SpaceX and other space stuff

[TOOL460002]

I'm SHOCKED, I tell you!!

Large Boeing Satellite Suddenly Explodes Into Pieces

A satellite belonging to multinational service provider Intelsat mysteriously broke up in geostationary orbit over the weekend.

futurism.com

The article says "mysteriously blew into pieces," but I think it's a typo for "predictably." Honestly I assumed China or Elon would ruin low-Earth orbit for us all, but Boeing really is a dark horse with some giddyup.

 

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Thanks to my insomnia, I just caught the Crew 8 Splashdown return to Earth from the ISS. This is a normal crew return, not including the "Boeing Starliner Rescue".

 

[Winslow]

As Spock would say... "Fascinating."

Researchers spot black hole feeding at 40x its theoretical limit

black hole feeds at 40 times the theoretical limit

May explain how the Universe built supermassive black holes so quickly after the Big Bang.

arstechnica.com

 

[Winslow]

Get ready for another one!

The next Starship launch may occur in less than two weeks

Starship will launch during the late afternoon so its descent into Indian Ocean is visible.

arstechnica.com

 

[Killing Floor]

This is peer reviewed. From JPL and Cal Tech.

Wind from Uranus made it harder to probe

Wind from Uranus made it harder to probe The Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus in 1986 may have occurred during a rare intense wind event, according to international researchers who say this means our scientific understanding of the planet may be flawed. Much of our understanding of the conditions

www.scimex.org

 

[ahc]

Also from Uranus...

 

[ahc]

The sixth flight test of Starship is targeted to launch as early as Monday, November 18. The webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff. The 30-minute launch window will open at 4:00 p.m. CT.

 

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SpaceX Starship Flight delayed until tomorrow. 5PM EST,

 

[Winslow]

SpaceX Starship Flight delayed until tomorrow. 5PM EST,

Whew! Thanks, b. I had to go run a slew of errands today, and forgot all about the possible launch window today.

Tomorrow it is!

 

[StereoPlayer]

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

4-4:15 testing Starship flight 6

 

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Seems on track, loading propellants now....

Edit: T-48:00 tick tick tick

 

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BOOM! They waived off the catch attempt, Super Heavy just completed its water landing and blew up on hitting the water.

Let's see how Spaceship fares on the re-entry attempt. They said they're going to be much more aggressive in terms of steeper descent flight profile than last time. Taking risks to find out where the edges are....

 

[Winslow]

 

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Starship re-entered and soft water landed basically perfectly. Cool to watch. In spit of the more aggressive flight profile. Made them flaps work! hehe

 

[Winslow]

No granular detail yet, but the "offshore diversion" call for the booster yesterday was apparently due to an issue with something on the tower that didn't check out. From Ars Technica:

In an update posted to its website after the launch, SpaceX said automated health checks of hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered the aborted catch attempt. The company did not say what system failed the health check.

 

[markwrob]

No granular detail yet, but the "offshore diversion" call for the booster yesterday was apparently due to an issue with something on the tower that didn't check out. From Ars Technica:

In an update posted to its website after the launch, SpaceX said automated health checks of hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered the aborted catch attempt. The company did not say what system failed the health check.

A commentard on the Ars Technica article mentioned that weather station gear on the tower got clobbered. Another commentard asked the first for a link to that info. I did not see a response. Now I suppose that makes me a metacommentard here.

 

[J Wilson]

The article says "mysteriously blew into pieces," but I think it's a typo for "predictably." Honestly I assumed China or Elon would ruin low-Earth orbit for us all, but Boeing really is a dark horse with some giddyup.

A supposedly 'benign' ISP satellite 'mysteriously blew into pieces' . . . . well, a debris cloud is a GREAT place for a stealth satellite to hide. Just sayin . . . .

 

[TOOL460002]

A supposedly 'benign' ISP satellite 'mysteriously blew into pieces' . . . . well, a debris cloud is a GREAT place for a stealth satellite to hide. Just sayin . . . .

Well, you could probably track that satellite back to when it was released to see how many satellites that particular launch deployed. Pretty darn sure a spy satellite is more robust/heavy than a Starlink satellite. I'm also not familiar enough with newer stealth coatings to know how they'd survive any sort of orbit, but I'd wager the stealth is more related to signals and maybe they paint it black or something. You honestly might have to hide in a cloud of debris, because there is no true stealth in space. I'm not talking "can be detected but not targeted," but true stealth. But, yay! Rockets!

 

[Winslow]

For my fellow space / science enthusiasts...

 

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16:00 until New Glenn goes up!