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August 10, 2021 Archives
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
THE HAPPENING WORLD: Northrop Grumman Cygnus CRS-16 Cargo Launch to the International Space Station
Launch is scheduled for 21:56 UTC with a five minute launch window from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Here is yesterday's pre-launch briefing for the mission.
Posted at
15:42
CONTINUITY: SpaceX: Tracking a Falcon 9 Landing Burn to Touchdown
Tracking footage of Falcon 9 landing on LZ-1
— Universal Curiosity (@UniverCurious) August 8, 2021
Credit: SpaceXpic.twitter.com/TB2jyrmSCz
Posted at
13:58
TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Four Horsemen
— N. Bourbaki, Quine apologist (@d08890) August 10, 2021
Posted at
13:24
CONTEXT: “Deadly 5G Radiation” vs. an Electromagnetic Field Meter
Posted at
13:15
TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Robot Safecracker
Posted at
12:44
CONTEXT: Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Photographs Rover Perseverance in the Distance
Can you spot #Perseverance in the pictures taken by #Ingenuity during its latest flight? It’s tinyyy!
— Gregory Dubos (@astroptere) August 9, 2021
🚁
Voyez-vous Perseverance sur les photos prises par l’hélicoptère Ingenuity lors de son dernier vol? Le rover est minuscule!
📷NASA/JPL-Caltech pic.twitter.com/w7XokiTbJE
Posted at
11:46
THE HAPPENING WORLD: Boeing Starliner OFT-2 “Hangar Queen”—Seven of Thirteen Valves Still Stuck
Teams continue to work on Starliner's service module propulsion system inside of @ULALaunch's Vertical Integration Facility.@BoeingSpace has been able to command seven of 13 valves open that previously were in the closed position. Learn more: https://t.co/vlaOrJQa8q pic.twitter.com/PsGfK8jUmE
— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) August 9, 2021
In a post titled “NASA, Boeing Make Progress on Starliner Valve Issue”, the “issue” is identified as “…several valves in the Starliner propulsion system that did not open as designed during the launch countdown for the Aug. 3 launch attempt. The valves connect to thrusters that enable abort and in-orbit maneuvering.” So, with these valves stuck closed, Starliner is effectively a piece of space junk which cannot either save its crew in case of a launch accident nor manueuver in space to rendezvous and dock with the space station.
The Boeing “teams are applying mechanical, electrical and thermal techniques to prompt the valves to open” which is aero-speak for “hitting it with a hammer and heat gun” to try to fix it. “This is how we fix problems in Boeing space capsule!”
U.S. taxpayers have paid Boeing more than US$ 570 million so far to develop this capsule, which has been in work for a decade and has yet to launch a human crew. Rumours that it is to be rebranded the “Starliner MAX” are unfounded.
Posted at
11:04