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0·2 months agoI LOVE that already there are enough commercial space missions happening that it’s easy to get confused which one is which! The more the merrier imo :)
Thanks for sharing the video! I’m always interested in seeing mainstream coverage of this stuff. However, they really don’t know what they’re talking about. For example, the host says they’re going to higher altitudes than the Apollo program, which is just utterly baloney. Really throws a wrench into the credibility of this news outlet, in my view at least.
As for whether this mission is risky, yes it absolutely is. However, all manned space missions are risky and this one doesn’t really have anything that makes it fundamentally unsafe.
Look, NASA sets objectives to accomplish its missions to the ISS, and they work with the engineers at SpaceX to figure out how to accomplish them as safely as possible. These Polaris missions are fascinating in that the objectives are set jointly between the SpaceX team and a paying customer.
The customer is interested in a few things, but it probably comes down to fame for doing new things. SpaceX is interested in developing the technologies and raising funds to get to Mars. Where their goals overlap is how we get the Polaris missions. I think that’s pretty cool!
While the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is responsible for developing the satellite bus, Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) is in charge of the payloads.
SpaceX is just launching the satellites.
Think a booster will complete 25 flights by the end of the year? I think so. We’re close!
Good point! Truth is, it is basically space tourism. Now, because of the demand for science by humans in orbit, there will be science done and data gathered on the trip, but that isn’t really its purpose. That being said, this kind of orbit brings some very interesting challenges re launch, radiation, and recovery, but I’m sure SpaceX can easily manage that.
On the tourism side, the orbit is actually quite noteworthy. We’ll have to see what the actual figures are, but even at 450km, you’re really quite close to the planet. As such, the sights they will see due to high inclination especially over the poles will be unlike anything any human has seen before, and that’s exciting to me :)
Cygnus NG-21: Mission control just alerted the ISS crew to a possible issue with the Cygnus cargo ship: “Just to let you guys know, good comm with Cygnus, we’re going to have solar array deploy in about an hour. The first two burns were not performed by Cygnus, so they’re re-assessing what’s the current state of the burn plan. We’re hoping to still keep Tuesday (for capture by ISS), but we’ll re-assess once we figure out what went wrong with the first two burns.”
Performance stats of previous versions:
Raptor 1 (sea level variant)
Thrust: 185tf
Specific impulse: 350s
Engine mass: 2080kg
Engine + vehicle-side commodities and hardware mass: 3630kg
Raptor 2 (sea level variant)
Thrust: 230tf
Specific impulse: 347s
Engine mass: 1630kg
Engine + vehicle-side commodities and hardware mass: 2875kg
Raptor 3 is designed for rapid reuse, eliminating the need for engine heatshields while continuing to increase performance and manufacturability
Hands down one of the coolest shots I’ve ever seen!
Interesting comment from Jared Isaacman: https://x.com/rookisaacman/status/1815801469532266841
Its a good article, a few thoughts:
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I don’t like monopolies, but why the sudden unease? The government buys all of its refueling tankers from Boeing, all of the main battle tanks from General Dynamics, all the aircraft carriers from Newport News shipbuilding, all of our air-to-air missiles from Raytheon. The government buys fighter jets from a duopoly that often provides reciprocal work-shares making them a monopoly. Historically, the government had no problem buying launch services from ULA and in fact had to be sued to prevent a continuation of that practice.
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If SpaceX acts like a monopolist, then they will increase prices to levels that naturally stimulate more competition or risk antitrust actions. However, If SpaceX does not act like a monopolist and the government is getting the best product for the lowest price through open competitions, then what is the problem? As tax payers, we should want the best product/service for the lowest price and delivered as quickly as possible. We probably should not punish the few companies that are actually exceeding expectations.
I would love to see the government breaking up the monopolies that actually harm the competitiveness of the nation by failing to innovative and consistently come in over-budget and behind schedule and therefor have an allergy to fixed price contracting.
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So cool! I really want to see one close up someday.
I bet the editor just felt it was better to cut around for the sizzle reel. For the tip-over, I wonder if the booster went kaboom when it hit the water and they want to emphasize the success rather than what could be perceived as a failure. So you’re right, maybe brand image. Maybe one day they’ll finally release the footage!
I think they were more open when they were developing Falcon 9. Based on all these amazing test flights, the engineers still have that magic SpaceX culture, but perhaps the media department has become more corporate.
I love that they showed more of the booster landing footage, but I still wish we could see it hit the water and tip over!
Pretty sad that the coolest part of the whole video is what user effi on the NSF forum spotted:
Even in the Raptor room behind the Mega bay they watch NSF :D .A Screenshot from 46:14:
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=60962.0;attach=2294746;image
NSF Video Apologies for the X links!
Flight 4 ended with Starship igniting its three center Raptor engines and executing the first flip maneuver and landing burn since our suborbital campaign, followed by a soft splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean one hour and six minutes after launch.
I still can’t believe that happened! Gives me so much confidence on their in-space propellant storage too, for some reason.
I agree with everything you said and especially with the hope for competition (which in some ways there is, SpaceX is just miles ahead), but I just wanted to point out that basically every rocket ever developed was done with government funding :)
First crew dragon launch from SLC40!