US Launch Vehicles and Spacecraft: Discussion & News

owais.usmani wrote:They didn't show the SN11 crash this time? Well Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooo......

I was so looking forward to seeing a vastly improved and upgraded version of the crash fireball.

Yeah Space-X is bombing itself back in to the stone-age.......and speaking about pre-historic times, Muskrat's cronie, quisling, err partner in Neurolink says their planning on building a real life Jurassic park!!! When will his fanboy's ever call him and his nuthugging sycophants out for their clown car driving bullshit?!?!

Neuralink co-founder Max Hodak says 'We could probably build Jurassic Park.'

I think Musk should live up to his Iron Man image and design a flying suit.

//sarc

Neuralink co-founder Max Hodak says 'We could probably build Jurassic Park.'

Anyone expecting a different result from the movies?

Oh my, NASA has contracted Space X to deliver astronauts to the Moon.

Musk is claiming the first flight will be this year (2021)!

Should be easy. Bring them back will be harder.

Musk to NASA: "You didn´t specify in the contract that we have to bring them back!"

Don't worry he's got it covered: He'll just paint a huge mural of the moon around the launch pad. There, a trip to the moon and back in record breaking time no less.

I think Musk should live up to his Iron Man image and design a flying suit.

//sarc

His first public release will describe the material as unbreakable Unobtainium.... and the Adamantium... but in 5 years some reporter will ask where it is and after lots of questioning he will admit that they are working on papier mache...

Would be much more efficient if it extracted all the oxygen from the CO2 leaving C.. preferably in a solid form... that sort of technology could be used on earth to reverse out CO2 emissions without flooding the atmosphere with poisonous CO, or carbon monoxide... the gas that kills you if you sit in your car in a garage with the engine running...

I would sort of love to see a similar drive or passion of wanting to be in Mars from Russia, I hope Nord Stream 2 or arctic projects boosts their economy enough to make more Mars related projects besides the Nuklon project being the only thing looking forward to. Ironically Blinken and his colleague with the Chinese in Alaska spoke so highly about landing their Rover and flying the Heli in Mars as a look how great we are to the Chinese. I couldn't even stand the other bitch with the purple hair like come the **** on a professional appearance would have been better. I would like Russia to shove it in our country's faces but we are sanctioning the hell out of Russia. I cant stand what's going on with our country therefore I want them to be the 1st to send a manned crew to Mars 1st if possible with ideas of colonization once their economy approves just to wake our country the **** up with current degeneracy.

thegopnik wrote:I would sort of love to see a similar drive or passion of wanting to be in Mars from Russia, I hope Nord Stream 2 or arctic projects boosts their economy enough to make more Mars related projects besides the Nuklon project being the only thing looking forward to. Ironically Blinken and his colleague with the Chinese in Alaska spoke so highly about landing their Rover and flying the Heli in Mars as a look how great we are to the Chinese. I couldn't even stand the other bitch with the purple hair like come the **** on a professional appearance would have been better. I would like Russia to shove it in our country's faces but we are sanctioning the hell out of Russia. I cant stand what's going on with our country therefore I want them to be the 1st to send a manned crew to Mars 1st if possible with ideas of colonization once their economy approves just to wake our country the **** up with current degeneracy.

There will be no waking up. I suspect the problem with America lies on a deeper level than just one would have guessed. If I were a betting man I would bet that much of this profound moral cowardice stems from the fact that America's genetic template is based on people who when pressed by outside factors, chose flight instead of fight. You can't fight your DNA, sorry.

Around 11 minutes Musk shows once again that he is scientifically illiterate and is basically just a cult leader.

kvs wrote:

Around 11 minutes Musk shows once again that he is scientifically illiterate and is basically just a cult leader.

Another thing that needs to be said is the proven reliability of coaxial rotors. Remember all the years Western's were shitting on 'dangerous' coaxials by Kamov, now they have to eat crow with the new development of the Sikorsky S-97 Raider and this Mars Helicopter.

Better late than never I suppose . https://spacenews.com/general-atomics-wins-darpa-contract-to-design-nuclear-reactor-to-power-missions-to-the-moon/

General Atomics' Christina Back: Nuclear thermal propulsion “will enable spacecraft to travel immense distances quickly”
WASHINGTON — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded a $22 million contract to General Atomics to design a small nuclear reactor for space propulsion, the agency announced April 9.

General Atomics, based in San Diego, California, was selected for the first phase of a program known as a DRACO, short for demonstration rocket for agile cislunar operations. The project is to demonstrate nuclear thermal propulsion — or the use of a nuclear reactor to heat up rocket fuel to generate thrust.

DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office in May 2020 solicited proposals in a “broad agency announcement.” The goal is to test a nuclear thermal propulsion system in orbit by 2025.

Space propulsion systems in use today include electric and chemical propulsion, but other options might be needed for future exploration beyond Earth’s orbit, DARPA noted. “The DRACO program intends to develop novel nuclear thermal propulsion technology. Unlike propulsion technologies in use today, NTP can achieve high thrust-to-weights similar to chemical propulsion but with two to five times the efficiency.’

The ability to monitor cislunar space – the volume of space between the Earth and the moon – will require a “leap-ahead in propulsion technology,” said DARPA.

