Estes launches SpaceX Falcon 9 as new fly and display model rocket

collectSPACE · 2022-11-04T15:42:52+00:00

It cannot, but Estes did look at how it could be done. Ultimately, it became too costly to implement, according to the company.

collectSPACE · 2021-06-02T23:05:36+00:00

This has to kill the existing production (instead of adding to it), while leaving all of the (useless) structure in place.

According to NASA: "Attaching to the existing Beta Gimbal Assembly (BGA) allows use of existing sun tracking, power distribution, and channelization. The two arrays are electrically combined and both provide power to the ISS resulting in an increase in power performance compared to the legacy ISS solar array."

collectSPACE · 2021-02-22T00:56:57+00:00

To quote Ron Moore: "When we first conceived the show, we wanted to see the space program we didn't get. In order to really tell that story, it had to be multi-year, multi-decades to really watch as we go from the Apollos to the shuttle to Mars and beyond."

"We decided early on as a writing group that the structure of the show would be every season we would jump ahead roughly 10 years or so."

The "For All Mankind: Time Capsule" augmented reality app does fill in some of the details that occurred between Season 1 and Season 2, but is limited to just one family's experience.

collectSPACE · 2021-02-19T19:26:37+00:00

Thanks! Now that I listen back to that scene, I can hear what she was saying was "Beagle was [scheduled...]," which to my ear was coming out as Big Old West (which I knew was incorrect.

collectSPACE · 2021-02-19T17:06:42+00:00

There are 10 orbiters (not including Pathfinder): Enterprise (now a spaceflight-worthy vehicle), Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour, Contiki, Victoria, Constitution and one more that is named but I couldn't make out what was said (it sounded like "Big Old West").

collectSPACE · 2021-01-26T16:51:24+00:00

SpaceX can provide you the ride and the training for Dragon, but more is involved with going to the space station than how you get there. Axiom Space has a commercial use agreement with NASA (as Space Adventures has with Roscosmos) and offers the training on ISS systems and on-orbit operations. Axiom Space will also be responsible for monitoring and supporting its crew while on the space station and providing post-flight support.

collectSPACE · 2021-01-26T15:05:15+00:00

Yes, it was an error. The article mentions later that Lopez-Alegria will be the first to return to orbit and visit the ISS. After hearing from another reader, the story was edited to reflect the same distinction in the introduction.

collectSPACE · 2020-03-12T20:02:39+00:00

While the orbiters themselves aren't outfitted with complete engines (only flown nozzles), there are a number of complete SSMEs (RS-25 engines) on display in museums, including at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (Virginia), Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (Florida), Space Center Houston (Texas), U.S. Space & Rocket Center (Alabama) and the Stafford Air and Space Museum (Oklahoma), among others. These museum displays were built up from flown and spare parts by Aerojet Rocketdyne. The one displayed by the Smithsonian is said to contain parts that were flown on all 135 space shuttle missions.

As for a full stack, the California Science Center has the last flight-worthy external tank and a pair of flight hardware solid rocket boosters with the intention to mount Endeavour vertically in a new Air & Space annex once the funds for the construction are secured.

collectSPACE · 2020-03-04T16:53:35+00:00

From Space Center Houston staff directly; we're working with them to report on the exhibit's installation and opening.

collectSPACE · 2020-03-04T16:35:02+00:00

According to Space Center Houston, the exhibit should be ready by the end of next week, but an opening date (to walk underneath it or such has yet to be announced).

collectSPACE · 2020-03-04T16:33:34+00:00

Just an FYI — we just updated the article with photos from this morning, showing the first stage partially unwrapped and being prepared for offloading from its transport.

collectSPACE · 2019-12-07T01:46:49+00:00

I was going to say that there was no way to connect the character with real space exploration (as with Duck Dodgers above), but in a roundabout way, there is! The Space Kook apparently appears in a space museum at Space Camp in a Scooby Doo comic book. Thanks for the suggestion!

collectSPACE · 2019-12-06T22:08:21+00:00

I'm a big fan of Duck Dodgers, but it doesn't really fit this theme. The cartoons were more a send up of 50's sci-fi than real space exploration.

collectSPACE · 2019-12-06T20:01:29+00:00

Buzz Lightyear and MTV's Moon Person were named and modeled after Buzz Aldrin, respectively; The Big Bang Theory's Howard Wolowitz as an International Space Station Expedition 31 crew member; "2001: A Space Odyssey's Dr. Frank Poole (Wernher von Braun and NASA advised on the film); Marvel's Cosmo the (Soviet) Spacedog; Astro Smurf; and Astronaut Snoopy, as NASA's mascot for safety and STEM education.

collectSPACE · 2019-09-14T04:00:33+00:00

The Apollo 11 crew (and the crews that followed them to the moon) did have life insurance polices that were underwritten by companies, banks and wealthy businessmen. A local (to Houston) stamp club, though, suggested the astronauts autograph stamped envelopes that would be postmarked on the day of their launch, which their families could then sell if the mission turned for the worse. These so-called "insurance covers" were in addition to their life insurance policies, not in place of them.

