"I was really expecting to see a slowdown in the number of new launch vehicles."
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Rocket Report: NASA installs SLS software, India’s GSLV fails to reach orbit
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Big oef! Honestly I understand that Jeff really wants this contract. If they miss out on this they will probably never catch up to SpaceX on their own, but this is really just getting sad to watch. Even the the US politicians won't fall for this (probably) so who is this for? And why infographics? Does Jeff have nephew who happens to be a graphic designer?Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
Edit: the whole landings page for the HLS is an advert for a jobs program. https://www.blueorigin.com/blue-moon/national-team
Even bigger oef!
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Big oef! Honestly I understand that Jeff really wants this contract. If they miss out on this they will probably never catch up to SpaceX on their own, but this is really just getting sad to watch. Even the the US politicians won't fall for this (probably) so who is this for? And why infographics? Does Jeff have nephew who happens to be a graphic designer?Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
As Ken "Popehat" White has said "When the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. When the law is on your side, pound on the law. When neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound on the table." Bezos is pounding on the table; and infographics are a much more effective way to communicate with people his pounding might convince than walls of text: The GAO laughed him out of the room the last time he tried that, so now he's going after Congress and the rest of the Joe Morons on Twitface.
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Having read through the GAO rejection of the HLS protests, it occurs to me that BO could have easily amended their application to ensure they were selected for a Round B award: they "simply" needed to reduce their first-year cost to the government to zero. The entire HLS is predicated on the idea that the companies would be putting up substantial fractions of the development money to create sustainable lunar architectures. When the budget came out it should have been obvious that there wasn't enough money for the National Team's bid for year 1. While we don't know how much the charges in the first year were, we know that even SpaceX's bid exceeded the amount for a program cost that in total was half the National Team's. Whatever the proposed costs were in the first year, Bezos could have afforded to move the in-kind contributions for the project to year 1.
The NASA contracting officer decided SpaceX's proposal was best and could be funded. Because there was nearly no funding left after, she could not fund a second. Had the National Team reduced their first-year cost to zero, they would have gotten their foot in the door.
The NASA contracting officer decided SpaceX's proposal was best and could be funded. Because there was nearly no funding left after, she could not fund a second. Had the National Team reduced their first-year cost to zero, they would have gotten their foot in the door.
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So OSP-4 now has 11 competitors with launch vehicles in the game. That is some serious competition, although JB probably thinks it isn't because BO ain't there.
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While Ken White may use that particular phrase, it long predates his as an attorney. It's old enough Wikipedia doesn't have an origin for the quote.Big oef! Honestly I understand that Jeff really wants this contract. If they miss out on this they will probably never catch up to SpaceX on their own, but this is really just getting sad to watch. Even the the US politicians won't fall for this (probably) so who is this for? And why infographics? Does Jeff have nephew who happens to be a graphic designer?Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
As Ken "Popehat" White has said "When the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. When the law is on your side, pound on the law. When neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound on the table." Bezos is pounding on the table; and infographics are a much more effective way to communicate with people his pounding might convince than walls of text: The GAO laughed him out of the room the last time he tried that, so now he's going after Congress and the rest of the Joe Morons on Twitface.
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That does fail to extract money from suckers for vaporware, which is really what BO seems they're interested in.
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Do you want to hurt the popcorn stocks?Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
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What is the infographic flying men to the moon without complexity or high risk?
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its also pretty clear that most of the tanker flights in SpaceX's proposal are worst case scenario in performance and boil off margins, as well as replenishing if SLS gets delayed,
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Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
I find it interesting that the GAO report redacted the term “depot” in every discussion on the SpaceX launch plan, but BO just sticks it in an info-graphic and releases it.
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not exactly hard to infer what they redactedGoing to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
I find it interesting that the GAO report redacted the term “depot” in every discussion on the SpaceX launch plan, but BO just sticks it in an info-graphic and releases it.
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Clearly, that would be Blue Origin's Powerpoint Space Program approach. Basing the entire human landing system on the production and dissemination of infographics is a much more robust, lower-risk strategy than anything that involves flying rockets around.
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Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
SpeceX should print that on some coffee mugs (with a logo on the other side) and sell them in their store. Let BO sue over copyright if they’re shameless enough.
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Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
bauwhhahahajja
It isn't high risk for the customer.
These aren't cost plus ULA programs.
We lost the ability to launch humans into space. The USA. We lost launch capability. Tough to imagine.
We became soaked in dinosaur companies bleeding the gov't for money.
Then a james bond eqsue super villain with a strange accent came along.
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SpaceX schedule ...
