Space General Space News, Image and Discussion Thread

Flintsteel

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So SpaceX won the moon lander project, which is sad for my company.
A good chunk of the blame goes to Congress, which refused to provide the funding NASA requested.

Of course, Space-X's bid was just flat-out better than the others, as I understand it. More capable and cheaper. IIRC, Blue Origin was basically thrown out for not even meeting the requirements, and the other was just hella-expensive and barely up-to-snuff.
 

Abhorsen

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A good chunk of the blame goes to Congress, which refused to provide the funding NASA requested.

Of course, Space-X's bid was just flat-out better than the others, as I understand it. More capable and cheaper. IIRC, Blue Origin was basically thrown out for not even meeting the requirements, and the other was just hella-expensive and barely up-to-snuff.
I'm not surprised we lost to be honest. Our company works usually on costs plus, which is the stupidest thing around and balloons costs.
 

LordSunhawk

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Of course, the SpaceX proposal is for a spacecraft that currently is blowing up over and over and over again.
 

Flintsteel

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Of course, the SpaceX proposal is for a spacecraft that currently is blowing up over and over and over again.
They've blown up more than the other two bidders have built combined... :p

Also, they lost quite a few Falcon-9's getting the landing down, and the belly-flop is a whole new maneuver which apparently is a pain to get right (and won't be needed for the moon). Their track record is solid, and they've got a few years anyway (now if only NASA could get rid of that multi-billion/year boondoggle of the Senate Lunch System).
 

LordSunhawk

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Note, I love Space-X, but I still am going to laugh at how Starship seems to be the All Boom, No Zoom rocket ^_^

The pure Space-X fanboys get so annoying with their constant belittling of everybody else that it's nice to have something to tease them about that riles them up as much as Starship blowing up time after time.
 

Laskar

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Note, I love Space-X, but I still am going to laugh at how Starship seems to be the All Boom, No Zoom rocket ^_^

The pure Space-X fanboys get so annoying with their constant belittling of everybody else that it's nice to have something to tease them about that riles them up as much as Starship blowing up time after time.
"A pint of rocket fuel on the launch pad will save a gallon of blood in the stratosphere."
-IDK, maybe Werner von Braun?

That's kind of what I like about SpaceX. I try not to be a fanboy, but it's hard not to appreciate a company willing to make take risks and learn from mistakes.
 

Bacle

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SpaceX using stainless steel instead of Aluminum was a real cost saver and allowed them to do things you cannot with normal lightweight rocket body materials.

It also lets them recycle the scrap a lot easier and minimize material loss from crashes/RUDs.
 

Doomsought

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SpaceX using stainless steel instead of Aluminum was a real cost saver and allowed them to do things you cannot with normal lightweight rocket body materials.
Steel really is a super-material that most people don't appreciate as much as they should. It can be made into alloys with an incredible range of properties with only a small amount of additives and heat treatment.
 

gral

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And it looks like SpaceX did. SN15 back on the pad, there was a fire near the base of the ship that seems to have been extinguished.
 

Husky_Khan

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Voyager I detected a HUM from distant plasma waves... Sadly it doesn't confirm alien life, but is apparently something to be expected in this interstellar medium.


SciTechDaily said:
Cornell research scientist Shami Chatterjee explained how continuous tracking of the density of interstellar space is important. “We’ve never had a chance to evaluate it. Now we know we don’t need a fortuitous event related to the sun to measure interstellar plasma,” Chatterjee said. “Regardless of what the sun is doing, Voyager is sending back detail. The craft is saying, ‘Here’s the density I’m swimming through right now. And here it is now. And here it is now. And here it is now.’ Voyager is quite distant and will be doing this continuously.”
 

Bacle

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Well, that would be a good way to do a suborbital/orbital attempt while staying inside US territory.

Edit: Ok, never mind, they are going from Texas to Hawaii the long way around, going east from Florida. That's definitely a long distance orbital hop.
 

Flintsteel

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Eh, it makes sense. You want to go US-to-US, since I bet SS/SH is ITAR'd to hell & back. But since this will be the first orbital-speed re-entry, you want plenty of room to mess up.
 

gral

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