The DRACO program will attempt to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion system on orbit. A nuclear reactor will heat propellant to extreme temperatures before expelling the hot propellant through a nozzle to produce thrust.

Christina Back, vice president of nuclear technologies and materials at General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, said nuclear thermal propulsion is a “leap ahead of conventional propulsion technology and will enable spacecraft to travel immense distances quickly.”

“Agile spacecraft are critical to maintain space domain awareness and significantly reduce transit times in the vast cislunar region,” Back said in a statement to SpaceNews.

For space exploration such as human missions to Mars, Back said, “nuclear propulsion will allow for more versatility of launch windows, and enable longer stays on the planet itself.”

NASA pioneered research in nuclear thermal propulsion in the 1960s but priorities shifted and efforts were cut back in the 1970s.

According to a NASA news release: “There is once again recognition that nuclear thermal propulsion is a viable and powerful option to explore Mars and other destinations.”

A February study by the National Academies, sponsored by NASA, said nuclear thermal propulsion and nuclear electric propulsion approaches could reduce the travel time of expeditions to Mars but must overcome significant technical hurdles.

Nuclear thermal rocket to low earth orbit does not sound as complex as Nuklon going to moon, Venus and one of Jupiter's moons assuming 2025 does not get pushed back for them. But I hope Blue Origins wins the contract for the spacecraft design over LM just for entertainment values of Musk going on a rant with his long term adversary Jeff Bezos .

The fact they are supposed to test the engine in orbit already tells you this won't be suitable for a first stage.
It seems they expect similar performance to NERVA and the like. That is ~900 Isp, ~100 kN thrust.

The Nuklon project has been ongoing since the 1970s with a lot of key work in the 1980s and 1990s. It is pure BS for the US to pull
something out of the air in 5 years. And unlike Russia, I highly doubt they were working on nuclear propulsion for the last 40 years
outside of some research work. If it does not get funded, it is left untouched.

As an example we can take the US hypersonic missile effort. So many demonstrators over the last 60+ years and struggling when the
politicians snap their fingers and expect instant gratification.

56:04 If I was the Chinese I would roast the U.S. back stating if they have any projects similar to nuklon for traveling the Solar system and if they don't, than with their excessive funding that they should go fund Roscosmos to speed up the process of getting a man to Mars instead of using sanctions, just to set them off or even state that their country in math, physics and ICPC international school contests use Chinese Americans to compete with Russian and Chinese students, etc. I am proud of the Rover, helicopter and Moxie concept and all but I hate it when some dipshit references that as a look how great we are in a condescending way to a country your suppose to improve relations with. Instead of making accusations off the bat I would talk about how to improve relations. 1:03:23 China responds back to America on rover landing.

PS: mods or admin I am only talking about rover on Video.

Crew Dragon spacecraft with four astronauts returns to Earth

It made an Atlantic splashdown off Florida’s coast, NASA reported

NEW YORK, May 2. /TASS/. Space X’s Crew Dragon manned spacecraft with the Crew-1 mission aboard has come back to Earth, successfully making an Atlantic splashdown off Florida’s coast, NASA reported.

The Resilience spacecraft with four astronauts - NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi - splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, at 2:56 a.m. EDT (09:56 a.m.) after 168 days in space.

https://tass.com/science/1285913

SpaceX’s Starship prototype lands successfully during trials in Texas

Starship SN15 to climb to an altitude of about 10 kilometers, and then descended to a landing pad next to the launch site

NEW YORK CITY, May 6. /TASS/. US’ SpaceX successfully landed the Starship spacecraft, intended for the use in a Mars mission, according to a live broadcast by SpaceX on Wednesday.

Starship SN15 took off from Boca Chica, Texas, to climb to an altitude of about 10 kilometers, and then descended to a landing pad next to the launch site. "Starship landing normal!," Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk wrote on his Twitter account.

Starship’s previous test launch on March 30 ended in its explosion during the landing. The spacecraft prototypes also exploded while landing during two earlier trials in February and December 2020. In early March, Starship exploded several minutes after vertical landing.

The Starship multiple-use spacecraft is intended for missions to Mars and can carry up to 100 people. Musk speculated earlier that the first trial flight might take place on Earth orbit this year, adding that these plans could be reviewed.

https://tass.com/science/1286795

A rational American perspective on the rocket logistics BS being pimped by Musk and idiots in the US military.

There are people that literally believe the cost of launching Starship with payload is around 2 million dollars. It uses methane oxygen which of course is different than falcon heavy or 9 but Amur uses the same shit but with costs to be estimated at 22 million dollars. One thing is not like the other here it seems

Look at the reactions and then compare it with how the same people would react to such a failure in Russia.

Spectacular fail for the joint US-Banderastan venture on rocket development by Firefly Aerospace.

In my opinion, the fact that the rocket exploded 2 minutes after launch points to a failure with the Ukr supplied components.
These days Banderastan can produce some fuel tanks and pipes. But they like to talk about how they are going to the Moon
and Mars.

The United States has done away with the RD-180 and is preparing a space weapon against Russia

This was coming- now RD-180 makers must find other buyers or something else to produce.