TexAgs91 said:

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will25u said:

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It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the @Space_Station.

It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility.

Let’s go to Mars.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2025

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It may be true that the ISS has served its purpose, but he is clearly speaking on behalf of SpaceX while working in the Trump administration.

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This is one of the obvious moves given the unrepairable crack on ISS.

TexAgs91 said:

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aTmAg said:

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TexAgs91 said:

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will25u said:

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It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the @Space_Station.

It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility.

Let’s go to Mars.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2025

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It may be true that the ISS has served its purpose, but he is clearly speaking on behalf of SpaceX while working in the Trump administration.

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His mission to Mars is self funded. If he was arguing for government to give him funding, then that would be a problem.

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I know SpaceX will go to Mars with or without NASA. But when they do go, NASA will certainly want to get involved ("slow down so I can lead you"), and will throw some money towards SpaceX to make it look like they are "leading" the mission.

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My point was to counter your apparently criticism of Musk commenting on NASA projects while working for Trump. If you weren't criticizing that, then I misunderstood.

Quote:

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Quote:

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It makes no sense to declare ISS (or especially SLS) off limits merely because Musk owns a space company.

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strawman comment...

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Not a strawman if you were criticizing.

lb3 said:

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TexAgs91 said:

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will25u said:

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It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the @Space_Station.

It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility.

Let’s go to Mars.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2025

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It may be true that the ISS has served its purpose, but he is clearly speaking on behalf of SpaceX while working in the Trump administration.

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This is one of the obvious moves given the unrepairable crack on ISS.

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I was more talking about Elon being the CEO of SpaceX pushing from within the Trump administration to shift our goal from going to the Moon to going to Mars. This is obviously one of those instances of a conflict of interest that Trump and Elon promised to stay clear of.

Not all, but many of the technologies needed to go to the moon would also help with the goal of going to Mars, so I'm not sure why Elon wants to skip the moon so bad anyways. SpaceX doesn't need NASA to get to Mars, and I hope they do it on their own with NASA playing a supporting role, not leading.

Decommissioning ISS early terminates SpaceX's dragon contracts to transport Astronauts to the Space Station.

It wouldn't be hard to conclude that Elon was arguing against his own self interests.

And he already has the de-orbit contract so whether that occurs 2028 or 2030 isn't particularly relevant

Not familiar with this particular spacecraft. Anyone have insight?

An X-37B onboard camera, used to ensure the health and safety of the vehicle, captures an image of Earth while conducting experiments in HEO in 2024.The X-37B executed a series of first-of-kind maneuvers, called aerobraking, to safely change its orbit using minimal fuel. pic.twitter.com/ccisgl493P

— United States Space Force (@SpaceForceDoD) February 21, 2025

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

It's a reusable space plane. Kind of a mini space shuttle. Air Force is conducting a lot of experimentation. I had no idea it was capable of high Earth orbit.



The specific things they are testing vary from public to very secretive.

Correction: It is operated by the Air Force, not the Space Force.

I believe it's operated by the Space Force, but it still belongs to the Air Force.

FCC document notes that Starship Flight 9 (after the upcoming launch) has the option of Ship returning to the launch site for a catch.

Although unconfirmed by SpaceX, Flight 9 has the potential of reflying Booster 14, with Ship 35, and both returning to the launch site, with… pic.twitter.com/RKzvR30rgj

— NSF - NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) February 21, 2025

will25u said:

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FCC document notes that Starship Flight 9 (after the upcoming launch) has the option of Ship returning to the launch site for a catch.

Although unconfirmed by SpaceX, Flight 9 has the potential of reflying Booster 14, with Ship 35, and both returning to the launch site, with… pic.twitter.com/RKzvR30rgj

— NSF - NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) February 21, 2025

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That will be something to see.

I do wonder how long it would be before Ship would come back.

Could be like 90 minutes or 13-14 hours from what I hear.

That's a bold attempt, considering they haven't gotten any Ship orbital yet.

Mathguy64 said:

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That's a bold attempt, considering they haven't gotten any Ship orbital yet.

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Considering the 5 million + of Monterrey Mexico will be flown over on the way down

And/or the corridor from Mission to McAllen to Edinburg to Brownsville

Mathguy64 said:

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That's a bold attempt, considering they haven't gotten any Ship orbital yet.

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Isn't that because they weren't trying? The goal was to splash in the Indian ocean and they've been feet away from their target as evidenced by the drone footage on splashdown.

Unless you're simply saying they haven't done that testing yet and not that they haven't been able to.

With the previous version, yes. The last version had thousands of changes and used different engines, so no with what they're flying this time. They haven't tested or validated engine relight or reentry with the new forward flap designs.