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On July 28th, SpaceX wrapped up modifications to a rented robotic lift vehicle and carefully moved Starhopper back to its launch facilities three days after its inaugural flight. Another two days after that, SpaceX filed road closure requests confirming the date for the Starship prototype’s next launch. According to those road closures, SpaceX is preparing […] //.
Mach diamonds
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has posted a unique, uninterrupted view of Falcon 9’s latest landing, completed by booster B1056 on July 25th after successfully launching Cargo Dragon on its 18th mission (CRS-18) to the International Space Station (ISS). Combining four separate views, the video also happens to feature an extremely rare instance of audio clearly […] //
Thanks to that successful second launch and landing, itself a milestone for NASA’s acceptance of Falcon 9 Block 5 reusability, B1056 now has a strong shot at becoming the first Falcon 9 booster to launch three NASA missions. Pending a good post-launch inspection and NASA’s go-ahead, B1056’s next flight will likely be a third Cargo Dragon launch (CRS-19) set to occur no earlier than December 2019,
Elon Musk says SpaceX may land cargo on the moon in two years, then people a year or two after that, using the company's forthcoming Starship rocket system . //
More power to him. I hope he does it," DeWit said of Musk. "If he can do it, we'll partner with them, and we'll get there faster."
He added: "This isn't about us doing it - it's about America doing it. He's [got] an American company. I'd love to partner with him and get that done."
The investigation shows a fixable problem, but don't count out on SpaceX flying astronauts in 2019. //
According to Koenigsmann, engineers prepared the Dragon’s escape engines for ignition by raising the pressure in the propellant system. About a cup of liquid oxidizer had leaked into the wrong plumbing, and when the pressure was turned on, that slug of liquid oxidizer impacted a titanium valve. Upon contact, the oxidizer and titanium reacted explosively.
Koenigsmann said that going forward, SpaceX engineers would isolate the oxidizer from the pressurization system and replace the four titanium valves with a simpler component called a “burst disc.” He said the impact on the schedule might be “relatively minor,” but said about 20% of the accident investigation remained to be done and that other documented issues needed to be solved as well.
View from the fairing during the STP-2 mission; when the fairing returns to Earth, friction heats up particles in the atmosphere, which appear bright blue in the video
See photos from the 60-satellite launch!
SpaceX Claims To Have Redesigned Its Starlink Satellites To Eliminate Casualty Risks - IEEE Spectrum
SpaceX has always claimed that the design of its Starlink satellites would evolve. Now, it says that, at the most, the first 75 Starlinks will include an iron thruster and steel reaction wheels likely to survive re-entry. Any built subsequently will “use components that will demise fully in the atmosphere,” wrote the company. No satellites at all will be deployed with the silicon carbide components described in its initial filing.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says that the first full-scale Starship engine to be tested has already been pushed to the point of damage less than three weeks after the campaign began, setting the stage for the second full-scale Raptor to take over in the near future. //
Raptor’s main combustion chamber (the bit directly above the nozzle) has been designed to nominally operate at and reliably withstand extraordinary pressures of 250+ bar (3600+ psi), performance that demands even higher pressures in the components that feed hot methane and oxygen gas into Raptor’s combustion chamber. One prime example hinted at by Musk in a 2018 tweet is its oxygen preburner, used to convert liquid propellant into a high-velocity gas that can then feed a dedicated oxygen turbopump. Aside from the absurdly corrosive environment created by extremely hot gaseous oxygen, the preburner must also survive pressures that could peak as high as 800+ bar, or 12,000 psi.
Current location of Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla Roadster and Starman launched by SpaceX on the Falcon Heavy maiden flight
Where is Starman? Track Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster in Space!
On February 6, 2018, at 2045 UTC, the first Falcon Heavy was launched into space. It contained a very special payload- a Tesla Roadster with Starman.
But where is this vehicle? The current location is 32,757,279 miles (52,717,747 km, 0.352 AU, 2.93 light minutes) from Earth, moving toward Earth at a speed of 6,998 mi/h (11,263 km/h, 3.13 km/s).
The car is 83,879,929 miles (134,991,702 km, 0.902 AU, 7.50 light minutes) from Mars, moving away from the planet at a speed of 43,648 mi/h (70,244 km/h, 19.51 km/s). //
It has been 2 years, 11 months, 27 days, 23 hours, 49 minutes and 54 seconds since launch.