry - water should be a piece of cake!
 
Blackjack Davy said:
"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE. USE THEM TOGETHER. USE THEM IN PEACE". Arthur C. Clarke, 2010

I guess they're not landing...
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They’re not even orbiting it - the radiation from Jupiter would kill the probe in months at most. Both the Clipper and Europe’s JUICE mission will be doing flyby’s of Europa in large orbits that take it out of the danger zone for most of the time.


Also, aliens said so.
 
drakulton said:
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I've lost track of the times I've watched IFT-5 now, So many different angles and viewpoints, a simple upscaling of the official stream does it wonders. It genuinely dosnt get any less impressive.
I cant wait to see where we go from here. I feel like we are genuinely on the cusp of a new chapter in humanity. In our current form we have peaked. We need to move beyond the confines of our current existence and I feel we are moving slowly towards that despite constant setbacks by other world actors... We've got some work to do as a society before we reach that, but we are moving towards it step by step.
 
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steve45 said:
I've lost track of the times I've watched IFT-5 now, So many different angles and viewpoints, a simple upscaling of the official stream does it wonders. It genuinely dosnt get any less impressive.
I cant wait to see where we go from here. I feel like we are genuinely on the cusp of a new chapter in humanity. In our current form we have peaked. We need to move beyond the confines of our current existence and I feel we are moving slowly towards that despite constant setbacks by other world actors... We've got some work to do as a society before we reach that, but we are moving towards it step by step.
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Your first paragraph I agree with.

The second is just waffle that means absolutely nothing - all we’ve done is launch a bit rocket a few times. Recovering the booster is impressive tech, but that is not a ‘new chapter in humanity’…
 
steve45 said:
I've lost track of the times I've watched IFT-5 now, So many different angles and viewpoints, a simple upscaling of the official stream does it wonders. It genuinely dosnt get any less impressive.
I cant wait to see where we go from here. I feel like we are genuinely on the cusp of a new chapter in humanity. In our current form we have peaked. We need to move beyond the confines of our current existence and I feel we are moving slowly towards that despite constant setbacks by other world actors... We've got some work to do as a society before we reach that, but we are moving towards it step by step.
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Moving to what though? Probably something like the film Elysium. I can't really see anything happening that will make humanity any better. There are no planets to move to. I love the science of it all but I can just see rich man's space flights and the moon probably getting mined to an inch of its life if there is anything worth getting. Then that will be something else we've ****** up.
 
Looks like more work still to do; for starship it still has issues with heating as plasma burnt through the fins. For the booster, the grid fins, and engines all suffered from melting
 
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