201–210 of 926 posts
Anybody saw the 'Don't panic' thing on the Tesla? Made me chuckle, they sure have a sense of humor.
I. Am. Just. Speechless. Perfect takeoff, 2 simultaneous landings (still waiting for confirmation on the droneship landing), the car is in orbit. I don't remember being so nervous watching a launch video since... Space Shuttle missions, I think. Great job, SpaceX!
> car is in orbit. That is correct...but NOT in orbit of our home planet!
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Apparently they stuck in the glove compartment ‘a copy of Douglas Adams' book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," along with a towel’. Source: http://m.dw.com/en/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-falcon-he...
As awesome as all that was, I can't help but feel sad that neither Douglas Adams nor David Bowie lived to see this.
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For some time both streams looked like they were the same. That synchronization!
They were the same. Don't know if they did this intentionally. I actually watched them for two minutes for that, and was 99% sure they're the same image, just translated a bit. The final confirmation came near the end, when the other booster entered the view, and you could see for sure, both rectangles streamed from the same camera.
So the car is supposed to be in an Earth-Mars orbit. It it stable or is it designed to fall to earth at some point soon (say one or two orbits)?
I think right now the car is in a low Earth orbit. There will be a second ignition of the top stage later to shift it to the Mars orbit. The timeline ends with… Mission continues on an experimental long coast and third stage two burn to target a precessing Earth-Mars elliptical orbit around the sun … which I can't completely decode. Update: SpaceX says "Upper stage restart nominal, apogee raised to 7000 km. Will spen…
The closest point to the sun will be about 1AU (Earth-Sun distance). The furthest point from the sun will be something like 1.5AU (Mars-Sun distance).
This orbit will precess, meaning that it will slowly rotate its axis around the sun, rather than staying locked into the exact same path.
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Saw the don't panic. Wondering if they packed a towel.
Apparently they stuck in the glove compartment ‘a copy of Douglas Adams' book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," along with a towel’. Source: http://m.dw.com/en/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-falcon-he...
There was something doubly awesome about the two falcons landing at the same time right next to each other!
Yes, that was pretty SF. So, whats to stop them attaching an additional two (or more) to the existing rocket now that they have the basic synchronization worked out.
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> car is in orbit. That is correct...but NOT in orbit of our home planet!
My understanding from the diagrams they showed is that the orbit is a wide one (oval) around Earth that passes near Mars.
I. Am. Just. Speechless. Perfect takeoff, 2 simultaneous landings (still waiting for confirmation on the droneship landing), the car is in orbit. I don't remember being so nervous watching a launch video since... Space Shuttle missions, I think. Great job, SpaceX!
Yup that was amazing. Slightly related, I'm already nervous for the James Webb Telescope launch. Maybe Spacex should launch it :)