CRS2 SpX-23:
Primary Day = Saturday, August 28 at 07:37 UTC (03:37 EDT) (convert time).
Assuming that launch takes place on Saturday, August 28:
Dock at the ISS: Sunday, August 29 at ~15:00 UTC (~11:00 EDT) (convert time).
Inspiration4:
Wednesday, September 15.
* Note: Crew Dragon Resilience with commercial passengers Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Christopher Sembroski, and Sian Proctor.
__________________________________________________
Rocket Lab schedule ...
Flight #22 'Love At First Insight':
NET late August.
__________________________________________________
Other ...
Astra - Rocket 3.3 Orbital Launch Attempt - STP-27AD1:
August 27 through September 3 and September 7 through September 11 at 21:00-00:30 UTC (13:00-16:30 AKDT) (convert time).
Boeing Starliner OFT-2 launching on a ULA Atlas V N22:
TBD.
Note: Some people are reporting plans for a launch on Thursday, August 19. Tune in to a NASA-Boeing media teleconference today at 17:00 UTC (13:00 EDT) at https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive to find out more.
Note note: Because of scheduling, I will not watch the teleconference live.
CRS2 SpX-23:
Primary Day = Saturday, August 28 at 07:37 UTC (03:37 EDT) (convert time).
Assuming that launch takes place on Saturday, August 28:
Dock at the ISS: Sunday, August 29 at ~15:00 UTC (~11:00 EDT) (convert time).
Inspiration4:
Wednesday, September 15.
* Note: Crew Dragon Resilience with commercial passengers Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Christopher Sembroski, and Sian Proctor.
__________________________________________________
Rocket Lab schedule ...
Flight #22 'Love At First Insight':
NET late August.
__________________________________________________
Other ...
Astra - Rocket 3.3 Orbital Launch Attempt - STP-27AD1:
August 27 through September 3 and September 7 through September 11 at 21:00-00:30 UTC (13:00-16:30 AKDT) (convert time).
Boeing Starliner OFT-2 launching on a ULA Atlas V N22:
TBD.
Note: Some people are reporting plans for a launch on Thursday, August 19. Tune in to a NASA-Boeing media teleconference today at 17:00 UTC (13:00 EDT) at https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive to find out more.
Note note: Because of scheduling, I will not watch the teleconference live.
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ICYMI - on Aug 8th Scott Manley did a video on heat shielding on Starship, with quite a lot of jump back and forth comparisons to Space Shuttle.
It came up in an earlier thread and quite neatly shows what the system does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lsbi-bVfk0
It came up in an earlier thread and quite neatly shows what the system does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lsbi-bVfk0
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Starliner is reportedly to be de-stacked.
Hope they have a really big Lego brick removal tool.
Hope they have a really big Lego brick removal tool.
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ColdWetDog
Ars Legatus Legionis
Oh no, much more impressive. They loaded software onto the rocket.
I can hardly contain my ... well, something.
EDIT: Missed a bit there. Never post before a least the second cup of coffee.
Still and all, I still can't contain my ... consternation / confusion / despair / disgust at SLS. But I do have to give NASA PR some credit for finding something to get excited about.
Just wait until they put all the decals on the booster.
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Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
Is this infographic accurate in that there are expected to be 14 launches to fill a fuel depot which fills a Starship? I guess I was expecting that number to be a lot lower - maybe somewhere around 2-5
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ColdWetDog
Ars Legatus Legionis
Wait. What?
Next week?
Did the hammer and WD-40 technique work or have they decided they don't need *all* of those thrusters?
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RUAGSpace have shipped the fairing for JWST.
https://twitter.com/esa_sts/status/1425 ... 28002?s=21[b:3kppn8jo said:RUAGSpace[/b]":3kppn8jo] Today, our payload fairing arrived at the port of Basel. From there, it will continue to Amsterdam and finally head to #Kourou, where the #Ariane5 rocket will lift off with @NASA's #JWST on board. Whoop whoopWe are excited!
@Arianespace #SpaceExploration @esa
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Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
Is this infographic accurate in that there are expected to be 14 launches to fill a fuel depot which fills a Starship? I guess I was expecting that number to be a lot lower - maybe somewhere around 2-5
The propellant capacity of starship is about 1200 t. A very conservative estimate predicts that a single Starship can launch 100 t to orbit (with the high range being 150 t) to low earth orbit. So, at least 12 launches to fill the depot to capacity, and then one would assume that if they want to recover the depot Starship, they would also need another launch to refill the fuel tanks for the landing burn. The remaning launch would then just be for margin if need be, and might not be necessary at all.
