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SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit

nasa.gov

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Re: SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit

#161

Post by thePunisher »

thoraway1010 wrote: post #154

Quick note: Boeing got the big bucks at $5B or so for their crewed services because they have the "better" more reliable design. SpaceX only got $3B or so. Boeing running roughly 60%+ more per seat as well. So a real accomplishment so far for SpaceX to pull this off.

But Boeing is forever crooning: "Yeah, but we put a man on the Moon." So NASA will lick their boots anytime and pay them whatever they want.

Off course, if Boeing messes up again, the carpet will be pulled from under their feet.

Re: SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit

#162

Post by Animats »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #86

It is hard to convey how "sustainable" this feels to me. For the first time, humans have gone into orbit in a spacecraft that was designed from the ground up to be a commercial venture. All of the NASA missions prior to this have an ambience of "uneconomical but useful". Even the shuttle, which was supposed to be this cost effective space truck, turned out to be not even close. And the last thing I'm feeling is the a…

factory of rockets

Rocket factories existed over 50 years ago. But they were making ICBMs.[1]

The big change is that it's now possible to make money launching.

[1] https://youtu.be/Pqw9YOOOuKk

Re: SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit

#163

Post by cma »

rrmm wrote: post #140
jl6 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to detract one iota from this amazing achievement, but what definition of sustainable are you thinking of? This was still paid for by the government.

SpaceX has brought the costs down a lot. Around $500mil for a shuttle launch.

Didn’t shuttle have a larger payload? Up to 8 people and larger cargo.

NASA gave a $55million estimate on cost per seat on crew dragon, which would be about $440 million to launch 8 people.

Not sure that is factoring in reusability once they are willing to use that for crew missions (or offset price reusing crew boosters on non crewed missions).

Another issue with shuttle was reliability though. It may take hundreds of flights to know how much it is improved with crew dragon, but it seems to have better launch abort capabilities etc.

Re: SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit

#165

Post by _Microft »

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #137

I think it's ridiculous that a rocket can fly up to 90km and return to Earth in a controlled landing in under 10 minutes. So cool.

The distance between Launch Complex 39-A (LC-39A) to Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) is 17-18km by road. During the Orbcomm-2 mission, the first successful landing of a SpaceX booster took place there approximately 10 minutes after launch, so one would have needed to go 100km/h in average by car to make it from launch pad to the landing zone in time.

https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=b49de63c-29a1-4a5d-9742-0fdf6...

Re: SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit

#166

Post by ghostpepper »

thePunisher wrote: post #161
thoraway1010 wrote: post #154

Quick note: Boeing got the big bucks at $5B or so for their crewed services because they have the "better" more reliable design. SpaceX only got $3B or so. Boeing running roughly 60%+ more per seat as well. So a real accomplishment so far for SpaceX to pull this off.

But Boeing is forever crooning: "Yeah, but we put a man on the Moon." So NASA will lick their boots anytime and pay them whatever they want. Off course, if Boeing messes up again, the carpet will be pulled from under their feet.

I wonder if the layoffs announced this week will affect those programs.

Re: SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit

#167

Post by sneak »

haunter wrote: post #60

I'm actually surprised they use a touchscreen interface, and they will use that for the manual docking too! https://i.imgur.com/YKiqIqO.jpg

I understand it runs Chromium code and that the UI is written in Javascript.

https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9243/what-computer...

Re: SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit

#168

Post by monocasa »

thePunisher wrote: post #161
thoraway1010 wrote: post #154

Quick note: Boeing got the big bucks at $5B or so for their crewed services because they have the "better" more reliable design. SpaceX only got $3B or so. Boeing running roughly 60%+ more per seat as well. So a real accomplishment so far for SpaceX to pull this off.

But Boeing is forever crooning: "Yeah, but we put a man on the Moon." So NASA will lick their boots anytime and pay them whatever they want. Off course, if Boeing messes up again, the carpet will be pulled from under their feet.

I think it's more that the DoD props up Boeing in any way they can, from sweetheart contracts like this, to trade policies designed to destroy competition (the Bombardier thing), to outright industrial espionage of other firms (the leaks of Airbus's foreign negotiations).

Edit: Changed Embraer to Bombardier thanks to emiliobumachar's friendly reminder.

Re: SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit

#169

Post by mindfulplay »

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #137

I think it's ridiculous that a rocket can fly up to 90km and return to Earth in a controlled landing in under 10 minutes. So cool.

That sort of puts things in perspective. I didn't realize all of that amazing stuff happened in the course of a few minutes...

Incredible. For all the silly things Elon Musk does on Twitter, he rightfully takes the credit for building these important machines and building the right team with Gwynne Shotwell.

Re: SpaceX successfully launches two humans into orbit

#170

Post by oneplane »

Zenst wrote: post #159

Best video found so far of it that covers launch and landing of falcon 9. Alas loss of signal during the moment, though I'm sure another camera angle/footage will come about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JPLgs3ktyo

They probably record locally as well so if the live connection gets disrupted for some reason you can download the complete recording (perhaps even with better bitrate) after the fact.
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