nudge Posted December 1, 2020 Posted December 1, 2020 10 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said: Aye, I wonder why? they might have a Chinese Man in the Moon who has been living there for years and we did not know anything about it. Either technical issues with the broadcast, technical issues with the spacecraft (unlikely, given that it landed successfully and on schedule), or they just had a last minute change of mind about livestreaming it Quote
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted December 3, 2020 Author Subscriber Posted December 3, 2020 Quote Rolling out the red dirt carpet South Australia ready to welcome home Hayabusa2. In the dusty red heart of the South Australian outback, a small town with an explosive past is waiting for a delivery from space. Established in secret in 1947, Woomera was at the centre of the Australian and British space race projects for more than three decades. Its flat, expansive landscape just 500 kilometres north of the city of Adelaide was perfect for rocket and missile testing – but this time, a payload isn’t going up: it’s coming down. In the small hours of Sunday morning, the landing capsule from the asteroid-sampling mission Hayabusa2 will touch down in the Woomera Prohibited Area. This capsule has travelled 5.2 billion kilometres over the past six years, and just last year took two samples from the primordial asteroid Ryugu, a 4.5-billion-year-old lump of rock left over from the chaos of the formation of the solar system. This will be only the second time an asteroid sample has been returned to Earth – and the first-ever sample from beneath an asteroid’s surface. Needless to say, scientists are excited: 79 Japanese mission specialists are currently on the ground in Woomera, having overcome COVID-19 setbacks to reach Australia to recover their precious cargo. FULL REPORT Quote
nudge Posted December 3, 2020 Posted December 3, 2020 Chinese Chang'e-5 has collected lunar rocks and soil samples and completed a successful liftoff! 1 Quote
Dr. Gonzo Posted December 3, 2020 Posted December 3, 2020 On 01/12/2020 at 10:52, nudge said: Hayabusa2 This might make me a complete idiot but... ...all I could think of was the sportsbike Quote
nudge Posted December 3, 2020 Posted December 3, 2020 57 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said: This might make me a complete idiot but... ...all I could think of was the sportsbike Close enough... Fun fact of the day: Hayabusa means falcon, which is a very fitting name for both a sportsbike and a spacecraft! Quote
Azeem Posted December 5, 2020 Posted December 5, 2020 China is launching it's own version of HARP and Jupiter and Saturn are about to have a two sum after some time Quote
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted December 5, 2020 Author Subscriber Posted December 5, 2020 On 03/12/2020 at 03:54, CaaC (John) said: On 03/12/2020 at 03:54, CaaC (John) said: Rolling out the red dirt carpet South Australia ready to welcome home Hayabusa2. https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/exploration/rolling-out-the-red-dirt-carpet/ Asteroid capsule 'found' in the Australian desert A recovery team in Australia has found a space capsule carrying the first large quantities of rock from an asteroid. The capsule, containing material from a space rock called Ryugu, parachuted down near Woomera in South Australia. The samples were originally collected by a Japanese spacecraft called Hayabusa-2, which spent more than a year investigating the object. The container detached from Hayabusa-2, later entering the Earth's atmosphere. The official Hayabusa-2 Twitter account reported that the capsule and its parachute had been found at 19:47 GMT. Earlier on Saturday, the capsule was picked up by cameras as a dazzling fireball streaking over Australia's Coober Pedy region. Screaming towards Earth at 11km/s, it deployed parachutes to slow its descent. The capsule then began transmitting a beacon with information about its position. The spacecraft touched down on the vast Woomera range, operated by the Royal Australian Air Force. At around 18:07 GMT, the recovering team identified where the capsule had landed. A helicopter, equipped with an antenna to pick up the beacon, took to the air shortly afterwards to hunt for the container. FULL REPORT Quote
nudge Posted December 8, 2020 Posted December 8, 2020 Starship SN8 high altitude suborbital flight test launch is expected in less than an hour. First Starship prototype that will use 3 Raptor engines, a nosecone and body flaps. Will also attempt a landing flip maneuver (bellyflop); if successful, it will be a first ever for a vehicle of such size. Target altitude 12.5km. Stream will go live before launch. 1 Quote
Administrator Stan Posted December 9, 2020 Administrator Posted December 9, 2020 11 minutes ago, nudge said: Next attempt in less than 8 minutes. Sounds like my dad snoring right now 1 Quote
nudge Posted December 9, 2020 Posted December 9, 2020 I swear, every time I post a link to the livestream on here, they encounter some problem and have to abort the launch 1 Quote
Administrator Stan Posted December 9, 2020 Administrator Posted December 9, 2020 1 minute ago, nudge said: I swear, every time I post a link to the livestream on here, they encounter some problem and have to abort the launch I did wonder why the clock had paused for a bit Turn off! Quote
nudge Posted December 9, 2020 Posted December 9, 2020 Just now, Stan said: I did wonder why the clock had paused for a bit Turn off! Haha, there was apparently a range violation, so the launch should still happen Quote
Administrator Stan Posted December 9, 2020 Administrator Posted December 9, 2020 9 minutes ago, nudge said: Holy fucking shit! What happened Quote
Administrator Stan Posted December 9, 2020 Administrator Posted December 9, 2020 I just saw. That's a lot of fire. Quote
nudge Posted December 9, 2020 Posted December 9, 2020 21 minutes ago, Stan said: I just saw. That's a lot of fire. They nailed pretty much everything bar the landing burn. Perfect launch, perfect flight, the bellyhop was amazing... So stable, and the upright rotation for landing looked incredibly accurate. Haven't seen anything like that before! Proper scifi stuff... Seemed like an engine malfunction upon landing (one raptor shut down and the other burned its combustion chamber?), so they didn't have enough thrust for the soft landing as a result. A huge damn explosion that was A spectacular test flight with a spectacular ending. Bring on SN9 next... Quote
Administrator Stan Posted December 9, 2020 Administrator Posted December 9, 2020 That midair rotation before it gets ready to land is surreal. Like something out of a computer game where you try and master it a million times and the one time it happens you get too excited and then something else unexpected happens immediately after cos you're not focused Great stuff. Quote
nudge Posted December 9, 2020 Posted December 9, 2020 3 minutes ago, Stan said: That midair rotation before it gets ready to land is surreal. Like something out of a computer game where you try and master it a million times and the one time it happens you get too excited and then something else unexpected happens immediately after cos you're not focused Great stuff. Mind blowing, isn't it? What's even more incredible is that they managed to get it right on the first attempt. SpaceX is really in the league of their own... Quote
Dr. Gonzo Posted December 10, 2020 Posted December 10, 2020 Is it bad I lol'd at that landing? 1 Quote
Machado Posted December 10, 2020 Posted December 10, 2020 That was wicked but their side booster double landing is still the most sci-fi thing ever done. Quote
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