SpaceX loses its third Starship prototype during a cryogenic test
Link: https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/spacex-loses-its-third-starship-prototype-during-a-cryogenic-test/
SpaceX workers in South Texas loaded the third full-scale Starship prototype—SN3—onto a test stand at the company’s Boca Chica launch site. On Wednesday night, they pressure-tested the vehicle at ambient temperature with nitrogen, and SN3 performed fine.
Last Thursday night SpaceX began cryo-testing the vehicle, which means it was loaded again with nitrogen, but this time it was chilled to flight-like temperatures and put under flight-like pressures. Unfortunately, a little after 2am local time, SN3 failed and began to collapse on top of itself. It appeared as if the vehicle may have lost pressurization and become top-heavy.
Shortly after the failure, SpaceX’s founder and chief engineer, Elon Musk, said on Twitter, “We will see what data review says in the morning, but this may have been a test configuration mistake.”
Here’s a recap of SpaceX’s efforts to test full-size Starships to date:
Starship Mk1: Construction began in December, 2018. Failed during pressure test in November, 2019.
Starship SN1: Construction began in October, 2019. Failed during a pressure test on Feb. 28.
Starship SN2: Construction began in Feb., 2020. After SN1 failure, was converted into a test bed for thrust puck at base of rocket. Passed test on March 8, and was retired.
Starship SN3: Construction began in March, 2020. Cryogenic test failure on April 3.
Starship SN4: Construction began in March, 2020. Testing begins later this month?
‘Aliens’ actor Jay Benedict dead at 68 due to coronavirus complications
Link: https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/aliens-jay-benedict-dead-68-coronavirus
Link: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0070779/
Many may remember Benedict from the 1986 hit film “Aliens,” where he worked alongside Carrie Henn and Sigourney Weaver.
Many may remember Benedict from the 1986 hit film “Aliens,” where he worked alongside Carrie Henn and Sigourney Weaver.
In addition to his work on stage and screen, Benedict lent his voice to a number of documentaries as well as video games over the years including “Miami Vice,” “Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon” and “MindJack.”
AN ALIEN COMET DROPPED SOMETHING OFF ON ITS WAY OUT OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Link: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/an-alien-comet-dropped-something-off-on-its-way-out-of-the-solar-system
What with everything going on in the world at the moment you might be forgiven if you’ve forgotten about something going on well outside it: A comet from another star is blasting through our cosmic neighborhood right now.
Discovered in 2019 by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, follow-up observations quickly showed that this comet was moving far, far too quickly to be bound gravitationally to the Sun. The most reasonable explanation is that it came from another star (though which one exactly is unclear), a true interstellar visitor.
The weird thing about the comet — called 2I/Borisov — is how weird it isn’t: If it weren’t for its ridiculous velocity and trajectory, it would look just like any everyday comet from our own solar system. As it got close to the Sun the warmth heated the comet up, and the ice on and in it started to vaporize. Like locally sourced comets do, it emitted water, carbon monoxide, CN, and C2. Size estimates initially put it at a few kilometers across, but subsequent images show it’s a lot smaller, probably half a kilometer in diameter.
Everything about it looked… normal. Even in Hubble images taken on 23 March 2020, just a couple of weeks ago, everything looked copacetic.
But then images taken on 28 March showed something had changed during the intervening few days: The comet had split in two!
Is this an alien spaceship dropping off a shuttle as a prelude to invasion? Yeah, probably not*. In fact, if anything, this shows that this interstellar iceball really is just like our own solar system comets, because this sort of thing happens all the time.
Show Stuff
Join the fan chat on Discord!
Link: https://discord.gg/FupzWf
The Dark Horde Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-dark-horde
The Dark Horde, LLC – http://www.thedarkhorde.com
Twitter @DarkHorde or https://twitter.com/HordeDark
Support the podcast and shop @ http://shopthedarkhorde.com
UBR Truth Seekers Facebook
Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/216706068856746
UFO Buster Radio: https://www.facebook.com/UFOBusterRadio
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggl8-aPBDo7wXJQ43TiluA
To contact Manny: [email protected], or on Twitter @ufobusterradio
Call the show anytime at (972) 290-1329 and leave us a message with your point of view, UFO sighting, and ghostly experiences or join the discussion on www.ufobusterradio.com
For Skype Users: bosscrawler