JWST Launches, Angara Fails, Octograbber Gets Into A Fight - Deep Space Update December 29th

The James Webb Surface Telescope became the James Webb Space Telescope as one of many launches this week. Russia, Japan, China and Europe all launched rockets. SpaceX brought it's 100th recovered booster back to port after what must have been a rough week at sea.
Comet Leonard is putting on an amazing show.
And No, NASA Didn't hire a bunch of priests to talk about alien life.
Comet Leonard Video from Stereo
SungrazerComets/s...
Booster 1069 Recovery images from
NASASpaceFlight.com
/ gregscott_photo - Including the Aerial shot on the thumbnail
/ julia_bergeron
/ astronaut_87
Starship test footage from NASASpaceFlight.com
Follow me on Twitter for more updates:
/ djsnm
I have a discord server where I regularly turn up:
/ discord
If you really like what I do you can support me directly through Patreon
/ scottmanley

[@zacklewis342]

You didn't mention that with these launches, the 1967 record of worldwide launches in a year (139) has been broken. The second golden age of spaceflight is happening now! Thanks for helping to document it for future nerds.

[@Mafuskas]

That's an awesome factoid. Thank you for posting it!

[@jmstudios457]

That's cool, I didn't know that. It really is insane we have so much cool stuff going online right now, Vulcan Centaur, SLS, Ariane 6, and hopefully Starship and New Glenn. Possible crewed moon missions in the next decade, possible surface outposts in the 2030s, maybe crewed interplanetary in the 2050s!

[@berryreading4809]

You mean the golden age of data collection! But of humans instead of science 🙄

[@Cruisey]

@@berryreading4809 I bet you're a hoot at parties. 😂

[@harbifm766766]

does not mean anything serious, mainly driven by China putting crap on orbit that is driven by bad Central commtie set targets by the China government , and by Starlink launches

[@harbl99]

James Webb Space Telescope deploys solar panel early. Well, yeah. You're going on a long trip, you wave goodbye. What a well-mannered space telescope.

[@mathewcherrystone9479]

One of the only things it did ahead of schedule ;)

[@DerekFischer]

@@mathewcherrystone9479 LMAO Thats why everybody freaked out

[@frederf3227]

What a polite Webb we weave when our goal is to perceive.

[@Eli65479]

what a polite telescope!

[@SebastianSchleussner]

@@frederf3227 /Walter Scott Manley 😎

[@theblackswan2373]

Watched JWST launch with my 14 year old daughter. She had insisted on staying up to watch at 3am. Great way to end the year.

[@kylehuntmaui]

I got up at 3am to watch too! Are you in Hawaii?

[@erikziak1249]

All the best to you and your daughter. I humbly write this comment as an appreciation of her interests as well as your support of them. Best wishes and a happy new year! Stay safe.

[@theblackswan2373]

@@kylehuntmaui Pacific standard time. I put the live feed on the big screen at around 2am and ran the commentary from NASA on a tablet. We Watched until the end of the live feed, a short time after final separation. Went to bed a little after 5am. My daughter slept most of the day….

[@olasek7972]

@@theblackswan2373 you are dedicated! I am also in PST but got up 10 min before launch

[@uladzimirdarozka3882]

My 9-year old wanted to watch the launch live, but I did not wake him up and told him the launch had been delayed due to bad weather (happens often) - just to make sure first the launch was successful :P then, turned on the live recording and got 1 hour free time till post-liftoff (:

[@screddot7074]

For civilization's reaction to alien life, the cartoon "The Far Side" has a caption of aliens saying "Take us to your leader" and the earthling reply, " um, you've come at a bad time".

[@daveseddon5227]

Yeah - now Angela Merkel has retired it does leave us in a bit of a pickle!

[@AnthemAnimation]

Naw, a more accurate comic would be the far side comic: cow tools

[@RS-ls7mm]

A more disappointing lot of politicians would be hard to imagine right now. Both sides in the US seem to represent the worst we have to offer.

[@ollie5046]

Good ol Gary Larson

[@leverman7517]

I guess it depends on how the aliens act, are they coming here for work? A better life? escape repression or persecution? Dinner? Bet they aren't coming to give away prizes for good behavior....

[@mikerichards6065]

That Angara launch in the cold and snow of Arctic Russia is absolutely breathtaking - shame it didn't end well.

[@e.s.6275]

It's not. Routine.

[@trololoev]

it going fine, Angara's cargo is failed

[@sopwerdna]

Just seeing "JWST" and "Fails" in the same line of text in the notification for this video gave me a heart attack !!!

[@dquirke2]

Came here to say the same thing 😂😂

[@idkanymore6897]

literally read "JWST Launches, Fails" and I freaked the hell out until i realised it was angara that failed, not jwst

[@ReinhardB100]

Old Russian saying says: "Rocketry is hard, but ground is harder!"

[@unvergebeneid]

5:40 wow, the snow being kicked up by that launch looks amazing!

