SpaceX - Tests, Launches, Developments

litz · Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:22 pm

SpaceX stream is LIVE!

Tugger · Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:23 pm

This is getting exciting! AND NOTHING IS HAPPENING YET!! :bouncy:

Still have to make it to T-0:00 so until then I need to hold my excitement in check.

Watching and waiting.....

Tugg

Tugger · Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:35 pm

It's like its the Super Bowl (trademark of the NFL) for geeks!

Tugg

Jayafe · Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:53 pm

There we go, T-1 !!

Stitch · Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:56 pm

The twin boosters landing together was amazing.

And the shots of the roadster and "pilot" in space...

Sooner787 · Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:59 pm

WOW! Never heard rock music during any shuttle launches LOL

United787 · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:02 pm

Amazing! The two boosters landing together brought instant tears to my eyes... and I don't even follow this stuff!

Phosphorus · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:02 pm

and two booster cores seem to have successfully landed.
I don't believe my eyes. It shouldn't be possible, but it's happening.

flyingturtle · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:05 pm

Wonderful. I feel so happy!

David

ITMercure · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:06 pm

This picture of the roadster and spaceman, with earth as a background, sure will make history... and feature in tomorrow's newspapers!

Stitch · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:06 pm

Sooner787 wrote:
So is Spaceman and the roadster on their way to Mars?

It will have a Mars crossing elliptical orbit around the Sun.

Tugger · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:06 pm

GulfstreamG650 · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:06 pm

Did the center core land safely? The video feed was lost.

Amazing all around, really inspiring.

Sooner787 · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:08 pm

Forgive me, I haven't been following the lead up to this mission.

So is Spaceman and the roadster on their way to Mars?

HAL · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:09 pm

Sooner787 wrote:
Forgive me, I haven't been following the lead up to this mission.

So is Spaceman and the roadster on their way to Mars?

The booster is in a parking orbit around the Earth. It will startup again in a few minutes to boost out of the Earth's gravity.

HAL

GDB · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:11 pm

Truly incredible, I'll admit to shouting 'fucking hell!' as FH seemed to lift off and clear the tower so fast.
All the nerve wracking bits cleared so rapidly too To almost pure entertainment value with those booster landings.
Nice touch with the soundtrack, to quote a line from one of Bowie's inspirations then collaborator, Lou Reed, 'it's a beginning, of a new age'.

SeJoWa · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:12 pm

Wow.
27 rocket engines burning into history.
Star Man is in space, ready for his one billion year ride.
And the amazing sight of two Dragon first stages landing simultaneously, looking like a busy spaceport from one thousand years in the future.

What a day for the SpaceX crew and the the future of humanity's explorations beyond our very own gravity well!

litz · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:14 pm

Haven't seen any word on the center booster yet ...

Sooner787 · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:17 pm

Congrats to all the Space X workers who made this day possible.

Now Elon needs help getting his Tesla production sorted out, any volunteers ? LOL

litz · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:37 pm

Gingersnap · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:46 pm

Hearing the core landed in the sea less than 50 meters from the drone ship.

flyingturtle · Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:51 pm

RIP, Core.

At least your brothers made it.

JetBuddy · Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:09 pm

What an achievement! That was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Especially the two boosters landing back synchronous. Huge congrats to SpaceX!

Flighty · Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:10 pm

The footage of other boosters landing on their pads was mind-blowing! I shouted swear words! Working at home fortunately.

litz · Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:14 pm

Two out of three, and sending a friggin CAR to Mars ain't bad.

Absolutely stunning stuff. It's truly science fiction in real life.

twincommander · Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:27 pm

SpaceX is live streaming Starman and earth views right now.

Flat Earthers, eat your heart out.

MatthewDB · Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:30 pm

How long will the Starman camera and transmission hold out? Did the put solar panels on it or will the batteries die soon?

flyingturtle · Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:33 pm

MatthewDB wrote:
How long will the Starman camera and transmission hold out? Did the put solar panels on it or will the batteries die soon?

For at least some hours, still.

No solar panels AFAIK.

I guess the Arecibo telescope could track the Tesla Roadster. There's a real risk Starman could get booked for speeding.

David

cumulushumilis · Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:57 pm

Tesla wins the the prize for fastest sports car ever!!

KarelXWB · Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:01 pm

HAL wrote:
Sooner787 wrote:
Forgive me, I haven't been following the lead up to this mission.

So is Spaceman and the roadster on their way to Mars?

The booster is in a parking orbit around the Earth. It will startup again in a few minutes to boost out of the Earth's gravity.

HAL

A few minutes? Make that 6 hours. It takes time before the second stage reaches transfer orbit.

