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SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon
SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon. It's all
over the Internet, evening news, morning news... The space themed pages on Facebook have a lot of people whining over calling the space tourists private astronauts. Like the long list of NASA payload specialists were any different. Jeff -- All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone. These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends, employer, or any organization that I am a member of. |
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SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon
On 2/28/2017 6:09 AM, Jeff Findley wrote:
SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon. It's all over the Internet, evening news, morning news... The space themed pages on Facebook have a lot of people whining over calling the space tourists private astronauts. Like the long list of NASA payload specialists were any different. Jeff For the last several years, SpaceX has been spectacularly disrupting the space industry at the same time that it is rapidly advancing the state of the art. So I wish them luck. Still, as always with Musk, the announced timeline is laughable. For example: The Falcon heavy has been flying "soon" now for several years. |
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SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon
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SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon
JF Mezei wrote:
On 2017-03-01 06:04, Jeff Findley wrote: As with everything out of SpaceX this assumes the Falcon Heavy test goes well. Musk must have a fair idea of its readiness and level of confidence in its success. Well, sure, but haven't we been hearing "Will fly soon" for Falcon Heavy for three or more years now? rick jones -- A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail? |
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SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon
On 3/1/2017 6:04 AM, Jeff Findley wrote:
As with everything out of SpaceX this assumes the Falcon Heavy test goes well. Presumably they would then start using Falcon Heavy to launch satellites, so there should be several successful Falcon Heavy flights before this manned lunar mission is launched. But, stuff happens, so we shall see. Still, If I were a betting man, I'd bet this flight will happen before a manned flight of SLS/Orion around the moon. That is, unless NASA asks SpaceX to wait for SLS/Orion to go first. When your biggest customer asks you to do something, you should at least consider it. Jeff Well even if NASA were to ask this, that's no reason not to send paying customers into LEO and back. And there are very sound reasons for SpaceX to be doing this, paying tourists or no, as I pointed out in Rand Simberg's blog a few days ago. Having multiple successful crewed flights of Dragon 2 will avoid requirements creep & other nasty moving of the 'manned-rating' goal posts by NASA if SpaceX already has a sound record of doing such on their own. SpaceX cannot afford to lose their biggest customer, but at the same time cannot afford to be held hostage by it either. Another reason I think SpaceX should also orbit a commercial space hab at some point. Either by itself or in partnership with others. Dave |
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SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon
JF Mezei wrote:
On 2017-03-01 06:04, Jeff Findley wrote: As with everything out of SpaceX this assumes the Falcon Heavy test goes well. Musk must have a fair idea of its readiness and level of confidence in its success. If there is a "good" chance it will work, then he wants customers lined up to use it as soon as it is ready, othwerwise you'd have a perfectly good rocket that remains unused for long period because you had anticipated problems would take longer to solve. The anciliary: those customers for early launch "all went well scenario" would have clauses in contracts to deal with higher likelyhood of delays. This has already happened and Falcon Heavy has already taken most of its schedule slides (with several early booked payloads moving off to other launchers because they couldn't wait any longer), so I think we're into the more realistic part of the schedule. The first Falcon Heavy launch is supposed to be this summer. So I would say it is pretty normal for SpaceX to pitch F9H as being nearly ready and lining up customers for it. This is especially true if portraying F9H as nearly ready to goto moon while SLS is still years away causes NASA to cancel SLS and rely on F9H, and once that happens, a delay in F9H doesn't matter because there is no option. Except things that are different are not the same and Falcon Heavy isn't a replacement for SLS. -- "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw |
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SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon
Rick Jones wrote:
JF Mezei wrote: On 2017-03-01 06:04, Jeff Findley wrote: As with everything out of SpaceX this assumes the Falcon Heavy test goes well. Musk must have a fair idea of its readiness and level of confidence in its success. Well, sure, but haven't we been hearing "Will fly soon" for Falcon Heavy for three or more years now? Yes, we have, which is why the current schedule is probably fairly solid. They've taken their slides and if they don't have to redirect effort because of another Falcon 9 explosion Falcon Heavy will fly this year. -- "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw |
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SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon
"David Spain" wrote in message news
On 3/1/2017 6:04 AM, Jeff Findley wrote: As with everything out of SpaceX this assumes the Falcon Heavy test goes well. Presumably they would then start using Falcon Heavy to launch satellites, so there should be several successful Falcon Heavy flights before this manned lunar mission is launched. But, stuff happens, so we shall see. Still, If I were a betting man, I'd bet this flight will happen before a manned flight of SLS/Orion around the moon. That is, unless NASA asks SpaceX to wait for SLS/Orion to go first. When your biggest customer asks you to do something, you should at least consider it. Jeff Well even if NASA were to ask this, that's no reason not to send paying customers into LEO and back. And there are very sound reasons for SpaceX to be doing this, paying tourists or no, as I pointed out in Rand Simberg's blog a few days ago. Having multiple successful crewed flights of Dragon 2 will avoid requirements creep & other nasty moving of the 'manned-rating' goal posts by NASA if SpaceX already has a sound record of doing such on their own. SpaceX cannot afford to lose their biggest customer, but at the same time cannot afford to be held hostage by it either. Another reason I think SpaceX should also orbit a commercial space hab at some point. Either by itself or in partnership with others. I'm convinced we'll see a Bigelow 'space hotel' serviced by Dragon V2 before too long. Even if it's just a few short test flights. The pieces are in place for a purely commercial venture with no NASA involvement. Dave -- Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/ CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net |
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SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon
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SpaceX announces plan to fly two space tourists around moon
Jeff Findley wrote:
In article , says... JF Mezei wrote: So I would say it is pretty normal for SpaceX to pitch F9H as being nearly ready and lining up customers for it. This is especially true if portraying F9H as nearly ready to goto moon while SLS is still years away causes NASA to cancel SLS and rely on F9H, and once that happens, a delay in F9H doesn't matter because there is no option. Except things that are different are not the same and Falcon Heavy isn't a replacement for SLS. While true from a performance point of view, from an economics point of view there really isn't a current use for SLS/Orion beyond what's been planned so far since no other payloads have been funded (other than a tiny bit of money for a HAB study). There are vague notions that NASA might redirect the SLS/Orion program to the moon, but there is clearly no firm commitment to do so coming from the current Administration. Actually, the current Administration hasn't really said anything concrete about NASA yet. Everything in the "space press" is speculative at this point. SLS/Orion still looks like a "launcher to nowhere". Given the current plans, even assuming there is a 2nd Trump term, it doesn't look like SLS/Orion will be doing much of anything before President Trump is out of office. SAD! And *THAT* is the issue, not some insane idea that SpaceX wants to kill it because they see it as competition. Even fully evolved to its 130 tonne to LEO Block 2 form out in the 2030's it's too small for a anything but small science missions to Mars. Two out of three proposals for Block 2 punt the solids and replace them with liquid boosters. ATK, of course, is proposing big solids. By the time SLS Block 2 is flying the SpaceX ITS booster will also be flying, with an LEO capability of over four times that of SLS. -- "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw |
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