/sci/ - Science & Math

>>5574607
Orbit raising burn successful! Dragon is back in flight!

The poo has missed the fan...

>>4766859
They should use Steely Dan for their next music video for obvious reasons.

>>4365050
All of this is why I'm more interested in the private newspace firms like SpaceX. They are trying hard to reduce launch costs by using cheaper engineering solutions, automated manufacturing, vertical integration, and doing reusability research.

>>4019253
One problem with orbital rockets is they take a lot of engineering for comparatively few launches. Planes and cars get a lot more mileage to amortize the cost of the initial engineering. That is one reason why Soyuz is relatively inexpensive, its R-7 rocket family has been chugging along since the 1950s. SpaceX hopes to realize the same economies of scale by designing their Merlin engine for mass production (10 per flight actually helps) and keeping prices low to up the launch tempo. They also attempt to use more automation so fewer personnel are required for manufacturing and launch operations.

>>3465564
so you're saying Juno is a pole dancer? who rides on five mighty strap-ons?

(all rockets are giant penises anyway. pic related)

>>3454900
>spaceflight won't get cheaper because the energy needed to lift and accelerate a specific object into orbit is always the same.

Do you realize that the biggest cost of today's spaceflight has nothing to do with physics? It is the cost of the labor force required to construct the rocket, maintain the launch pad, and do the legal paperwork. (Plus the amortized cost of designing the rocket in the first place.) That is the key realization which is leading SpaceX to bring down launch costs: reduce manual labor at every stage. Example: instead of the army of workers required for a shuttle launch, a Falcon 9 launch has a staff of two dozen at the launch pad for both integration and launch operations. SpaceX automates everything they can get away with.

SpaceX is going to launch Falcon 9 with the Dragon capsule tomorrow.

...after chopping four feet off the 2nd stage engine bell to get rid of some cracks!

Elon Musk truly has balls of niobium.

SpaceX Falcon 9: first rocket with a penile corona.

(srsly, aren't they worried about atmospheric friction damage to the exposed tiles there at the edge?)