The Space Thread

[TaZZerath]

Ok so since I wasn't able to find a thread about Space-related stuff (either because I suck at searching or one just doesn't exist) and I'm a huge space nut alongside a Transformers aficionado, I figured I'd start one.

Big news today is that Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic after 14 years of development and two fatal accidents (one on the ground, one in the air) has succeeded in pushing the boundaries of space in their commercial spaceship Unity.

Full story at Spaceflight Now here Virgin Galactic accomplishes milestone test flight to the edge of space

I like space related news (especially rockets) so if nobody's adverse to the idea I'll try and post things like this in this thread more often if anyone's interested

[UltraMarginal]

Be my guest, I love this stuff as well, I just never thought about posting anything here.
I'm a firm believer that the only way humanity is going to survive is by expansion and colonisation of space.

[TaZZerath]

Agreed. I love how 'New Space' has taken things in recent years. SpaceX especially. Musk might be a bit of a fruitloop but name me one genius who doesn't have some form of quirk

[Ralph Wiggum]

What’s the feeling like in SA right now with the Space Agency being headquartered over there?

There’s a bit of saltiness here in WA that we lost out, given we already have a fair bit of infrastructure like the Square Kilometre Array and New Norcia station for the ESA.

[1AZRAEL1]

Meteor Storm tonight too. But the weather looks to have killed seeing that. Just like the eclipse a couple of months back.

[TaZZerath]

What’s the feeling like in SA right now with the Space Agency being headquartered over there?

There’s a bit of saltiness here in WA that we lost out, given we already have a fair bit of infrastructure like the Square Kilometre Array and New Norcia station for the ESA.

BIG buzz actually. I have quite a few space friends here who are super stoked.

If I didn't love my job so much I'd definitely be looking out for any hires they'd be doing even if it was just a janitorial position

Sorry you guys missed out! At least now SA has something of value to add nationally

[TaZZerath]

RocketLab launched its third successful Electron rocket, this time contracted for launching 13 small satellites for NASA

For those who don't know, RocketLab are a New Zealand based company which have developed a lightweight, small rocket launcher called the Electron which uses a lot of 3D printing in its parts and also has a unique engine design which has an electrically-driven pump, rather than using part of its own propellant, which makes the engines way more efficient despite their relative small size.

The engines are clustered around the base leading many space fans to dub it the "Mini Falcon-9".

[TaZZerath]

On this week's episode of Scrubs...

http://parabolicarc.com/2018/12/18/t...word-scrubbed/

[TaZZerath]

Sorry folks been on leave so a little behind the 8-ball on this one.

So first up, New Horizons (the revolutionary probe which visited Pluto for the first time in high detail a few years ago) has made a flyby of the most distant object we've been able to photograph to date, a Kuiper Belt Object by the name of Ultima Thule. And in the Christmas/Winter spirit, it looks like a rusty snowman

Ultima Thule the Snowman

In other space news, things are finally heating up this year with Commercial Crew operations. A Falcon 9 with the Dragon Crew capsule variant has rolled out to Pad 39A for tests ahead of its inaugural uncrewed test flight:

Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon Rollout

Should be an exciting year for Commercial Crew. We finally get to see SpaceX bear fruit to a long awaited dream of providing American access to ISS and beyond again. Boeing should follow suit shortly with the capsule they've dubbed the StarLiner.

[kovert]

Hope you don't mind me posting some space related news here:

December 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 8. Launched in December 1968, the Apollo 8 mission saw the first humans orbit the moon. Frank Borman (last spaceflight), Jim Lovell (later commander of Apollo 13) and Bill Anders (first and only spaceflight) were the first people to see the far side of the moon with their own eyes.

It was the first flight of a Saturn V rocket with humans on board. Apollo 8 did not carry a Lunar Module as the craft was still not ready. The flight was instrumental in testing the Apollo hardware and tracking, paving the way for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's lunar landing on Apollo 11 in 1969.

Bill Anders took the famous 'Earthrise' photo of Earth rising over the lunar horizon. The original orientation of the photo has the earth positioned to the left of the moon.