[@kindlin]

Yeah, it's a huge cloud. Almost looks fake. I couldn't figure out what was happening, I thought it was excessive smoke or exhaust.

[@matthewsanetra]

I don't think that's snow, I think its steam generated by the exhaust and the water deluge

[@unvergebeneid]

@@matthewsanetra it looks whiter than other exhaust and there's a quality to it that makes me fairly certain that there's snow mixed into that plume. Basically it looks more like an avalanche than a normal exhaust cloud.

[@metaphysica9984]

@@matthewsanetra which in general is the same

[@redcoat4348]

Wow it’s been a while since I’ve seen the user penny lane commenting lol

[@archie4oz]

And that was the last flight of the 204 config HII-A (i.e. 4 SRBs). Only a few 202 config (2 SRB) flights before H3 will take over. Minor correction about the SRBs, they're built by IHI (Ishikawa-Harima Heavy Industries), however H-IIA did use to fly with Castors as well (2022/2024 configs), but those configs were discontinued after 2008. If you've ever seen a launch with them, it's kind of a fun watch because they didn't light the Castors until the rocket has cleared the tower!

[@yaghiyahbrenner8902]

Crazy fact the Ariane rocket that carried the JWST payload, its first successful v1 Ariane rocket mission was 1979 on the 25th of December as well! what a complimenting outcome.!

[@owensmith7530]

Ariane 1 and Ariane 5 have almost nothing in common.

[@yaghiyahbrenner8902]

Yes they do. Both successfully took off. Don't be a fool obviously they different generations that's not the point.

[@truthwarrior6919]

Ritualistic in nature you have no idea whats what...

[@owensmith7530]

@@yaghiyahbrenner8902 They have as little in common as the Saturn V and the Space Shuttle did.

[@yaghiyahbrenner8902]

@@owensmith7530 amen captain obvious!

[@logiconabstractions6596]

All that snow gives a lovely setting for a rocket launch. I think it's the 1st time I see one with that backdrop, find it absolutely gorgeous.

[@StYxXx]

The figures for the JWST launch are incredible. Such a high precision achieved by Ariane 😍

[@Mariano.Bernacki]

If the solar panel's deployment was either at a given time or when attitude and attitude rate constraints were met, then the "early" deployment is a nominal deployment.

[@abrahamlincoln9758]

technically correct is the best kind 😀👍

[@peetky8645]

lucky it didnt deploy before detachment

[@forloop7713]

@@peetky8645 which worried me too

[@TheSnivilous]

@@peetky8645 doesn't sound like there was any luck involved, it worked like it was supposed to and met deployment requirements at the beginning of it's deployment window

[@IudiciumInfernalum]

@@abrahamlincoln9758 Seems up to specs to me.

[@Gravel1331]

"The James Webb Surface Telescope became the James Webb Space Telescope..." I see what you did there :D

[@abrahamlincoln9758]

I can't help but want it to be called the James Woods Space Telescope. Been watching a lot of Family Guy lately.

[@brettatton]

As I open this link and view the great content I am already happy to report that this morning the Aft Momentum Damper has been deployed....later in the afternoon the sunshield covers were removed/retracted. Amazing progress! Go Webb!!!

[@tomwatts703]

I do like how your videos cover more than just 'SpaceX Musk SpaceX', thanks for helping to keep us all in the loop!

[@NavidIsANoob]

Exactly. American space news channels tend to be infatuated by Musk and SpaceX, but there's so much more happening in the world of space exploration.

[@TheFalrinn]

I'd make the argument that sci-fi, even the cases where the authors took the question of First Contact seriously, isn't a particularly useful means to determine how society would react. Any story is going to be biased towards the contact scenarios that make the best story, whereas a government analysis should focus on the most probable, if comparatively boring, contact scenarios. Personally I think the most likely contact scenario is simply one where we detect some sort of clearly artificial signal or structure out in space, but we don't have the practical means of 2-way communication on human timescales. That would be difficult to turn into a good story (though probably not impossible) so it's going to be underrepresented in sci-fi.

[@jmchez]

Completely agree. As the "Rule of Drama" trope states, "If the potential for conflict is visible, then it will never be passed over". Most sci-fi stories are not good indicators of real societal reactions.

[@stardolphin2]

Plus, of course, it's fiction. And *all* fiction, of *all* genres, always involves one or more people with one or more problems they're trying to solve. Without that, who will read or watch it? A 'problem-free' first contact is an uninteresting story...unless the *real* problem is something else, only peripherally related o the contact itself.

[@BoycottChinaa]

Alien

[@lignow9762]

The aliens are here, Just look at tic toc. They were once human now they are from the planet MORON and the moon woke.

