SpaceX Tuesday...
Discussion
So far. The launch is set for 5.49 am local time (10.49 UK time). The SpaceX webcast will start about 6.30 am UK time.
As before, they have emergency splashdown areas off Newfoundland, Canada and Shannon, Ireland.
If all goes well, about 20 minutes after launch, the capsule will pass over the southern edge of Ireland, over Devon and should take French astronaut Thomas Pesquet right over his native Rouen.
As before, they have emergency splashdown areas off Newfoundland, Canada and Shannon, Ireland.
If all goes well, about 20 minutes after launch, the capsule will pass over the southern edge of Ireland, over Devon and should take French astronaut Thomas Pesquet right over his native Rouen.
Beati Dogu said:
So far. The launch is set for 5.49 am local time (10.49 UK time). The SpaceX webcast will start about 6.30 am UK time.
As before, they have emergency splashdown areas off Newfoundland, Canada and Shannon, Ireland.
If all goes well, about 20 minutes after launch, the capsule will pass over the southern edge of Ireland, over Devon and should take French astronaut Thomas Pesquet right over his native Rouen.
Thank you As before, they have emergency splashdown areas off Newfoundland, Canada and Shannon, Ireland.
If all goes well, about 20 minutes after launch, the capsule will pass over the southern edge of Ireland, over Devon and should take French astronaut Thomas Pesquet right over his native Rouen.
Also the large numbers on their backs is curious.
annodomini2 said:
Beati Dogu said:
That's really for a parachute splashdown, so presumably NASA have some sort of recovery arrangement in place with the local authorities in those countries.
Today's booster landing was SpaceX's 80th.
Also the first manned launch to reuse a first stageToday's booster landing was SpaceX's 80th.
NASAspaceflight got some unbelievable footage of the cold gas thrusters of the 1st stage re-entering. Go to 4hrs 19mins 10s!
https://youtu.be/ygvK7LDXtIA
The phenomenon (if you will) is caused by the sun illuminating the gas, but obviously from the POV of the camera it’s still dark.
Edited by F20CN16 on Friday 23 April 12:08
Beati Dogu said:
One of today's astronauts, Megan McArthur is married to Bob Behnken and she's flying in the same seat in Endeavour that he did last year.
Are they spelling "Endeavour" the UK way or the American way? The Space Shuttle "Endeavour" was spelled the Britsh way because it was called after a British ship.Beati Dogu said:
Amazon didn't start Project Kuiper until 2019, so they're way behind Starlink and even OneWeb. They haven't even had any test satellites launched. They were supposed to have their FCC application in by 2016 like nine other companies did, but requested a special waver. Something the others are lobbying the FCC to deny. There's all sorts of legal & lobbying shenanigans going on between these guys to hamper each other's efforts.
Each Atlas V launch is likely to cost around $100 million each, even with a block discount. They can thank SpaceX that it's not more like $200 million, like it used to be. Nothing is known about the satellites yet, or how many they can fit on an Atlas V. Assume they'll just copy the Starlink model of a skinny, fold out design to fit as many in as they can - 50-60 maybe.
ULA aren't exactly used to a fast launch cadence and they'll have to fit these in between their usual defence / NASA work. They haven't launched one yet this year and they only did five Atlas V launches in the whole of last year. They've only got one launch pad for it in Florida, unlike SpaceX, and it will share duties with their new Vulcan rocket from later this year too. If they can launch one for Amazon every month I'd be surprised.
To a degree it may not matter that much, the Kuiper build out is expected to cost ~$10 billion putting the first few hundred satellites up on Atlas is going to cost less than $1 billion. Given the capacity of the Atlas vs the New Glenn I would expect that it would put more than 3 times as many up in one go and cost around $50m or less to launch so they have avoided ~$150 million. Each Atlas V launch is likely to cost around $100 million each, even with a block discount. They can thank SpaceX that it's not more like $200 million, like it used to be. Nothing is known about the satellites yet, or how many they can fit on an Atlas V. Assume they'll just copy the Starlink model of a skinny, fold out design to fit as many in as they can - 50-60 maybe.
ULA aren't exactly used to a fast launch cadence and they'll have to fit these in between their usual defence / NASA work. They haven't launched one yet this year and they only did five Atlas V launches in the whole of last year. They've only got one launch pad for it in Florida, unlike SpaceX, and it will share duties with their new Vulcan rocket from later this year too. If they can launch one for Amazon every month I'd be surprised.
So net result is a 7.5% overrun in cost
We don't have any data on the relative cost of the two satellites nor what their band width is as they are about 30-40% of the the cost if Amazon do better there they would easily be able to pull back the cost on those.
The other really big issue is the cost of the up and down links and the cost of the onward internet. At the moment SpaceX make a $1000 loss on each dishy they sell. Once you get into the millions of users the cost of the ground stations actually become similar to the cost of the one orbit hardware.
After saying all of that the fact that Amazon basically hired the people Elon sacked might not help them push things forward also given the size of this market and the lead SpaceX are building it may not be feasible for Amazon to try to out muscle them by discounting.
The really interesting thing is the laser links in space, essentially they are fibre optics without the cable. Potentially in space data servers and laser links could end up being a new internet backbone.
Talksteer said:
To a degree it may not matter that much, the Kuiper build out is expected to cost ~$10 billion putting the first few hundred satellites up on Atlas is going to cost less than $1 billion. Given the capacity of the Atlas vs the New Glenn I would expect that it would put more than 3 times as many up in one go and cost around $50m or less to launch so they have avoided ~$150 million.
So net result is a 7.5% overrun in cost
We don't have any data on the relative cost of the two satellites nor what their band width is as they are about 30-40% of the the cost if Amazon do better there they would easily be able to pull back the cost on those.
The other really big issue is the cost of the up and down links and the cost of the onward internet. At the moment SpaceX make a $1000 loss on each dishy they sell. Once you get into the millions of users the cost of the ground stations actually become similar to the cost of the one orbit hardware.
After saying all of that the fact that Amazon basically hired the people Elon sacked might not help them push things forward also given the size of this market and the lead SpaceX are building it may not be feasible for Amazon to try to out muscle them by discounting.
The really interesting thing is the laser links in space, essentially they are fibre optics without the cable. Potentially in space data servers and laser links could end up being a new internet backbone.
I was thinking similar. What would it add to the cost of a satellite to put a few 10s TB of storage into each one? Akamai and the like could be hosted on the satellite.So net result is a 7.5% overrun in cost
We don't have any data on the relative cost of the two satellites nor what their band width is as they are about 30-40% of the the cost if Amazon do better there they would easily be able to pull back the cost on those.
The other really big issue is the cost of the up and down links and the cost of the onward internet. At the moment SpaceX make a $1000 loss on each dishy they sell. Once you get into the millions of users the cost of the ground stations actually become similar to the cost of the one orbit hardware.
After saying all of that the fact that Amazon basically hired the people Elon sacked might not help them push things forward also given the size of this market and the lead SpaceX are building it may not be feasible for Amazon to try to out muscle them by discounting.
The really interesting thing is the laser links in space, essentially they are fibre optics without the cable. Potentially in space data servers and laser links could end up being a new internet backbone.
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