Seeing those boosters land will never get old. I drive by one on my way to work every day and it's just amazing how large they are.
And for some reason seeing 2 land at the same time is a 100 times cooler. Seems like coolness is non-linear.
Falcon Heavy Launch [video]
41–50 of 305 posts
Re: Falcon Heavy Launch [video]
#42The way the boosters land feels so alien and CGI-like. I'm curious how close you can get to viewing the landings in real life, would really love to take a trip to do that at some point.
As I said in another comment, I was on the base for this launch and landing. We were standing at the SpaceX Hangar AO which is about 4km from the landing site. There may have been closer personnel, but the majority of us on-base were around there.
The tourists viewing the launch were scattered around the Cape, with the most popular spot being here: https://goo.gl/maps/ohaudmEggCLmr7gu8 Which is about 13 km from the landing site.
Re: Falcon Heavy Launch [video]
#43Now that Falcon 9 landings have become so routine, it feels surprisingly wasteful to see that mission profile with the center booster burning up without even trying. I wanted to write something about that lack of center booster reuse on falcon heavy feeling irrationally worse than a single F9 launch in the non-reusable profile (for a slightly higher payload iirc), but then I discovered that the non-reusable F9 profil…
I think that due to how much F9 has managed to eat into FH's market, FH flights we see are more likely to only happen when the payload is heavy enough to need the center core to be expended. For example, for a GTO insertion, an expended F9 can do 8.3t while a completely reusable FH can do 8t, but the expended F9 is going to be cheaper overall. Thus FH is only worth using when the payload is heavy enough to require at…
Do you have any source for this? I would expect that a FH launch that reuses all 3 first stage cores would be cheaper than an expended F9. A few hundred thousand extra in fuel costs for the side boosters is cheaper than the few million dollars that the 9 expended engines would cost.
But I still believe you -- the infrequency of an FH launch probably increases the ancillary costs. I'd just like to see your source.
Re: Falcon Heavy Launch [video]
#44Quoted post unavailable.
It would cost 10x as much and would be 5 years behind schedule, intended to be the main vehicle for several decades (rather than soon to be replaced by an even more capable vehicle), entirely expendable, still stuck to its original parameters due to risk averseness and not at all commercially competitive. See: SLS, Space Shuttle (and to a lesser extent, Ariane 5 & 6)
Falcon reusability was perfected through lots of explosions in landing attempts, good luck getting NASA or ESA to risk that given how dumb the average taxpayer can be about iterative development like that.
Re: Falcon Heavy Launch [video]
#45When does/do the research/space programs enabled by these more frequent launches start to benefit us all? It must have already contributed to something somehow. Agriculture? Defense? Oil exploration? Seems like the sort of information that's hard to find.
Re: Falcon Heavy Launch [video]
#46Re: Falcon Heavy Launch [video]
#47Possibly the most expensive thing in the world with a publicly listed price ($97M) and sales contact (sales@spacex.com)? https://www.spacex.com/media/Capabilities&Services.pdf Just find that amusingly 'accessible'.
Re: Falcon Heavy Launch [video]
#48The couple seconds of tracking camera footage of the boosters coming back down looked amazing. I wish it wasn't so foggy at the pad! When the second stage separates there's a few cables that are flying around. Does anyone know what those are used for? Electrical connections between the stages maybe?
The first time the boosters landed side by side it was perfect weather and they touched down perfectly synchronously: https://youtu.be/l5I8jaMsHYk
that was one of the coolest things i think i may ever get to see in my life.
Re: Falcon Heavy Launch [video]
#49Seeing those boosters land will never get old. I drive by one on my way to work every day and it's just amazing how large they are.
And for some reason seeing 2 land at the same time is a 100 times cooler. Seems like coolness is non-linear.
Brings a tear to my eye every time I see them land ever so smoothly.
Re: Falcon Heavy Launch [video]
#50Possibly the most expensive thing in the world with a publicly listed price ($97M) and sales contact (sales@spacex.com)? https://www.spacex.com/media/Capabilities&Services.pdf Just find that amusingly 'accessible'.
No post body was provided.