SpaceX launch of NASA exoplanet hunting telescope TESS scrubbed
SpaceX today scrubbed the launch of NASA’s TESS space telescope, designed to look for transiting exoplanets orbiting the sky’s brightest stars.
The reasons for the scrub have not yet been announced, but the company says it is aiming for a new launch date on April 18.
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SpaceX today scrubbed the launch of NASA’s TESS space telescope, designed to look for transiting exoplanets orbiting the sky’s brightest stars.
The reasons for the scrub have not yet been announced, but the company says it is aiming for a new launch date on April 18.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Stand down was due to “conducting additional GNC analysis.”, according to the tweeter.
Speaking of the tweeters, Elon Musk threw these teases out on the 15th.
“This is gonna sound crazy, but …”
“SpaceX will try to bring rocket upper stage back from orbital velocity using a giant party balloon”
“And then land on a bouncy house”
It sounds to me that they are going to attempt reentry with a ballute, translate to a gps guided parachute and attempt to land on a field of airbags (ala “The Fall Guy”). A fairly low-mass reentry method, but risky.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/985654333860601856
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/985655249745592320
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/985684755877265408
It’s worth noting that Mr. Musk didn’t indicate when the first upper stage recovery attempt will be, but it will certainly not be with TESS, where the upper stage will conduct a post-separation disposal burn putting it into a hyperbolic trajectory which will escape Earth orbit and enter an Earth-crossing heliocentric orbit.