The Astronomy Thread

Prodigal

Shitlord, Offender of the Universe
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At 52, rides don’t phase me at all.

But damned if standing on something and looking up to change a lightbulb or anything like that doesn’t fuck me up.
 

BrutulTM

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For me it's about 0%. Going to space sounds miserable and I'd rather someone more useful do it, even a civilian who contributes nothing to mission.

Same here. I'm not going to Mars until there's something to do there. Right now you're pretty much volunteering to spend years in a Winnebago with a bunch of strangers. Sure you have an extremely unique view out the window but I bet that starts to get less exciting before too many years go by.
 

Mudcrush Durtfeet

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Claiming this as a failure is lame and a product of our expecting perfect results right away. I was on Kwajalein Atoll when SpaceX sent up their first launch and it failed in 06 from meck island. I was lucky enough to visit the island many times while the rocket was there. All the naysayers talked sbout how no private company would ever be able to successfully launch a rocket while all the SpaceX team were pumped the rocket even left the launch pad on the first attempt.

I have friends who work for SpaceX and they all see this as a success and are excited for the future. It's so easy to sit behind your keyboard and nitpick how things could have been better but nobody here is part of the process.

Eh, I've seen too many failed launch attempts by various companies that then try to spin it as a success. SpaceX got valuable data, but did not succeed at the goal of the mission, which was to splash down near Hawaii with a successful reentry of the second stage. Clearly this did not come close to happening.

I am pro SpaceX, more so than most here, but that doesn't mean I don't know bullshit when I see it.
 
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Tuco

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Eh, I've seen too many failed launch attempts by various companies that then try to spin it as a success. SpaceX got valuable data, but did not succeed at the goal of the mission, which was to splash down near Hawaii with a successful reentry of the second stage. Clearly this did not come close to happening.

I am pro SpaceX, more so than most here, but that doesn't mean I don't know bullshit when I see it.
Not that you need me to tell you this, but a key difference is that SpaceX probably had a meeting where each department was asked what risks were present in the launch and all of them said something like, "Bro we've made like a hundred improvements since this piece of shit was made and it's a coin flip on whether the current version is going to cause a mission failure, but I sure would like to see what happens so we can work on another hundred improvements, so please let it yeet.". It just so happens that the "Stage 0 Department" failed the most spectacularly and probably voiced rather loudly how the current concrete base was going to turn into a bombastic frag grenade and how their current approach of making a water cooled launching plate should be waaaay better.

Meanwhile, a lot of other space agencies have that meeting and have to sign their name in blood that it'll work because maybe if it's a catastrophic failure they start losing their jobs or go to jail. That's how it's going to be when SLS launches in November 2026 (after the next two years of delays). If that shit blows up you know there's going to be some aerospace engineers collecting unemployment.
 

jooka

marco esquandolas
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if anything, think spaceX is likely more worried the FAA has shut them down to investigate it and what that could lead to.
 
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Captain Suave

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but did not succeed at the goal of the mission, which was to splash down near Hawaii with a successful reentry of the second stage

No, the goal of the mission was to get off the launch pad. Everything else was bonus. They said this in advance.


"Bro we've made like a hundred improvements since this piece of shit was made and it's a coin flip on whether the current version is going to cause a mission failure, but I sure would like to see what happens so we can work on another hundred improvements, so please let it yeet."

This. There are already two completed successor designs and another two beyond that under construction, all of which contain improvements.
 
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Aaron

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I wish my work place would let my daily mission be just to get out of bed and everything else I may do during the day would be a bonus. A man can dream...
 
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Sanrith Descartes

Veteran of a thousand threadban wars
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I wish my work place would let my daily mission be just to get out of bed and everything else I may do during the day would be a bonus. A man can dream...
You obviously dont work for the gubmint. Showing up for work is considered bonus effort.
 

BrutulTM

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You obviously dont work for the gubmint. Showing up for work is considered bonus effort.

I never really tested it but I always thought that if I just stopped going to work except for stopping in to say hi to the secretary around 8AM and then again before she left at 4 I could have stopped even going to my desk and it would have been weeks before anyone really thought anything was wrong.
 
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Furry

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You obviously dont work for the gubmint. Showing up for work is considered bonus effort.
I show up for work all the time. Most government workers are good about that. It’s the actually doing things once I’m here part that needs some work.
 
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Mudcrush Durtfeet

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if anything, think spaceX is likely more worried the FAA has shut them down to investigate it and what that could lead to.
Yeah, it's concerning. There is and has been a lot of opposition to SpaceX (probably funded by old space) and some people have been looking for any way to throw a spanner in the works. Make no mistake, SS/SH is a threat to every other rocket company, and if you want to stay in business in the long term, SpaceX needs to be stopped.

Hopefully SpaceX gets past this, but it's worrying how much some people are spinning this to be worse than it is.
 
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pharmakos

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I wish my work place would let my daily mission be just to get out of bed and everything else I may do during the day would be a bonus. A man can dream...
Setting your own bar for success sure does make it easy to succeed!
 
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Ukerric

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I wish my work place would let my daily mission be just to get out of bed and everything else I may do during the day would be a bonus. A man can dream...
Another example is Mars Opportunity. The stated mission time for that rover was... three months. That's it. It worked for 14 years before before it the last big dust storm finally ended its battery and all of that was extra.
 
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Tuco

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Yeah, it's concerning. There is and has been a lot of opposition to SpaceX (probably funded by old space) and some people have been looking for any way to throw a spanner in the works. Make no mistake, SS/SH is a threat to every other rocket company, and if you want to stay in business in the long term, SpaceX needs to be stopped.

Hopefully SpaceX gets past this, but it's worrying how much some people are spinning this to be worse than it is.
Yeah I wouldn't be shook if I was SpaceX. If they can keep delivering on Starship over the next couple years it's all just noise. The fulcrum for this is the Artemis mission that SpaceX is already participating in, but will probably end up carrying as their solution is shown to be wayyyy better than the SLS. Once SpaceX saves Artemis the old space noise machine will die down.
 

Mudcrush Durtfeet

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Yeah I wouldn't be shook if I was SpaceX. If they can keep delivering on Starship over the next couple years it's all just noise. The fulcrum for this is the Artemis mission that SpaceX is already participating in, but will probably end up carrying as their solution is shown to be wayyyy better than the SLS. Once SpaceX saves Artemis the old space noise machine will die down.
It will not die down until old space is dead. And Old Space(ULA) will not die soon, with all the missions they got for Vulcan.