361–370 of 497 posts
Looks like the landing was perfectly centered on the barge this time as well. Does anyone know when they plan on reusing one of these recovered first stages?
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Aren't they passing on the savings by bidding lower prices than their competitors?
Only marginally - if none of their competitors can reuse a rocket then they only need to undercut the cost of a non-reusable rocket. The reward for innovation is that you get a temporary monopoly on that innovation and so can extract something very like a monopoly rent.
> P.S. Downvotes for this question? Really? There are always people on HN who love being contrarian and trying to diminish amazing things. It's like they hate seeing people excited for something and want to point out that this isn't that big of a deal. We're literally watching things happen for the first time ever, and this person's response is "what's so great about this?" while implying that people who are excited…
How do you even see downvotes?
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The first recovered stage, F9-021, has already been static fired and will likely end up as a monument outside of SpaceX HQ as they've filed an FAA request to do so. https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/searchAction.jsp?action... The second recovered rocket, F9-023, will be relaunched. It has already been static fired with no announced problems. Elon said it'd be a few months before a customer was announced, but the g…
Based on that FAA application it looks like someone will be losing their prime parking spot. In all seriousness though, I'm not sure how I feel about this monument. It's going to be really crammed next to the main building and I don't think it will have a very strong visual presence with a giant grey wall directly in the background. There isn't really a good vantage point for viewing either. I suppose it will look ok…
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I attended a conference from the head of the CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, ~ French NASA) in Paris a week ago and he talked about that. Ariane 6 is going to be built with a cost effective approach and trying to focus on market needs (3D printing of parts, reusability of the first stage, etc.) At first, concerning SpaceX, his group of experts told him that the design of the rocket wasn't going to work and…
Ariane 6 looks like it will be a fine rocket. Should be quite competitive if they can get it to market before, say, 2010, and if SpaceX's reusability efforts come to naught. Otherwise, I fear it'll be much too little, much t0o late.
(ITYM 2020)
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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.
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It's important to know the difference: https://i.imgur.com/r6oEhvS.jpg?1 The most interesting work is right in the intersection of the two disciplines, though. :)
xkcd needs to make one for that too https://xkcd.com/435/ I guess "purity" is just another word for "lack of immediately applied practicality"
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Love how the autobalance on the cameras cut almost everything to black so you could not see the rocket at first, until it emerged from the darkness.
That was an unexpected and delicious bit of Hollywood drama. My first assumption with the flash followed by darkness is that it had impacted too hard and exploded or wrecked the camera. The autobalance stabilizing was a great big-reveal moment.
> P.S. Downvotes for this question? Really? There are always people on HN who love being contrarian and trying to diminish amazing things. It's like they hate seeing people excited for something and want to point out that this isn't that big of a deal. We're literally watching things happen for the first time ever, and this person's response is "what's so great about this?" while implying that people who are excited…
>diminish amazing things.. Sorry. We are living in a period where mediocrity and even complete fraudulent stuff is hailed as profound and "amazing". People with differing opinions matter, and I would say they matter more than ever. And I don't think people love being a contrarian". It is quite easy being a fanboy, but it is hard to go against popular opinion, and be a "contrarian". There is no love in being a contrar…
It's adolescent, not contrarian.