SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches • Hacker News Board

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#691

Post by take4 » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 5:00 AM UTC

viraptor wrote: post #515

take4 wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why exactly is “good looking and charismatic” a bad thing? To be a good host you need to (should) be charismatic, that’s literally the job.

There's a balance. Sometimes I enjoy watching someone nerding out about a subject. Charisma means they'll sometimes start banter with the co-host rather than continue with things interesting to them. Or they'll try to "make" things entertaining and exciting. I guess it depends if you're looking more for entertainment or information.

I disagree, even if you don't care about banter, a capable host will be able to drive conversation and get panelists/guests/interviewees to express themselves better (even if they are typically awkward in front of a camera). I see it all the time in professional esports streams.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#692

Post by ekianjo » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 5:00 AM UTC

swat535 wrote: post #588

CydeWeys wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 So you might want to re-evaluate what you think a rocket scientist "looks like", because your notion is outdated.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…

sigh. yet another thread completely derailed by a meaningless and frankly irrelevant comment to the topic at hand, such as the one you made here. perhaps if we were not hypersensitive to every little detail, engineering would be a more welcoming discipline. I came here to read comments about this amazing achievement . so how about we focus on discussing the actual topic for a change ? I hope I'm not the only one feel…

You are not the only one. Funny that instead of looking forward to space exploration a bunch of people prefer mundane debates. I thought that HN was better than reddit but this thread is an awkward exception it seems.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#693

Post by sneak » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 5:02 AM UTC

latj wrote: post #522

protonimitate wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something awesome (in the literal sense) and unsettling about watching something and being able to say "I am witnessing history".

Did anyone else notice that the bottom two windows are not different cameras on different boosters? The guy even told us, "I know they look similar but they're different". Nope, they are the same. Watch how you can see two pads and they both land on the pad on the right. And you can see the second booster burning in the same orientation. The roads leading to the pads also make it easy to notice.

Or the part where he was about to spill the beans about the center core, but was quickly told to STFU in his earbud so they could delay the news of any failure until after the primary news cycle burned through the tandem landing miracle fuel.

I hope one day to be as good at both engineering and PR as SpaceX is.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#694

Post by sneak » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 5:06 AM UTC

stupidcar wrote: post #301

Klathmon wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't fault them for sure, but it's strange for them. SpaceX tends to be very upfront with their failures, and tends to broadcast and in many cases re-upload video of their failures. Doubly so when the "failure" isn't part of the primary mission.

They know how the press works though. There's a huge amount of attention being paid to this launch, and journalists will be racing to report it ASAP. If they announce immediately that the centre core has been destroyed, the headlines around the world are going to be "SPACEX LAUNCHES CAR BUT LOSES SPACECRAFT", and the failure, however partial, will be a central plank of the story. If they delay the core announcement b…

Yeah, presumably they worked out the various optimal messaging strategies for every possible combination of failure/success of each part of the mission in advance. Amazing work on their part; I was super impressed after I deduced what you wrote about 2 minutes after the stream ended.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#695

Post by losteric » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 5:09 AM UTC

Old_Thrashbarg wrote: post #408

Old_Thrashbarg wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be pedantic, the poster did say "looks like" and: - "looks like" is associated with physical appearance - possibly things like clothes, jewelry, gender, hair, skin color, face, etc. - "sounds like" is associated with their speech - tone, accent, choice of diction - "acts like" is associated with physical behavior + speech But anyway, I think the point is that, we don't know what mabbo's intent was and 95% likely i…

It reminds me of when I interviewed at Google. At the end of one of my onsite interviews, while showing me out the door, the interviewer turned to me with a big smile and said "you really look like you fit in around here". I almost burst out laughing. I guarantee he had no malice but I just found it funny for one tall, white dude with glasses to say that to another tall, white dude with glasses. And he was right, I d…

What's harmful about saying someone fits in? I use that as a filler statement after good interviews... if they performed well, they fit in. Does that offend people?

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#696

Post by drewmol » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 5:11 AM UTC

randyrand wrote: post #404

Old_Thrashbarg wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be pedantic, the poster did say "looks like" and: - "looks like" is associated with physical appearance - possibly things like clothes, jewelry, gender, hair, skin color, face, etc. - "sounds like" is associated with their speech - tone, accent, choice of diction - "acts like" is associated with physical behavior + speech But anyway, I think the point is that, we don't know what mabbo's intent was and 95% likely i…

We should also welcome pointing about the stupidity in assuming things always boil down to race/gender/sexual orientation. It should be obvious that aesthetic stereotypes go far beyond race and gender. Here's 2 very stereotypically different white guys: http://ricerfiles.gizmore.org/images/20160629/28030-human-ha... and this: https://i1.adis.ws/i/Superdry_com/NS_MP_Hoodies_hb_right?qlt... But to some people, they onl…

Thanks. This whole derailment from topic smells delisive, and tastes impracticable, and it's starting to sound like ostentaion. Old, white, pedantic ostentaion

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#697

Post by ben174 » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 5:15 AM UTC

sangnoir wrote: post #119

djaychela wrote: post #16

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?

> Do we know the fate of the centre core yet? I might be reading into something that's not there, but the presenters (I didn't get their names) acted like they received surprising news in thier monitors at 39:03[1] just as they were about to report on the drone ship landing. Dude: "We've just gotten confirmation..." Lady: "oh!" Dude: "Oh" Lady: "[laughs] We are waiting to hear what happens..." 1. https://youtu.be/wbS…

I felt like they were trying to redirect people to the main site for more information. I think the presenters were instructed not to give people more news so they could gain more traffic to their site. Seems like a smart way to gain more interest.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#698

Post by jordanthoms » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 5:17 AM UTC

JBlue42 wrote: post #656

JshWright wrote: post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon mentioned in the press conference that two of the engines on the droneship (it has four, one on each corner) were damaged.

Do they send another ship to fix the drone ship?

There's another ship nearby which tows it, it doesn't go all the way in and out of port on its own power.

And the ship has taken far bigger poundings in the past, one of them blew a huge hole in the deck.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#699

Post by chisleu » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 5:18 AM UTC

geerlingguy wrote: post #559

chisleu wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of this insane expense and amazing science and they couldn't make a VR360 camera happen. :(

I’m guessing it’s bandwidth and tech limitations. They don’t have a very fat pipe up there, and they also have tons of experience with the type of camera they have mounted in there... maybe they didn’t have time to test and certify any modern 360 cameras. Hopefully it’ll happen sometime though!

I think bandwidth isn't the issue. You can do 360 with a 4k feed. I expect it was more of a issue of hardware that would make it past Mars without space killing it.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#700

Post by Animats » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 5:20 AM UTC

It's so Kerbal Space Program. First Space-X built the Falcon 1, with one Merlin engine. Then the Falcon 9, with 9 Merlin engines in a circle with one in the center. Then the Falcon Heavy, with three Falcon 9 boosters side by side. Next maybe a bigger Falcon Heavy, with five Falcon 9 boosters in an X pattern.