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Space X is going to try to launch people today
Fly320s:
--- Quote from: WLJ on June 05, 2020, 09:33:47 AM ---Watched the June 3rd launch and the landing barge video didn't cut out during the booster landing so the cut out is hit or miss.
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Explanation of why the video cuts out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH75bVG7HBo
Ben:
--- Quote from: HankB on June 05, 2020, 01:06:20 PM ---A hugely expensive second launch facility was built on the left coast (politics) - and immediately mothballed. BIG hit to the budget.
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SLC6 was never mothballed. It launched titans and most recently deltas. It continues as one of vandenberg's active launch complexes AFAIK.
Edit: sorry, athena, not titans. Titan IVs spacelifted off slick 4.
kgbsquirrel:
--- Quote from: AZRedhawk44 on June 05, 2020, 07:11:41 PM ---Vandy launches never go east. They always go south, for polar orbit. The big motivator for polar orbits is spy satellite deployment, to get full latitude observation.
You can't really do polar orbits from FL, because you overfly Cuba. Only recently have SpaceX and ULA offered FL based polar launches due to mass optimizations and new flight trajectories that avoid Cuba.
As such, Earth's rotational speed cannot aid in making orbit and you lose a small amount of peak efficiency for total payload. This is why the French launch from French Guiana in South America.
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The big benefit is you can setup a precessing orbit that keeps the satellite always in sunlight. Continuous power is important when your radar mapping the earth. This amazing orbit also happens to be directly over the terminator of the day and night sides so any optical observation has wonderful shadows to help in height estimations, etc. Fun times.
RocketMan:
And... NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are back on Earth after a successful de-orbit, re-entry and splashdown. By all accounts they are in fine condition. There were some concerns about elevated propellant residual fume levels in the service section of the Endeavor spacecraft. They purged that area for about a half hour before the astronauts exited the spacecraft.
Lots of lookie-loos in private boats around the recovery craft, many actually getting too close and interfering with operations. One boat with a "Trump 2020" flag went sailing by in the foreground while the Spacex recovery fast boats were conducting their operations.
MechAg94:
I saw splash down, but didn't stick around for more than that. Good to see everything work out for them.
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