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SpaceX and other space stuff

#3,581
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#3,582
Wood and Wire said:
One winter evening in 2010 (or perhaps it was 2012), I was walking my dog in a field in the dark, and noticed a satellite passing overhead from South to North (common enough).

Whilst I was watching it, a second one caught up with it, and shadowed it, which really took me by surprise...

Then things got really strange, as almost immediately, two green laser beams came out of the West, from an unseen source - apparently at altitude, and "painted" the two satellites, tracking them across the sky.

WTH?

I wasn't really thinking about it by the time I got home, and turned on the TV.

The news was already on, and the first story that came up was footage of NASA releasing this brand new experimental vehicle (the X-37B) in space - as I recall it was being dropped out of the cargo hold of the Space Shuttle, into an orbital test flight.

I've no idea if that's what I had just witnessed, but it seemed like the least stupid explanation.
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Aliens.jpg
 
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#3,584
I'm too frustrated watching all these "just moving crap around" Starship updates. Not going to watch any more until there's a chance of a real launch attempt.
 
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#3,586
Jeff Siddall said:
You mean moving dust? There was a lot of dust! But when you use rocket engines to move stuff I like watching.
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I don't mind the live fire tests so much, but videos of the "put this on top of that" or "this moved from that back over here" are flooding my youtube home page lol...
 
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#3,587
Speaking of big rockets, NASA is currently targeting Artemis for Wednesday November 16, with a two-hour launch window that opens at 1:04 a.m. ET. Meteorologists are currently predicting a 90% chance of favorable weather for the Artemis 1 launch. In the event that SLS cannot fly on Wednesday morning, NASA has backup opportunities available on November 19 and 25.
 
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#3,593
bholder said:
Space stuff here: SpaceX and other space stuff
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Aware of that thread, but figure that Artemis is momentous enough to deserve its own thread. For me, it rekindles some of the spirit of the Apollo program. This isn't just another routine mission... it is the first step in much larger program of human exploration of our solar system. Perhaps SpaceX will make the SLS redundant in the future with Starship, but many engineering challenges will have to be solved before that becomes a reality (and yes, I know that a version of Starship is planned for lunar landing).
 
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#3,598
ahc said:
NASA capsule buzzes moon, last big step before lunar orbit
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Interesting info about the shockwaves being so strong it blew off the blast doors to the elevator.

Don't know if anyone posted this, but here's a real-time tracker with great graphics for the Artemis spacecraft flightpath. Give it about 15 seconds to load. You can change perspectives to anything you like.
NASA: Artemis I

So, I've been checking it on occasion, and last night the spacecraft speed was down to 140mph (225kph). I thought it was bad data, but the graphics showed is was just beyond moon's orbit. The moon was about 20,000 miles (32000 kilometers) behind the craft and catching up. Which meant the craft was under the moon's gravitational influence and not earth's anymore. It was slowing at a rate of 1mph (1.6kph) about every 20 minutes. Yeah, I kinda geeked out watching this LOL.

Got tired and went to bed at about 118mph (189kph).

Just glad everything is still going well. I was around for the Apollo missions, so this program has my excitement level up a bit.
 
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#3,599
fig said:
Interesting info about the shockwaves being so strong it blew off the blast doors to the elevator.

Don't know if anyone posted this, but here's a real-time tracker with great graphics for the Artemis spacecraft flightpath. Give it about 15 seconds to load. You can change perspectives to anything you like.
NASA: Artemis I

So, I've been checking it on occasion, and last night the spacecraft speed was down to 140mph (225kph). I thought it was bad data, but the graphics showed is was just beyond moon's orbit. The moon was about 20,000 miles (32000 kilometers) behind the craft and catching up. Which meant the craft was under the moon's gravitational influence and not earth's anymore. It was slowing at a rate of 1mph (1.6kph) about every 20 minutes. Yeah, I kinda geeked out watching this LOL.

Got tired and went to bed at about 118mph (189kph).

Just glad everything is still going well. I was around for the Apollo missions, so this program has my excitement level up a bit.
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Thanks, I was looking for something like this the other day.
 
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