What was the reasoning behind that change? Aiui, increasing the diameter of a reentry body pushes the shock boundary further away from the body, which would reduce heating. On that score 12 m should have worked better than 9 m.
I think 12 m was just too ambitious. It was a much larger rocket overall, targeting up to 300 tons reusable. 9 m is still a hella big rocket. I think they realized that with the amount of iteration required for a working system, both that size and the composites made development too expensive. This was before Starlink was a working system, too–they had to consider the possibility that it wouldn’t work out.
NASA is in the transportation business, so naturally Trump decided who better to be the temporary NASA administrator than the Secretary of Transportation.
Astronomers have discovered Betelguese’s companion star.
The team thinks the star has a mass around 1.5 times that of the sun and that it is a hot blue-white star orbiting Betelgeuse at a distance equivalent to four times the distance between Earth and the sun, fairly close for binary stars. That means it exists within the extended atmosphere of Betelgeuse. This represents the first time a companion star has been detected so close to a red supergiant.
The team also theorizes that this star has not yet begun to burn hydrogen in its core, the process that defines the main sequence lifetimee of a star. Thus, the Betelgeuse system appears to consist of two stars that exist at opposite ends of their lives, despite the fact that both stars formed at the same time!
…[That] doesn’t mean that Betelgeuse’s companion is in for a long life; the intense gravity of Betelgeuse is likely to drag the smaller star into it, devouring it.
The team estimates this cannibalistic event could happen within the next 10,000 years.
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Thanks, I always seem to miss these other space threads.
Wouldn’t Betelgeuse have been known as a spectroscopic binary before now?
Just don’t mention its name three times.
No. Spectroscopic binaries are usually short period binaries that have a regular back and forth movement in their spectral lines. The key phrase there is “short period” as in a few weeks or less. Betelgeuse Jr has a period of about 6 years, so not so short.
Ah! Mainly because Betelgeuse is so damn big (not just massive but large) that the companion can orbit that far away from the epicenter and still be obscured.
And orbit that far away and still be inside Betelgeuse A. I was gobsmacked to read that a couple weeks ago.
Yep. An orbit of around 4 AU is around 600 million kilometers in radius. And Betelgeuse is estimated to be from 640 to 764 million kilometers in radius. So it is up to a full AU deep.
Astra vibes:
At least the rocket was considerate enough to scoot off to the side so as to not destroy the launch tower.
I like how the camera optimistically kept panning up even through the rocket started falling.
Instead of little things like permanent moon bases or colonizing Mars people need to think bigger: how about a trip to Alpha Centauri?
Plans at:
https://www.canva.com/design/DAGmr3ubC8E/LHHAeeAIGGQe_TkZVs-PXA/view
One way ? No thanks.
I’d just like to point out that every….one….of….us is on a one way trip. This concept of a plan’ ain’t happening but nothing changes. Have a nice day!
The gap between concept and practicality is mind-boggling.
BTW: is Starship on hold indefinitely, or are there any tentative plans for further test flights?
This is a pretty funny Google News headline:
Now it is “Maybe August”