Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire A first-ever launch, and a ho-hummer

First up, the ho-hummer. SpaceX will launch 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 5:35 p.m. ET today, with backup opportunities available until 7:59 p.m. If needed, additional opportunities are also available on Monday starting at 4:01 p.m. ET. Watch on YouTube or X @SpaceX about five minutes prior to liftoff. This is the 16th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Then, the biggie. United Launch Alliance will finally attempt the first launch of their new Vulcan rocket in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. For more details about the payload and the rocket, go HERE.

Once proven, this rocket will replace both the iconic Atlas and Delta 4 rockets for ULA. They are betting the farm on this one. It has been in development for a decade, but after many delays is finally ready to begin flight testing. The launch will be carried live on NASA TV, YouTube, and ULA's own WEBSITE

I'll have to watch replays of this one; it's long after my bedtime.

T-2 minutes...

Rocky, do those satellites fall out of the sky?

They do...eventually. What goes up, you know. The duration for satellites in earth orbit ranges from a few weeks to centuries.

Satellites can be designed so that they burn up in the atmosphere and don't hit the ground. Hopefully SpaceX has done this.

NASA is considering spending $1 billion to develop a vehicle to de-orbit the ISS and crash it into a deserted part of the Pacific Ocean.

SpaceX has done so. They have already de-orbited almost 400 Starlink birds since the beginning. All current and future ones are designed to de-orbit and burn up when their lifetime is reached. They also de-orbit almost all of their second stages.

The Space Station is tricky. It has many sections that are owned and operated by other countries, Russia and Japan being the largest. One plan has each country detaching and controlling their own sections out of orbit. That would require each nation to send up its own propulsive unit to mate with and then control their segment. Done sequentially, that might present the lowest probability of danger. Some parts of it are robust enough that they will make it to the surface.

Rocky, you're pretty damn smart for a FAC.
T. Rex tally smoke, in from the south, FAC in sight...

Tally T, Cleared hot. Hit my smoke!

UPDATE: The Vulcan launch was flawless last night. That's highly notable because to my knowledge no first flight of a new rocket design has even flown successfully until now. Serious congrats to the ULA team and to the courage of all the payload owners.

Boring!

I have the OP on ignore

Well then, go pee on the floor.

Saw the SpaceX launch. It was a beautiful clear sky (unusual lately) and was able to visually track it up to separation, and a little beyond.

Did not see a momentary flare on the landing of the booster stage so it must have been over the horizon (also unusual): often we can see the landing shop hove-to off our coastline a few miles out. We are about 30 miles south of the Cape.

I have always said that everyone needs to experience a launch from nearby. You do not understand raw, incredible power until then. Plus, it's so gorgeous.

LOL

only because he has ME on ignore

I don’t hate the guy

He is the BITCH

😂😂

Fire in the hole

Sad Update: It appears that the Peregrine moon lander that was launched on the Vulcan has failed due to a propellant leak. They are assessing what science they can perform from the onboard instruments, but the moon landing is now impossible.

🥲

Funny, how many people were normal just fine for so many years. A few new ones show up and so many of the old good ones are some form of foul language. At least ya can spell that word correctly.