Space - The Final Frontier

I wonder if they plan to find the limit or retire the booster?
 
Keim said:
I wouldn't want to be riding it on the day they find the limit.
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Exactly what I was thinking. I hope they at least have some sort of "stress/certification" process in place.
 
Anyone been watching the news on the NASA Osiris Rex mission?

This BBC news summary includes a clip from the onboard movie camera as the spacecraft grabs a sample from the asteroid Bennu some 3 years ago and the craft has now touched down safely in the Utah desert.

Dusty samples from the "most dangerous known rock in the Solar System" have been brought to Earth.
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Osiris-Rex: Nasa confirms return of asteroid Bennu samples https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66893661
 
Time to fire up the movie "The Andromeda Strain"?
 
15 years ago today, Falcon 1 was the first privately funded liquid fueled rocket to reach orbit.

What a difference a decade and a half make.
 
Two things:

Has the Indian rover on the moon re-awakened?

As of yesterday, SpaceX has a booster with 18 flights and landings under its belt.
 
NASA is having issues opening the Osiris spacecraft that scooped up parts of an asteroid earlier this year.

Thankfully the outside was covered with lots of sample material during the touch and go scoping process. So they have material to test while they wait to get the thing open.

"After multiple attempts at removal, the team discovered two of the 35 fasteners on the TAGSAM head could not be removed with the current tools approved for use in the OSIRIS-REx glovebox," it says. "The team has been working to develop and implement new approaches to extract the material inside the head, while continuing to keep the sample safe and pristine."
 
Chuckanut said:
NASA is having issues opening the Osiris spacecraft that scooped up parts of an asteroid earlier this year.
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Oh, for Pete's sake! NASA designed and built the thing and now they can't figure out how to get it open? Did the low-bid builder in Bangladesh retire? Did someone lose the keys? Sheesh. Just go down to Harbor Freight, get an angle grinder and a cut-off wheel for $25 and get on with it.

But no, they've got to figure out a way to make it cost $859,636.87....
 
Walt34 said:
Oh, for Pete's sake! NASA designed and built the thing and now they can't figure out how to get it open? Did the low-bid builder in Bangladesh retire? Did someone lose the keys? Sheesh. Just go down to Harbor Freight, get an angle grinder and a cut-off wheel for $25 and get on with it.

But no, they've got to figure out a way to make it cost $859,636.87....
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Well, I presume you are joking.

It is a serious problem. They could easily open it with a persuader bar. The problem is a persuader bar won't fit in the environmental box. They could go to Harbor Freight and get an impact wrench, but might introduce some weird China-sourced virus DNA into the container.

Contamination is a huge issue.
 
Yeah, my first reaction would be "I need a bigger hammer."

Let's see, they shot a rocket from our moving planet, to an asteroid millions of miles away, grabbed some bits and brought them back. I suppose a little patience to make sure it isn't contaminated is OK.

Overall, I'd say pretty good job, NASA!
 
CaptTom said:
Yeah, my first reaction would be "I need a bigger hammer."

Let's see, they shot a rocket from our moving planet, to an asteroid millions of miles away, grabbed some bits and brought them back. I suppose a little patience to make sure it isn't contaminated is OK.

Overall, I'd say pretty good job, NASA!
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When it touched down on the asteroid in 2020 it was at a distance of 200 million miles from earth. On return it ejected the collection capsule which was successfully retrieved by NASA. But it ain’t finished yet, it is now going to go to another asteroid.

On 25 April 2022, NASA confirmed that the mission would be extended. After dropping off its sample to Earth on 24 September 2023, the mission became OSIRIS-APEX ('APophis EXplorer').[74] As its new name suggests, its next target will be the near-Earth asteroid (and potentially hazardous object) 99942 Apophis. Apophis will make an extremely close pass to the Earth on 13 April 2029. Observations of Apophis will commence on 8 April 2029, and a few days later, on 21 April, OSIRIS-APEX is planned to rendezvous with the asteroid.[76] OSIRIS-APEX will orbit Apophis for around 18 months in a regime similar to that at Bennu. The spacecraft will perform a maneuver, similar to sample collection at Bennu, by using its thrusters to disturb Apophis's surface, in order to expose and spectrally study the subsurface and the material beneath it.[15]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx
 
Alan said:
When it touched down on the asteroid in 2020 it was at a distance of 200 million miles from earth. On return it ejected the collection capsule which was successfully retrieved by NASA. But it ain’t finished yet, it is now going to go to another asteroid...
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Exactly. This is just amazing stuff. No wonder we call anything which requires really smart people "rocket science."

I'll give them a pass on taking their time to figure out the best way to open the container. That's just a tiny part of the mission, and the cost. It's such a huge value to science that it's well worth whatever effort it takes to do it right.
 
Space X Starship launch window starts tomorrow 11/18/23 at 0800 EST and lasts for 20 minutes.
 
From Washington Post - "Speaking on the broadcast, SpaceX commentators said that the company will have learned a lot from the flight and will incorporate the necessary changes ahead of the next attempt.

“An incredibly successful day even though we did have a rapid, unscheduled disassembly of both the Super Heavy booster and the ship,” said Kate Tice, a SpaceX engineer. “We got so much data and that will all help us to improve for our next flight.”"
 
And, this sort of nonsensical headline from NYT ...

"SpaceX Starship Launch
Elon Musk’s Giant Moon and Mars Rocket Makes Progress in 2nd Test Flight"
 
A beautiful flight.

Can’t wait for the next one!

…as long as the Fish and Wildlife Service approves.
 
The falcon was like that. Boom, boom, boom, then suddenly it is launching flawlessly every week

I did notice in the video that all 33 engines on the booster were firing. That is different from the first launch.
 
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