So in a few hours, there will be one final second stage burn. If it fails, the Tesla car will eventually fall back to Earth.

KarelXWB · Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:16 pm

Gingersnap wrote:
Hearing the core landed in the sea less than 50 meters from the drone ship.

That's fine, Falcon boosters can float

cumulushumilis · Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:22 pm

flyingturtle wrote:
MatthewDB wrote:
How long will the Starman camera and transmission hold out? Did the put solar panels on it or will the batteries die soon?

For at least some hours, still.

No solar panels AFAIK.

I guess the Arecibo telescope could track the Tesla Roadster. There's a real risk Starman could get booked for speeding.

David

Its got a big battery though, unless they stripped it out.

kjeld0d · Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:53 pm

KarelXWB wrote:
If it fails, the Tesla car will eventually fall back to Earth.

Nomadd · Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:59 pm

Sooner787 wrote:
Forgive me, I haven't been following the lead up to this mission.

So is Spaceman and the roadster on their way to Mars?

Nope. It will orbit the sun, going out as far as Mars' orbit and in as far as Earths, but it won't actually get near the planets any time soon.

Nomadd · Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:03 am

JetBuddy wrote:
KarelXWB wrote:
With the launch of Falcon Heavy scheduled for tomorrow, SpaceX will have an opportunity to test out the new space suit: a dummy driver wearing the suit can be seen in the car.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BezcvpzAgYI/

That's just so cool. I can imagine an alien civilization discovering this in solar orbit millions of years from now, and thinking "What in the world happened here?"

It will encounter an alien civilization, get upgraded to planet destroying capability, call it's self Tsla, and get sued for ripping off the movie theme that ripped off the SOG story.

Trololzilla · Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:12 am

Watching the live stream of the post-launch news conference, Musk has confirmed that the core did indeed not land safely. As far as I could hear (the audio quality was a bit meh to start out with), it ran out of propellant and hit the water at 300 MPH, taking out two of the drone ship's engines in the process.

The link to the live stream of the news conference, if anyone can catch it.

EDIT: Not sure if it ran out of propellant or not, but for sure only one of the three engines needed for landing ignited, causing the crash. Hopefully they can repair OCISLY and get enough data to know whether this was a one-time anomaly or a bigger concern.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16980 ... ed-landing

flyingturtle · Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:17 am

Trololzilla wrote:
and hit the water at 300 MPH, taking out two of the drone ship's engines in the process.

Lordy, I hope there are video tapes!

David

SeJoWa · Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:26 am

Elon Musk - total investment in FH probably more than half a billion. They thought of canceling it several times.

SeJoWa · Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:41 am

Came in late.
Elon Musk
- could see short hops with the spaceship part of BFR next year. [!!!]
- it's conceivable to see BFR flight to earth orbit in three to four years [and that would be capable of going to the moon too].
- all hands on deck for Crew Dragon, aiming for end of year use.

mxaxai · Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:59 am

cumulushumilis wrote:
flyingturtle wrote:
MatthewDB wrote:
How long will the Starman camera and transmission hold out? Did the put solar panels on it or will the batteries die soon?

For at least some hours, still.

No solar panels AFAIK.

I guess the Arecibo telescope could track the Tesla Roadster. There's a real risk Starman could get booked for speeding.

David

Its got a big battery though, unless they stripped it out.

Battery will last for about 12 hours.

AvObserver · Wed Feb 07, 2018 1:17 am

United787 wrote:
Amazing! The two boosters landing together brought instant tears to my eyes... and I don't even follow this stuff!

I had the same reaction; neither NASA or the Soviets/Russians ever accomplished that feat. Sorry about the core booster but Elon & Co. will find the glitch and fix it just as they did earlier flaws. All things considered, Falcon Heavy #1 was a spectacular success, especially given that even Musk himself only gave it a 50/50 shot at working, even hinting at the distinct possibility it could blow up on the pad! Thankfully that didn't happen, this is one for the history books, folks!

RobertPhoenix · Wed Feb 07, 2018 1:39 am

I wonder if we will hear about any issues that were revealed by the test, which didn't cause it to fail but do need to be fixed for the future.

United787 · Wed Feb 07, 2018 2:25 am

Will the car stay attached to that apparatus or does it separate at some point?

alberchico · Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:47 am

SeJoWa wrote:
Elon Musk - total investment in FH probably more than half a billion. They thought of canceling it several times.

Isn't that relatively cheap for a rocket of that size ???

Francoflier · Wed Feb 07, 2018 5:23 am

Have we had word on whether the second stage post-coasting phase burn has been successful? Is Starman on his long and lonely way around around the Sun?
This was one of the major goals for FH after all, as it would open the door to the military contracts it will likely need for survival.

