Space - The Final Frontier

Yep, now we can place bets on it burning up on re-entry versus not being able to de-orbit!
 
CaptTom said:
I think that Boeing will bring it home in one piece. They have so much riding on this, that it's got to be a pretty high priority for them. I don't usually root for mega corporations, but having only one launch option doesn't seem like a good situation to be in.
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I root for USA companies - especially "leaders" in the industry. We need strong development and manufacturing companies. Boeing seems to have "lost its way" (Think 737 MAX) but it should be able to come back and we need it to do so for the good of the USA IMHO though YMMV.
 
ls99 said:
In post 1824 I wrote: "Hmmmm, the solution; jettison the starliner to burn up on re-entry, spaceX to bring the troops home."

Assuming the starliner makes it back in one piece, I will have been half right. If it burns up on the way back, I'll call it a valid prediction.

Possible scenarios, The capsule will fail on its own or Boeing will "accidentally" loose control of the capsule, to hide the screwups. :)
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From what I read awhile back they did not want to send it back until they got to the bottom of the problem as the components would burn up on reentry anyhow and they could not learn anything... no reason to have the whole ship burn up...
 
Texas Proud said:
From what I read awhile back they did not want to send it back until they got to the bottom of the problem as the components would burn up on reentry anyhow and they could not learn anything... no reason to have the whole ship burn up...
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I think they want to get it back to see if they can figure out what happened once it's home.
 
I watched the CNN special on the space shuttle Columbia disaster last night. It may have been a rerun. Very insightful as to the human element involved in all aspects of the program. These astronauts and people working on the space programs are truly pioneers.
 
Jared and crew scheduled to launch tomorrow morning around 3:30am eastern time. Very excited to see this first spacewalk by a private crew. Fingers crossed everything goes well, godspeed!
 
ls99 said:
Possible scenarios, The capsule will fail on its own or Boeing will "accidentally" loose control of the capsule, to hide the screwups. :)
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This! There can't be a criminal investigation if the evidence burns up! I hope there are FBI agents with suitable advisors in mission control when they say "lock the doors and save your screens!"
 
Looks like SpaceX lost a booster after a landing strut broke and punctured some sort of tank. Seems it had made it to the drone ship ok.
 
SecondAttempt said:
This! There can't be a criminal investigation if the evidence burns up! I hope there are FBI agents with suitable advisors in mission control when they say "lock the doors and save your screens!"
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The ‘evidence is on the Service Module which will burn up after it is jettisoned. Only the Command Module returns to Earth in one piece. One reason they kept the astronauts at the ISS was that the only place to test the faulty thrusters was there, while it is attached. Once they leave and return, the faulty thrusters and everything else get burned up. So no evidence will remain. But, also no bad parts that can be physically evaluated to see what really happened.
 
I just saw that FAA grounded Falcon 9 after the booster problem yesterday. Wore out after 23 launches.

What will that mean for the Polaris Dawn mission?
 
joesxm3 said:
I just saw that FAA grounded Falcon 9 after the booster problem yesterday. Wore out after 23 launches.

What will that mean for the Polaris Dawn mission?
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Seems like there must be a little more to it than has been released as a landing strut failure after 23 launches doesn't seem outrageous (metal fatigue and all). Perhaps for the human rated missions they should go with gently used boosters and save the high mileage ones for sats. Maybe they already do this?
 
Fermion said:
Seems like there must be a little more to it than has been released as a landing strut failure after 23 launches doesn't seem outrageous (metal fatigue and all). Perhaps for the human rated missions they should go with gently used boosters and save the high mileage ones for sats. Maybe they already do this?
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I would think that they actually inspect them and refurbish them before reusing... not just throw another capsule on the top and go...

So failure is either bad inspection or something went wrong with the part...
 
How do you do a 100% inspection on something that large without totally taking it apart and x-raying each part to look for micro fractures and such?
 
I read one suggestion that the strut failure followed some other event like an engine problem. Not sure where I saw it but that would explain a lot.
 
joesxm3 said:
I just saw that FAA grounded Falcon 9 after the booster problem yesterday. Wore out after 23 launches.

What will that mean for the Polaris Dawn mission?
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Polaris Dawn is on hold, pending the outcome of the booster investigation.

I think the FAA's concern is why did the landing fail. Was it just a weak strut, or did some other malfunction damage the strut. If it was the 2nd reason, there would be great cause for concern. IIRC, Columbia was destroyed while reentering due to damage that occurred at launch.

This is another reason why NASA wants two human LEO vehicles. Things happen. Space travel is hard.
 
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I was looking up to see how they inspected the booster stage and came across their Falcon Users Guide... wow, full of interesting stuff I know nothing about!!!

But, there was a link to their pricing and for just under $70 million YOU can launch something into space... including sending something to Mars if you wish....

Here was my google results... hope it works.

 
Fermion said:
How do you do a 100% inspection on something that large without totally taking it apart and x-raying each part to look for micro fractures and such?
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That's why it's called "Rocket Science"! And why it hasn't been done much.

These days, computer modelling can tell you a lot. Hmmm, since weight is such an issue, they can't really 'afford' to over-design things, they really need to understand the limit, and shoot for some 'reasonable' margin of safety.

So yea, "space travel is hard".
 
Texas Proud said:
I was looking up to see how they inspected the booster stage and came across their Falcon Users Guide... wow, full of interesting stuff I know nothing about!!!

But, there was a link to their pricing and for just under $70 million YOU can launch something into space... including sending something to Mars if you wish....
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Don't they have some rideshare thing too? I remember thinking it was almost in the BTD area to launch 10 pounds or so...how cool to have your own space junk microsat up there.
 
So it appears that Starliner project could have returned the astronauts safely. That is good news, suggesting that Boeing has a likely viable space flight system to add to the mix.

Good show.
 
They have the ship in one piece so they can now do failure analysis on these leaks and thruster issues.
 
JoeWras said:
They have the ship in one piece so they can now do failure analysis on these leaks and thruster issues.
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The way I heard it, the thrusters and leaks were all in the part which was jettisoned and burned up during re-entry. Hopefully I misunderstood and they'll get some good answers. We need more options for accessing space.
 
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