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Thank you

Won’t somebody think of the children!

Any earthlings dead?

/r/telescopes is the sub to ask about such things. They even have good Beginner's Guide pinned.

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I'm just pointing out that announced launches do not always translate to actual launches.

All articles from space .com should be banned from this sub. They are filled with garbage

Which orbits?

Wrt fairings, iirc SpaceX has an extended fairing launch as part of NSSL. They also have a vertical integration one.

This Butterstuff Indica I just picked up has me targeting the asteroid belt.

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Most likely the one right now the Soviets are sending up right now to rescue the stranded crew.

>The second stage of Zhuque-2 uses methalox, too.

You're right, I stand corrected. I'm too used to Chinese rockets using solids.

The second stage of Zhuque-2 uses methalox, too.

I think "reaching orbit with a rocket that uses methane in at least one stage" is a somewhat interesting race. After decades of rocketry without methalox we now have several companies/rockets trying to do that within a year or so.

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> The Raptor is doing fine

Most landing failures were linked to the engines not starting up properly. The recent static fire was done with 31/33 because two engines had issues. Compared to a landing this is less critical during a launch because of the large redundancy, but they clearly need to work on that for routine flights.

> and both the Atlas and Delta both have very specific high-energy orbits that the Falcon cannot offer—even when it is used fully expendable

That's why Falcon Heavy exists... besides, Atlas and Delta are retiring, they cannot get new launches anyway.

> Other than that, they have their proven track record of decades of reliability.

The currently active version of Falcon 9, Block 5, has a 149/149 track record. Falcon Heavy is at 5/5. All these launches were made in the last 6 years, which is a much better indication of current performance than launches from 1990.

It was said to have happened before. Makes me wonder if the resurfacing is nonstop. It just keeps on oozing lava out or if they all go once every few million years. Or both.

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You think Bezos is going to SpaceX?

Amazon already bought every large rocket that's not SpaceX. Maybe they get a few Neutron launches.

Flying every two weeks is 25 launches per year. Let 10 of them be for the US government, then you can go through the Kuiper manifest in 2.5 years. "a couple of times a month" sounds even faster than 2 per month.

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