SpaceX

[Boac]

Dragon Capsule for sale - two careful owners........ never raced or rallied.

Warranty to be checked 22/4 I believe.

[Boac]

https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex- ... ?r=US&IR=T

[PHXPhlyer]

SpaceX wins $2.9 billion NASA contract for lunar lander

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/16/tech/spa ... index.html

Austin, Texas (CNN Business)SpaceX secured a $2.89 billion NASA contract to build spacecraft that will land astronauts on the moon for the first time in five decades.

The fixed-price contract is a major vote of confidence for Elon Musk's rocket company, as the space agency is placing a large amount of responsibility for its cornerstone human spaceflight program, known as Artemis, on SpaceX.
Friday's announcement is a blow to Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos, which had proposed working as a "National Team" alongside corporate behemoths such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to design and build a lunar lander. But ultimately, SpaceX won with its bid to use of a spacecraft the company is already developing on its own in South Texas.
That vehicle, called Starship, is also the linchpin of Musk's personal goal of landing the first humans on Mars. Test flights of early Starship prototypes have all ended in explosions thus far, but the company is rapidly building new test vehicles.

Last year, NASA announced three different contracts for lunar lander development, which were awarded to SpaceX and Blue Origin's "National Team," with the expectation that the companies would each work to bring operational vehicles to fruition and compete with each other on price and technology.
Lisa Watson-Morgan, NASA's Human Landing System or HLS program manager, said during a press call Friday that NASA had "supported each partner, providing design support analysis, subject matter experts and testing" to all those contractors during that phase.
Watson-Morgan added that NASA will continue to provide close oversight as SpaceX continues its development, "ensuring that this system will be safe for our astronauts."
Boeing is building another key element for the Artemis program: The Space Launch System or SLS, a gargantuan rocket designed to carry the Orion crew capsule to the moon.
That's the rocket that will carry astronauts to the moon's orbit, and then the crew will transfer to the Gateway space station, and from there, Starship will carry the astronauts to the moon's surface, according to Watson-Morgan.
Many in the space community have expressed their frustration that NASA has stuck by the SLS program, considering that SpaceX's Starship would theoretically be capable of completing the entire mission. The SLS development program has also been billions over budget and years behind schedule.
NASA said SpaceX will also be required to conduct an uncrewed demonstration mission, landing Starship on the moon, before astronauts will fly onboard.
Friday's surprise announcement that SpaceX would be the sole awardee comes after the space agency struggled for two years to convince Congress to adequately fund the lunar lander development program.
The space agency confirmed price was a major factor in its decision to move forward with one contractor.
The Artemis contract announcement signals that NASA is willing to put immense trust in SpaceX, which had an early history of butting heads with the space agency for its move-fast-and-break-things approach to rocket development.

But in recent years, the company has worked hand-in-hand with NASA on historic accomplishments, most notably crewed spaceflights on SpaceX's Dragon vehicles, which began last year and have carried astronauts on two flights to the Internationaol Space Station, with a third planned for next week. The Crew Dragon ushered in the return of human spaceflight from US soil for the first time since 2011.
SpaceX was also previously selected to build another version of Dragon to carry cargo to Stargate, the space station NASA plans to put in orbit around the moon to support a future moon base where astronauts can live and work for extended periods of time.
Correction: An earlier version of this headline incorrectly stated the amount of the contract awarded to SpaceX. It is $2.89 billion.

PP

[Boac]

I would still like to know how the poor buggers aboard 'Artemis' are going to get out on the moon to go walkies.

[Boac]

I make the planned Dragon2 lift-off as 10:11GMT on Thursday.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Grumman wuz robbed!

At least they gave their early testers a parachute...

[Boac]

I am now totally confussed. From what I can gather the mission will travel on a BFR into earth orbit and a Starship into lunar orbit where the landing crew will 'decamp' into some sort of vehicle which then descends to the south pole area. What this 'vehicle' looks like I cannot find.

I am assuming that on return to lunar orbit they again 'decamp' into the 'Orion' capsule which, with the service module, leaves lunar orbit to return to earth for the Orion capsule re-entry and a parachute recovery.

Am I close? There was me wondering how they were going to 'alight' from a landed Starship when they ain't.

[TheGreenGoblin]

I am now totally confussed. From what I can gather the mission will travel on a BFR into earth orbit and a Starship into lunar orbit where the landing crew will 'decamp' into some sort of vehicle which then descends to the south pole area. What this 'vehicle' looks like I cannot find.

I am assuming that on return to lunar orbit they again 'decamp' into the 'Orion' capsule which, with the service module, leaves lunar orbit to return to earth for the Orion capsule re-entry and a parachute recovery.

Am I close? There was me wondering how they were going to 'alight' from a landed Starship when they ain't.