[@johnnyhollis9977]

Another perspective is that any alien intelligent life will probably be waiting for humans to attain a reasonable alignment with their own before they consider us as worthy! With us just starting out it may be for them like trying to talk to a little dog wagging it's tail! 😉

[@DadJeff-jo7pm]

I watched the Launch livestreamed by NASA Spaceflight. Absolutely Wonderful Christmas present!! Finally. Astronauts need to watch Starship Troopers, and Independence Day, and suchlike. Beyter overprepared than caught with pants down. Expect the worst, hope for the best. And TY Scott for putting out these informative fun videos. Absolutely LOVE your accent!! Especially intro and outro.

[@hightowers5938]

Good day. I must say; the Construction of the Grid looks spectacular.

[@loub.2992]

To you and your family Scott, I hope you have a happy and healthy New Year. Thank you for bringing us all the space news. xx

[@JarrodFrates]

I got into bed at 2:00 AM on Christmas morning after getting everything set out for the kids, then up at 6:00 AM CT to watch the launch. I had tears from the successful launch, and it's only gotten better since then.

[@CPT_Nelson]

Same here, I was very emotional. God Speed James!

[@paulloveless9180]

Excuse me but what exactly do you mean "after getting everything set out for the kids ..."? I'm pretty sure this is what Santa does.

[@log4722]

I don't have any kids but I stayed up for the launch and ended up falling asleep on my mom's couch at family Christmas lol

[@HoLeeFuk317]

2am Geez, how much stuff did you get your kids?

[@gravelydon7072]

@@HoLeeFuk317 Some things can take a while to assemble.

[@P3x310]

I was slightly disappointed after reading about an Octograbber getting into a fight that it wasn't an actual brawl between bots for who gets to grab the booster first.

[@tkimaginestudio]

This is one of the best channels on KZbin. Thanks for your awesome videos!

[@robinstevenson6690]

Scott, you are such a delight! I always enjoy hearing your mellifluous, cheery voice with your lovely Scottish accent! Happy New Year!

[@mrplease66]

might be a failure, but that Angara launch is just about the most gorgeous thing I have seen in a while!

[@lukesalisbury6031]

The three body problem and the whole Remeberence of Earth’s past being one of the most prominent and recent interpretations of showing the reaction to discovering extraterrestrial life. Now that’s a series right there

[@carljohan9265]

The three body problem book and it's sequels are dumb imo. They're pessimistic in the extreme, and the "dark forest" fermi paradox solution is easily one of the weakest.

[@lukesalisbury6031]

@@carljohan9265 I’m not gonna disagree with that. The way the second book deals with the Fermi paradox is weak, but it is intresring. And the third book’s focus on light speed travel and escaping a “dark Forrest strike” ain’t it either. What is really good is the way society in the first book deals with the oncoming invasion. But yeah, Cixin is a total pessimist

[@carljohan9265]

@@lukesalisbury6031 One of the big reasons the dark forest idea doesn't work is because if a space fairing civilization did exist that wanted to kill of all other life in the galaxy (for some reason), they wouldn't even need to leave their home system. One dyson sphere (or dyson swarm as the correct term for it is) could power a certain weapon that could sterilize the entire galaxy without the need to even know where the targets are. And they could do this on a regular basis as well. But, there's no need to do that because space is extremely, stupidly large. No need to compete for land when you got space travel.

[@lukesalisbury6031]

@@carljohan9265 Of course, it’s not an accurate piece of science fiction but none of it is. I find the books entertaining and the parts about human sociology and cosmic sociology are interesting perspectives. The end of Death’s End makes no sense and I wish they’d done something else but atlas, not every swing is a home run.

[@HalNordmann]

@@carljohan9265 Plus, there is the "Muzzle Flash Effect" - even if you destroy a civilization, there is always another one which WILL destroy you. And they won't hesitate, since they just saw you commit something insane. In addition, the author of the Three Body Problem got even basic physics wrong - for example, if the aliens can mess around with dimensions, why can't they move their planet elsewhere? Not to mention the fact that Alpha Centauri isn't actually a trinary star, or that no gravitational phenomenon can suck an entire civilization off a planet.

[@geronimotudor3386]

A Webb site....long pause...love it man! Happy New Year Scott! Keep the great content rollin'

[@redstarr1]

Been waiting patiently for your video to drop since the JWST launch. Thank you!

[@danielburges8176]

I really enjoy these deep space updates - amazing how many rocket launches there are going on around the world!

[@andrewweller5119]

So many rocket launches at the moment. Reminds me of the rebel evacuation of Hoth when the empire popped out of Hyperspace too early.

[@abrahamlincoln9758]

Whoops. Choked another admiral from across the galaxy.

[@indigohammer5732]

Yeah. That's the first thing that sprang to mind.

[@Suresh8848m]

Happy Birthday, Scott. Nice video. Keep it up.

[@erikziak1249]

Just a short comment about how Scott manages to put all the interesting stuff into an easily digestible video. Thank you, fly safe and be safe. All the best to all of you in the coming year and beyond.

