A cracked window on the International Space Station? That's not good

Re: Guidelines - credit to SpaceX...

You mean like pointlessly hurling a roadster into space, just because he could? Or selling pointless flame throwers just because he could? Yup, he sure doesn't like waste! /sarc.

Re: Guidelines - credit to SpaceX...

Negligible at that point in the flight. As a matter of fact, the shuttle external fuel tank was deliberately jettisoned with enough unburned fuel for it to have completed the trip, AND left quite a few more miles on the shuttle's OMS into the bargain.

I think rather than returning boosters intact, fly them whole to orbit, then disassemble them there, returning only the really, really expensive and as it happens most rugged components. Engine assembly, computers, and the flight controls can all be bundled up behind a heatshield they for parachute recovery.

Keeping the tall, unstable, flimsy and relatively cheap tanks intact, and holding everything together, is the hardest part of the whole recovery process. Why not take the tanks all the way to space and use them for free cubage, pressurised construction shacks or just plain slice them up for raw materials.

The construction shack is a particularly useful idea. No need for fancy meteorite protection. It's just an empty space that can hold enough pressure to allow workers to work in flexible lightweight air suits. The shack itself would be filled nitrogen or argon for safety. If the shack does lose pressure, the workers are safe. Stuck in sumo suits, but safe.

Re: Guidelines - credit to SpaceX...

"Shedding the panels should result in fuel savings as well, right? No clue how much mass we're talking about, or how much fuel savings. I'd imagine that the vast majority is spent in the early stages of a launch, but still..."

One can't shed the panels too soon, as they are used to help the initial launch phase where the "air wall" in front of the rocket is very large.

Rockets go from 0-400 km/h within 30 secs and reach 1000 km/h within 60 secs, 2000 km/h after 90s and by 2 mins are at 4000 km/h. After 150 sec, 7000 km/h would be reached and at approx 3 mins, the fairings are dispensed with, by which time 8500 km/h would have been reached.

Without the fairings all that "air wall" pressure would damage the payload section* of the rocket.

* = which tends to be at the top (front) of the rocket.

Re: Guidelines - credit to SpaceX...

Shedding the panels should result in fuel savings as well, right?

In Kerbal Space Program people have done some tests which suggest that for optimum efficiency, you should shed them somewhere around 20km. Obviously it's not an accurate model of the real atmosphere but presumably the principle holds.

The down side is that if you shed your panels while still thrusting and still in atmosphere, you increase the risk of them impacting the rest of your space craft. Reasonably enough, NASA are a bit wary of items falling off and impacting, oh for example, a thermal protection tile.

Re: Cracked windscreen

"It's only 205 miles away, at times, but you have to be quick if you want to catch it. If you wait too long it could be several thousand miles away."

Re: Cracked windscreen

Ready to fill you up with his special resin?

Re: Surely...

"Freeman or James?"

Miles.