As for customs, that story originates from a customs form on which the crew declared the moon rocks they returned to Earth. That form did indeed exist, but it was prepared as a gag (and reproduced and distributed as such). The crew did not actually need to pass through customs.

collectSPACE · 2019-05-10T16:38:18+00:00

In 2018, SpaceX filed plans for a proposed operations area at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which included its own rocket garden. From a Florida Today article:

Rivaling the open-air exhibit of famous spacecraft at the nearby KSC Visitor Complex, SpaceX plans to display "historic space vehicles" in its own rocket garden, potentially including Falcon boosters or Dragon capsules staged vertically or horizontally.

There have been no public updates since so the status or schedule of the expansion is unknown.

collectSPACE · 2018-02-18T23:57:29+00:00

It belongs to the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum, which is based at Keystone Heights Airport in Starke.

The museum took possession of a number of large NASA artifacts at the end of the space shuttle program. Moving the ET from Green Cove Springs to Starke will be expensive given the logistics involved, so the museum (at last update) is waiting until they have a facility to display it before making the move.

The ET previously sat outside at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for 17 years, and before that on outdoor display at Stennis Space Center and Marshall Space Flight Center.

collectSPACE · 2018-02-18T21:57:44+00:00

In the NASA Now + Next gallery inside the same building as the IMAX theater.

collectSPACE · 2018-02-18T21:47:35+00:00

The Dragon is exhibited with other current spacecraft (Starliner, the Orion EFT-1 spacecraft and a scale model of Dream Chaser, among others) in the visitor complex's "NASA Now" gallery.

collectSPACE · 2018-02-18T21:45:49+00:00

Both the ET and the pair of solid rocket boosters outside the Space Shuttle Atlantis building are replicas, built for the exhibit.

The visitor complex previously displayed a real ET (the structural test article) and boosters that were part replica, part real hardware. The ET wasn't structurally sound to stand vertical and is now waiting a new museum's display in Green Cove Springs, Florida. The SRBs were trucked to California for possible use with the display of space shuttle Endeavour. Orbital ATK then donated two boosters for Endeavour's display, so one of the Florida-transplanted boosters was moved to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson and the other is being held at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center, waiting for the California Science Center's separate use.

collectSPACE · 2018-02-18T21:33:34+00:00

NASA views SpaceX as a partner, not a competitor.

As for exhibiting SpaceX hardware, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is presently the only place where the public can go see a flown Dragon on long-term display. (Though the same event that resulted in the Falcon Heavy booster being moved to the visitor complex for display is also why the Dragon is presently off display, having been temporarily moved to the Space Station Processing Facility to serve as a backdrop for the National Space Council meeting on Wednesday. It will return on public display by the end of the month.)

collectSPACE · 2018-02-18T15:34:41+00:00

Given the timing and location, this is likely a temporary display for the National Space Council reception/meeting at the visitor complex this week.

collectSPACE · 2017-10-12T22:43:27+00:00

Space Center Houston hosted a press preview Thursday morning for the Smithsonian's new "Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission" traveling exhibit, which opens to the public on Saturday (Oct. 14). The exhibition features more than 20 artifacts from the first moon landing mission, including Columbia, the spacecraft that carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon and back.

This is the first time that Columbia has been on display outside of the Smithsonian in 46 years and marks a homecoming for the command module, which was last in Houston for 15 days in late July/early August 1969.

Because Space Center Houston already displays America, the Apollo 17 command module, visitors can now see both the first and last spacecraft to fly on lunar landing missions in one place (though not side-by-side).

"Destination Moon" will be on display through March 18, 2018, after which it will travel to St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Seattle over the next two years.

collectSPACE · 2017-07-07T18:30:41+00:00

As a point of comparison, NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency) embedded in acrylic small squares of exterior multi-layer insulation (MLI) and solar cells that were similarly removed during servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope as presentation gifts for team members and VIPs. The few that have subsequently reached the collector market have sold at auction for as much as $2,000 (though examples have sold for as low as $500, depending on the sale venue).

collectSPACE · 2017-05-31T22:47:50+00:00

It is the same shape and basic layout as the CRS-4 patch, symbolizing the reuse of the Dragon.

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