[@fiveoneecho]

I have to say, I was concerned at first when JWST deployed its solar array so early, but it was so cool to see it deploy at least one system. I would love to have some way of seeing the entire thing unfold throughout these next days….

[@joeskop]

Thank you Scott for all your work.

[@jubb1984]

Have a Really Good New Year Scott! Thanks for the updates! Looking forward to more!

[@weschilton]

Thanks for all of these videos, Scott and happy new year!

[@will2see]

11:08 - Nobody really expects that SN20 will survive the reentry. A huge success will be if it gets in orbit.

[@SebastianSchleussner]

Technically getting to orbit isn't planned (no insertion maneuvre, re-entry after

[@dancarey7204]

It will be a huge success if it clears the tower.

[@bergonius]

@@SebastianSchleussner Technically, it is an orbit, even if the craft won't be able to complete full orbit. It's an orbit with perigee in the upper atmosphere.

[@SebastianSchleussner]

@@bergonius It's a partial orbit, with the first part of the trajectory intersecting the ground, maybe not the second, even if there were no atmosphere, but the fact remains that reentry - even if everything goes exceedingly well - is considerably before one trip around the globe. I for one would be reluctant to call a craft completing < 1 orbit "in orbit". Do you have a source for that being common usage?

[@tomwatts703]

I thought the plan back in July was a full orbit and landing?

[@impguardwarhamer]

It's disappointing about Angara, although it's good that it was mostly a success. I know a lot of space fans don't seem to give it much credit but it's a very important step for post soviet russia as the first completely internally built launch vehicle, and it does have some advantages in production methods despite not being reusable.

[@jessepatten6502]

As a replacement for proton, it's also moving away from those toxic hypergolic propellants being used in the main launch vehicle

[@Maj_Kasul]

Happy new year. Love your videos . Thank you for wearing The Long Dark hoodie. A great game. 🚀 🐺 ❤️

[@kenhelmers2603]

Thanks for the updates Scott. I was very curious about the damage to the booster.

[@tcumming123]

The biggest problem at Boca Chica is the spaceX fans trampling through the nature preserve to get good viewing/camera angles. I know, I was one of the people doing the trampling. Seriously, the rockets falling from the sky are one-time events. People are causing more problems than falling rockets, noisy rockets, etc. The problem would be easy to mitigate. That's what's EA's are for anyway.

[@MrFzzt]

Thanks for a great year of knowledge, updates and laughs, Scott!

[@davidadams421]

A very unstated review of the JST launch. Expected more. All the best for the New Year, Scott.

[@caonabo2]

Happy new year Scott Manley!, from the Dominican Republic in the middle of the Caribbean

[@brettatton]

The solar panel deployment happened early because the Ariane 5 did such a good job delivering the observatory to space. If the burn had ended a bit earlier we'd have seen a longer wait for the attitude to trigger the deployment. Ariane 5 crushes it! The fuel JSWT does not have to expend during MCC maneuvers will be used to extend the mission.

[@TallinuTV]

To more than double the original expectation for mission lifespan, according to the report I saw! */fistpump*

[@Valery0p5]

The footage of the JWST deployment has been proudly offered by the Kenyan-Italian Malindi Tracking station ✌🏻

[@NavidIsANoob]

Very cool! Those guys must be proud.

[@webchanter315]

Thanks Mr Manley, have a great new year.

[@DavidEdwards9801]

Great content as always, look forward to much more in the new year.

[@fyisic]

James Webb is an amazing achievement of technology, however i really want to see orbital assembly of telescopes since it would allow crazy large telescopes. But i guess JWST is a step in the right direction.

[@amyshaw893]

I enjoy how the chinese rockets always make their own confetti to celebrate the launch. Is it bits of rocket or just sheets of ice from the cryogenics?

[@OldGamerNoob]

I was wondering this, too. They seem too uniform to be Ice sheets. Also, the move like they're big and thin and my impressionis that ice sheets that big would tend to break up more. (but I'm no expert)

[@MTobias]

Pretty eure that's ice. Loosing that much rocket would be pretty terrible.

[@Lucas12v]

@@MTobias I didn't think hypergolic fuel would create ice like that. Am i mistaken?

[@johnfairhurstReviews]

Given that the rocket got up OK I'd say it was just ice. But it looked like it was shaking itself to bits, didn't it?! 😃

[@MoonWeasel23]

It’s not ice, it’s actually insulation tiles that are falling off. I thought it was weird when I first saw it, but that’s just how the rocket is designed.

[@TFHxPESTILENCE]

You are one of my favorite humans, Scott! Fly safe always.

[@scottsimms5763]

Happy New Year Scott, look forward to lots more videos in 2022!

[@davidturner3552]

Footfall is a great novel about aliens discovering us. One of the plot lines is about a team of SciFi writers brought together to advise the government about the aliens. Evidently, SciFi writers think they would be great alien advisors : )

[@tgmccoy1556]

"Footfall' is one of my faves.

