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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!
landing of the mars mission was pretty big in the spectacle sense.
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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.
Love that SpaceX’s own team shoots, announces, and switches the live production in-house rather than hiring a production company. Also love seeing machinists side by side cheering with software engineers, standing by a mission control which is placed feet from where engines are assembled on the shop floor. Open company culture well-executed. Congratulations to all there!
This is why I love the live streams hosted by John Innsprucker. He doesn't look like a TV star, he looks like an engineer, a rocket scientist. He looks real. The other hosts are great, but if you told me they were hired actors or PR people I'd believe it.
Sorry to call you out like this, but these kinds of prejudices about who is the "correct" kind of person for tech jobs are harmful and discouraging to the people who don't fit the stereotypes, and helps contribute to keeping them out of the field.
"The core stage, meanwhile, burned slightly longer before separating from the upper stage, performed a flip maneuver and landed on SpaceX's Of Course I Still Love You drone ship."
Not sure it's true.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2018/02/06/sp...
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But. We are making them! I've almost lost hope around the end of the Space Shuttle program. I thought it will be only satellites, ISS and occasional science probe launches. SpaceX single-handedly restored my faith in the future of space activities again, and with other player on the scene, we now have realistic hope of seeing an actual industry in space within our lifetimes.
And the amazing thing is, even if SpaceX should fail, an entire industry has started to happen. Arianespace has spent years developing new rocket engines specifically for reusability, and has started building prototype rockets. Bezos’ company has mastered landing, and is directly building their mars rocket. In 5 years we’ll likely see at least 3 major companies up there with SpaceX, and true competition in space.
Moreover, there's lots of companies in every vertical needed for bootstrapping the industry - ground services, satellites, in-space manufacturing, asteroid prospecting & mining... all in the early stage, all betting on cheaper access to space than it was just few years ago. We're in a critical moment where things suddenly start adding up and - I hope - will form something great!
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Yes, I believe you are correct, I got slightly too excited. (: It's on a highly elliptical earth orbit at the moment. The second big test is doing a long stage 2 burn after passing through the Van Allen belt. I believe that will take place in 6 hours or so.
It's not that elliptical (at least not for another 5 hours or so when burns resume)
That was like watching a sci fi film when the two cores landed.... I watched it with my mother (who is 80!), and she said it was as significant as the moon landing. Do we know the fate of the centre core yet?
I'll bet it blew up on the droneship. It was weird they didn't have an immediate confirmation; I thought they have a boat or heli within visual range for the photo.
It was awesome. The synchronized landing of both boosters was emotional . Might be a naive thought, but for a few minutes, you forget everything else. There were millions of people from every nation live-watching the broadcast and everyone was cheering and hoping for the best. The world seemed at peace during that moment and this is what I love about space exploration and all these great human achievements.
Landing these things will become the standard. mmillion dollar fireworks will not. Anyways, still very impressed.
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I guess the worse that can happen is that computer chips and similar (camera sensors etc) are damaged? Can’t see what would make it not “make it through” but I could see how we might never I find out.
Oh okay. And last Elon's tweet says that the last stage still has a burn to do after the belt. So if the chips are damage it may be impossible to do the burn. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960988527159795712
There was something doubly awesome about the two falcons landing at the same time right next to each other!