Polaris Dawn de orbit and splashdown in progress now for those interested.
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1vOxwrBvbRVJB
Image of re-entry trail above Florida
Landing schutes.
Cool drone pic of capsule in the water
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Stanley Kubrick shot it.
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Crew9 launch scheduled overnight 3:17am. 3hrs 45mims to go. 50% chance of launch due to weather.
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NOTAM for Starship IFT-5 for 12-19th October.
No idea if FAA will actually grant a license for SpaceX’s preferred profile or what the flight profile will be.
ie Booster return to launch pad, same as flight 4 or maybe similar to flight 4 with an in orbit relight.
Given a NOTAM is in place, it’s positive for some raptor action soon.
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A Martin B-57 Canberra reconnaissance aircraft has also been booked 13-27th October.
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I love that NASA still flies the Canberra.
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Obviously someone that doesn’t like what NASA is currently doing, not doing, wasting money across many missions and initiatives and especially SLS. Paints a bad light on them. SLS cost of ~US$100 billion to develop and support.
NASA has the problem that they are not (really) allowed to fail. Failures are seen as money losing. So of course everything becomes over engineered.
Touch wood, but let’s hope we never see a private company lose a person in space.
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Should also be glad NASA gave away so much tech for us.
$100 billion dollars to develop SLS and now more than $4 billion per flight and another $4 billion running costs per year.
SLS is cost plus, so the traditional suppliers are milking it for all it’s worth.
It is crazy that SpaceX is spending ~$10 billion to develop Starship. Included it in that is $3 billion for the Artemis 3 demo and mission that NASA has contracted them for.
2 failed shuttled missions were not saved by all the engineering, reviews and management which is most of the cost.
SpaceX and Blue Origin will definitely lose astronauts. Space is dangerous.
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Best case a Starship will cost $10m and worse case $30m per launch. Will be achievable if they can perfect the extraction of the materials to create the fuel from the atmosphere. Planned for 39A at the cape.
The best invention is Velcro, unless that is just misinfo.
I’m going with the check list they made for commercial aviation pilots. Made flying the safe thing it is today.
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Owww and the cordless drill.
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Yeah that’s probably the best thing. When I listen to a SpaceX feed for crew dragon it’s amazing how many times they check the same thing again and again with the astronauts.
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launch is scheduled for later this year
homegrown space industry is about to kick off
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United Launch Alliance (ULA) is launching the second Vulcan rocket tonight. Coverage starts at 6:40pm and launch window is 7-10pm.
Link to listen to nerds speaking about rockets.
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Absolutely astounding break down of NASA’s budget overruns.
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I had the link to Casey’s article in my original post up thread 
It is where I referenced the numbers from. Many have been saying similar to him for a long time.
$100 billion dollars for developing SLS is an absolute joke and it can’t even land a big enough payload for an actual moon landing. (capsule and required fuel to land and takeoff from the moons surface)
It delivers capability of Apollo 8 that couldn’t land a capsule on the moon.
And the worse is the Orion capsule which has heat shield issues. There will be additional tests on the heat shield before the end of the year due to it almost failing as a part of Artemis 1. There is a possibility that they will need to redesign the heat shield which would push Artemis 2 back to late 2027 or 2028 as they will need to rerate the capsue.
Due to the SLS cost and many other programs going over budget, so many missions have been cancelled or deferred for decades.
Chandra which has been operating as the only X-ray telescope is going to be canned and there is no replacement planned due to other projects cost overruns.
So disappointing for science and astronomy.
So much more could be done.
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ULA Vulcan launched successfully on it 2nd flight test.
There was an anomaly on the right solid rocket booster which resulted in the loss of the sea level nozzle and change in flight profile. One of the main BE4 booster engines appeared to be hit.
Have to say it way impressive the way that Vulcan control systems recovered.