Spot the Space Station

[day_trippr]

This is totally worth five minutes of gawking...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/03/us/gallery/best-views-iss-spacex/index.html
Cheers!

 

[Yesfan]

Wow! Beautiful!

I guess the comet is Neowise?

 

[day_trippr]

I expect so, yes...

Cheers!

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

Here's an interesting read:

https://www.airspacemag.com/airspacemag/escape-speeding-shuttle-180975606/

 

[day_trippr]

I recall the basis of this article and thinking to myself "these mf'ers have huge 'nads to do this sh*t".
Still feel the same.

btw, we have officially arrived at the point that Falcon 9 flights and clean launcher landings are totally unremarkable (but still so totally awesome!)
The launcher arrives around the 1:20 mark...



Really, how freakin' cool is that!

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

As routine as these launches have become, this particular mission included launcher return to a land based pad.
The landing video is really cool - I don't recall seeing the top-down view right to the pad before.
Skip to 24 minutes in...



Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

SpaceX had a camera mounted on the launcher and they cobbled together a short flight film from that perspective that's pretty cool.



Also, they had a cam on one of the fairing halves...



Cheers!

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

This thread is so cool! I recall seeing Sky Lab in 1978 as it tumbled across the heavens. Closest to seeing Sky Lab was seeing the rings round Saturn with my daughter's telescope. Way cool.

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

I like the audio. Phone cam heros think they could offer help but get nixed by mom because they brought their kid to a dangerous event

 

[Sailingeric]

I spotted it. Was out on the deck with the dog. Saw slower moving bright light, thought it was plane but it was not flashing, then the light faded, went and checked the location on the ISS tracker, and it was over head. I will have to keep track better for next time

 

[day_trippr]

Been awhile since I took the time, really need to do that more often because when you get a really good fly-over it's totally worth breaking out the birding scope.
Looks like there will be a few good opportunities here, weather permitting, in the next few days, ranging from 3 minutes @40° tomorrow evening up to 5 minutes @82° on Tuesday...

Cheers!

 

[bracconiere]

ranging from 3 minutes @40° tomorrow evening up to 5 minutes @82° on Tuesday...

hmmm, i'm just hoping it doesn't f'up my scale! lol

 

[day_trippr]

Total segue with this, but for airplane fans this is a pretty cool Concorde takeoff/landing sequence compressed into 10 minutes...

 

[day_trippr]

Elon is bringing "The Jetsons" to the 21st century - on land and sky.
Four years ago (more or less) the notion of a truly practical electric "car" was a fringe thought.
Two years ago the concept of landing a LEO-capable launcher six times was off-the-charts thinking.

Yet, here we are...
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...-mission-sunday-another-on-tap-for-wednesday/
Pretty much the giga-version of "Hold my beer and watch this!"

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Now that SpaceX launch and returns are verging on mundane there's time to look at other interesting spacey stuff.
Like, having a vehicle grab some gravel from an asteroid - autonomously!

https://www.asteroidmission.org/?la...-rex-spacecraft-successfully-touches-asteroid
Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Video!

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

https://www.livescience.com/starman-tesla-mars-approach.html

 

[Pkrd]

Pointed the SLR up tonight.

 

[day_trippr]

Crew-1 launch this evening at 7:27 PM Eastern. Night launches can be spectacular!
Live broadcast already happening....



Cheers!

[edit] Launch and booster recovery looked flawless. The only apparent glitch is "Propellant Line Heaters" are suddenly a thing, but apparently SpaceX came up with a workaround/fix.

The one thing that strikes me about the Crew Dragon is the apparent spaciousness (no pun intended). Four peeps in the cabin and it still looked like a handful of weirdly dressed folks watching the game from equally weird chairs in someone's living room

 

[Desert_Sky]

A project I was testing last year just docked with the space station. Good stuff, hope it works well

 

[day_trippr]

Check this out: Starship does some badass flying before going subterranian
Fast forward to 7:30 on the player timer for the fun!



Cheers! (so much awesome!)

 

[passedpawn]

Check this out: Starship does some badass flying before going subterranian
Fast forward to 7:30 on the player timer for the fun!



Cheers! (so much awesome!)

Awesome. I guess the plan is to freefall until the last second, then use the vectored engines to get it vertical and enough thrust to have a soft landing. This minimizes the amount of fuel necessary for the return trip.

Seems that they waited until the last second, plus one.

 

[day_trippr]

Still hasn't gotten old. That launcher has done 8 full cycles and stuck the landing every time



Cheers!

 

[LAHammer]

Still hasn't gotten old. That launcher has done 8 full cycles and stuck the landing every time



Cheers!

This time landed in the strongest winds they’ve attempted in. White caps all around and hit the bullseye. Amazing!

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

Can't wait for the next Mars lander in March. I always wondered why they didn't dispatch drones or air balloons to travel longer distances. I believe this one has a drone

 

[bracconiere]

I believe this one has a drone

i wonder if the martians are complaining about the borg invading, lol...

 

[day_trippr]

Next up, Saturday (tomorrow) at 0940, 143 satellites will head to space in one launch.
Cool beans! SpaceX is the Oprah of getting things into space. "You get a launch. and you get a launch, and you get a launch..."

 

[day_trippr]

"We just gotta work on that landing a little bit"

Lift-off at 5:25...



Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

I've been reading speculation that one of the two Raptor engines failed to relight during/after the "flip", and I did notice there was only one engine lit in the last few seconds shot under SS9 in the video before it switched to a tower or drone view for the crash.

In the video at 11:47 - shortly after the announcer said "two engines to flip" - you can see only one Raptor is energized.
Some speculators think there was skirt debris that clobbered the second engine. I'm wondering if the transition to landing fuel tanks did not work as planned...

 

[Konadog]

Elon does make the best fireworks! I can't wait for them to get this working as good as there other booster landings and see what they come up with next.