The thread for space cadets!

A potential wrinkle to the on-pad explosion:

Roscosmos threw shade at SpaceX by claiming there was weird smells and high concentrations of rubbing alcohol when they opened the Crew Dragon hatch at the ISS. The Russians steadfastily refused to authorize the docking of that capsule, though they had no authority to stop it. I suspect they will use this explosion to drive up bad international press of their commercial rivals in the near future.

 

According to Roscosmos, the isopropyl concentration raised from 0.1 to 6 mg/m3 after docking. But it wasn't presented in the news as a serious problem, just smell of antiseptic.
Wasn't there anyone to independently confirm smell/concentration, if you suspect Russians lied about it?

 

Oh no, I don't mean that they lied about it. I'm sure they did detect it, though that doesn't mean that it was dangerous nor that it came from the capsule. Only now they don't have to use far-fetched examples of theoretical safety hazards to make SpaceX look bad; they can just point at the video of the pad explosion and say, 'We don't want our guys near that thing'. They can use this to force NASA to make more concessions to them or otherwise tarnish their competitors. The reporting in the US press about Russian statements and actions during the docking was much worse than just reporting a smell of antiseptic - it was pretty clear the Russians were making swipes at SpaceX through that press report and others they made around that time. Granted, our media is going to inflate any drama to generate clicks but the criticism wasn't missed, nor was the formal disapproval of the docking itself from Roscosmos.

And as we discussed before, there were noted differences between official statements made to the Russian press versus that given to foreign outlets.

And to make things worse for SpaceX, this came at a time when commercial launch orders are in a protracted slump (overcapacity) and military orders are on the verge of being split 3-ways with their competitors. In other words, they were really counting on their NASA missions as cash cows while their other markets languish. Plus, they're pouring money into their internet constellation and their Starship rocket so I imagine internal budgets are going to be under a lot of pressure this coming year.

 

It was probably something in the package, disinfected with alcohol.
No big deal, they could just open the window and vent the smell out

 

NASA is moving forward with an upcoming Dragon 1 cargo launch. This shows the issue with Crew Dragon was restricted to vehicle-specific systems (like the Super Draco) or was some fault in ground support equipment or the way they operated it. The Amos-6 explosion was caused by an improper change to the propellant loading technique of the rocket (compounded by a marginal COPV design), so there is hope that the fix here is quick and not indicative of a bad design.

In other news, the Mars Insight lander detected its first marsquake. I don't know if we've mentioned it here but the 'drill bit' for the Insight lander got stuck in hard rock far short of its target depth. Scare quotes because it's not a traditional drill bit, instead it sort of hammers its way into the surface but can't penetrate stones or hard rock layers. Honestly I am not really sure why they went with this design over a more traditional drill. I'm guessing they thought this system could reach a deeper depth than a similarly-sized drill but has the rather obvious flaw in that it can't really penetrate anything harder than loose regolith.

 

Are we watching a star being eaten?

Gravitational waves may have just delivered the first sighting of a black hole devouring a neutron star. If confirmed, it would be the first evidence of the existence of such binary systems. The news comes just a day after astronomers had detected gravitational waves from a merger of two neutron stars for only the second time.

At 15:22:17 UTC on 26 April, the twin detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States and the Virgo observatory in Italy reported a burst of waves of an unusual type. Astronomers are still analysing the data and doing computer simulations to interpret them.

But they are already considering the tantalizing prospect that they have made a long-hoped-for detection that could produce a wealth of cosmic information, from precise tests of the general theory of relativity to measuring the Universe’s rate of expansion. Astronomers around the world are also racing to observe the phenomenon using different types of telescope.

“I think that the classification is leaning towards neutron star–black hole” merger, says Chad Hanna, a senior member of LIGO’s data-analysis team and a physicist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park.​

 

Moscow, Sheremetyevo airport, today.



Brand new Sukhoi SuperJet plane. At least 13 people died.
Initial reports, the reason was lightning strike.

 

Do gravitational waves move at light speed? Or, does gravity move at light speed?

 

Just saw a news report on that, said 41 dead. This was a new aircraft?

 

Yes. In GR, gravity and gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light. One of the LIGO observations has shown that if any difference exists, it must be extremely small.

 

Yeah, it's a new Russian plane meant to compete with A220 and Embraer planes. It's had some teething problems. But much of it may be due to bad maintenance. Russians aren't know to treat their machines with great gentleness. What's really shocking is to see passengers dragging around big suitcases.

 

Right, when you're in a burning fuel tank, your luggage should be the last thing you're thinking of.

 

A new one. Problems with equipment after takeoff, hit the runway and caught fire during emergency landing.
Reason is unknown, but there was in fact thunderstorm today.

 

Where are the fire trucks?

 

Right there, in the video you quoted.

 

amazing , Russians haven't won anything in Syria , is it about Venezuella , where both the Russian puppets and American puppets vie for the most ridicolous of the year award ?

 

The plane "goated" during landing, may be pilots error.



All victims were sitting in the rear part. Survivors evacuated in 50 seconds after landing.
Firefighters arrived in 1 minute after alarm signal.
One flight attendant died trying to open rear door.

Edit:
One American man is among victims.

 

Why is that guy recording the burning that's going on outside the window and not evacuating?

 

Because the plane was still moving, I guess.
Initially, many people in social media blamed passengers who grabbed their luggage, that they wasted time and prevented other people from evacuating.
But survivors said the passage was unobstructed. One woman fell, but other people helped her to get up and quickly pushed her out of the plane.
There was already a lot of smoke inside when evacuation started though.

 

Weird, don't they open the emergency exits as soon as a fire starts, even if the plane is moving? I guess not?? I would have assumed so