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Looks like the Starship catch option is off, but will probably be orbital for the sats, So, will they sub orbit and dunk in the Pacific after the sats are out? Will be an interesting one to see what they do for sure.
Looks like the Starship catch option is off, but will probably be orbital for the sats, So, will they sub orbit and dunk in the Pacific after the sats are out? Will be an interesting one to see what they do for sure.
I csn't see them deploying orbital sats that way up in orbit while the vehicle is on the suborbital Indian ocean path as before. I suppose they could do a major deorbit burn they hsven't done yet to go there again. The main reason the last one's sats weren't capable was they followed the path back as Starship and burned up at same time it hit atmosphere.
Also, if they aren't going for Starship orbit to land at Starbase, maybe multi orbits to select an ocean soft?
They got the creator of the US Office and Steve Carell on board with just the concept of a comedy based on Space Force. If I recall correctly, they literally got it greenlit for a season before they even had a script or anything else besides thinking mocking Trump's Space Force would be the easiest thing to do on planet Earth. The show was not successful.
Wouldn't the booster come back to another TX coast soft? Is that a plan that it'll go that far and come all the way around eventually to land? Maybe you got that backwards. I don't think the booster can ever go more than halfway across Atlantic at most now.
I would imagine there's lasers or guns on the X-37 for a long time now. ASAT weaponry in general goes back pretty much to the start, from the high alt Starfish Prime tests. In theory there's a 'no weapons in space' thing to this day, but hey, anything we signed including nuclear test bans with the old USSR went away when the USSR did too, and even then nobody really followed it.
I would imagine there's lasers or guns on the X-37 for a long time now. ASAT weaponry in general goes back pretty much to the start, from the high alt Starfish Prime tests. In theory there's a 'no weapons in space' thing to this day, but hey, anything we signed including nuclear test bans with the old USSR went away when the USSR did too, and even then nobody really followed it.
The outer space treaty just bans Nuclear weapons and other WMDs if memory serves. There was genuine worry of skipping the "intercontinental" phase of an ICBM and just parking a whole bunch of atmospheric penetrators in orbit ready to drop megatons of nuclear fire on a moments notice. You could program an ICBM right now to just go into a stable orbit and then have it sit there for years until you give the final order for it to drop orbit and release the payload.
Conventional weapons arent really covered, but there had been a general "gentleman's agreement" not to put conventional weapons in space.
Much of that agreement based solely on how expensive it is vs. What you could hope to accomplish conventionally. That calculus is changing rapidly though with how integrated space infrastructure is becoming with daily life, the econony and military capabilities
The outer space treaty just bans Nuclear weapons and other WMDs if memory serves. There was genuine worry of skipping the "intercontinental" phase of an ICBM and just parking a whole bunch of atmospheric penetrators in orbit ready to drop megatons of nuclear fire on a moments notice. You could program an ICBM right now to just go into a stable orbit and then have it sit there for years until you give the final order for it to drop orbit and release the payload.
I believe that also had FOBS included as banned, which the Soviets did with the SS-18's anyway. As a side note, the 2001 cut from the bone in the air to the 'sat' in space.. That sat was part of the future missiles parked in orbits to go.
Hardly anyone knew what that was then or even now, which makes the cut even better when it's from the first 'intelligent weapon' as a bone to the 'nuke in space'
The movie Space Cowboys also was about that.
I'd have to dive more than AI can do for now to see if direct enegy/lasers would've been included as banned or not.
Quick wiki look yeah, probably just nukes and the rest was handshake no nos.
states shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner;
IMO that's out of date, and there could be reasons to have nuclear explosions used in space, obviously for something like Project Orion or the more 'gotta blow up the asteroid' or just to see how one would work if sent halfway out to the solar system to set one off and look.
Wouldn't the booster come back to another TX coast soft? Is that a plan that it'll go that far and come all the way around eventually to land? Maybe you got that backwards. I don't think the booster can ever go more than halfway across Atlantic at most now.
Booster will land in the Gulf of America, same as on previous tests. Ship will "complete approximately six orbits around the planet over the course of a nearly 10-hour flight, with splashdown targeted in the Pacific Ocean to the west of Chile."
There are other ways to take out a satellite besides blowing it up. The most obvious way would a space drone that latches onto a target and then forcibly pulls it down into the atmosphere
Booster will land in the Gulf of America, same as on previous tests. Ship will "complete approximately six orbits around the planet over the course of a nearly 10-hour flight, with splashdown targeted in the Pacific Ocean to the west of Chile."
Thanks, that's kind of what I figured they'd do if not try a Starship tower land, multi orbit to pacific. I would've thought maybe closer to Hawaii, but Chili might be easier to get drones/ships to recover if they manage another no-blow up landing in water.
There are other ways to take out a satellite besides blowing it up. The most obvious way would a space drone that latches onto a target and then forcibly pulls it down into the atmosphere
None of this is verified, but apparently a Chinese spy satellite that was providing images of US bases in Jordan to Iran is now in multiple pieces. China has said nothing, but with talk of that and then in the following days the US talking about space weapons. It seems there's a good chance they have used those weapons.
Some would argue that if this has occurred, it's a step up the escalation ladder and other countries would now feel it is acceptable for them to target other nations' space infrastructure that may be used in targeting their countries. So will Russia now go after US satellites helping Ukraine target inside of Russia? Let alone what China's response may be.
