GarryP

Announcement starting now at :


Yusaku Maezawa basically confirmed as the passenger via his instagram posting.

Amazulu

Looks like the British diver is suing Musk

This could get interesting

GarryP

Here's the journey round the moon.

Artists going with him

GarryP

Website for the trip : https://dearmoon.earth/

GarryP

The billionaire paying for it, inside the test body segment for the BFS. That's how big it is.



New BFR design, taller than the Saturn 5 and the SLS



Hero shot in space



Artists in spaaaaaaccccceeee



https://www.humanmars.net/2018/09/of...ig-falcon.html

GarryP

The new design (left) relative to the old, and other big rockets. Existing F9 on the far right.

DeadVim

GarryP

SpaceX F9 launch + landing back at base in 1 hour (1.22 AEDT), this time at Vandenberg, rather than the Cape.

GarryP

Successful launch, landing and separation.

And, of course, the UFO reports for LA are coming in already ....

Amazulu

I wonder if Musk can be sued when he's on Mars?

GarryP

Nice, dramatic, compound view of the entire launch

GarryP

Soyuz MS-10 launch didn't go off without a hitch, this time.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45822845

Word seems to be that the separation of the boosters went wrong. Normally the 4 boosters fall away in a cross pattern, but it looks like this time one of them hit the central core, with the rocket then basically falling back to earth for the crew to be recovered safely. This follows on from the infamous 'drilled hole' in the craft - with most non-russians considering it to be poor QA on the russian side.

It raises the question of what the impact will be on the US crew solutions which were due to begin testing. Most people think the russians should spend more than the 8 weeks till the next Soyuz mission to find out what went wrong - which makes things difficult to keep the station manned.

GarryP

As some of you might seen, the landing attempt of the Falcon 9 launch went wrong as the hydraulic pump for the control grid fins on the booster stalled, with the control surfaces fixed in an extreme position, give a spin to the whole rocket.

Despite this people were surprises that the other controls and the algorithms onboard managed to keep things under control, and even 'land' the rocket (albeit on the sea) such that it could survive. That's an even bigger trick than the usual - most people were extremely surprised. Talk is the intact rocket will be recovered, and bits probably reused.

GarryP

People thought that SpaceX were building a water tower at their south Texas site, until people put individual images together....




Turns out the test 'hopper' frame is being built out of stainless steel, in plain sight. Full 9m diameter, but shorter than the real thing. There are different dates for the first flight, from 4 weeks till mid March/April - but much sooner than people have been thinking. They are also making the booster, but at full size. If they put the combo together and launch it, it could probably reach space.

GarryP

Looks like the real BFR is going to be stainless steel, unpainted, so as to reflect the heat - within minimal heat shield.

Also looks like they will be putting it together soon.

Will have three raptor engines for testing.

The future will be shiny.