[@randomnickify]

Goverments are using Sf writers as advisors since ages, that's norm not only in space matters but also in industry, warfare, politics.

[@vladimirdyuzhev]

This channel is a great source of book recos. I bought no less than ten books based solely on comments here. Just bought Footfall, as well. Thanks!

[@JathTech]

I think the current situation is more likely to be communist China trying to prepare the battleground by scapegoating aliens for their actions.

[@indirakasiraju8814]

hello scott thanks for making the vid very informative

[@humperlumper62]

Cheers Scott for another informative vid…..happy new year to you 👍🏻

[@CraigLYoung]

Thanks for sharing and Happy New Year to you and your family.

[@luckyirvin]

God bless France, they know how to get shit done, Ariane!

[@larrybuzbee7344]

Do you think Rogozin is very angara about the failure?

[@buzzlightyearg3580]

Thanks Scott for the jwst updates glad to hear its within parameters of success

[@johnsmith-ky5qg]

Hi Scott. I often watch your vids, always informative, often humerous, yet I noticed I had not yet fed the algorithm on your behalf...liked and subbed.

[@temper44]

I was more stressed looking at the entire Angara package with boosters and everything travelling through the snow on a tiny little strip of rail. I know Russia has broad rails, but man that looked very shaky.

[@dai2dai246]

That's how they have always done it, because of the icbm heritage.

[@-danR]

Russian rockets look like something that even a 50's SF director would reject from the S/FX department as ridiculously unrealistic. "Guys, it's gotta _look_ like a _r o c k e t_ , c'mon!..."

[@ulti-mantis]

@@-danR The Pronton-M looks cool and "SFish", at least the first stage with the hexagonal booster arrangement

[@DarkRider2k3]

Scott I heard that China was upset with Starlink, saying that they've had to make emergency maneuvers around them for their space station. Something you might want to talk about?

[@mathewferstl7042]

@Milen (splicer) Parvanov cable internet will always be better than sat internet

[@mik3r0wave]

Great video as always. Well researched and grounded in context

[@brendanswart1205]

Brilliant as always .. Happy New Years and a prosperous '22 to you ..

[@defenderofpoodles5606]

Can you do a video explaining the panels cascading off the Long Marches when they launch?

[@Temstar04]

Those are insulation tiles, the are only intended to protect around the upper stage engines and payload fairing while the rocket is on the ground so immediately after launch the vibration is meant to shake them off. It's to do with hyperbolic fuel being sensitive to temperature swings, you can see in the Long March 7A launch footage it doesn't have them.

[@Markle2k]

@@Temstar04 It has nothing to do with hypergolic fuel being temperature sensitive. In fact, that is one of the main features of hypergols that keeps them being used on deep space missions, they have a very wide temperature range that doesn't need extra systems to keep them cool/liquid. You hit on what I think is the most likely explanation with vibration. Rockets are really frickin loud. That sound bouncing off the ground carries a lot of energy back up to the payload fairing. That echoing sound decreases with the fourth power of the altitude of the rocket (plus a little square exponent for the height of the payload fairing). Once they are above the tower, the power of that sound is really dropping off quickly. I have never seen or read an explanation of the tile drops from the Chinese. But I have seen some fairing testing videos and their fairings don't look to have sound insulation on the inside like a lot of western fairings do.

[@Temstar04]

@@Markle2k No I'm fairly sure it's due to temperature. The inland launch complexes where Long March 234 are launched can get very cold at night and straight hydrazine freezes at 2 degrees C and N2O4 at -11 degrees C. If you look up photos of the Chang'e 5 sample return capsule after it landed in the snow one of the things they immediately did was to put a thick form fitting jacket around the capsule and stick heating packs all over it to keep the fuel from freezing. Then the capsule was lifted by helicopter to somewhere safe to purge all the remaining fuel. Baikonur has similar problems, didn't Proton pass its initial static load test using tanker load of vodka instead of water for the same sort of reason, to avoid freezing?

[@_mysilentblue2227]

Great news that JWST saved fuel and will be able to last longer.

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

And that's because the Ariane 5 so perfectly inserted the JW into its orbit trajectory to L2 leaving less fuel needed end route for orbital corrections.

[@proberts34]

Happy New Year Scott and everyone!

[@glencmac]

Happy New Years Mr. Manley!!!!

[@joyl7842]

4:00 Holy cow that is a lot of stuff falling off that old Chinese rocket!

[@harbl99]

"That not problem. I fix. Come back two hour." The Chinese Space Agency need to employ more little old guys from Hong Kong running hole-in-the-wall repair shops. Maybe launch one or two on each rocket.

[@kevinvanhorn2193]

It's coming from the fairing, so how can it be ice? And he said this rocket uses hypergolic fuel.

[@joyl7842]

@@my3dviews no - it is not fueled with cryogenics.

[@joyl7842]

@@shlok975 no - the fuel is hypergolic, not cryogenic.

