alfadriver said:
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
Ok, I'll stop questioning Elon musk. We should not question where our tax dollars end up.
Does that mean I get to have an opinion on how every government employee spends his paycheck once he has cashed it? After all, those paychecks came out of taxpayer funds!
No. It was taxpayer money when it was paid to SpaceX for the service they provided launching a spy satellite (a contract that they got by providing best-in class service at a rock bottom price and STILL make a bunch of profit on). Once that has happened it is now SpaceX's money to do with as they wish.
Did anybody catch the Dragon Crew-6 reentry last night? The reentry path took the capsule over central Florida:
I convinced the GF that we needed to stay up and watch. We are north and west of Tampa so we should have a good view, weather permitting.
At about 0009EST, my GF saw it first as it came into view. This looking SE:
I happened to catch it on video too:
About a minute or so after it streaked out of view, we were inside comparing pictures when we heard the sonic boom.
I was totally geeking out lol
Saw the launch. Missed the landing but heard the boom. Need to do better about catching the next landing.
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
If it makes you feel better there are numerous twitter accounts devoted to how government employees spend their money. My Corvette has been on at least two of them as I leave work.
Any launches in Fl today? I just saw what looked like a rocket with extremely long flames coming out of it. By the time I started filming it was smaller.
Screen capture from the video:
Yup, there was a launch tonight around 8:39.
Slippery said:
Any launches in Fl today?
SpaceX has launched 74 Falcons so far this year, with another 25 or so planned for the last 2-and-a-bit months. That's averaging about two a week!
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
They're not all coming out of Florida, but a lot of them are. Looks like Saturday evening.
https://www.spacelaunchschedule.com
Yeah, I’ve heard the roar and realized I missed a launch or two. So I’ll check the schedule for the next one: Okay, now I have to wait until Tuesday.
Still waiting for liftoff. Last night’s scheduled launch was bumped to tonight and then scrubbed at the last minute. Will tomorrow be third time’s the charm? (Haven’t checked for the latest, I admit.)
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Problem with the second stage release mechanism, apparently. How they detected that, I have no idea. Sign of a booster getting old? Two of them are up to 17 flights so far, I think.
Tonight’s launch was excellent. Thanks to clear skies, we watched it from clearing the trees to finally going back behind the trees after arcing overhead. Very defined cone around the rocket. The rocket passed through a small cloud and left it glowing.
We were still watching it when we heard the roar–usually we lose sight by then.
Photo taken from across the street.
There's another big one coming. We're close to a second Super Heavy launch. The rocket's on the pad and has the FTS installed, which is usually the last thing you do before fueling.
It's not going to go fully into orbit the way we think of it, it's designed to have a perigee that's below sea level. This means it'll come back after a partial circumnavigation. The idea is that if something goes wrong after it reaches orbit, we don't end up with an uncontrolled reentry. It'll come down near a Hawaiian naval base. The booster will do a simulated landing over water close to the launch pad.
A fun part of the next launch is hot staging. Basically, the second stage will light up before it's separated from the first so you never lose thrust. Falcon 9 shuts down the first stage, pops the second one free and then lights the engine. Hot staging means no period of freefall between stages, which is estimated to increase the payload to orbit by 10%. Every second you're not under thrust, you're accelerating down by 9.8 m/s^2 and you have to regain that velocity. The Russian rockets do this as do a few older US designs, but none of them try to reuse the booster afterwards!
This is a test flight. It's been given a 60% chance of making it to orbit. There's a bunch of stuff that could go wrong, so don't assume it's a failure if it fails to reach all objectives. That's the nature of hardware rich development - sometimes it's cheaper and easier to just pull the pin and see what you missed. This isn't far off how I do suspension development, spreadsheets can only take you so far - eventually you have to hit the track. Super Heavy isn't just big, it's using a type of engine that's never flown before (other than in SpaceX tests), it's using 33 of them and it's using a fuel that's only made orbit once before. I think we can get through separation, it's a huge success.
Currently scheduled for Wed the 15th.
Second test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. The booster is expected to separate 170 seconds into flight and return to land approximately 32 km off the shore in the Gulf of Mexico. The second stage will follow a suborbital trajectory and perform an unpowered splashdown approximately 100 km off the northwest coast of Kauai (Hawaii).
SpaceX launches another Falcon Heavy on December 7th. Payload is the x-37B. Those are usually fun to watch. Unfortunately we don't get an onboard camera view of the fairing separation or payload release( for obvious reasons).
In reply to aircooled :
Is the license confirmed? I thought that was currently the best estimate.
Of course, that's the day I'm driving to Vegas for the F1 race...
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Yeah, I am not seeing that. I am not sure how old that projected launch date is.
Last info I see is the accident investigation is completed as of Oct 31, but environmental review was still to be done,
Starship is now showing:
Nov 17th, 2023 5:00 AM - 7:39 AM PST
Since they are showing a launch window, does this imply they are cleared to launch? Wishful thinking?
Update, maybe...:
Elon Musk says SpaceX should receive clearance to attempt second Starship launch this week
CEO Elon Musk claimed the company will receive its federal launch license in the coming days, the final hurdle before a second attempt. The company has been waiting for the completion of a federal environmental review led by the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"Was just informed that approval to launch should happen in time for a Friday launch," Musk said in a social media post on Monday evening.....
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/elon-musk-says-spacex-should-receive-clearance-to-attempt-second-starship-launch-this-week/ar-AA1jURJs
In reply to aircooled :
I'm not going to get super-excited until I hear it from the FAA and not from a Musk Tweet :) But boy, that would be a great start to the weekend. Fingers crossed!
Starship is showing go for launch on Friday.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it had awarded SpaceX the launch license for a single Starship flight. On the same day, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service completed a written evaluation of the 2022 Programmatic Environmental Assessment finding “no significant environmental changes.”
Watching the feeds, looks like it's been pushed to Saturday with a T-minus of a little over 39h right now. They're replacing a booster grid fin actuator while Starship is just hanging way up there off to the side.
Sat • Nov 18th, 2023
5:00 AM - 5:20 AM PST
