Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

SpaceX launch webcast: Orbcomm-2 Mission [video]

spacex.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 444 posts

Re: SpaceX launch webcast: Orbcomm-2 Mission [video]

#221

Post by weaksauce »

shpx wrote: post #217
weaksauce wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does definitely... though they really drop the ball after the main event is over at least from a perspective of the news. the news would beat this to death and then after 3 days stop covering it. This was maybe 5 min after the mission was a success that they cut the feed. milk it for all it's worth and show some of the other successes and failures from past missions. It definitely feels like the mission pr was han…

> show some of the other successes and failures from past missions And confuse people that happen to be tuning in at the wrong time? No thanks. This is a live stream not a news broadcast.

you can always have a big flashing banner that says "previously recorded" or "prior missions" or something like that.

Re: SpaceX launch webcast: Orbcomm-2 Mission [video]

#223

Post by Stratoscope »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #77
planckscnst wrote: post #58

"Congrats @SpaceX on landing Falcon's suborbital booster stage. Welcome to the club!" Oy... someone needs to tell Bezos it's a whole different scale than what he did. https://twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/679116636310360067

I have a vague feeling he's being snide to pay Elon back for those mildly snarky tweets back when Blue Origin landed their rocket. EDIT: Musk: "Congrats to Jeff Bezos and the BO team for achieving VTOL on their booster" Musk: "It is, however, important to clear up the difference between "space" and "orbit", as described well by https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/" http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/24/news/companies/elon-musk-jef…

-404: https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/

Re: SpaceX launch webcast: Orbcomm-2 Mission [video]

#224

Post by sixQuarks »

grkvlt wrote: post #124
jacquesm wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you underestimate the degree of difficulty between these two achievements. They are both very impressive but what SpaceX just did is many times more difficult than what Blue Origin did.

OK, explain how the landing of the SpaceX first stage was many times more difficult? They used different mechanisms, yes (suicide burn vs. hover-capable) and the purpose of the overall system was different, but they are both VTOL rockets. Blue Origin was first , and Bezos can quite rightly welcome SpaceX to 'the club' as the second company to achieve this, without being accused of being classless, surely?

Didn't SpaceX go around the entire earth before landing? I don't think Bezos'did

Re: SpaceX launch webcast: Orbcomm-2 Mission [video]

#225

Post by sxcurry »

grkvlt wrote: post #107
CamperBob2 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Welcome to the club"? Wow, that was classless. What Blue Origin did was impressive, but it was utterly trivial compared to what just happened with this flight.

Really, 'classless'? The achievement is landing a space-capable booster vertically, after an actual mission above 100km, which can then be reused. And, Blue Origin managed that first, no two ways about it. I think it's probably pretty classless to imply that what Blue Origin managed to do was 'trivial'. Just because SpaceX is the current hacker's favourite, doesn't mean you have to downplay everyone else. I think Mus…

I don't think you understand the big picture. Musk = Good, Everyone Else = Bad. The Musk sycophants are peeing their pants in excitement over this achievement, and you are just not allowed to question any part of it.

Re: SpaceX launch webcast: Orbcomm-2 Mission [video]

#226

Post by ohitsdom »

tempestn wrote: post #168

This is so exciting. Not quite a moon landing, but still feels like watching a significant moment in history. Does anyone know what specifically changed to allow a landing attempt on land as opposed to barge? Was it just that they gained enough confidence with the barges that they would at least be able to hit the target (and not crash into a building or something), or was some regulatory clearance received or someth…

The FAA did have to approve this. I'm assuming approval was much smoother since they demonstrated on the two barge attempts that they could successfully steer the rocket to a precise landing.

Re: SpaceX launch webcast: Orbcomm-2 Mission [video]

#227

Post by FiatLuxDave »

So, I've lived within earshot of the Cape since 1985, and I'm pretty used to hearing launches. Tonight, I had a new experience.

I was working on a signal distortion problem with a colleague when I heard the rumble of the launch. "Rocket just launched", I said. He was on Google chat with me and said, "It did?". He lives a few miles south of me and so he gets the sound waves a few seconds later ;).

A couple of minutes later I did a double-take. "THAT's a new sound!". I've heard rockets blow before, but I've never heard one come back to land.

Then I checked the internet to confirm what my ears had already told me.

Congrats to SpaceX and thank you for not landing it on my house!

Re: SpaceX launch webcast: Orbcomm-2 Mission [video]

#229

Post by stouset »

jacquesm wrote: post #62
cmsmith wrote: post #50

I must have missed it, but can anyone explain why Orbcomm wants 11 satellites in the same orbit? The stage 2 engine isn't firing in between letting the satellites go.

Leo, they are so low they don't cover a whole lot of territory. The oribits may be at slightly different altitudes simply because of the inertia of the second stage, I really should have monitored that altitude indicator during the releases, were they identical?

Whatever the second stage's inertia was, it was more or less identical to that of the satellites' (outside of the minimal thrust to separate the payload from the second stage).

I too am confused about the utility of launching 11 satellites into virtually the same orbit.

Re: SpaceX launch webcast: Orbcomm-2 Mission [video]

#230

Post by InclinedPlane »

grkvlt wrote: post #107
CamperBob2 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Welcome to the club"? Wow, that was classless. What Blue Origin did was impressive, but it was utterly trivial compared to what just happened with this flight.

Really, 'classless'? The achievement is landing a space-capable booster vertically, after an actual mission above 100km, which can then be reused. And, Blue Origin managed that first, no two ways about it. I think it's probably pretty classless to imply that what Blue Origin managed to do was 'trivial'. Just because SpaceX is the current hacker's favourite, doesn't mean you have to downplay everyone else. I think Mus…

http://i.imgur.com/g2VIKVC.jpg
Post reply on HN