[@joyl7842]

@@kevinvanhorn2193 exactly why I thought it was very weird!

[@aBoogivogi]

Ironically the extensions of the SpaceX area in Boka Chica is propably solely benifical to the local ecosystem. Yes the rockets make a lot of noise, but they also keep large areas of land pretty much cleared of people over prolonged periods. Just look at Cape Caneveral. If NASA had not used it for it's launch purposes that place would have been built up with hotels, expensive homes and the like long ago. Now all the animals living there have a space where they are pretty much left alone with the exception of a few loud noises now and then.

[@DreadX10]

It is the same with military airfields. Once 'decommissioned', nature goes on a downhill slide....

[@HalNordmann]

BUT! Cape Caneveral wasn't a nature reserve before. BC is. So the operations at Cape set up a nature reserve, the ones at BC are destroying one. In addition, the species living in BC are specifically sensitive to noise - and the agressive "iterative design" (read: messing up basic engineering) by SpaceX isn't doing them any favor. Did you know that many of the endangered species perished when one of SpaceX's mess-ups started a grass fire?

[@janwitts2688]

This is my replacement for sky at night... Have a great new year...

[@davidbatchelor3264]

Thank you for all the wonderful and informative videos you post!! Could you talk a bit about why the Webb launch dove back down rather than just turning earlier?

[@hjalfi]

What's going to happen to the JWST upper stage? I guess that because the JWST had to fire its own engines to reach the L2 point, the upper stage doesn't quite have enough velocity to escape the Earth's SoI, so is it coming back? Or is it going to find one of those low-energy escape windows and go into a heliocentric orbit?

[@stefanomorandi7150]

JWST fired by itself because if ariane5 overshot the mission would be ruined (JW doesnt have engines on cold side so it cant burn retrograde). ariane sent webb directly to almost-L2 so i think upperstage will be in helio orbit

[@SebastianSchleussner]

I heard during the launch broadcast that the stage would wait until some distance from JWST was reached, then (aiming somewhere with zero risk of collision) fire its engine to put it beyond the L2 point, into a heliocentric orbit, yes.

[@hjalfi]

@@SebastianSchleussner Very sensible! And of course as it didn't need a circularisation burn, it would have a spare restart available. I did find a reference that it used a Snecma HM7B engine, but depending on who you ask this is capable of either zero, one or many restarts...

[@Markle2k]

@@SebastianSchleussner The Ariane 5 program manager Rudi Albat said the same in an interview recently. And then once it is in a safe orbit, all the tanks get vented to passivate it and make sure it stays in as few pieces as possible.

[@joe4366]

Any thoughts on the Chinese space station having to perform maneuvers to avoid two starlink sattelites?

[@yamilespanol4527]

for real?

[@lorisperfetto6021]

I think China complaining to the UN is ridiculous, but there is a need for international legislation about space

[@slcpunk2740]

"Move bitch get out the way!" "哦操!"

[@freespam9236]

I hoped they learned from the ESA and Starlink 44 PR disaster but my scepticism for that was deserved....

[@JamecBond]

@@freespam9236 it's the CCP they have learned nothing.

[@jons2447]

Thank you, Mr. Manley!

[@blackterminal]

Thanks for the video Scott

[@jesussolis595]

I’m very interested in reading the report of the experts of panels on what civilization would look like after meeting aliens. Is this available to the public? And if yes how can we find it?

[@texasyojimbo]

Why does it look like the Long March 4 rockets have stuff falling off of them? Since they are not cryogenic I can't imagine that it's ice.

[@spinav8r]

Maybe it's communist propaganda leaflets. Actually, some else said that those are insulation tiles, not for cryogenics, but to keep the hypergolic propellants in their proper temperature range.

[@frankstock2]

happy new year and thanks!

[@photohotjock]

Thank you so much I love your weekly updates ❤

[@dazuk1969]

I would like to see someone do a full cost breakdown of a re-usable Falcon 9 booster. All the marine recovery costs as highlighted be Beck, the refurbishment costs (those merlin's looked toast). In the real world, how much does it cost to do all the things necessary verses the cost of the actual booster with it's avionics, landing legs, and so on. I have a feeling there isn't the savings there we are lead to believe.

[@randomnickify]

It's cheapest launcher there, are you suggesting that Ellon is subsiding every launch from his own money? All hundreds of them?

[@daniellewis1789]

There are large fixed costs, but the marginal cost to use an asset they're already leasing isn't that bad. Since they have a sufficiently large flight rate, they're achieving savings.

[@DavidOfWhitehills]

Do it yourself and report back, with numbers and sources. You've got the internet and a big brain, why wait for "someone" to do it? Feelings ain't data.

