Hello Space Enthusiasts!

For years, my passion for space exploration has driven me to dive deep into its wonders, and I’m thrilled to share that this passion has inspired a new project I’m working on with an incredible team.

We’re developing a game called KOSMOS, and our goal is to create the most realistic spaceflight simulation possible. The game will allow players to relive some of the greatest space missions in history — from the first steps on the Moon to modern missions like Artemis and beyond! We're putting a strong emphasis on realism to provide an authentic, immersive experience for all space lovers.

If this sounds intriguing, and you'd like to learn more or follow our journey, we’ve just launched a Discord server. It’s the perfect space (pun intended!) to chat, share ideas, and dive deeper into the project.

Here's the link to join our Discord: https://discord.gg/3qjM2je9vd

Looking forward to seeing you there and embarking on this cosmic adventure together!

https://preview.redd.it/42okpgzru7od1.jpg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=74144b6a4fc025a629cd8b7d96a84360b93fdd82

...we were sending astronauts up to space or to the moon left and right. Solved the near-disasterous Apollo 13 while in flight. All of this with slide rulers and very primitive (albeit durable) computing technology.

And five decades later, computers out the wazoo, technologies light years (so to speak) ahead and now...Starliner? What's the real story here?

I find this ongoing pattern of Long March 6 upperstages breaking into hundreds of pieces after each of the past few launches to be pretty worrisome, since it could significantly increase the odds, or initiation-timeline, of Kessler Syndrome, or at least a much worse orbital environment for quite a few years.

I saw that they launched another Long March 6 a couple days ago, so, given how the previous 3 launches of it went, I am pretty curious if this one did the same thing again or not.

Does anyone know, as of yet?

Also, I'm curious, what do you all think the deal is with this. Are they doing it on purpose? Is it actual 2nd stage explosions during passivation? Or just poorly designed insulation coming loose and flaking off the upperstages? I mean, they just put a space station into orbit in the past few years, and have been investing a huge amount of money in doing tons of launches and lots of payloads, so, it would be a... rather exotic strategy if they were somehow spending billions on all that as a giant cover-story to pretend they'd have no motivation to be doing it on purpose. So, I assume it's significantly more likely that it is unintentional.

That said... all 3 of the past 3?? Wtf are they doing...????

Stoke Space, headed up by a fellow named Andy Lapsa, is challenging SpaceX with a vehicle in R&D that aims to feature a returnable and reusable second stage.

They have already had a hardware test - a small "Hopper" style vehicle that got up and down. One of Stoke's funders is a unit of DoD, that is particularly interested in point-to-point flights. DoD has been bugging SpaceX about this for some time, but StarShip already has a lunar mission for NASA, as well as a Mars mission for itself. So one way of thinking of the Stoke vehicle (doesn't have a name yet, early days) is a sort of a lighter, simpler version of StarShip. It doesn't require massive scale, it just requires something that works.

I don't know anything about Lapsa, but if he is a sane and rational person without political hangups, I can see how that would be appealing to potential customers.

Was there previously a situation when there were astronauts on the space station without a shuttle to take them home if something happend?