NASA ULA/Boeing Artemis SLS 2nd hotfire attempt :: T minus 4 mintues

[Hagbard Celine 11277]

T-4 minutes to find out of if the $20 billion spent is going to work or not

live video

 

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t-2minutes

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8 minute hotfire

Artemis SLS lives

1 year to first launch

[Biff Tannen 46190]

1 hour ago, Hagbard Celine said:

T-4 minutes to find out of if the $20 billion spent is going to work or not

So yay?

[elfenix 34760]

i know this is using a bunch of mostly rehashed parts from the 70s but it's really going to be man rated in a year or so?  i guess i'm used to the spacex model of test test test test test test test test test now

Edited March 18, 2021 by elfenix

[Hagbard Celine 11277]

the starliner is good to go

ostensibly

so this was more or less the last hurdle

[RamjetFDO 10655]

It's going to suck to use and throw these away, though ... got kinda used to reusing them on the Shuttle program.

[wild_turkey 3299]

i know this is using a bunch of mostly rehashed parts from the 70s but it's really going to be man rated in a year or so?  i guess i'm used to the spacex model of test test test test test test test test test now

I thought the goal was this:

2021 - Artemis 1 (unmanned)
2023 - Artemis 2 (manned, lunar orbit but no landing)
2024 - Artemis 3 (manned, boots on the moon)

So it would best case scenario be ready for humans in 2-3 years.

[Captainant 28589]

3 hours ago, RamjetFDO said:

It's going to suck to use and throw these away, though ... got kinda used to reusing them on the Shuttle program.

Yeah aren't those engines pretty special pieces of hardware? The engine bells are extremely complex, not to mention the rest of the turbopumps, etc that feed the combustion

[RamjetFDO 10655]

11 hours ago, Captainant said:

Yeah aren't those engines pretty special pieces of hardware? The engine bells are extremely complex, not to mention the rest of the turbopumps, etc that feed the combustion

Yup - the RS-25 is an engineering marvel.  *Designed* for reusability from the start - with the SpaceX Merlin engine picking up that mantle and running with it, too.

The RS-25 generates about 1.5x the specific impulse and 2.5x the sea-level thrust that a single Merlin engine does.  So - it may be more cost effective to load up and throw away more Merlins on an expendable stage than to produce throw-away RS-25's.  Hell, SpaceX may end up creating "disposable" Merlins at a reduced per-unit cost.

 

[Armybrat 41429]

[Hagbard Celine 11277]

15 hours ago, RamjetFDO said:

SpaceX may end up creating "disposable" Merlins at a reduced per-unit cost.

Or just re-use a Merlin booster 9 times and then for it's 10th launch deploy it on a mission that requires it be disposed of to achieve T/leo or T/Ve

As an Apollo Orphan and Elonfanboi the audacious play would be to go with a 4-pack Falcon Heavy (4 side booster + the core booster) each having fulfilled their 10-use economic design criteria.  The brilliance of a throttled engine shines in this config where you can launch with the center core at reduced power, only enough to make sure the engineering of the stack remains solid, drop the 4-pack when they are spent, and throttle up the core booster for additional T/Ve.

[Hagbard Celine 11277]

of course none of this matters if starship is #winning.  the old guard desperately want it to be fetch.

and new glenn will obsolete sls too.

[Captainant 28589]

22 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

Or just re-use a Merlin booster 9 times and then for it's 10th launch deploy it on a mission that requires it be disposed of to achieve T/leo or T/Ve

As an Apollo Orphan and Elonfanboi the audacious play would be to go with a 4-pack Falcon Heavy (4 side booster + the core booster) each having fulfilled their 10-use economic design criteria.  The brilliance of a throttled engine shines in this config where you can launch with the center core at reduced power, only enough to make sure the engineering of the stack remains solid, drop the 4-pack when they are spent, and throttle up the core booster for additional T/Ve.

Asparagus staging is best staging

[Hagbard Celine 11277]

best quality

[Armybrat 41429]

A bit of nostalgia.

 

[atomheartbevo 90665]

12 hours ago, Armybrat said:

A bit of nostalgia.

 

 

 

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