Elon Musk has just announced that SpaceX have tested their new space suit at twice the pressure of a pure vacuum. LOL ! That's what I call thorough testing ..... :-)
Cheers, Mike.
How do you do that? Put twice normal operating pressure inside it?
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
Elon Musk has just announced that SpaceX have tested their new space suit at twice the pressure of a pure vacuum. LOL ! That's what I call thorough testing ..... :-)
Cheers, Mike.
How do you do that? Put twice normal operating pressure inside it?
Yes, and if you aren't in a vacuum chamber, add atmospheric too.
SpaceX has done it! The real mark of success is when the formerly improbable becomes so routinely expected as to go unremarked. There was a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg today with first stage recovery to the West Coast barge. That makes fifteen of the last twenty tries which have landed intact (albeit rather toasted in some cases). It passed without comment here, and I failed to watch in real time.
Next steps need to be:
1. Relaunch without trouble becomes routine and landing continues to be.
2. Refurb undertaken before relaunch needs to become so cheap that a substantial fraction of the potential savings becomes real savings.
Odds are they won't tell us enough to judge the second. Possibly the actual experience case for the first will build up over the next few years.
After many long looks at the view from the first stage after separation : I think the paddles were first deployed on the way up. By that I mean the cloud layer beneath conveniently had alot of features to gauge scale. So one could sense the vertical motion as well as horizontal translation. Indeed the cold gas thrusters were likewise in use for much of the unpowered portion of the arc. I don't think these were used to alter the path itself, but to preserve orientation in readiness for the entry burn. Also I think the landing burn was single engine*, again, and it would be interesting to see the state of the legs when they come to port. Yet again the accuracy is epic. Oh, and the client got a satellite into orbit too. :-)
Cheers, Mike.
* Yes, the purple lady said it was single engine.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
This looks like a good sound landing & beautiful accuracy :
with only the center engine active :
So I reckon no leg damage.
Also per SpaceX : "Static fire test complete—targeting Falcon 9 launch of OTV-5 from Pad 39A at @NASAKennedy on Thursday, September 7."
With Elon : "Putting together SpaceX rocket landing blooper reel. We messed up a lot before it finally worked, but there's some epic explosion footage …".
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Per SpaceX : "Falcon Heavy’s three first stage cores have all completed testing at our rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas. This side booster previously launched SpaceX’s ninth resupply mission to the @ISS."
See latest testing video ... notably the Heavy will utilise flight-proven boosters. I'd interpret that as :
- it doesn't owe us much money so is dispensable and/or
- we want to prove two technical points at once ( Heavy concept plus more re-use ) ie. maximum developmental information regardless of outcome and/or
- because we can. :-))
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Mike Hewson wrote:Elon Musk
)
How do you do that? Put twice normal operating pressure inside it?
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
David S wrote:Mike Hewson
)
Yes, and if you aren't in a vacuum chamber, add atmospheric too.
SpaceX has done it! The real
)
SpaceX has done it! The real mark of success is when the formerly improbable becomes so routinely expected as to go unremarked. There was a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg today with first stage recovery to the West Coast barge. That makes fifteen of the last twenty tries which have landed intact (albeit rather toasted in some cases). It passed without comment here, and I failed to watch in real time.
Next steps need to be:
1. Relaunch without trouble becomes routine and landing continues to be.
2. Refurb undertaken before relaunch needs to become so cheap that a substantial fraction of the potential savings becomes real savings.
Odds are they won't tell us enough to judge the second. Possibly the actual experience case for the first will build up over the next few years.
archae86 wrote:The real mark
)
April, 1970. Moon shots have become so routine, nobody's watching. Apollo 13 happens.
January, 1986. Shuttle launches are routine and nobody's watching. Challenger happens.
February, 2003. Shuttle landings are routine and nobody's watching. Columbia happens.
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
For those who missed
)
For those who missed it
SpaceX webcast
AgentB wrote:For those who
)
nice "paddle" action.
After a long look at the view
)
After many long looks at the view from the first stage after separation : I think the paddles were first deployed on the way up. By that I mean the cloud layer beneath conveniently had alot of features to gauge scale. So one could sense the vertical motion as well as horizontal translation. Indeed the cold gas thrusters were likewise in use for much of the unpowered portion of the arc. I don't think these were used to alter the path itself, but to preserve orientation in readiness for the entry burn. Also I think the landing burn was single engine*, again, and it would be interesting to see the state of the legs when they come to port. Yet again the accuracy is epic. Oh, and the client got a satellite into orbit too. :-)
Cheers, Mike.
* Yes, the purple lady said it was single engine.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
(No subject)
)
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
This looks like a good sound
)
This looks like a good sound landing & beautiful accuracy :
with only the center engine active :
So I reckon no leg damage.
Also per SpaceX : "Static fire test complete—targeting Falcon 9 launch of OTV-5 from Pad 39A at @NASAKennedy on Thursday, September 7."
With Elon : "Putting together SpaceX rocket landing blooper reel. We messed up a lot before it finally worked, but there's some epic explosion footage …".
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Per SpaceX : "Falcon Heavy’s
)
Per SpaceX : "Falcon Heavy’s three first stage cores have all completed testing at our rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas. This side booster previously launched SpaceX’s ninth resupply mission to the @ISS."
See latest testing video ... notably the Heavy will utilise flight-proven boosters. I'd interpret that as :
- it doesn't owe us much money so is dispensable and/or
- we want to prove two technical points at once ( Heavy concept plus more re-use ) ie. maximum developmental information regardless of outcome and/or
- because we can. :-))
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal