SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

Post by TeMPOraL » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 10:31 AM UTC

ricardobeat wrote: post #574

joering2 wrote: post #554

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> It's such a shame that so many people with Elon kind of money aren't doing anything to transform us into a spacefaring species. "Elon kind of money?" Heard of government subsidies? https://ideapod.com/elon-musks-business-empire-fueled-4-9-bi... Edit: not taking sides and adding my subjective point to the article; just merely stating fact that Mr. Musk projects are in large part government-funded.

Pardon my French, but that’s a load of bullshit in this context. SpaceX is privately funded and only receives money from the government from the launch contracts it sells. That amount is for Tesla and SolarCity combined. To put things into perspective, GM received a $50B bailout, Ford got almost $6B for “energy-efficient” cars, as did Nissan with $1.6B. Finally, almost all of those are loans, tax credits and incentiv…

Post by jotm » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 10:33 AM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #786

z3t4 wrote: post #747

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It look cool to have them land on their own, but wouldn't it be much cheaper to use parachutes and drop them in the ocean !? Either way they are going to take them apart down to each bolt and then reassemble again to make sure there are no faults. You don't simply fill it up and relaunch.

> You don't simply fill it up and relaunch. Yes, you do. Or at least, that's what they want to do. They've already reflown a bunch of their landed rockets, including the two boosters on Falcon Heavy . The ultimate goal is to be able to fill it up and relaunch, and the ultimate motivation for propulsive landing is simple - that's what is needed on Mars (parachutes won't do much there), so they want to master it. EDIT:…

Post by jotm » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 10:37 AM UTC

bigiain wrote: post #435

pacetherace wrote: post #348

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I am pretty sure at some point in history, launching two rockets at the same moment must have been a big achievement. And now you have two rockets (in some sense boosters are rockets) landing back at the same time.

I own this tshirt - which commemorates the first time we had two humans in orbit at the same time in different spacecraft: https://shop.sovietvisuals.com/products/vostok-1962-shirt-aa

Post by jotm » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 10:42 AM UTC

heurist wrote: post #544

verytrivial wrote: post #290

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It was almost a brain stack-overflow for me. I made a weird, bleating laugh noise and tried to open my eyes wider than design spec. A sincerely surprising and amazing sight.

I looked around my office expecting that someone else was watching and as stunned as I was. No one else was watching :(

Post by jotm » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 10:43 AM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #296

TeMPOraL wrote: post #225

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That would be simply Kerbal.

Honestly it’s amazing how much better I understand this and other space stuff I’ve seen in the last year or two (like shows about Apollo, etc) since playing KSP. No better way to learn basic orbital dynamics out there.