Space In General

These.

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Ah.
I can’t even microwave mine, because they explode. Tried more than once of course, until my Mom yelled at me for destroying whatever this whole set is called that she gave me from… I can’t remember, but they’re so old, you can’t microwave them.

Science
 
SpaceX Falcon 9 is grounded pending investigation of the 2nd-stage failure last Thursday, in which the second stage engine blew up instead of re-igniting to circularize the orbit. The Starlink satellites will be lost to re-entry, as they do not have enough thrust to raise themselves into their intended orbit from where they are, and "where they are" is experiencing atmospheric drag, enough to drop them by 3 miles with each orbit. Elon Musk said they are uploading a control program to make an effort at raising them, but also said it's probably not going to work; they simply don't have enough thrust. The satellites will eventually burn up as their orbits decay further.
 
Boeing (actually NASA, I suppose) has abandoned efforts to bring the 2 astronauts back on the Starliner, due to safety concerns after numerous issues, including helium leaks and malfunctioning thrusters. The astronauts that it carried up in June, originally slated for 8 days on the ISS, are now trapped until Februrary, when Space-X's Crew 9 returns. 8 days being 8 months for those two...

Crew 9 will launch no earlier than late September, carrying 2 crew instead of four, to make room for the stranded Starliner astronauts on the return trip. It's also carrying empty Space-X space suits, as the Boeing suits are not compatible with the Dragon capsule.

The Starliner with return to Earth autonomously and empty sometime in September.
 
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Boeing (actually NASA, I suppose) has abandoned efforts to bring the 2 astronauts back on the Starliner, due to safety concerns after numerous issues, including helium leaks and malfunctioning thrusters. The astronauts that it carried up in June, originally slated for 8 days on the ISS, are now trapped until Februrary, when Space-X's Crew 9 returns. 8 days being 8 months for those two...

Crew 9 will launch no earlier than late September, carrying 2 crew instead of four, to make room for the stranded Starliner astronauts on the return trip. It's also carrying empty Space-X space suits, as the Boeing suits are not compatible with the Dragon capsule.

The Starliner with return to Earth autonomously and empty sometime in September.
Honestly, if it wasn't for their being grandfathered into government contracts, Boeing would have been ripped to shreds by its shareholders by now.
 
Boeing (actually NASA, I suppose) has abandoned efforts to bring the 2 astronauts back on the Starliner, due to safety concerns after numerous issues, including helium leaks and malfunctioning thrusters. The astronauts that it carried up in June, originally slated for 8 days on the ISS, are now trapped until Februrary, when Space-X's Crew 9 returns. 8 days being 8 months for those two...

Crew 9 will launch no earlier than late September, carrying 2 crew instead of four, to make room for the stranded Starliner astronauts on the return trip. It's also carrying empty Space-X space suits, as the Boeing suits are not compatible with the Dragon capsule.

The Starliner with return to Earth autonomously and empty sometime in September.
Can we now assume that old saying of ............." Id rather be going in a Boeing " will be replaced with ....." I`ll be filling my Kecks in a Space X " ?
 
Well, Space-X lost a booster in the wee hours of yesterday morning! Landing leg collapsed as it touched down on the barge. First landing failure after 268 consecutive successful landings.
 

"If it's Boeing, I'm not going." -Astronauts, probably

There's going to be a lot of analysis going on about this failure in the coming months. Spacecraft failing to do what they're designed to do is one thing when we're talking a satellite or a probe, but leaving actual people stranded is another, much more severe matter entirely.
 
Even if they were to somehow miraculously fix everything they've found, for future missions they have a lot of work to do to prove it actually works. Unmanned flights, maybe unmanned supply runs to the ISS, even another unmanned moon and back. Is the cost going to be remotely worth it to Boeing? Can they even begin to cover the losses, or is it just... done?
 
Even if they were to somehow miraculously fix everything they've found, for future missions they have a lot of work to do to prove it actually works. Unmanned flights, maybe unmanned supply runs to the ISS, even another unmanned moon and back. Is the cost going to be remotely worth it to Boeing? Can they even begin to cover the losses, or is it just... done?
It's run massively over the allotted budget and considering all the other problems Boeing has to deal with now, I'd be highly surprised if it wasn't just quietly binned. They need to get their own house in order before they tackle something like this again.
 
Starlink becoming "existential threat" to ground-based astronomy across all wavelengths:


Prof Dempsey said that simple actions like shielding the battery on the satellite could make a big difference and reduce the radiation emitted.

Some interference comes from faulty electronics, so this could prevent that happening.

But without action, “very soon the only constellations we will see will be human-made,” she added.
 
Starlink becoming "existential threat" to ground-based astronomy across all wavelengths:

This is a concern that was raised early last year when the light pollution from the satellites' reflective shells was beginning to make it difficult for observatories to do their thing, and it's only going to get much worse as other companies start shooting their own clusters up there in the coming years to compete with Starlink.

Of course the Muskovites' response at the time was "well they're not designed to be in orbit for very long, soooooo...", which is both a non-answer and a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem at hand.
 

Well Boeing, not only did you waste a ton of money (both the government's and your own) on something that didn't work correctly despite having about 60 years of research to work off of, you also probably gave Elon something to smugface about for the next few months, so double shame on you. Though personally I'm just glad the astronauts at least got onto the space station safely.
 

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