What do we mean in the #Space biz when we talk about "windows"?
It's the time frame in which a payload can reach its target destination, given the launch site and booster. (1/x)
Tonight's launch is sending a cargo Dragon to #ISS. If it's clear, we'll see ISS go over #KSC about 10 minutes before launch time.
The ISS orbits Earth at a 51° angle to the Equator. The Falcon 9 needs to launch Dragon to that inclination. Dragon also needs to "catch up" to ISS. The math works out tonight that the launch has to be at 8:30 PM EDT. (2/x)
@WordsmithFL
Thank you for the info, I did not realize a launch was scheduled.
@pendrag It happens so often now, we tend to forget about them. The Range projects about 100 launchs this year from the Cape. 😱
@WordsmithFL still used to the original shuttle schedule optimal payloads for both iss and satellite.
While I am impressed with SpaceX ability to reuse the Falcon launch system. I had an expectation of a greater payload system following the shuttle retirement.
@pendrag Shuttle risked lives and was hideously expensive to operate. F9 can launch crew Dragon, it can launch cargo Dragon, but not at the same time. We no longer risk lives to deliver cargo.
The tradeoff is a smaller launch window. #NASA could purchase launches on a Falcon Heavy to get a longer launch window, but is it worth the extra $30 million of taxpayer dollars to get a few extra minutes? Rhetorical question.
@WordsmithFL I have no doubt it makes financial and logistical sense. It is the kid in me that was so amazed by the flying space plane. Wanting to see the return to the moon, the rotational gravity space stations, and humans actually entering the solar system.
The knowledge and technology has grown through the use of unmanned launches and missions. Humans are still anchored to this earth.
@pendrag At least one American and one Russian have been in low Earth orbit since 2000. (Not the same ones, of course.)
ISS has taught us how to do long-duration space flight. We're using that knowledge for the "next step," Project Artemis.
(Which actually began life in 2014 as a program called NextSTEP, but I digress ...)
Crew will launch on the government SLS, but everything else is commercial ... (1/x)
@pendrag NASA has already issued contracts to the private sector to develop a lunar orbital platform called Gateway, a mini-ISS for long duration circumlunar spaceflight.
NASA has issued contracts to develop a lunar lander to go to/from Gateway, or using a SpaceX Starship from lunar orbit. (2/x)
@pendrag Companies are receiving contracts too to develop the technology for a permanent base at the lunar south pole, on the "terminator" between light and darkness, where NASA's lunar orbiting satellites have found frozen water.
It's all in the pipeline. As ISS ends around 2030, NASA transitions back to the Moon to implement these technologies. What we learn will be used to go on to Mars. (3/3)
@WordsmithFL
Thanks for the information, I did see the NASA published budget, and there are so many great things to come.
With Artemis finally off the drawing board and successfully performing extra orbital flights. There is more now than just a vision of the future.
I am concerned with regards to the near future of ISS and LEO science. Mini-Sats can do some basic testing, but there are still so much education that can be provided.
@pendrag NASA has been working with several companies to develop commercial space stations by the end of the decade. Axiom Space probably will be first. Sierra Space has a partnership with Blue Origin to build and deploy Orbital Reef
Bigelow Aerospace had the lead for a long time, but Bob Bigelow pulled the plug a few years ago after he didn't get the Gateway contract.
@pendrag Orbital Reef:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlxMLAavmFs