SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches • Hacker News Board

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#321

Post by sillysaurus3 » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 10:06 PM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #178

nafizh wrote: post #14

Anybody saw the 'Don't panic' thing on the Tesla? Made me chuckle, they sure have a sense of humor.

I absolutely love that Musk is putting a car into Mars orbit. Assuming mankind doesn't have an extinction event (or dark ages event), it is extremely likely we'll populate the solar system over the next millenia. In 200 years, Martian children can look up in the sky and know that one of the quickly moving visible satellites is a hilarious, old-Earth car. Depending on how accessible orbit is from planets over the next…

It's not going into Mars orbit. It's kind of weird that Musk never corrected that. Even his tweet from December said "mars orbit."

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#322

Post by Diederich » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 10:07 PM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #297

Diederich wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's been word from unofficial but reliable sources that it came in 'too hot' and died on impact.

That's unfortunate if so. You'd have thought there would have been plenty of extra fuel to obviate the need for a hard landing, given that the actual Roadster payload is a small fraction of the rocket's capability. This wasn't a mission where they were stretching fuel to make the landing, like they have with some of the marginal Falcon 9 launches in the past where the payload size was just at max for the vehicle.

I'm pretty sure that there was plenty of fuel margin. If it did come in too hot, there must have been some other reason.

My first thought is that the extra 'stuff' on the outside of the center booster required to connect the outside boosters might have caused some problems during re-entry.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#323

Post by MBCook » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 10:07 PM UTC

BozeWolf wrote: post #288

stanlarroque wrote: post #185

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.

I sort of was hoping for a big bang. Am I the only one? Landing these things will become the standard. mmillion dollar fireworks will not. Anyways, still very impressed.

The recoverable rocket stuff is new/cool enough I still like seeing it work. It’s still amazing.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#324

Post by CydeWeys » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 10:08 PM UTC

tribune wrote: post #317

mabbo wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

At the start of the video they introduced themselves as Lauren Lyons: Flight Reliability Engineer and Michael Hammersley: Materials Engineer. All rocket scientists it seems

And the relevant resumes:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenilyons/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-hammersley-a7166041/

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#325

Post by plexicle » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 10:08 PM UTC

aphextron wrote: post #15

zhoujianfu wrote: post #3

There was something doubly awesome about the two falcons landing at the same time right next to each other!

Can confirm this was the greatest thing I've ever witnessed in my life. https://youtu.be/AGPH_i0ZlyM?t=56

A link to the official YT... much better: https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=37m17s

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#326

Post by m3kw9 » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 10:08 PM UTC

What age we live in, that live video is understated

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#327

Post by thebluehawk » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 10:09 PM UTC

detuur wrote: post #276

fokinsean wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup that was amazing. Slightly related, I'm already nervous for the James Webb Telescope launch. Maybe Spacex should launch it :)

1 successful launch vs 1 launch anomaly in 16 years and 80 consecutive succesful launches. I know where I'm putting my money.

Ariane 5 had an anomaly just two weeks ago where they put the satellites in the wrong orbit.

http://spaceflight101.com/ariane-5-va241/ariane-5-va241-anom...

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#328

Post by optimuspaul » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 10:09 PM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #283

mabbo wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're showing your biases here. The other people on the livestream are also rocket scientists. They aren't PR people. They just happen to be younger, or women, or of color. So you might want to re-evaluate what you think a rocket scientist "looks like", because your notion is outdated. 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 a…

totally agree. we shouldn't be judging people based on appearances. Not all rocket scientists or engineers or pole dancers look the same.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#329

Post by adventured » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 10:09 PM UTC

Musk just posted this live feed link of Starman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#330

Post by ColanR » Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 10:10 PM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #283

mabbo wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're showing your biases here. The other people on the livestream are also rocket scientists. They aren't PR people. They just happen to be younger, or women, or of color. So you might want to re-evaluate what you think a rocket scientist "looks like", because your notion is outdated. 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 a…

> They just happen to be younger, or women, or of color.

Maybe parent was referring to their mannerisms, rather than their appearance. It's not fair to jump to the assumption that parent was showing a bias against any of those variations in the human species.