ESA’s pioneering wind mission, #Aeolus, was guided to a re-entry over Antarctica last night, ensuring that any remaining hardware landed safely in the Atlantic 🌊🌍
This successfully demonstrated new techniques for #SpaceDebris mitigation – kudos to our colleagues at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt 🖖🤘
Some great pictures of the Aeolus team, led by Flight Operations Director Isabel Rojo, in the Main Control Room at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, as they prepare for the final re-entry phase of our pioneering atmospheric wind mission.
A bittersweet moment, of course, & I’m sure there will be quite some emotion in the room later. I’ve been part of it myself for other missions 👍
"the #mainstream media doesn’t cover #SpaceExploration and #SpaceScience with the same questioning 🔍 rigor that they reserve for politics. People writing about #SpaceExploration are mostly cheerleaders 🥳 for the cause, rather than independent observers keeping a watchful eye 👀 on how our national monies are spent."
Since all launch vehicles are specialized - and literally #RocketScience - the #FAA believes operators are best suited to sniff out root causes and identify corrective actions. The agency estimates that in-house investigations could take the agency 10-20 times longer 🥱.
As for #HumanSpaceflight / tourism, the industry has been operating under an eight-year “learning period,” where the FAA is restricted from enacting regulations. The learning period is set to expire on 📆 Jan. 1 https://payloadspace.com/the-gao-calls-for-the-faa-to-improve-its-mishap-investigation-process/
#EverydayAstronaut 📆 2019 #BlueOrigin's #BE4 has potential to be truly game changing at around $133 : kN over 25 flights, which could make it about as cheap to operate than the #Merlin at $117 per kN per flight. But if the #Raptor engine truly lives up to its hype, it could bring that number all the way down to $20 💵 per kN per flight.
#BE4 is around $8 million 💰 per engine, the #Merlin is less than $1 million and for the #Raptor, Elon has mentioned he thinks they can produce the Raptor for cheaper than or close to the Merlin engine https://everydayastronaut.com/raptor-engine
Conrad Haas 📆 (1509–1576) was a pioneer of #RocketPropulsion. His designs include a three-stage #rocket and a manned rocket 🚀. His work also dealt with the theory of motion of multi-stage rockets, different #fuel mixtures using liquid fuel, and introduced delta-shape fins and bell-shaped 🛎️ #nozzles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Haas
• When a distinguished but elderly #scientist 👨🔬 states that something is #possible, they are almost certainly right. When they state that something is #impossible, they are very probably #wrong.
• The only way of discovering the #limits of the #possible is to venture a little way past them into the #impossible.
• Any sufficiently #advanced#technology is indistinguishable from #magic.
Direct-to-#GEO (35,786 km) launches are exceptionally challenging for the #rocket. The upper stage must survive a roughly five-hour 🕔 coast to that apogee. During that coast, the rocket 🚀 must survive passes through both of #Earth’s harsh #radiation belts and maintain perfect control of its orientation and tank #pressures to keep its refined kerosene fuel from #freezing, its cryogenic liquid oxygen (LOx) from #boiling away, and itself from #bursting 💥 as its propellant warms and expands. https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-spectacular-jellyfish/
Should #NASA just cancel #SLS and use #Starship and/or other commercial launchers for #Artemis ? https://youtu.be/KA69Oh3_obY
05:50 - What Makes a Vehicle a Super Heavy Lift Launcher
09:00 - The History of SLS and #Orion
18:05 - The Progress and Inventory of SLS/Orion and Starship
27:30 - The Philosophies of Starship and SLS
34:55 - Starship vs SLS
41:50 - Conclusion
#StokeSpace 📆 Oct 10, 2022 “I love Jeff’s vision for #space. Beyond that, I think I would just say that I will let their history of #execution speak for itself, and I thought we could move #faster.”