[@hannesgroesslinger]

Elon once responded to that question on twitter, and he said they are saving money after the 3rd launch. Which in turn means after the 2nd launch they are not saving money yet. That means the recovery itself plus lost income due to reduced payload capability, still costs less money than building an expendable rocket. But adding all the extra hardware to the rocket, plus additional complications in manufacturing and QC in order achieve the longer life cycles, means that building the rocket in the first place costs almost as much as 2 expendable ones. That does not even include the hundreds of millions they had to invest upfront to develop that system in the first place. That probably took several dotzend re-launches before that had payed off. I'm sure it makes financial sense, otherwise they would have stopped doing it a long time ago. But it doesn't save as much money as most people think, otherwise everybody would be doing it.

[@DavidOfWhitehills]

@@hannesgroesslinger Everyone isn't doing it because everyone is way behind SpaceX. They are the first. What SpaceX is doing is new.

[@idjles]

A Japanese launch to geostationary orbit must burn a lot of delta v when approaching the equator.

[@railotaku]

Not much more then a launch from Cape Canaveral - The Japanese site is only 2 deg lat further North then Florida

[@dsdy1205]

Not necessarily. The inclination burn is usually done at apogee of GTO. At that point it's going less than 2 km/s, so the inclination burn delta-v is much lower than it would be for a LEO sat.

[@J7Handle]

Actually, no, in any case. The reason it doesn’t take a lot is that the plane change maneuver is done at apogee of GTO. Plane change maneuvers require less delta v the slower the orbital velocity, and the orbital velocity is very low at the apogee of a GTO. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I’m sure the necessary delta v is less than 1 km/s.

[@sergioortiz8219]

@@railotaku than, than, than

[@gravelydon7072]

@@railotaku Except Florida isn't just at 28.5°. The Japanese launch site is on one of their Southernmost Islands. I'm 3° further South than the Cape but still North of where rocket boosters were tested here in Florida.

[@TrickyClaw]

My kids (9 and 10) wanted to be woken up at 3:30 to watch this. Hopefully they remember this historic launch!

[@chefpat5838]

Happy new year Scott!

[@K1lostream]

NASA: So, priests, what do you think of aliens coming to earth? Priests: Those are the guys that abduct people, take them on board their ship and fiddle with them sexually, right? NASA: We are aware of some reports of that nature, yes. Priests: Great! Should take some of the heat off.

[@ilyachaplygin8573]

It would be cool to launch a hydrogene/oxygene rocket from Plesetsk! Rocket releases tens of tons of vapor in seconds and It immediately turns into ice and snow! Unfortunately, Russia has no such rockets and doesn't have any plans to design them.

[@andrewhomo2461]

Angara 5V will have hydrogen fuel.

[@zandvoort8616]

Scott, we daily updates from you on the jwst man!

[@muchthump]

Not sure if anyone mentioned it yet, but I absolutely LOVE the Long Dark. Nice hoodie! Been playing since it dropped on Kickstarter. Oh, how it has grown...

[@joyl7842]

I would love to hear your engineering and physics thoughts on how the fact that Starship being bolted to the test stand is affecting vibrations which are resulting in the tiles falling off. Can they even be compared to re-entry physics? I cannot imagine so. The stiffness and temperatures of the spacecraft must be vastly different in each case.

[@MoonWeasel23]

It’ll still be an issue during normal launch with a booster. Instead of being on a test stand it’ll be on the booster which still sends vibrations through the entire stack. On orbit the main issue will be thermal expansion and contraction due to the frigid temps you get during eclipse.

[@scottmanley]

The funny thing is, the dynamic air pressures involved with reentry are still smaller than those at MaxQ

[@illuminati.official]

A booster is always bolted to the launch pad for longer than this static fire before it gets released, so the problem doesn't go away. Can't afford to be losing insulation tiles during a live launch to orbit.

[@wizzyno1566]

@@scottmanley so its less but for much longer, thats why you get the heating?

[@joyl7842]

@@illuminati.official I suppose, but the fact that Starship sits on top of the booster should result in different forces to when it is bolted to the test stand on its own. The booster won't lose any tiles because it doesn't need any.

[@russellblake9850]

@ 4:20, the 2nd Chinese launch ... I understand (I think) the ice falling from the body of the rocket (frozen condensation on the outer walls of the liquid fuel tanks) ... but why "ice" falling from the nose fairing ? great post as ever ... "if it's nae scottish, it's crap"

[@mytube001]

All the pieces look very similar in size, and strangely square-ish. I don't think it's ice, but rather some form of protective cover designed to come off at launch. A bit like discarding sabots on high-speed projectiles.

[@jhdsfalsjhdfjashdkhvjfldld8301]

@@mytube001 I think they are insulation panels.

[@mytube001]

@@jhdsfalsjhdfjashdkhvjfldld8301 Yeah, sounds reasonable. The Chinese launch locations are deep inland, where it's probably icy cold this time of year. Most other countries have launch locations close to oceans where it's mild or warm.

[@illuminati.official]

It's definitely not ice since hypergolic propellants don't need cryogenic storage.

[@johngunderson5463]

The French Diamant rocket had a similar setup. Those were insulation panels.