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Disappointed at this ignominious and very public failure - despite it being Boeing I'm not feeling the schadenfreude here. Having two non-Russian crew launch systems will be very beneficial to the space program. Yesterday's exhumation of the ISS hole story only serves to reinforce that.
Edit - intrigued by the Aug 19th date shown above. Let's see what the statement in a few hours shows
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Well, damn. 9 out of 13 valves replaced, with another four still in need of replacement. What happened this time? Did someone forget a socket in there*? Or were they unable to close the valve properly because of metal swarf*?
*incidents both of which I believe has plagued Boeing's delivery of the new tanker planes to the USAF.
-edit- I can’t count
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Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
Is this infographic accurate in that there are expected to be 14 launches to fill a fuel depot which fills a Starship? I guess I was expecting that number to be a lot lower - maybe somewhere around 2-5
The propellant capacity of starship is about 1200 t. A very conservative estimate predicts that a single Starship can launch 100 t to orbit (with the high range being 150 t) to low earth orbit. So, at least 12 launches to fill the depot to capacity, and then one would assume that if they want to recover the depot Starship, they would also need another launch to refill the fuel tanks for the landing burn. The remaning launch would then just be for margin if need be, and might not be necessary at all.
Does starship need to be fully fueled to have enough enought delta v for an LEO to Lunar (almost said Mun!!) transfer ?
This leads me to think, how much of the required delta V is the starship stage providing above and beyond superheavy in launching to orbit, what's the ratio? 70/30, 60/40 etc...
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Gross. There's disgusting cronyism lobbying and then there's whatever this is from Bad Origin. I hope the WA members of Congress are well and duly embarrassed.Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
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Big oef! Honestly I understand that Jeff really wants this contract. If they miss out on this they will probably never catch up to SpaceX on their own, but this is really just getting sad to watch. Even the the US politicians won't fall for this (probably) so who is this for? And why infographics? Does Jeff have nephew who happens to be a graphic designer?Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
Edit: the whole landings page for the HLS is an advert for a jobs program. https://www.blueorigin.com/blue-moon/national-team
Even bigger oef!
It's also pretty bold that they emphasize that the SpaceX lander is still being designed and is untested, when their own proposal is a lot further away from realization. Surely, that is too brazen even for laypeople to miss?
-Edit- spelling
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Wow, would love to see how many 5 1/4" floppies it takes for the full SLS mission software, though I pity the poor tech who has to swap the discs in/out and keep track of them.
Unless part of the contract to upgrade Shuttle era hardware for SLS included updating to 3 1/2" drives or maybe a Jaz drive if they're really pushing the envelope?
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Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
Is this infographic accurate in that there are expected to be 14 launches to fill a fuel depot which fills a Starship? I guess I was expecting that number to be a lot lower - maybe somewhere around 2-5
That number was in the GAO report but Musk has also said 8 launches would be enough to fill a Starship (8*150t) and that a minimal launch of Starship HLS (I assume without any extra cargo capacity) would take maybe half of that.
So I'm guessing this has margins on all ends, like "only" doing 100t to orbit, big delays/boiloff losses and that's it's for the max performance HLS mission, that is to say that even at our worst we can compensate with more launches and still over-deliver.
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Yeah, and Bezos could do something like self fund and just do it and then ask to be paid 3 Billion, same as SpaceX, to land a crew once they have a functioning lander.
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ColdWetDog
Ars Legatus Legionis
Big oef! Honestly I understand that Jeff really wants this contract. If they miss out on this they will probably never catch up to SpaceX on their own, but this is really just getting sad to watch. Even the the US politicians won't fall for this (probably) so who is this for? And why infographics? Does Jeff have nephew who happens to be a graphic designer?Going to derail this report in the first comment
Blue, please stop
New infographic
Edit: the whole landings page for the HLS is an advert for a jobs program. https://www.blueorigin.com/blue-moon/national-team
Even bigger oef!
It's also pretty bold that the emphasize that the SpaceX lander is still being designed and is untested, when their own proposal is a lot further away from realization. Surely, that is to brazen even for laypeople to miss?
Well, no.
Just look around at what 'lay people' (including members of Congress) are missing (the insurrection, climate change, vaccines ... ) and realize that facts, no matter how obvious or unsubtle, are completely irrelevant.
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greybeardengineer
Ars Praefectus
Well noted. Hey BO, SLS already has the national pork spreader job. Better luck next time.
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They didn't replace them. They applied "electrical, mechanical and thermal techniques" to get them tunstuck. (Insert your own joke about hammers and blowtorches.)
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