SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit
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Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit
#2I am so glad this went well. Too bad it did not happen on Thanksgiving. I had my laptop out and had all the kids looking over my shoulder watching the two launch attempts. Doing my part to get the younger ones interested.
Nice picture from the space-x site- http://www.spacex.com/media-gallery/detail/90781/2601
Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit
#3Two cool pictures from the flight:
http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/styles/media_galler...
Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit
#4Two cool pictures from the flight: http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/styles/media_galler... https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BamdsH0IIAA-W_b.jpg:large
I love the views they broadcast of the engine bell. Takes on an eerie, transparent luminescence several minutes into the fight. Thanks for sharing.
Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit
#5Can anyone explain why they placed the satellite in 295x80 000 km orbit? Is it especially hard to place satellites directly into geostationary orbit, or something else?
Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit
#6SpaceX is the company that really makes Elon Musk a role model for me. I find everything they do inspirational. I must have watched that video of their employees outside mission control watching the falcon 9 launch a dozen times [1]. You should see the lines of students at my university's career fair when they come, you almost can't even see the recruiters behind the sea of undergrads swarming their booth.
Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit
#7Can anyone explain why they placed the satellite in 295x80 000 km orbit? Is it especially hard to place satellites directly into geostationary orbit, or something else?
Yeah, going straight to GEO isn't very efficient. Instead SpaceX (and most other commercial operations) insert the satellite into GTO and then the satellite's operators take over and do the final burn into GEO.
Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit
#8Can anyone explain why they placed the satellite in 295x80 000 km orbit? Is it especially hard to place satellites directly into geostationary orbit, or something else?
It takes less energy to change your orbital inclination (think "angle") from the orbit they are putting it in than from geosynchronous. Once it reaches the right inclination, they will put into the final orbit having used less fuel than they would have if they had launched it directly.
Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit
#9SpaceX is the company that really makes Elon Musk a role model for me. I find everything they do inspirational. I must have watched that video of their employees outside mission control watching the falcon 9 launch a dozen times [1]. You should see the lines of students at my university's career fair when they come, you almost can't even see the recruiters behind the sea of undergrads swarming their booth. [1] http:/…
Agreed! I love watching the videos because I live in Hawthorne, which is a very modest suburb of Los Angeles (where homes in the safer neighborhoods are only $700k). So when they say things like "Hawthorne Control," it makes me proud of this town and hope for a little bit of a coattails effect for the Hawthorne airport vicinity.
Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit
#10I have a deeper appreciation for the amount of work that goes into an operation like that after having bought [Kerbal Space Program](https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/) and its mobile companion [Simple Rockets](http://jundroo.com/project/simplerockets/).
Engaging with those simulations also makes watching movies like "Apollo 13" into a whole new experience, too.
Congratulations to everyone involved, and I can't wait to see what they do next.