NASA Orion crew exploration vehicle (updates)

[Beittil]

 

 

James Dean ?@flatoday_jdean  15m15 minutes ago

45th Space Wing confirms the offending vessel during today's countdown was 300-ft barge towed by 60-ft tug boat.

 

LOL, guess who's barge that was :P

[neufuse Veteran]

LOL, guess who's barge that was :p

SpaceX

[DocM]

Apparently the tug captain wans't monitoring the proper channel.

[DocM]

Weather's only 40% for tomorrow morning. Coverage starts 0300L (Eastern). Window opens at 0600L.

[DocM]

On live now,

http://public.infozen.cshls.lldns.net/infozen/public/public/public_1000.m3u8

Liftoff at 0705 Local (Eastern)

[DocM]

Going by the numbers so far and looking good. They cycled those valves 5 times right after tanking this time.

[AnotherITguy]

I just wish NASA would stop being so bone headed and instead of having to develop the SLS rocket family, why not just use the upcoming FALCON HEAVY.

[DocM]

FH could easily launch Orion and at a much lower cost.

That said, an even larger rocket or multiple Falcon Heavy launches Will be needed for BEO mission elements Delta 4 Heavy is too expensive for at $400m a pop.

The large single launcher options will be $L$ or BFR.

[Beittil]

This has nothing to do with NASA being boneheaded btw, this is just NASA making the best of it while they are being FORCED to construct the SLS.

[AnotherITguy]

Forced to construct the SLS? Please do explain. (No sarcasm intended) :)

[DocM]

That's right, SLS was forced on NASA by the US Senate. That's why it's disparaging called the Senate Launch System among the line engineers.

They'd rather be working on most any other configuration, such as the Direct 2 design proposed internally (aka "Jupiter"), or with SpaceX on BFR, but the Senate is dead set on SLS.

[FloatingFatMan]

That's xxx right, SLS was forced on NASA by the US Senate. That's why it's disparaging called the Senate Launch System among the line engineers.

They'd rather be working on most any other configuration, such as the Direct 2 design proposed internally (aka "Jupiter"), or with SpaceX on BFR, but the Senate is dead set on SLS.

 

So, there wouldn't be TOO many tears if it went kablooie on the pad, then? :p

[Beittil]

Well I could imagine they wouldn't like it if the hard word that did went into it went up in flames, but then again... like DocM said, over at NASA they would rather be focusing on other things, such as missions to the Jovian system. While a party like SpaceX works on developing a ride for them.

[FloatingFatMan]

Well no, the wasted work and the damage would be a drag... But no one will miss the Orion, is what I mean. :p

[Beittil]

To be honest, for Orion I can actually still see a purpose. It's still quite expensive, but it doesn't require the SLS to go anywhere (as we just witnessed). With Orion NASA could still have their own means of transportation for deep space, but yeah... dat SLS... gah. That just needs to disappear :P 

[_neutrino Veteran]

Nice to see the launch happened well. I am eager to see how well the phased parachutes work for them as well as what happens when it goes through the Van Allen Belt.

[DocM]

Going through the Van Allen belts is no biggie.

The inner belt extends from about 1,000 km to 6,000km. Many satellites have flown in the inner belt.

The outer belt is from about 13,000 to 60,000km, and every commsat goes higher than that if launched to a supersynchronous transfer orbit (SSTO) before circulation. Falcon 9 boosted SES-8 to 90,000km.

And Apollo traversed both of them. Twice each mission.

[Draken]

looking at the orbital broadcast from today's launch makes me shiver! I Imagine, 16 or 20 years from now, we could be watching the same Orion carrying crew to the MTV and the first images of the MTV orbit assembly :D 

[FloatingFatMan]

looking at the orbital broadcast from today's launch makes me shiver! I Imagine, 16 or 20 years from now, we could be watching the same Orion carrying crew to the MTV and the first images of the MTV orbit assembly :D

 

I'd be rather worried if it were the SAME Orion in 20 years!

 

One would hope our space tech would be a wee bit better by then...

[Draken]

I'd be rather worried if it were the SAME Orion in 20 years!

 

One would hope our space tech would be a wee bit better by then...

 

look it this way: it's 1977, and we're watching Shuttle enterprise first test, and I tell you that I imagine it launching an space station 20 years from then .... and 20 years later the same shuttle did it, so I'm pretty sure that a somehow modified version of that same Orion will be carrying us to Mars (Y)

[FloatingFatMan]

look it this way: it's 1977, and we're watching Shuttle enterprise first test, and I tell you that I imagine it launching an space station 20 years from then .... and 20 years later the same shuttle did it, so I'm pretty sure that a somehow modified version of that same Orion will be carrying us to Mars (Y)

 

By the time Orion gets there, SpaceX will be running a weekly commuter service. :p

[DocM]

You have no idea :)

[FloatingFatMan]

You have no idea :)

 

Oh, so daily then? (Y)

[Draken]

ohh I get it, VHS Vs Betamax, Microsoft Vs Apple, PS Vs Xbox and now Nasa Vs SpaceX :rolleyes:

 

Don't forget that half of what private space does depends on NASA, from derivative tech to launch sites, test benches etc.... I don't see SpaceX surpassing government funded space programs for at least the next 30 years, unless somehow private mining operations or some other form of resource exploitation can fund them. I'm in no way anti-SpaceX or something like that, but Musk is not Stark ;)

[FloatingFatMan]

NASA do the research and develop the core technologies, sure. But no government agency is ever going to be able to keep pace with rich commercial enterprise. Too much red tape involved, hobbling every single thing they do.