Boing Streamliner Launch tonight.Test flight

Post Reply New Topic

Yes. The Saturn V was the workhorse of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Programs, of the Sixties to early Seventies. The last time it heaved a payload into space was 1975. Been retired ever since. 362 feet tall and 118 thousand pound payload.

Only recently has NASA thought much about replacing it apparently. We have the "Falcon Heavy" built by Space X. Not quite as powerful a weight lifter as the old Saturn V, but in contrast, its supposed to be sturdier and re usable. Take you to the moon, and then take off for the asteroid belt to get mineral laden asteroids and come back. Quite ambitious. And there is something called the SLS or "space launch system" (whatever that is... a rocket, or a system of rockets) thats also supposed to be a more versatile equivalent ...but they keep having delays and teething problems.

I was really hoping that comment was only a cynical joke, rather than something that could receive an actual answer.

more information is often, but not always, better than less information.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 596684007/

new starliner launch date is tentatively scheduled for this Friday the 10th. we'll see...

Well looks like Soace X has got mission 6-55 into Soace , watched that at About 4 am today. , No Issues on take off
Carrying about 23 more Satillites up there... Upon the top of Falcon 9 rocket , that is based on a dramatically more current design. ......Such a shame that NASA did not keep their hand in the Space program.... ...
Maybe those ancient Saturn5 rocket motors would have worked better .. ...Or came up with a different newer design..hopefully .

What are you talking about? NASA is all about "the Space program", and the "Space Program" still centers on NASA.

What NASA DID do was to A) stop sending humans above low earth orbit (ie space shuttle and space station), and to expand our use of unmanned probes to interplanetary space (if its farther than couple hundred miles above earth they stopped sending human astronauts, and switched to robot probes). IF its anywhere from 200 miles up (Im guessing) out to Pluto...they use only unmanned probes, And (b) to invite private enterprise into space.

During the glory days of Apollo NASA took a big chunk out of our GNP each year, and after Apollo the NASA budget shrank to a fraction of its former self (because the voters lost interest because...we won already, and beat the Ruskies to the Moon so who cares now?). But the unmanned probes of the last forty years since Apollo have given us a lot of scientific bang for the buck.

But yeah...it would be cool if they kept a few Saturn V motors around- to use alongside the newer models in the mix. Like we now have B1, B2, and B3 bombers, but we still use the B 52 along side these new fangled later "successors" . And the Russians still use their equivalent of the B52, the Soviet TU 95 (both it and the B52 came out in circa 1955). Sometimes an old design is still just right for the job even decades later.

It is still cheaper to send robots and satellites into space than people. But, a whole new planet to populate could be a very big deal.
The Apollo program was more about the missile gap than about people going to space. It was also psychological.

The new space race is more about making money and finding resources for people, places to live for people. The old space race was more about war and defense capabilities.

“Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.”
- Thomas Edison

“One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But... I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.”

- Thomas Edison

In other news:


https://www.fool.com/investing/2023/11/ ... -space-jv/

Tentative new Launch date set for tommarrow.. Friday.. So..far .?

It seems that NASA using government funding ,,Taxes which we paid for over the years. Might consider a huge tax deduction or give back of some kind to the tax payers ..? And ULA , should be a US gov , facility .?
That being my reasoning.. Perhaps if all these other companies already exist. And been paid for by company profits..
Why shouldnt the tax payer get some benefit from the selling of the ULA .Raze the entire facility and turn it into a National park . or leave as is and make it a historical monument to those who endeavoured to go to space ???

Have seen on a lower county Gov level, whereas the sale of a school paid for by tax payers, into apartments .
The money went into the local counties slush fund .

^You are aware that NASA is a government agency, and not a private corporation?

Yes ...And probably perhaps resposible for development of the launch pad and its property ? .

NASA has always used contractors. So does the department of defense (DOD). ULA is a NASA contractor and not currently owned by the USA or NASA.

The current game is to try to make private businesses complete for contracts with the idea that will keep costs down. Ten companies competing and trying to come up with something high quality and low cost means ten times the Research and Development of just one organization doing it all (the old NASA way). Might work.

wikipedia says:
The company [ ULA ] was formed in December 2006 as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. The primary customers of ULA are the Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA.

USA Today
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 596684007/

Now, NASA is saying that the next attempt will take place no earlier than 6:16 p.m. May 17.

Now if I were a astronaut..? on this mission ...Might have some questions about quality control .. about my ride on that Rocket to outter Space...??

they said latest delay was due to a "buzzing valve."

As an engineer “buzzing valve” says to me an electric or mechanical problem with the valve. If the valve is related, say, to liquid oxygen it could catch fire or go boom.

They should fix that.

It also says they missed something in the processes and procedures to have it show up so close to launch.

They should fix that too.