SpaceX Tuesday...
Discussion
Eric Mc said:
It's not actually "going to Mars". It would be launched on a trajectory that will take it out beyond the orbit of Mars - but Mars won't be there when it gets to that orbit - so it will go into orbit around the sun with an aphelion that takes it out beyond the orbit of Mars each time it goes around the sun.
The way I read it, the car will not necessarily go on the first F9H, just the first one with a payload. So the Jan launch could go up empty I guess. Which means they might schedule the first payload launch to coincide with Earth/Mars proximity (whatever the proper term is).As much as I love the idea of firing a car into space with the stereo blaring, if they do go ahead with it I'd guess it'll need some significant messing around with. Lots of bits on a normal car that would likely be shaken to pieces inside the top of a rocket, no matter how well it's strapped in!
It's quite normal to use a "boilerplate" spacecraft on test flights, just like test civil aircraft have mass simulators (e.g tanks of water) to stand in for passengers & cargo.
The first Falcon 9 launch, back in 2010, carried a "boilerplate" Dragon capsule into orbit. It had the same external size and weight distribution as the real thing would have, but was not functional.
The first Falcon 9 launch, back in 2010, carried a "boilerplate" Dragon capsule into orbit. It had the same external size and weight distribution as the real thing would have, but was not functional.
Ian974 said:
As much as I love the idea of firing a car into space with the stereo blaring, if they do go ahead with it I'd guess it'll need some significant messing around with. Lots of bits on a normal car that would likely be shaken to pieces inside the top of a rocket, no matter how well it's strapped in!
Especially when the car in question is based on a LotusElise! Just driving about shakes things off mine.Edited by giveitfish on Thursday 7th December 21:33
Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIhwr0UqZmE
That's quite a zoom lens. FF about 2 minutes in.
The Zuma mission is now pencilled in for early January and will be moved over to Pad 40 to clear the way for Falcon Heavy.
MartG said:
SpaceX CRS-13 has been delayed again to no earlier than December 12 at 11:46 am.
They did the static fire OK at leasthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIhwr0UqZmE
That's quite a zoom lens. FF about 2 minutes in.
The Zuma mission is now pencilled in for early January and will be moved over to Pad 40 to clear the way for Falcon Heavy.
Beati Dogu said:
The Zuma mission is now pencilled in for early January and will be moved over to Pad 40 to clear the way for Falcon Heavy.
Interesting that it's back on, I was convincing myself that the rumors of it being a quick launch capability demonstration for someone were true.Apparently not. 
Here's an interesting report on the ~$50 Million rebuilding and upgrades made to SLC-40:
http://wereportspace.com/2017/12/08/spacex-ready-t...
Meanwhile the CRS-13 Falcon 9 looks a bit dirty:
They've only cleaned the bits like the US Flag, SpaceX logo and the tank welding lines for inspection.
With the transporter-erector, it all looks a bit V-2
Here's an interesting report on the ~$50 Million rebuilding and upgrades made to SLC-40:
http://wereportspace.com/2017/12/08/spacex-ready-t...
Meanwhile the CRS-13 Falcon 9 looks a bit dirty:
They've only cleaned the bits like the US Flag, SpaceX logo and the tank welding lines for inspection.
With the transporter-erector, it all looks a bit V-2
The Germans liked their black and white markings. That carried over into the Redstone/Jupiter/Saturn family of rockets.
We don't see it so much these days because you can monitor the flight path of a rocket fairly easily now using multi-channel telemetry and are not so dependent on visual tracking.
We don't see it so much these days because you can monitor the flight path of a rocket fairly easily now using multi-channel telemetry and are not so dependent on visual tracking.
The plan is to land back at the Cape. Launch time starts at 10:36 EST / 15:36 GMT
They're talking about building another landing zone further north on Kennedy Space Center land, nearer to former Apollo/Shuttle pad 39B.
Landing Zone 1 is to the south on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station land, but evacuating the nearby industrial area each time there's a landing, causes disruption. This is more of an issue now that SpaceX is planning to ramp up the number of launches & introduce Falcon Heavy. Then there's Blue Origin who will likely want to do the same at some point.
They're talking about building another landing zone further north on Kennedy Space Center land, nearer to former Apollo/Shuttle pad 39B.
