Crewed SpaceX Launching Today

Tornado

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Anyone watching the live feed?


Funny when I heard the two guy's names....Doug & Bob! Who'da thought those two hosers would make this far ;) !!! All new meaning to their fav saying, "Take Off, Eh?" !!!


 
Kinda surreal watching today's countdown while the USA is dealing with all the rioting....
 
Beautiful launch, and cool landing of the booster on the SpaceX barge.
All good.
 
I'm not putting this spacecraft stuff down. I just wonder if anyone has ever seen this given the recent events. Just an interesting different perspective....

 
I'm not putting this spacecraft stuff down. I just wonder if anyone has ever seen this given the recent events. Just an interesting different perspective....


Yes I've seen it and even posted same viddy in some other thread here a long while ago. I've never agreed that there should be no space program while there is injustice/poverty etc. This same issue came up during the Apollo program and a common retort was the whole budget equates to something like less than one percent of the amount Americans spend on makeup cosmetics every year.
 
Beautiful launch, and cool landing of the booster on the SpaceX barge.
All good.
Did you actually see it land? On the live feed I watched, uplink video to satelite cut out just a second or two prior to touch down, then when it came back the money shot had already happened! Can hear the conspiracy loons getting all hot & bothered & worked up over fakery now!

BTW, Is there any effort to recover the second stage booster or is it a total loss component? It was shown following the crew module for a long time after separation.
 
Did you actually see it land? On the live feed I watched, uplink video to satelite cut out just a second or two prior to touch down, then when it came back the money shot had already happened! Can hear the conspiracy loons getting all hot & bothered & worked up over fakery now!

BTW, Is there any effort to recover the second stage booster or is it a total loss component? It was shown following the crew module for a long time after separation.

I believe the second stage is considered a loss, AFAIK it is not equipped with the necessary (and very heavy) landing apparatus. Talk of balloons, parachutes etc... so still in development.
 
I believe the second stage is considered a loss, AFAIK it is not equipped with the necessary (and very heavy) landing apparatus. Talk of balloons, parachutes etc... so still in development.
I seem to recall something about the extra altitude & velocity it gets to making it impossible to perform re-entry without a heat shield etc. Makes sense.
 
Yeah, that's correct.
At second stage shutdown, and separation from the Dragon capsule, second stage is traveling close to orbital velocity.
Reentry would require a heat shield to avoid incineration., but even at that, recovering the booster stage for reuse is a huge
improvement in space launch technology.

NASA has been working on a SSTO - Single Stage to Orbit for decades, since the Space Shuttle's retirement was inevitable.
The SSTO required materials light enough to provide a much better mass ratio between launch mass and final orbital mass.
The Lockheed/Martin X-33 was one such vehicle designed to demonstrate the technologies of SSTO, but the project was abandoned due to technical problems. The biggest problem to building a structure light enough to reach orbit with one stage was to make light weight fuel tanks capable of sustaining the loads experienced during launch. Lockheed was working with composite materials for fuel tanks but test failures convinced them that the technology just wasn't ready yet. Project was cancelled in 2001, but a few years later, the fuel tank issues were resolved, so we may see something like the X-33 in the future.

Link to X-33 project description
Cool stuff.

 
The landing of the first stage on the floating pad is sureal.... when you watched Thunderbirds as a kid, never thought I would actually see it for real
 
The landing of the first stage on the floating pad is sureal.... when you watched Thunderbirds as a kid, never thought I would actually see it for real
Watch out for the bald guy trying to steal their 'secrets' :)
 
Just watched it on DVR.

VERY impressive.

Hard to compare what SpaceX did getting 2 men into Earth orbit to what NASA did getting 1 man into orbit, because SpaceX had ALL of NASAs research history to draw from. STILL, what a fantastic achievement by SpaceX, and we are BACK IN IT to get back to the Moon, then Mars... Congrats to one and all!

I sure hope this thread doesn't get political, then get deleted. I think we;re better than THAT...
 
A few years ago there was an astronaut who mentioned he was worried that many things are purchased 'cheapest quote'. When private companies do hazardous things, I am always more apprehensive. I used to be more or less in the business of working with high-tech materials and components. Aircraft and weapons are a step up from motor cars, and space shuttles are a step further again.
 
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Just watched it on DVR.

VERY impressive.

Hard to compare what SpaceX did getting 2 men into Earth orbit to what NASA did getting 1 man into orbit, because SpaceX had ALL of NASAs research history to draw from. STILL, what a fantastic achievement by SpaceX, and we are BACK IN IT to get back to the Moon, then Mars... Congrats to one and all!

I sure hope this thread doesn't get political, then get deleted. I think we;re better than THAT...

‘back’ ?... ;)
 
Yeah, that's correct.
At second stage shutdown, and separation from the Dragon capsule, second stage is traveling close to orbital velocity.
Reentry would require a heat shield to avoid incineration., but even at that, recovering the booster stage for reuse is a huge
improvement in space launch technology.

NASA has been working on a SSTO - Single Stage to Orbit for decades, since the Space Shuttle's retirement was inevitable.
The SSTO required materials light enough to provide a much better mass ratio between launch mass and final orbital mass.
The Lockheed/Martin X-33 was one such vehicle designed to demonstrate the technologies of SSTO, but the project was abandoned due to technical problems. The biggest problem to building a structure light enough to reach orbit with one stage was to make light weight fuel tanks capable of sustaining the loads experienced during launch. Lockheed was working with composite materials for fuel tanks but test failures convinced them that the technology just wasn't ready yet. Project was cancelled in 2001, but a few years later, the fuel tank issues were resolved, so we may see something like the X-33 in the future.

Link to X-33 project description
Cool stuff.


I guess in theory that second stage could re-enter & land if it carried enough fuel to slow it down sufficiently. But that would mean carrying a lot more fuel in not only that stage, but the 1st stage as well, just to get the whole lot off the pad.
Reminds me of when I was lad, wondering why they didn't use an airplane to lift the rocket to a reasonable altitude prior to firing....to save the huge amount of energy just to get it off the pad and clear of the launch gantry. Seems Virgin Galactic is now using this very concept, but their system is only aimed are sub-orbital flights I believe....for public joy rides.
 
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The landing of the first stage on the floating pad is sureal.... when you watched Thunderbirds as a kid, never thought I would actually see it for real

Musk said that conspiracy theorists were claiming that the Falcon booster sections didn't actually land. They claimed SpaceX just played the launch video backwards to make it appear to land. Plenty of crazies, and crackpots out there.
I remember watching the old 50's and 60's sci-fi space movies where the rockets landed tail first.
We laughed so hard cause we knew it was a rocket launch video played backwards cause that couldn't be done, it was impossible.
Well, no more.
 
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