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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.