Recent content by trailrider

Q: Was the explosion caused by internal failure, or did the Flight Termination System (FTS) cause it when the Ship lost attitude control?

It is obvious that StarShip+SuperHeavy must be successfully brought to operation before cancellation of SLS+Orion+Gateway could be done. IF the former can be brought to operational certification, including whatever configurations would be necessary (refueling in LEO, etc.), then from an...

The lead-in scene on Tom Corbett Space Cadet showed winged V-2's landing by backing down on their exhaust plumes. Never could happen until "2350 AD in the World Beyond Tomorrow"...right? Until SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster for the 26th time!

Doubt they have the equivalent of the FAA to demand an investigation. Not a good thing with residual hypergolics.

Was this a functional anomaly of did the Ship veer off course and the FTS blew it? Build some, test some, build some more. This was a largely new design of the ship, so that could have caused the RUD. Just have to wait for analysis. Wonder if the FAA will demand a complete investigation...

I think that at least some of these are being operated either by certain U.S. government agencies or contractors developing such for such agencies. The fact that the Pentagon denies any knowledge of them implies either they are using "plausible denial" or don't know due to compartmentalization...

The two empty seats are for Williams and Wilmore in case an emergency evacuation from the station becomes necessary. As far as the delay produced by certification of the new Crew Dragon is concerned, I'm sure SpaceX wants to be sure it is completely checked out without rushing the process. I...

Potentially, the capability to launch certain payloads into orbit makes for the capability to make the rocket into an ICBM. However, that doesn't necessarily mean Iran has solved the reentry problem. Recall that the Russian "Chief Designer", Korylov had not done so in 1957. He went to Nikia...

While it would have been nice to have repeated the catch of the booster with the chopsticks, the fact that it made a controlled "soft landing" in the water, and the impressive reentry of the Ship with some of the TPS tiles intentionally removed, and successful relighting of an engine in...

The FAA needs to concentrate on the "Aviation" portion of their charter, like insuring ground control conflicts do not result in worse incidents than one commercial airliner knocking the tail off another on the ground. And near misses by one airliner taking off with another near or on the...

If I understand correctly, one objective in creation of both crew and cargo spacecraft is reusability. Also, being able to check over major systems postflight is smart. How, then does Boeing justify a design like Starlink that discards a major portion of its RCS after a single flight? It is...

Well, it worked as intended. So, let the second guessing begin. Should Butch and Suni have ridden it home? IMHO, NO! There was too much uncertainty about the thrusters' performances to risk it. The thing for Boeing to do now, is do some extensive/intensive investigative work, including testing...

If it weren't for the fact that Starliner will have to depart the station, freeing up the docking port, I'd be inclined to agree. However, I think it ought to be the engineers who designed the thruster section, or maybe the managers who insisted on the design, and whoever designed the thruster...

Yup!

The FAA is (should be) responsible to insure public safety regarding aviation and space "incidents". In the case of the failure to land this particular unmanned booster on a remotely controlled, PRIVATE barge, out in the Atlantic Ocean, where is there a concern of public safety? Just looks to...