SpaceX

[gotbeer]

Firefly Aerospace Alpha Rocket Poised for Fifth Flight at Vandenberg SFB

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Alpha’s latest mission, dubbed Noise of Summer, is scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex-2 at 9:03 p.m. Monday within a 30-minute launch window.

 

[gotbeer]

Firefly scrubbed twice.  No go.  Damn too bad.  Wanted to see how different this one is from SpaceX.  

[Tank]

36 minutes ago, gotbeer said:

Firefly scrubbed twice.  No go.  Damn too bad.  Wanted to see how different this one is from SpaceX.  

bummer. i'd like to see how different it looks compared to the spacex rocket. 

[gotbeer]

Vandenberg Space Force Base postpones launch of eight small satellites to Tuesday evening

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VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. – Firefly Aerospace rescheduled the launch of a Venture Class Launch Services Demo 2 carrying eight CubeSats originally scheduled for 9:03 p.m. Monday to 9:03 p.m. Tuesday night.

 

[gotbeer]

Japan's H3 rocket makes second successful launch

[gotbeer]

Strike 2.

UPDATE: Firefly standing down from Tuesday night launch attempt

[gotbeer]

and the third pitch.

Firefly targeting Wednesday night for Alpha 5 launch

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The rocket is now set to liftoff at 9:04 p.m. from SLC-2 at Vandenberg, according to the aerospace company.

 

[gotbeer]

Boo.  Marine Layer, couldn't see a thing.  

[Amazing Larry]

Hurricane Beryl might be headed toward Starbase. 

[Redondo]

A little off topic 

NASA prepares to decommission the International Space Station

Companies from the US and allied countries plan for next orbital laboratory

 

[gotbeer]

Geeze.  They just keep rolling them out.

Vandenberg SFB Starts Email, Text Alerts Ahead of Next SpaceX Launch

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Once aiming for Monday night, the mission reportedly has been delayed until Wednesday night.

Liftoff is targeting 7 p.m. Wednesday with other opportunities until 11 p.m., according to SpaceX.

 

[PattyD22]

8 hours ago, gotbeer said:

Geeze.  They just keep rolling them out.

Vandenberg SFB Starts Email, Text Alerts Ahead of Next SpaceX Launch

 

@gotbeerdid tonight’s SpaceX launch get delayed until tomorrow?  I had it for tonight, but I’m hearing it’s been delayed.  Wondering if you heard the same?

[gotbeer]

1 hour ago, PattyD22 said:

@gotbeerdid tonight’s SpaceX launch get delayed until tomorrow?  I had it for tonight, but I’m hearing it’s been delayed.  Wondering if you heard the same?

Yeah, looks like it was delayed.

https://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/

[gotbeer]

Elon Musk sets a date for the fifth flight of Starship

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The Starship from SpaceX is about to take to the skies again. The most powerful rocket ever built, standing at 122 meters tall, will perform its fifth test flight in four weeks, as announced by Elon Musk a few days ago on Twitter.

 

[gotbeer]

SpaceX planning Thursday evening launch out of Vandenberg Space Force Base

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The rocket is scheduled to launch at 7:39 p.m. with backup opportunities available until 11:37 p.m.

 

[Jay]

Another textbook launch. Looking forward to the pics.

[Tank]

not sure where else to post this, so here we are.

this is the mars rover curiosity. it's been on mars since 2013. pretty darn good condition, all things considered. 

[Amazing Larry]

49 minutes ago, Jay said:

Another textbook launch. Looking forward to the pics.

There was a rare anomaly. Also I didn’t see a trail so I think the flight path was toward the west.

 

[gotbeer]

Hopefully spacex can fix it quick.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets grounded by FAA, putting Space Coast missions on indefinite hold

But I mean, that was quite a streak.  

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"This event is a reminder of how technically challenging spaceflight is. To date, we have completed 364 successful Falcon launches — safely carrying astronauts, customer payloads and thousands of Starlink satellites to orbit — making the Falcon family of rockets one of the most reliable in the world," the SpaceX statement said.

 

[TBM-850]

The thrust of those ion engines is incredibly low, like a tiny fraction of a pound. The benefit is that they can burn for hours at a time, or as long as the solar panels are in sunlight. Not early enough thrust to save this batch imo.

 

Normally the second stage circularizes the orbit to around 280km but the failure caused most of the sats to be in a 130km x 280km elliptical orbit. Every orbit when they dip to 130km they will slow down from the atmospheric drag. 250+ consecutive successful launches and landings is great though, especially considering some of the first stages have been reused around 20 times.

 

ESA finally launched their Ariane 6 but at $100M per launch it's already obsolete. They will still get some Euro govt  launches and some Bezos kuiper launches but you can't compete throwing away the rocket every launch. Should have scrapped it and redesigned it for reusability. Even Falcon 9, as successful as it has been, won't compete with Starship's full reusability, as Falcon 9 still throws away the upper stage. 

 

Starlink Mini is now available. Fits in a backpack, runs on a battery. I already have regular Starlink and don't really need the portability but it's a nice option to have.

[TBM-850]

Would be cool if they start launching starship from Vandenberg. Since they can't launch over land (unlike China who doesn't give a F), they have to follow the Ca coast to the south. Not ideal for max payload but it still works. It probably wouldn't happen for a few years until after Texas and Florida launches are maxed out but there's no reason not to do it.

[Slegnaac]

Bloomberg tv just reported SpaceX to move HQ from California to Texas.

That will be a real blow to Hawthorne and the surrounding cities.

 

[Jay]

SpaceX finds cause of Falcon 9 failure, eyes return to flight as soon as July 27

https://www.yahoo.com/news/spacex-finds-cause-falcon-9-001021386.html

The cause of the leak is a mystery no longer. It resulted from "a crack in a sense line for a pressure sensor attached to the vehicle’s oxygen system," SpaceX announced in an update on Thursday afternoon (July 25). "This line cracked due to fatigue caused by high loading from engine vibration and looseness in the clamp that normally constrains the line."

[gotbeer]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

SpaceX finds cause of Falcon 9 failure, eyes return to flight as soon as July 27

https://www.yahoo.com/news/spacex-finds-cause-falcon-9-001021386.html

The cause of the leak is a mystery no longer. It resulted from "a crack in a sense line for a pressure sensor attached to the vehicle’s oxygen system," SpaceX announced in an update on Thursday afternoon (July 25). "This line cracked due to fatigue caused by high loading from engine vibration and looseness in the clamp that normally constrains the line."

Just amazing that they can diagnose the problem, have a fix, test, and be ready to launch in what 2 weeks?

[Jay]

2 hours ago, gotbeer said:

Just amazing that they can diagnose the problem, have a fix, test, and be ready to launch in what 2 weeks?

It's amazing to me that they can diagnose a problem on hardware that exploded in outer space.