Landing Zone 1 is to the south on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station land, but evacuating the nearby industrial area each time there's a landing, causes disruption. This is more of an issue now that SpaceX is planning to ramp up the number of launches & introduce Falcon Heavy. Then there's Blue Origin who will likely want to do the same at some point.
Beati Dogu said:
The plan is to land back at the Cape. Launch time starts at 10:36 EST / 15:36 GMT
They're talking about building another landing zone further north on Kennedy Space Center land, nearer to former Apollo/Shuttle pad 39B.
Landing Zone 1 is to the south on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station land, but evacuating the nearby industrial area each time there's a landing, causes disruption. This is more of an issue now that SpaceX is planning to ramp up the number of launches & introduce Falcon Heavy. Then there's Blue Origin who will likely want to do the same at some point.
Interesting thanks, I may need to re-check my planned viewing point so I can get the best of both launch and landing.They're talking about building another landing zone further north on Kennedy Space Center land, nearer to former Apollo/Shuttle pad 39B.
Landing Zone 1 is to the south on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station land, but evacuating the nearby industrial area each time there's a landing, causes disruption. This is more of an issue now that SpaceX is planning to ramp up the number of launches & introduce Falcon Heavy. Then there's Blue Origin who will likely want to do the same at some point.
The weather is looking good too, with a 90% chance of a go so far.
It's an instantaneous launch window, so a hold means it's scrubbed.
The next opportunity isn't technically until Christmas Day IIRC due to the high beta angle at this time of year. Basically the ISS is not going in and out of the earth's shadow as often, makes cooling an issue.
At times of high beta angle, the solar panels can't gimble enough to gather enough light for the increased coolant needs. Consequently they re-orient the space station so it's arse-on to the sun and then slowly rotate it around that axis. This keeps the solar panels in the sunlight and it evens out the heating effect. They only do this for 6 days in December when the beta angle is exceptionally high (about 75 degrees), due to propellant limitations on the Russian modules, whose thrusters are used for this maneuver.
They used to slowly barrel roll the Shuttles (backwards, often times) and Apollo for this reason too - The so-called "rotisserie" or “barbeque” mode.
Because they had to physically dock with the ISS and wouldn't be free to rotate, the Shuttles couldn't visit the ISS at times of high beta angle. They'd only go when it was below 60 degrees, when it was manageable.
A satellite photo of the rocket at SLC-40.
https://imgur.com/a/Y9NVj
The satellite is the GeoEye-1. Not bad from nearly 500 miles away.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeoEye1?src=hash
The rocket will remain horizontal and empty until roughly 2 hours before launch time so they can put late load items aboard (E.g. mice). With the new transporter-erector they can raise the rocket to vertical in about 5 minutes.They don't start loading fuel until the -1hr 10 minute stage.
It's an instantaneous launch window, so a hold means it's scrubbed.
The next opportunity isn't technically until Christmas Day IIRC due to the high beta angle at this time of year. Basically the ISS is not going in and out of the earth's shadow as often, makes cooling an issue.
At times of high beta angle, the solar panels can't gimble enough to gather enough light for the increased coolant needs. Consequently they re-orient the space station so it's arse-on to the sun and then slowly rotate it around that axis. This keeps the solar panels in the sunlight and it evens out the heating effect. They only do this for 6 days in December when the beta angle is exceptionally high (about 75 degrees), due to propellant limitations on the Russian modules, whose thrusters are used for this maneuver.
They used to slowly barrel roll the Shuttles (backwards, often times) and Apollo for this reason too - The so-called "rotisserie" or “barbeque” mode.
Because they had to physically dock with the ISS and wouldn't be free to rotate, the Shuttles couldn't visit the ISS at times of high beta angle. They'd only go when it was below 60 degrees, when it was manageable.
A satellite photo of the rocket at SLC-40.
https://imgur.com/a/Y9NVj
The satellite is the GeoEye-1. Not bad from nearly 500 miles away.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeoEye1?src=hash
The rocket will remain horizontal and empty until roughly 2 hours before launch time so they can put late load items aboard (E.g. mice). With the new transporter-erector they can raise the rocket to vertical in about 5 minutes.They don't start loading fuel until the -1hr 10 minute stage.
Edited by Beati Dogu on Friday 15th December 01:29
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