SpaceX

[BOBOT]

They successfully launched their Falcon 9 rocket carrying 10 Iridium comm. satellites, returned the booster to a soft landing on a barge at sea, and deployed all 10 sats where they needed to be. We watched the whole thing on their webcast. So very cool. You can probably find it on spacex.com, or maybe Youtube.

Congrats to Elon Musk and his team.

 

[cathy63]

Good to know! DH drove up to Vandenberg to watch today's launch. He's not home yet, but I'm sure I'll hear every detail tonight.

 

[6miths]

Yes great work.

 

[broadway]

Amazing!

Congratulations to SpaceX.

 

[Chuckanut]

Great news!

 

[Starsky]

Very cool video from the first stage!

 

[tulak]

This is by far the best video of a SpaceX rocket return that I've seen. Even DW was impressed.

 

[audreyh1]

I looked online but couldn't find out when rocket launches are going to start out of Brownsville.

 

[rocketjockey]

I looked online but couldn't find out when rocket launches are going to start out of Brownsville.

Not for several years, pad construction not even started yet.

 

[Fermion]

Just watched SpaceX's 12th mission to the ISS. Perfect landing of 1st stage back on land. Dang that thing comes in fast. It hit apogee at I think 5000km/hr and 112km altitude and it was traveling some 3000km/hr while only a couple km above the ground on return. I think it was going over 500km/hr just 500m above the landing pad!

Then I watched the Falcon Heavy animation, which has 2/3 the lift of the Saturn V. This probably means it carries about as much though because the cargo back then was not carbon fiber and 5nm transistors but rather vacuum tube electronics. All three of the boosters on the Heavy will land back on earth.

SpaceX, why won't you go public on the stock market

 

[rocketjockey]

Just watched SpaceX's 12th mission to the ISS.

SpaceX, why won't you go public on the stock market

Because investors will not let Elon pump all the profits into more R&D and will expect quarterly results. He has said so himself many times. Going to Mars is the goal. The only goal. Everything else before then is laying the groundwork for it. Making money is not even on his radar other than the need to plow it back into Mars missions.

 

[Fermion]

Because investors will not let Elon pump all the profits into more R&D and will expect quarterly results. He has said so himself many times. Going to Mars is the goal. The only goal. Everything else before then is laying the groundwork for it. Making money is not even on his radar other than the need to plow it back into Mars missions.

Why can't investors let SpaceX grow like Amazon did/does. Rapid growth without really showing a lot of profits until the day they take over the world.

Elon probably could build an Enterprise, minus the warp core. He is already working on Data with his OpenAI thingy.

 

[Koolau]

Great to see the recycling. Has to make it much less expensive and (hopefully) less space junk as well.

 

[Chuckanut]

Falcon Heavy is going to be an interesting launch. Lots of fireworks, one way or the other.

My guess is that they will learn a lot about strapping three boosters together. Musk has already said they can't fully test it on the ground. Murphy's Law is primed and ready. IIRC, five Falcon 9 boosters failed their landing attempt, but each time they learned a bit more. Today, they make it look easy.

Of course, if the FH does fail for any reason the Press will be shouting about the FAILURE!! for days. Those guys never learn.

 

[Senator]

I saw a SpaceX rocket launch last January 2017. It was a nighttime launch, which was real cool. We were at the 2.5M station, as close as you can get.

https://youtu.be/281EpepD1Jk

 

[Fermion]

Where is the first Falcon Heavy launch taking place in November? That would almost be worth a trip just to see. I would think you might need to be a bit more distant for that one Senator. If the middle booster were to blow, the side boosters might shoot out in any direction.

Hmm...I hate airplane flights now but it might be worth it...

 

[rocketjockey]

Of course, if the FH does fail for any reason the Press will be shouting about the FAILURE!! for days. Those guys never learn.

And THAT is why Elon will not go public. You take a technical risk and it doesn't work out. Uninformed media (and public) goes bananas, stock tanks. But nothing fundamentally changes.

 

[rocketjockey]

Where is the first Falcon Heavy launch taking place in November? That would almost be worth a trip just to see. I would think you might need to be a bit more distant for that one Senator. If the middle booster were to blow, the side boosters might shoot out in any direction.

Hmm...I hate airplane flights now but it might be worth it...

KSC/CCAFS SLC-39A. (Florida)

 

[Chuckanut]

And THAT is why Elon will not go public. You take a technical risk and it doesn't work out. Uninformed media (and public) goes bananas, stock tanks. But nothing fundamentally changes.

Agreed.

I suspect that the average IQ and knowledge base of a the least sharp SpaceX engineer far exceeds that of almost anybody in the Press.

IIRC, Mr. Musk has stated that at some future time he might give up control of Tesla and Solar City, but he intended to keep SpaceX. Elon of reminds me of a somewhat older version of Tom Swift.

https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Swift-Hi...UTF8&qid=1502812186&sr=1-5&keywords=Tom+Swift