[@charlesseymour1482]

Thanks for the international space coverage.

[@JohnReiher]

Happy New Years Scott!

[@glennmoore8464]

Given the excellent video images we get of many boosters and capsules these days I am surprised there are no cameras mounted on jwst to look at the structure whilst in orbit to see that everything is working as intended and how much the shields get damaged over time by space debris

[@MrEh5]

Adds weight and complexity for very little in return.

[@nutsackmania]

We get to see the telescope, which would be a PR boon

[@bobcastro9386]

Such cameras, power supplies, transmitters, etc would also be sources of heat and JWST wants to remain very cold.

[@Nielsblog]

I assume that all that debris falling of the Long March rockets during launch is nominal, but it looks quite startling nonetheless. Like it's gonna fly apart any moment.

[@arthurvilain7270]

It's just some built-up ice falling off the rocket. It happens with all launch vehicles that use cryogenic propellants. The skin of the fuel tank gets really cold once fueled, causing moisture from the air to solidify into thin sheets of ice.

[@TomLeg]

The super-cold fuel causes the rocket shell to be cold, and so water vapor in the air freezes out onto the rocket body. The launch causes the ice to flake off.

[@frankgulla2335]

Thanks for the holiday update. Please get us the latest on the JWST status.

[@Bystander333]

Love these updates Scott, precise, concise and trustworthy. Plenty of other channels doing more detail, but sometimes I just want the 10 min revision notes.

[@WestCoastMole]

Concise ? The presenter did his best to color the Angara Launch as a "failure" including omitting important information. The persei upper stage is a new platform for which this launch was a test. Angara has SUCCESSFULLY launched mass simulators into geosynchronous orbits using the Briz-M upper stage. The Russians also stated that there would be 3 Angara Launches in 2022. 2 Angara 1.2pp models and 1 Angara 5. Did that information appear anywhere in the video ?

[@SebastianSchleussner]

@@WestCoastMole I don't think that word means what you think it means. You are looking for "comprehensive", and the launch as a whole was a failure, even though the 1st stage did its job. Whether or not the Russians will stick with the 2022 A5 flight remains to be seen.

[@WestCoastMole]

@@SebastianSchleussner "Whether or not the Russians will stick with the 2022 A5 flight remains to be seen." ... Incorrect the Russians have stated they have already received the boosters for the next 3 missions and are proceeding. What failed is the persei upper stage. 2 of the 3 launches are Angara 1.2pp which don't use that booster. Second the Angara A5 launch can use a Briz-M upper stage if they don't feel confident using the persei as the upper stage. That configuration has not been announced and for all we know maybe scheduled as a Briz- upper stage. So why should any of the 2022 Launches be delayed?

[@SebastianSchleussner]

​@@WestCoastMole You are fighting windmills mate. Nether Scott or I said anything about the Angara 1.2 being affected. If the next A5 is planned to use a different upper stage, which is tested enough to be deemed reliable, sure, they can go ahead, though I doubt they can reconfigure at the drop of a hat "if they don't feel confident" about the Perseus now. If OTOH they mean to use the Perseus, then yes, any sane cautious engineering practice will lead them to first look closely into why this test failed before they attempt a production flight. Which is all the video observed: "They *might* have to do some follow-up on this given this failure." A weird choice of detail to protest against.

[@WestCoastMole]

@@SebastianSchleussner What I'm protesting is the lack of detail combined with a declaration that would lead the reader to believe the program suffered a major setback which it did not. Information was released over the last 36 hours that there is a 3rd (2nd new) upper stage (KVTK) for the A5 that was successfully ground tested. As to reconfiguring the the A5 Launch from Persei it seems the Russians are determined to phase out Briz-M. The A5 Launch is scheduled for March. That will be a launch of an AM Ekspress Communications Satellite I would expect that launch to be delayed 6 to 9 months then the Satellite will be launched with whatever fixes for Persei they come up with. The 2022 Launch Schedule is front loaded with launches in January, March and July. Nothing in the second half of the year.

[@SkulShurtugalTCG]

Astronauts on the Chinese Space Station also did a spacewalk this past week. It may not seem like a big deal but this is only their fourth ever or something like that.

[@Rob2]

At least now the Americans know that Ariane 5 is a great launching vehicle, despite the fact that it is European. (I saw a lot of doubt about it before the JWST launch)

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

All that doubt was from no nothings about the high quality of the Ariane 5's launch record. That kind of judgment about Arianespace also has a disgusting nationalist ring to it!!

[@yzhang9265]

Happy New Year Scott! Happy New Year everyone! @Scott, could you do a video on the technical aspect regarding 2 StarLink satellites changes their height and get too close to Chinese space station? Are they broken ones? Are they lowering their height uncontrolled? Are all out of service Starlink satellites will back to the Earth and burn out when re-enter? Many thanks

[@nofider1]

Hey Scott.... Happy new year :-)