This whole Starship thing is pie in the sky methinks. I will eat my underpants if it ever lands on the Moon, let alone Mars! Of course if I am wrong I will be the one mooning, having eaten my scants...

[Boac]

I will eat my underpants if it ever lands on the Moon

Nice...

If you read my dissertation above, it will not be going anywhere near the moon's surface. Hence the confusion.

[TheGreenGoblin]

I will eat my underpants if it ever lands on the Moon

Nice...

If you read my dissertation above, it will not be going anywhere near the moon's surface. Hence the confusion.

Yes, I now see that I was also living under a misapprehension. I blame Musk, he makes this stuff up as he goes along.

[CharlieOneSix]

..... I will eat my underpants if it ever lands on the Moon, let alone Mars!...

Many years ago I used to know a lass who worked in a paper knicker factory in Pontarddulais. Could be useful for you if they're still made, TGG!

[TheGreenGoblin]

..... I will eat my underpants if it ever lands on the Moon, let alone Mars!...

Many years ago I used to know a lass who worked in a paper knicker factory in Pontarddulais. Could be useful for you if they're still made, TGG!

Yes, there is that to save me from my very rash promise! I wouldn't wish my scants on my worst enemy!

Thank you C16. Paper knickers! Whatever next?

[Boac]

If we tick 'all the above' it would appear that SpaceX do not need to produce a successful 'landing' machine to complete the contract - some other company will be doing that. All Musk would appear to be providing is the transportation to and from earth orbit/lunar orbit which I guess is an easier task than recovering the Starship!

[Boac]

Even more confussion - from Nat Geo today - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie ... o-the-moon

I am definitely losing this plot! See this extract

"To fly the quarter-million miles to the moon, astronauts will travel on NASA’s SLS heavy-lift rocket and Orion deep-space spacecraft. The plan then calls for Orion to dock with a Human Landing System (HLS)—which is what NASA selected SpaceX’s Starship for. This spacecraft will wait in lunar orbit up to a hundred days before the astronauts arrive and then land them on the surface. To return to Earth, the crew will launch off the moon on Starship, transfer back to the waiting Orion spacecraft, and fly home."

More whisky needed, I think.

PS Musk - keep working on those landings.............

[TheGreenGoblin]

Even more confussion - from Nat Geo today - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie ... o-the-moon

I am definitely losing this plot! See this extract

"To fly the quarter-million miles to the moon, astronauts will travel on NASA’s SLS heavy-lift rocket and Orion deep-space spacecraft. The plan then calls for Orion to dock with a Human Landing System (HLS)—which is what NASA selected SpaceX’s Starship for. This spacecraft will wait in lunar orbit up to a hundred days before the astronauts arrive and then land them on the surface. To return to Earth, the crew will launch off the moon on Starship, transfer back to the waiting Orion spacecraft, and fly home."

More whisky needed, I think.

PS Musk - keep working on those landings.............

So the risk of me having to eat my own underpants has just grown exponentially again , or, if not exponentially, then in the manner of a knicker elastic. It is all too much for a man to bear (or should that be bare)...

[TheGreenGoblin]

News from Scott Manley...



Very dodgy decision based upon politics and penny pinching and doesn't do much for the likelihood of a successful mission.

I have a little confidence in the SpaceX design getting onto the safely onto the lunar surface (the underpants conundrum)!

[Boac]

Well done, Scott - that was helpful indeed. I see the Spacex piccy has some sort of lift. I would advise, TGG, searching Gaggle for flavoured under-crackers.

Wasn't there an astronaut, possibly sitting on top of the shuttle launch cluster waiting for the match to be lit who said "I am sitting on top of 715,000 parts all contracted to the lowest bidder..."?

[TheGreenGoblin]

Well done, Scott - that was helpful indeed. I see the Spacex piccy has some sort of lift. I would advise, TGG, searching Gaggle for flavoured under-crackers.

Wasn't there an astronaut, possibly sitting on top of the shuttle launch cluster waiting for the match to be lit who said "I am sitting on top of 715,000 parts all contracted to the lowest bidder..."?

A system that is being tested in Earth's atmosphere, using an aerodynamic deceleration belly flop technique, guided by aerodynamic vanes intended to work under Martian conditions, to be used on the moon which has no atmosphere and a different gravitational pull to that on Earth and Mars! The ship's design is as confused as a chameleon (not called Graham) lying in a box of Smarties methinks!

As for the edible knickers, I will take these and the girl...

https://blogcritics.org/edible-underwea ... -knickers/

[Boac]

+1 for the girl but regrettably I have to graciously decline ANY invitation to dine Chez TGG

[TheGreenGoblin]

+1 for the girl but regrettably I have to graciously decline ANY invitation to dine Chez TGG

I had better be careful, I hadn't intended to imply that my better half's cooking was pants!