And am I the only one who's worrying about the failure to recover the center core?
The whole of FH's business model lies on reusability. The advertised $90m launch cost will not hold much water otherwise...

Is it possible that the core is just re-entering too fast to use the current recovery technique without major redesign?
There are words that it might have run out of fuel which, for such a light payload (albeit on a high orbit), would cast doubt on its chances to make it back after lofting a 50T payload...
Others say some of the engines did not ignite, which could indicate that the higher re-entry speed is damaging them too much, and thus would engender large refurbishing costs even if recovered successfully?

Just nervously speculating here, but of all the potential hurdles FH had to clear, I wasn't expecting this one to be the one to make it trip.

Still, an amazing achievement for SpaceX again, and with amazing pictures to boot.
Congratulations to all involved.
:champagne:

Francoflier · Wed Feb 07, 2018 5:31 am

Ok, nevermind my first question. Musk confirmed that the third burn was successful... too successful in fact.

Apparently the second stage performed so well that Starman is now set on a much wider orbit than initially planned, one that will take it close to Ceres!
So much so that the scientist community is apparently starting to ask for precisions about the new orbit to evaluate the risks of it colliding with another planet (and possibly contamine it).

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16983 ... -musk-mars

Lol.

casinterest · Wed Feb 07, 2018 5:31 am

Francoflier wrote:
Have we had word on whether the second stage post-coasting phase burn has been successful? Is Starman on his long and lonely way around around the Sun?
This was one of the major goals for FH after all, as it would open the door to the military contracts it will likely need for survival.

And am I the only one who's worrying about the failure to recover the center core?
The whole of FH's business model lies on reusability. The advertised $90m launch cost will not hold much water otherwise...

Is it possible that the core is just re-entering too fast to use the current recovery technique without major redesign?
There are words that it might have run out of fuel which, for such a light payload (albeit on a high orbit), would cast doubt on its chances to make it back after lofting a 50T payload...
Others say some of the engines did not ignite, which could indicate that the higher re-entry speed is damaging them too much, and thus would engender large refurbishing costs even if recovered successfully?

Just nervously speculating here, but of all the potential hurdles FH had to clear, I wasn't expecting this one to be the one to make it trip.

Still, an amazing achievement for SpaceX again, and with amazing pictures to boot.
Congratulations to all involved.

Apparently it is headed towards the asteroid belt .......https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/961083704230674438

Going to knock a rock back to earth?

The center core was not going to be reused anyway as it was an older model.
However I still would like to know more. It seems like two of the 3 engines did not relight, but they may have been out of fuel. I guess time will tell.

Some astute folks pointed out that if you watch the screens in the back of the webcast , you can see the something crossing left to right at a diagonal across one of them. ( I think this may be the drone camera view we have seen before). It looks like the core hit hard and fast. One person slowed down the frames we did see, and indicates you can see a landing leg hitting the right side of the ship. More data will tell, but that core was higher and faster than any other core when it was spent. My guess is that the boost back and reentry burn used more fuel than expected, possibly due to winds, or other factors.

Their engineers will figure it out, and I would love to see the real crash video of the core.

All that said, this was amazing. After waiting so long to see the heavy fly, i was amazed at how effortless it went. Iconic images for the ages with the two boosters landing, and Starman floadtng across the earth in a Tesla.

Congratulations to all those at Spacex..

tommy1808 · Wed Feb 07, 2018 5:54 am

GDB wrote:
Truly incredible, I'll admit to shouting 'fucking hell!' as FH seemed to lift off and clear the tower so fast..

from watching it....

Mach 1 in ~60 seconds
Mach 2 in ~90 seconds
Mach 4 in ~120 seconds
Mach 8 in ~180 seconds

Looking at the OG-2 Mission that doesn´t look that much faster up to the one minute mark, but at 3 minutes there is almost 2000 mph difference.

And Spaceman is some awesome PR stunt and probably not even more expensive than the average dummy load.

best regards
Thomas

vikkyvik · Wed Feb 07, 2018 6:00 am

Francoflier wrote:
Ok, nevermind my first question. Musk confirmed that the third burn was successful... too successful in fact.

Apparently the second stage performed so well that Starman is now set on a much wider orbit than initially planned, one that will take it close to Ceres!
So much so that the scientist community is apparently starting to ask for precisions about the new orbit to evaluate the risks of it colliding with another planet (and possibly contamine it).

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16983 ... -musk-mars

Lol.

Nice - I saw part of that last burn low in the southeastern sky here in SoCal. Was out jogging and happened to glance to my right. Could barely make it out. Thought it might have been this but didn’t get confirmation until now.

KarelXWB · Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:49 am

Trajectory of the Roadster:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/961083704230674438

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