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SpaceX lands rocket at sea second time after satellite launch

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Re: SpaceX lands rocket at sea second time after satellite launch

#51

Post by oska »

gallonofmilk wrote: post #47
neals wrote: post #28

I always try to watch the webcasts and I can't help but cringe so hard when they start chanting 'USA USA USA', every single time. What is up with that?

please explain why this is a bad thing? American industry pushing the envelope and the people doing it aren't allowed to have pride?

It's a tribal chant, which is a bit different to having pride.

Obviously the SpaceX staff can do whatever they want when they're celebrating a successful launch and landing. But all non-Americans who are watching and also feeling a lot of pride in what the company has achieved instantly feel alienated when the chant gets going because it's exclusionary. Whether the staff care about this alienation is another matter, but it's real. If you browse the /r/spacex subreddit you constantly see comments about the chant whenever it happens. And that is a community made up of almost total SpaceX supporters.

To give maybe a shallow analogy, it's like a group of men achieved something and then celebrated by chanting “Men, Men, Men!”.

Re: SpaceX lands rocket at sea second time after satellite launch

#52

Post by vidarh »

adventured wrote: post #45
Luc wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's something else, a cultural quirk among Americans.

No it's not. The French, British and Italians for example all have extreme amounts of nationalistic pride and show it throughout their economies, the pride they hold regarding their history and culture. Scandinavia is very proud of its broadly tremendous standard of living and their well run welfare states, etc. - and Scandinavians are never shy about bragging about it online in my observation, you can hardly get awa…

But it is the chant we are talking about. I can't think of anywhere else I've been where someone starting to chant the country's name in response to the actions of a single company wouldn't lead to embarrassed looks and face-palming from people around them.

This is not about there not being nationalism elsewhere, but about how US nationalism gets expressed in contexts that is not seen as representative of the nation elsewhere. This doesn't mean nationalism elsewhere is weaker - just that there are cultural quirks to how it gets expressed, and what actions are seen as representing something of the nation.

E.g. most places I've worked I'd expect quite a few people would be offended if you started shouting the country name instead of e.g. the company name as taking away glory for the teams achievements.

But in general chanting is perhaps rarer in many European countries outside of sports arrangements. I can't remember a single big work-related success where anyone started chanting anything. Cheering and clapping and popping champagne, sure, but not chanting. I think most places the latter would be seen as tacky more than anything. So the cultural quirk might be more about the level of exuberance considered appropriate in the workplace.

Re: SpaceX lands rocket at sea second time after satellite launch

#53

Post by [deleted] »

adventured wrote: post #45
Luc wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's something else, a cultural quirk among Americans.

No it's not. The French, British and Italians for example all have extreme amounts of nationalistic pride and show it throughout their economies, the pride they hold regarding their history and culture. Scandinavia is very proud of its broadly tremendous standard of living and their well run welfare states, etc. - and Scandinavians are never shy about bragging about it online in my observation, you can hardly get awa…

[deleted]

Re: SpaceX lands rocket at sea second time after satellite launch

#54

Post by downandout »

kirrent wrote: post #7

For those wondering, this isn't a simple repeat of CRS8 which landed on a drone ship about a month ago. CRS8 was a mission to low earth orbit which left the first stage with plenty of fuel to effect a landing. The landing was made as slow as possible and limited only by how low a single engine could be throttled. The re-entry burn which slows the rocket down before the landing burn was also more agressive. This missi…

From the video it looks like it lands on a ship in rough seas and they do nothing to secure it. Won't it just fall over if the seas are rough enough, and if so, why don't they have some sort of robotic system that locks it down tight the moment it lands?

Re: SpaceX lands rocket at sea second time after satellite launch

#55

Post by neals »

gallonofmilk wrote: post #47
neals wrote: post #28

I always try to watch the webcasts and I can't help but cringe so hard when they start chanting 'USA USA USA', every single time. What is up with that?

please explain why this is a bad thing? American industry pushing the envelope and the people doing it aren't allowed to have pride?

