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https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-explosion-nasa-memo.html

 

 

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An internal memo to some workers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center is warning that employees could be fired for sharing images after a video of SpaceX's Crew Dragon explosion leaked online last week, according to a report from the Orlando Sentinel

The memo, which was sent to NASA contractors under specific contract, also confirms that SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule did explode — something SpaceX and NASA have not publicly confirmed — during an April 20 abort system test, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

On April 20, the company tested the capsule's SuperDraco escape engines, which are designed to get astronauts out of harm's way in the event of a launch emergency, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A video of the failed engine test was leaked on Twitter, and suggests that the capsule exploded; other coverage showed large plumes of smoke in the skies above the Florida coast. 

 

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Goin up...

 

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Reentry burn...

 

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From my driveway.

 

Takes about a minute from liftoff to when you can see it come up through the trees. My house is about 50 miles from the cape.

 

I could see the stage separation but could not get a pic.

 

May the fourth

Be with you.

 

 

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4e781b3e5940529d6ae00097ffa1fdfa.jpg

The little dot of light to the lower right of the bright spot is the tail of the flame. You can see the whole flame from nozzle to tail with the Mark One Eyeball but the flame by the nozzle is so bright that it washes out my Note 8's camera.

Launches never get old.

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It's not SpaceX but it's Jeff Bezos & Blue Origin:

 

 

A bit more info: https://www.blueorigin.com/blue-moon 

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The Blue Moon lander can deliver large infrastructure payloads with high accuracy to pre-position systems for future missions. The larger variant of Blue Moon has been designed to land an ascent vehicle that will allow us to return Americans to the Moon by 2024.

Pretty ambitious if true.

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I could see Amazon working on landers and such more than rockets this whole time while they let Elon think they were trying to compete. Maybe their whole Blue Origin project has been simply to develop better rockets for more specialized craft instead of carrying massive payloads. They weren't likely to catch SpaceX, so why not spend all their time getting a head start on other necessary bits so they become the dominant force there?

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Looking good. Where I am in Longwood it is quiet and I could hear the rumble of the launch. Cool. Where I was in Dr. Phillips I was able to hear a shuttle launch one time. Was a cold night with no traffic on the turnpike. This is the second time I've heard a launch here in Longwood. Wasn't sure it was the launch rumble the first time. But I noticed the time of the rumble this time and it occured at the right time for the distance from the launch site.

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21'st century fuck yeah!

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  • 3 weeks later...
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  • 1 month later...
  • 5 weeks later...
1 hour ago, horncyclist said:

Incredible footage. Makes me think there's something to their idea of using rockets for routine passenger travel on Earth.

 

 

no...  not routine...  perhaps extremely limited and highly extraordinary.  

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  • 1 month later...

Correct. This is just a hopper for dynamics and propulsion studies, will go up up to ~20km and land, for development of launch,  guidance, maneuvering, and landing. This will not go to "space." Note this is already the second iteration and the third is already being built. The speed of private space (or of SpaceX and Musk's mentality, in particular) is just stunning compared to the status quo.

The comment above about SLS being years obsolete by the time it gets off the ground is likely prescient. Everyone thought Falcon and reusable rocketry was a dumb fool's pipe dream under 10yr ago, and now entire rocket programs have shut down due to not being able to compete, and people don't even bother to watch the launch and landings any more. This generation is living a second Space Age, and it's amazing.

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They haven’t been talking about the intercontinental travel part of Starship in a while. I wonder if the changes to the design have shifted that goal? Gwynne Shotwell seemed very confident about that use of Starship in an interview last year.

Edited by Xminus6
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On 10/11/2019 at 12:20 AM, Xminus6 said:

They haven’t been talking about the intercontinental travel part of Starship in a while. I wonder if the changes to the design have shifted that goal? Gwynne Shotwell seemed very confident about that use of Starship in an interview last year.

It's probably much further off. The rockets will have the capability for quick hops but making the preparation for space travel routine will be a long way off. And making it economical when there are othe, albeit slower forms of intercontinental travel.

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On 9/30/2019 at 3:57 AM, Sam Lin said:

Correct. This is just a hopper for dynamics and propulsion studies, will go up up to ~20km and land, for development of launch,  guidance, maneuvering, and landing. This will not go to "space." Note this is already the second iteration and the third is already being built. The speed of private space (or of SpaceX and Musk's mentality, in particular) is just stunning compared to the status quo.

The comment above about SLS being years obsolete by the time it gets off the ground is likely prescient. Everyone thought Falcon and reusable rocketry was a dumb fool's pipe dream under 10yr ago, and now entire rocket programs have shut down due to not being able to compete, and people don't even bother to watch the launch and landings any more. This generation is living a second Space Age, and it's amazing.

You wonder at what point SLS should be abandoned and the money just given in a massive contract to SpaceX for interplanetary travel. Wed get to Mars 10 times faster that way, imo.

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On 10/12/2019 at 9:48 PM, Sam Lin said:

Honestly? 5yr ago. You aren't wrong, SpaceX would get us there faster, cheaper, and more efficiently. But politics will ensure SLS continues to be a bottomless pit of funding and will fly.

 

If they closed down SLS, where would they hide money to funnel to the shadow government?

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