Space - The Final Frontier

[Chuckanut]

Link for live coverage of Starliner launch using YouTube

 

[CaptTom]

Starliner Crew Flight has been scrubbed.

 

[tulak]

More progress from SpaceX. Hopefully it goes smoothly.

Commanded and funded by private astronaut Jared Isaacman, the mission seeks to test new technologies that will further the expansion of humanity into space. Among the objectives are pushing the performance of the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, performing the first commercial spacewalk in a new spacesuit developed by SpaceX, and testing Starlink laser-based communications in space.

"Our first objective is to travel farther from the Earth and the last time humans walked on the Moon with Apollo 17, more than 50 years ago," Isaacman said during an online chat hosted by the social network site X. "So we target an apogee of 1,400 kilometers. That puts us just inside the Van Allen radiation belt. It's an awesome opportunity for us to get some data, but really it's about pushing beyond our comfort zone."

The Polaris Dawn mission does not have a launch date, but SpaceX officials confirmed that it is now the next crewed mission the company will fly. There are likely several scheduling issues at play, but it's possible the mission could launch within the next six to eight weeks.

Here’s why a rich guy going to space for a second time actually matters

Polaris Dawn will be the first time that SpaceX employees have actually gone to space.

arstechnica.com

 

[Gumby]

Starliner launch scrubbed again.

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/31/g-s1-2265/starliner-launch-astronauts-boeing-spacecraft-missing-luggage

 

[Fermion]

Astronauts getting excellent practice suiting up and checking into hotels.

 

[REWahoo]

Whether it's air travel or space travel there is no way to avoid delays and lost luggage...

Astronauts endure delays and missing luggage to ride on Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft

The Boeing Starliner is launching years behind schedule and NASA had to offload crew suitcases to make room for some last-minute cargo.

www.opb.org

 

[CaptTom]

That was interesting about the luggage. It wasn't lost. It was removed to make room for a piece of equipment - a urine recycling system.

You wouldn't thing two suitcases would put them over the edge. I would have guessed they'd just load a few more pounds of fuel, and run the engines for an extra second or two. Apparently they cut it very close to the limit on weight! Imagine the calculations they do to get it exactly right.

 

[JackJester]

Urgh. I think the Starliner program is snake bit. ..."an automatic hold triggered by the ground launch sequencer, or the computer that launches the rocket, stopped the countdown clock at 3 minutes and 50 seconds ahead of launch. .... “Imagine a large rack that is a big computer where the functions of the computer as a controller are broken up separately into individual cards or printed wire circuit boards with their logic devices. So they’re all stand-alone, but together it’s an integrated controller,” Bruno said. “And we do that to make it easier to troubleshoot them, to swap out parts so that you can replace just one element of it without having to replace the whole thing.” All three computers have to agree for launch to occur, Bruno said.
“The third one was slow to come up and that tripped a red line — that created an automatic hold because, although the health system did not note that it came up anomalously, it took longer, and so something is not correct,” Bruno said. “We’ll know more, much, much later this evening,” he added.

 

[Chuckanut]

I remember the Challenger fiasco. The press was all over NASA for not being able to launch. Succumbing to pressure they launched over the objections of engineers who designed the solid rocket boosters. It was too cold. The seals failed. The vehicle blew up.

Today social media makes the same mistake the press made when Challenger blew up. And the press surely will pile on again. Or maybe not if some of the old timers are allowed to remind people what happened back then. Space travel is hard. And much harder with humans on board.

Boeing is doing the right thing. They should launch when they are ready. Nothing succeeds like success.

 

[JoeWras]

Starliner launch scrubbed again.

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/31/g-s1-2265/starliner-launch-astronauts-boeing-spacecraft-missing-luggage

Wasn't going to click but had to when the URL had "missing luggage" in it. LOL.

 

[CaptTom]

This new "space race" between Boeing and SpaceX is fascinating. I don't know if it's a David vs. Goliath thing, or more like the tortoise and the hare.

On the one hand, SpaceX can be viewed as a shining example of free-market capitalism at work. Innovate. Take risks. Move fast and break things. And, so far, they've been successful. Or maybe just lucky.

On the other hand, the existing space "establishment" is represented by NASA and Boeing. Slow and steady, test everything to the greatest extent possible. Minimize risk. Make sure it's right before proceeding to the next baby step.

Maybe there's room for both approaches. NASA has had their catastrophic failures, with fatal results. I suspect it's only a matter of time before the SpaceX experiences one. Space is hard. We need to accept the risk and continue to move forward.

 

[REWahoo]

This new "space race" between Boeing and SpaceX is fascinating. I don't know if it's a David vs. Goliath thing, or more like the tortoise and the hare.

Wylie E. Coyote vs. the Road Runner...

 

[audreyh1]

On the other hand, the existing space "establishment" is represented by NASA and Boeing. Slow and steady, test everything to the greatest extent possible. Minimize risk. Make sure it's right before proceeding to the next baby step.

Spending unbelievably more money - can’t leave that out. It strikes me as more of a typical contractor situation.

 

[Chuckanut]

Spending unbelievably more money - can’t leave that out. It strikes me as more of a typical contractor situation.

The money issue is a big one for SpaceX. Remember, Musk wants to make humanity multi-planetary. Space travel will need to be far more affordable if hundreds of people are going to rocket to Mars every time the optimum launch window opens.

 

[Gumby]

... Maybe there's room for both approaches. NASA has had their catastrophic failures, with fatal results. I suspect it's only a matter of time before the SpaceX experiences one. Space is hard. We need to accept the risk and continue to move forward....

To be fair, the last three Starship launches were catastrophic failures, although not fatal ones.

 

[Chuckanut]

To be fair, the last three Starship launches were catastrophic failures, although not fatal ones.

The SpaceX testing procedure assumes failures (catastrophic and otherwise) in the initial tests. Starship is an entirely new design. That's why there are no people on board and they carry dummy payloads.

SpaceX has had some big failures, including a rocket that blew up on the pad while it was being fueled. And a Dragon spacecraft that exploded during some routine testing. The number of boosters that blew up instead of landing safely is legend. There are great YouTube videos of the numeroius exploisions. Yet, over 100 successful landings are now in the bag. One booster has complete 20 round trips. Like that Carley Simon song says "Nobody Does It Better".

I would be very surprised if Boeing's Starliner did not become a usable spacecraft in the next year.

I would rather the USA put up with a few SpaceX and Boeing failures than to continue to pay hostile authoritarian governments $80,000,000 a seat to lob an astronaut into orbit. Assuming they would sell us a seat these days.

 

[CaptTom]

Wylie E. Coyote vs. the Road Runner...

I can picture that. I assume Musk is the Road Runner in that analogy?