The Space Thread - Launches, Events, Live Streams, Governments, Corporations, drama in Spaaaaaaaaaaaace

  • 🐕 I am attempting to get the site runnning as fast as possible. If you are experiencing slow page load times, please report it.
Otterly said:
What’s the thought over the future of starliner? It’s a fixed price contract isnt it? Boeing must be bleeding money, and it seems grossly irresponsible to let another crew go up in it.
Click to expand...
There's a deadline in that the ISS is probably going to be deorbited after 2031. A year of delay could mean one less flight there, and NASA has only "committed" to three real flights with full crew. Six full flights will definitely not happen.

It's likely that Boeing will be forced to do another Crew Flight Test to prove safety, or even an uncrewed test carrying cargo instead of people. No date has been announced for the next flight.

Due to various technical issues during the Boeing Crew Flight Test, including NASA deeming it was too risky to return its astronauts to Earth onboard the Starliner, the path to Starliner's NASA certification has been put into doubt, as it is possible Boeing would need to perform a second Crew Flight Test, which would result in significant delays to Starliner-1.
Click to expand...

Boeing Starliner Losses Top $2B—And Counting

The Starliner contract has been totally unprofitable for Boeing so far, and nobody in their right mind would choose them over SpaceX. Crew Dragon has been used for private flights by the incoming NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, Axiom Space, and recently crypto billionaire Chun Wang. After the ISS is out of the picture, Starliner will be quietly cancelled. Luckily, Boeing will likely get to spend at least $1 trillion for the F-47. And maybe they can monetize any downed UFOs in the basement.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Otterly
Otterly said:
It’s a great article. Good to see some journalists still exist who know their stuff, cultivate good industry connections and can write pieces which are informative without being sensationalist. No good deed goes unpunished does it? One must display ideological purity or one’s work is nothing!
Click to expand...
Eric wrote an article about the interview and other interviews he's scored over the years:

Ars Technica: “What the hell are you doing?” How I learned to interview astronauts, scientists, and billionaires (archive)

ericbrag.webp
 
  • Like
Reactions: normalhumanperson, Pedophobe and Otterly
I regret to inform the thread that the recent Blue Origin flight did not head into the sun as intended. While the mission ultimately failed, valuable data was gained, with scientists and engineers confident that eventually the dream of launching Katy Perry into the sun will be achieved.

Katy Perry Sang 'What a Wonderful World' During Blue Origin Rocket Ride, Then Kissed the Earth When She Landed​

Gayle King, who was also on the flight, called Perry singing "the best part" of their minuteslong trip to the edge of space
 
  • Like
Reactions: normalhumanperson, mrfresh, Pedophobe and 2 others
Otterly said:
How can I make sure this is all about me and not those other bitches?
What would be really funny is if they were in space together for say, a month. I’d watch that.
Click to expand...
What till they are told how to use the bathroom in space. Its much harder for the ladies to pee in Zero Gravity I've heard.
 
The Mass Shooter Ron Soye said:
Spoiler: Oblig. comments
Click to expand...
You can divide the readership into people who read it to learn something new, what’s going on, etc and those who want their preconceptions and opinions reflected back at them.
I wonder if it’s always been like this? It seems so peculiar to me that you’d read an interesting and well balanced interview and tell the person off for not having the ‘right’ opinions. But maybe the comments section just lets this come to light.
I get it if it’s a hit piece, but this is pretty sober, well written technical stuff, not the NME having a bitchy day.
 
Otterly said:
I wonder if it’s always been like this? It seems so peculiar to me that you’d read an interesting and well balanced interview and tell the person off for not having the ‘right’ opinions. But maybe the comments section just lets this come to light.
I get it if it’s a hit piece, but this is pretty sober, well written technical stuff, not the NME having a bitchy day.
Click to expand...
It's only a few comments that I selected to screenshot, but Arse Technicans are very angry at Trump and Musk. There's easily 1+ ragebait articles per day about the current administration. The userbase may have always leaned left (I've checked the articles for ~20 years but never used the forums much) but right-wing users almost assuredly got a larger proportion of the permabans in recent years.

SpaceX news has been a big draw for years, very exciting to anybody who has been dismayed by the slow progress of space exploration in the preceding decades, and there have been intricate technical discussions on Ars about the rockets. The anti-Musk sentiment has been rising since Musk called a diver "pedo guy" in 2018, won the resulting defamation lawsuit in late 2019, and acquired Twitter in 2022. Now politics is spilling into every SpaceX comment section as the anger can't be contained to designated bait articles anymore after Trump won, DOGE cuts started, the ADL-approved "Roman salute", and Musk politicized the return of the "stranded" Starliner astronauts. Users who used to love SpaceX want to see the rockets blow up instead. I bet some of the dedicated space autists have left to comment at places like NASASpaceFlight instead.

Eric Berger has certainly written glowingly about SpaceX in many articles, and has his insider sources. He's written two books about SpaceX: Liftoff and Reentry. When people who believe that they are witnessing the rise of a fascist dictatorship run into neutral commentary or milquetoast criticism, they are going to lash out. The grievances are carried on from previous Berger articles.

There may have been some dustups in the subscribers-only section of the forums. I've only seen references to it:
bergerpaywall.webptardcontainment.webp
I'm not going to pay $25 to get in, but I'll be on the lookout.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lurka Derka, Pedophobe and Otterly
I like universe simulators like Celestia and SpaceEngine. Former is free, latter has earlier free versions. Latter does procedural generation for the unknown universe (or in other words, the vast majority of it), while both also simulates the known universe. Both are much better than older astronomy software, which could only do earthbound view.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pedophobe
  • Informative
Reactions: The Mass Shooter Ron Soye
I still like the theory of the gravitational anomalies in the outer solar system being caused by a primordial black hole. Sadly it would be almost impossible to prove.
 
Cosmos 482, the failed Soviet mission to Venus is about to begin an uncontrolled reentry. Since the mission was intended to land on Venus, a planet with a thick and hostile atmosphere, there is a chance the probe or parts of it will impact intact. Depending on where it lands, someone could end up with their hands on a piece of space age history. Most likely it will impact in a ocean since the world is 70% ocean. But...there is a chance of a terra firma impact!


Reentry in 1 hour and 30 minutes as of post.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: Pedophobe, JustSomeDong and WelfareNiggerQueen
Shit did I miss it? Did it hit the Caspian sea coast or something? Awesome, I always thought WW3 would start in that region.
 
Rocket Lab showing off a test article for their new Neutron rocket, including the Hungry Hippo payload fairing.


In other news Firefly's Alpha failed again on a recent launch of a fancy Lockheed Martin tech demonstrator payload. That puts them at four failures out of six launches, compared to Rocket Lab's Electron which failed once in its first six.
 
  • Feels
Reactions: Monolith
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back