This rocket successfully made it to orbit this week. Fastest ever to orbit!
This is a genuine achievement. They were fastest among their peers. The Soviets got to orbit 64 years ago, in 2/3 the time, without the benefit of developments and experience since then.
Astra built a (still to be proven) “just good enough” rocket which they were only just able to do: “Astra has had to stomach several failures along the way… Astra probably could not have survived too many more failures before investors began to doubt its technical chops.” Just what’s in the article had me on the verge of a PTSD episode. I don’t know how I never got fired.
I wonder what Sputnik’s engineers would have thought of this rocket (or anything else out there now). Would they be impressed? Would there be any aspect of it they would marvel at, as though it were magic? I doubt it.
Sorry to be such a pessimist.
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At least the telescope’s ok.
https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1463662621438234628?t=kuLHBPEI-TyDR8HXlwQw2g&s=19
First reply started an argument.
https://twitter.com/tribalisation/status/1463687038603960322?t=kqzSb7bc56jbMN7EZYE_Jg&s=19
Even if you ignore the fact that the launch contract was signed a year before SpaceX managed to get a Falcon 1 into orbit you couldn’t cram JWST into a Falcon 9 fairing anyway.
I doubt a fairing redesign is a significant hurdle for a mission of this importance, but F9 wasn’t certified for flagship NASA launches until late 2018, so it definitely doesn’t seem realistic that they would have ever been in the picture.
What’s actually comment-worthy is that JWST’s not launching on Atlas. Given recent issues with Ariane and Vega, I bet a lot of people at NASA are pretty unhappy about that.
Here’s a good article about some planetary scientists getting hyped up about Starship (unless the program goes belly up and SpaceX goes bankrupt, of course):
Preview of Rocket Lab’s planned Neutron rocket. Kinda neat, especially the integrated fairings.
Only scanned it. Will come back to it. They need each other but I don’t know if any of the projects mentioned are sexy enough to overcome resistance.
Sounds like you’re already aware of this
The truth is probably somewhere between what he says in public versus in private but if he’s really surprised then hey, welcome to the aerospace business, Elon.
Link to Nasa James Webb Telescope blog - doesn’t embed here properly but link works.
Latest (14thDec) …
The James Webb Space Telescope team is working a communication issue between the observatory and the launch vehicle system. This will delay the launch date to no earlier than Friday, Dec. 24. We will provide more information about the new launch date no later than Friday, Dec. 17.
I just so hope the launch is good - really looking forward to the JWST finally getting up there.
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I want to watch live but they’re not making it easy. A lot of nervous people out there.
CNN: Delay pushes NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launch to Christmas morning.
What’s the quick and dirty on this? Is there above average risk of a launch issue?
Not on launch afaik. On deployment once it’s in position, maybe. It’s a unique mission. The thing is a lot of people have careers on the line.
Yeah the Ariane 5 is one of the most reliable launch vehicles but the telescope itself has “344 single-point-of-failure items on average”.
Its deployment is pretty intricate
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They also can’t delay much longer before it becomes a much bigger delay with the moon coming close enough to the flight path to be an issue. If they pull this off then it will be an amazing achievement but I am getting less and less optimistic about it.
I read the article. It’s great that scientists and SpaceX have recognized the need for allies and constituents and partners and so on but it’s late in this round of the game. Good luck shouldering past more established players to get NASA funding for SpaceX-specific programs for things that are already being planned. Musk can charm all the nerds but politicians are another breed. Still, here’s hoping Starship missions actually happen and NASA takes advantage.
I like the Rocket Lab video. The CEO has a reasonable vision for the next few decades: improved materials, more reusability, better reliability. One weird thing is he didn’t go to college. I have met aerospace engineers without degrees who worked their way up but I can’t help being suspicious. No way most people get the benefit of the doubt. Maybe at least have him demonstrate he can solve the rocket equation or something.
I thought this was a good casual discussion about the space telescope covering some history, its goals, possible deployment issues, and what’s at stake. Lol, they kept the transport schedule secret so they could avoid pirates while getting it to the launch site. It’s quite an audacious project. Woe unto us if it fails.
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That’s made me a tad nervous 
Yeah a bunch of astronomers and others must feel like they’ve bet the farm on this thing. Even if it goes perfectly, I’d be at the point of losing my lunch for the next few weeks.