The thread for space cadets!

aliens do knock on the door , instead of blinking stars and the like .
 
NASA was voted the best place to work in the federal government for the 8th straight year. The award is based on surveys of federal employees.
 
Tomorrow, Boeing is going to launch their crew capsule on a test flight to the ISS!


ULA (the launch provider) had to re-engineer the dual-engine Centaur configuration for the upper stage of the Atlas V. The Centaur was originally designed as a dual-engine upper stage in the 60's but starting in the 90's they started flying the single-engine config solely. They had re-introduce this because the Air Force and NASA decided that the thrust was too low for the heavy capsule with a single engine and this would make aborts harder to perform. Scott Manley has pointed out that this research was flawed and that the single-engine configuration has actually flown the exact abort profile that the government says is necessary.

ULA did not fight this requirement though because they got paid lots of money to make the modification and it ultimately means they now have another rocket configuration they can sell that had its development paid for by the tax payers.
 
The Boeing Starliner capsule was launched this morning. The Atlas V carrier performed flawlessly but the capsule has suffered an anomaly and did not make the burn to rendezvous with the ISS as planned.

I'm so happy Boeing got hundreds of millions of extra dollars for this mission. Money well spent Boeing! /s
 
hobbsyoyo said:
The Boeing Starliner capsule was launched this morning. The Atlas V carrier performed flawlessly but the capsule has suffered an anomaly and did not make the burn to rendezvous with the ISS as planned.

I'm so happy Boeing got hundreds of millions of extra dollars for this mission. Money well spent Boeing! /s
Click to expand...

It's just crashed once. I'm sure Boeing thinks it's safe enough to carry people next time. It even says on wikipedia that
the error can be prevented had there been crew on-board.
Click to expand...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Orbital_Flight_Test

edit
oh. They are serious. I didn't see that when I was sarcastic above.
it's uncertain whether or not a second uncrewed test flight is needed.
Click to expand...
 
@Birdjaguar

Did you see the Starliner re-enter this morning? I forgot to tell you about it, but they landed Boeing's new capsule in the desert out there. It's the first time an American capsule has ever landed on hard ground!

Glad they got it down after all the trouble they ran into on orbit.

By the way, New Mexico is the primary landing spot for the Starliner so you'll get a chance to see astronauts returning to Earth with your own eyes! Super jelly



https://spacenews.com/starliner-lands-in-new-mexico/
 
I did not know. Thanks.
 
Ummmm.... @hobbsyoyo you do know that New Mexico is a big place, right? It's not like BirdJag can see the whole state from his back porch. He's no Sarah Palin.
 
Re-entry is high enough and covers enough ground that he would likely be able to see it. I can see launches out of Vandy and people all the way past New York can see launches to the ISS out of Wallops Island, VA.

I googled for maps to show visibility areas but didn't find anything. Sometimes various news orgs will put out maps like that for launches and re-entries but they didn't seem to for this one. That may be because they weren't 100% confident where or when it would come down until yesterday afternoon due to all the on-orbit issues.
 
The Boeing CEO was fired. He claimed he resigned but reports say the board forced him out. The board should go too; the CEO was only at the helm for a year and these issues are deeper and more structural than that which could be done in just a year.
 
Very cool!
 
It's at this point in the eclipse that I always start thinking about how weird it would be for pre-technology humans. Everywhere that sunlight is filtering through the trees all the round blobs of light on the ground are taking on that crescent shape, and for someone who doesn't have the science to explain it there is not any clue about what is happening to the world. The sunlight still is full brightness and they can't look at the sun anyway, so all they know is that something is happening all around them, everywhere they look, everywhere they run.
 
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