the host says they’re going to higher altitudes than the Apollo program
Ah, yes, well normally that would be my opportunity to remind people of Gell-Mann amnesia.
But this time it’s unfair to the host. Isaacman has made that mistake himself on (I think) multiple occasions. She might have got it from him. (Perhaps indirectly.) Here’s one: https://youtu.be/aASZ2rKdS6I?t=1m2s (He meant “since”, not “than”.)
this one doesn’t really have anything that makes it fundamentally unsafe.
You’re probably right, but we’ll see. The altitude and the spacewalk are the first big new initiatives for SpaceX’s human spaceflight work that haven’t been done under close NASA supervision. That’s probably a good thing but … I’m nervous.
Talking of the altitude, this is from the article:
The mission is scheduled to launch between 3:30 and 7 a.m. Eastern Aug. 26 in one of three instantaneous launch windows. Isaacman said the launch times were selected by SpaceX to minimize the micrometeoroid and orbital debris impact risk to the mission given its unconventional orbit.
He said it during the event (which is available to watch here), and I don’t think any further explanation was given for why certain launch times are better than others for MMOD. Does anyone understand why? Is it obvious? Any resources I could check out to learn more?
Talking of the article, they still haven’t fixed the first sentence!:
spacewalk on a is ready
If Jeff or anyone else from Space News is reading this, hire me as your proofreader!
I assume SpaceX wouldn’t make any big assumptions along these lines though?
I imagine, for example, that a worn component that could fail catastrophically on landing might also be at risk of some kind of failure during max Q, in a way that affects the primary mission.
Of course, there could come a point where you judge that so unlikely as to be not worth wasting any (further) time on.
But as an armchair observer I’m fairly glad to see a pause at this point before Polaris Dawn, even just a couple of days …
Surprising. Does this mean they have good reason to think they’ll get a Public Safety Determination in a matter of days? Does the FAA work weekends?
P.S. If a landing leg realistically could, say, pop open at max Q, I guess that further strengthens the argument in favour of rocket ‘catchings’ rather than rocket landings!