Space yays

[Glaurung]

I think it's inevitable that rockets will go wrong occasionally, like any other machinery; when they do, the consequences are usually explosive, given that they're mostly tubes filled with fuel and oxidant. At least in this case there was no-one on board. It's just a shame that it's happened to one of the companies that's just getting going in this area.

[Glaurung]

Another space sad

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is reported to have exploded and crashed while on a test flight in California, with at least one person (one of the pilots) dead.

[comrade_general]

I just came here to post it

http://www.iflscience.com/space/breaking-virgin-galactic-s-spaceshiptwo-crashes-over-mohave-desert

I also saw that the previous rocket was self-destructed due to the launch being flawed somehow (looked fine to me).

[TTG4]

I also saw that the previous rocket was self-destructed due to the launch being flawed somehow (looked fine to me).

As far as I know they saw that the rocket wasn't going to make it into orbit and so it made more sense to destroy it ASAP rather than risk debris falling on a populated area, which seems sensible enough.

[comrade_general]

How in the hell would they know that so soon?

[Glaurung]

According to a statement on the Orbital Sciences website:

All systems appeared to be performing nominally until approximately T+15 seconds at which point the failure occurred. Evidence suggests the failure initiated in the first stage after which the vehicle lost its propulsive capability and fell back to the ground impacting near, but not on, the launch pad. Prior to impacting the ground, the rocket's Flight Termination System was engaged by the designated official in the Wallops Range Control Center.

The official NASA video is on the Wikipedia page; it's from near the launchpad up to a few seconds after launch, and then cuts to one from further away (possibly losing a few seconds). At around 0:45 on the video, the rocket exhaust flame gets brighter and bigger. Over the next few seconds, there looks to be a small explosion in the exhaust, the rocket stops accelerating, slows down and starts falling, and then there's another explosion or burst of flame. I would guess that the change in the flame at 0:45 is the "failure" reported by Orbital, and that the burst of flame after the rocket starts falling is the flight termination system.

How in the hell would they know that so soon?

I would guess that there's a prescribed safe path, dictating where the rocket should be at what time after the launch. If it deviates from that path, either in location or not accelerating correctly, then it's considered unsafe and is destroyed.

[comrade_general]

That makes more sense if it lost propulsion before they aborted. At first it sounded like they had caused the entire incident.

[Glaurung]

Meanwhile, something happier that I found: a video recorded on the ISS, of and from a camera inside a big blob of water. Particularly interesting for me is some all-too-brief footage (around 1:25 - 1:40) of what you can do when surface tension is the strongest force acting on the water.

[Cuddly Khan]

That looks so fun!

[Tom]

Anyone catch the orion ama on reddit?
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2li4jx/were_the_team_that_designed_and_built_orion_nasas/

[Othko97]

For a second I thought that was a fake AMA from the constellation

[Cuddly Khan]

Not sure if this is the place to put it but: http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/what-if-our-planet-had-rings-like-saturn

[Glaurung]

Interesting (and rather pretty) - thanks for posting this.

I think if the Earth had rings, we (the human race) might have worked out a lot more about astronomy quite early on. The fact that the world is round can readily be deduced from how the position of the rings in the sky varies with latitude, and there's a series of interesting observations that give us lots of data on celestial geometry:
- the shadow of the rings on the Earth at various times of the day/year
- the shadow of the rings on the Moon at lunar eclipses
- the shadow of the Moon on the rings at solar eclipses (albeit very occasionally)
- the Sun crossing the plane of the rings at equinoxes

[comrade_general]

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#.VIHHcsmSled

Looks like Orion made it up okay. We're going to eventually use it to send people to asteroids and then Mars.

[Fish Priest]

Not sure if this is the place to put it but: http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/what-if-our-planet-had-rings-like-saturn

Somewhat relatedly, has anyone seen the "donut earth" post?
http://io9.com/what-would-the-earth-be-like-if-it-was-the-shape-of-a-d-1515700296


The idea of seeing your own planet in the sky is quite cool, as is that of satellites that go through the hole...