ESA launched their HERA mission on a SpaceX falcon 9 successfully this morning.
HERA will revisit Dimorphos after the DART mission collided with it in 2023 to alter its course. DART was a planetary defense mission to assess the possibility of trying to deflect an asteroid so it doesn’t collide with Earth.
HERA will launch 2 cube says that will land on the surface and the main HERA craft might get to land in one of its poles if conditions are favorable.
Also
Europa Clipper will also be launching soon. Was scheduled for this Friday but was delayed due to hurricane Milton.
It will be launched on a SpaceX falcon 9 heavy that will be fully expended.
I have only read part of this, but my main question so far is “who is this guy and why should I trust him”? (Before I commit to the other 1,000,000,000 words…
Will try and finish it later. Just got to the end of the first section talking about a bunch of projects, and him getting wound up about WFH. I assume this is just a side-note, so I will see where it goes. But I hope that it gets more to understanding issues with Us Government funding, funding cycles and priorities, rather than just NASA is sht, private companies would do it better, but not the private companies that are working for NASA and are incentivised to take as much money as they can for as little work as they can.
A rocket has less work to do to reach orbital velocity when it launches nearer to the equator. Unfortunately that is where hurricanes and cyclones form. It’s due to the earths spin velocity being higher near the equator.
The same rocket in Florida saves ~12% fuel compared to a rocket launched in Russia. Also means that weight in fuel can be used for payload. Not a 1 to 1 relationship it depends on a number of other things as well.
ADD
European Space Agency (ESA) launches from French Guyana in South America which is ~5 degrees above equator.
Also the closer to the equator you are, the more orbital inclinations you can reach.
@bobo Sorry for the copy-paste, sometimes I’m too lazy to type. The big unknown is whether this flight they will attempt to fly the booster back to the launch mount and “catch” it with the tower “chopsticks”. If they do, and can pull it off smoothly, it will be a major development. They are also testing all iterations done to the vehicle since IFT4, such as the newly upgraded heat tile shield system.
PS Will paste the live stream of the launch here, if it goes ahead
