91–100 of 497 posts
Doing it one time is a technological leap. Doing it twice in such a small window of time is a logistical/programmatic leap.
Instead, coming in very hot, the rocket had to use three engines (instead of one) to slow for landing. The last time this was attempted, the first stage put a nice hole in the deck of the drone ship.
Seeing the rocket dead-center on the barge was quite a sight!
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Ugh, I completely agree. I'm Canadian and it's been a dream of mine for a long time to work for SpaceX. I'll gladly take a big paycut and live in bumfuck nowhere, California to do it (my wife is another story but that's a different discussion). But every time this USA chant comes up I just imagine what it would be like to be in that crowd and be absolutely exhilarated at each success - not just for the company but fo…
I think I read somewhere that they can only employ US citizens because of government and military contracts. So by definition everyone working there would be American anyway.
There are ways to obtain ITAR exceptions for non US Persons but the process is long and very expensive so it is only utilized rarely. I will say that SpaceX does employ a fair amount of Permanent Residents as well as a few non US Persons.
http://www.space.com/32811-spacex-rocket-landing-jcsat-14-la...
Hopefully we won't have the typical hacker news discussion about why the employees chant USA.
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Or not, because the next best alternative is much more expensive than SpaceX's current pricing. We're dealing with a corporation -- I'm not sure we can count of them to "pass on the savings".
Aren't they passing on the savings by bidding lower prices than their competitors?
Good work! I still think that they should have some grippers on the barge, or a net, ready to spring and grasp the rocket on landing, instead of carrying flimsy legs all the way to space and back.
Good work! I still think that they should have some grippers on the barge, or a net, ready to spring and grasp the rocket on landing, instead of carrying flimsy legs all the way to space and back.
What's notable about this attempt (as opposed to the last) is that the first stage rocket was traveling twice as fast (4x the energy to overcome on landing), and didn't have enough propellant to do a 'boostback' burn. Instead, coming in very hot, the rocket had to use three engines (instead of one) to slow for landing. The last time this was attempted, the first stage put a nice hole in the deck of the drone ship. Se…
Landing at 38:18mins https://youtu.be/L0bMeDj76ig#t=38m18s
Great info on the thrusters on the first stage at 19:37. https://youtu.be/L0bMeDj76ig#t=19m37s
Edit: Thank you and sorry about the time stamp link, I posted quickly from my phone. Hopefully it works on shortlinks.