Because it makes the whole think look like a Trump rally. Have some class, show some dignity.

Re: SpaceX lands rocket at sea second time after satellite launch

#56

Post by willyt »

gallonofmilk wrote: post #47
neals wrote: post #28

I always try to watch the webcasts and I can't help but cringe so hard when they start chanting 'USA USA USA', every single time. What is up with that?

please explain why this is a bad thing? American industry pushing the envelope and the people doing it aren't allowed to have pride?

It's a culture clash, in Britain the only time you would be in a room full of people chanting like that is either a football match or a far right gathering.

For us, and possibly other European countries, that kind of patriotic expression is taboo because it's associated with football hooliganism and extreme right wing politics. I suppose there are certain circumstances where you might sing 'God save the queen' in some kind of particularly old fashioned formal ceremony but it would never happen spontaneously and makes plenty of people feel a bit awkward. Out of all my friends and family I can think of perhaps one or two people that would even know the words.

Re: SpaceX lands rocket at sea second time after satellite launch

#57

Post by robin_reala »

downandout wrote: post #54
kirrent wrote: post #7

For those wondering, this isn't a simple repeat of CRS8 which landed on a drone ship about a month ago. CRS8 was a mission to low earth orbit which left the first stage with plenty of fuel to effect a landing. The landing was made as slow as possible and limited only by how low a single engine could be throttled. The re-entry burn which slows the rocket down before the landing burn was also more agressive. This missi…

From the video it looks like it lands on a ship in rough seas and they do nothing to secure it. Won't it just fall over if the seas are rough enough, and if so, why don't they have some sort of robotic system that locks it down tight the moment it lands?

All of the centre of gravity is low down with the engines. The rest is basically just a thin empty tube.

Re: SpaceX lands rocket at sea second time after satellite launch

#58

Post by simonh »

robin_reala wrote: post #57
downandout wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the video it looks like it lands on a ship in rough seas and they do nothing to secure it. Won't it just fall over if the seas are rough enough, and if so, why don't they have some sort of robotic system that locks it down tight the moment it lands?

All of the centre of gravity is low down with the engines. The rest is basically just a thin empty tube.

Plus the platform has four computer controlled engines on basically universal joints to stabilize it. A crew then boards the barge and puts 'shoes' over the landing legs then welds them to the deck.

Re: SpaceX lands rocket at sea second time after satellite launch

#59

Post by bkor »

robin_reala wrote: post #57
downandout wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the video it looks like it lands on a ship in rough seas and they do nothing to secure it. Won't it just fall over if the seas are rough enough, and if so, why don't they have some sort of robotic system that locks it down tight the moment it lands?

All of the centre of gravity is low down with the engines. The rest is basically just a thin empty tube.

To add to above: In the previous barge landing they did weld the landing legs to the barge using some kind of bracket. But they discovered that the centre of gravity is low enough to not need any welding. During the previous attempt the sea was heavier than this time.

Maybe they still weld it this time, but that is done by having someone go to the barge and do it.

Re: SpaceX lands rocket at sea second time after satellite launch

#60

Post by DanBC »

adventured wrote: post #45
Luc wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's something else, a cultural quirk among Americans.

No it's not. The French, British and Italians for example all have extreme amounts of nationalistic pride and show it throughout their economies, the pride they hold regarding their history and culture. Scandinavia is very proud of its broadly tremendous standard of living and their well run welfare states, etc. - and Scandinavians are never shy about bragging about it online in my observation, you can hardly get awa…

When someone flies the England flag the assumption most people make is that the person is far right racist football yob.

I have to constantly guard against this bit of bias - "no, DanBC, they might not be a drunken lout".

It's a bit different during soccer world cup or european cup.

Very few people fly the Union flag.

And chanting: no-one chants unless they're at a sports match.

Chants just feel weird.

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