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SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit

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Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit

#61

Post by dba7dba »

twistedpair wrote: post #40
InclinedPlane wrote: post #33

It's easy to miss how important this launch is. SpaceX builds rockets but lots of organizations around the world have built and continue to build rockets that do everything that this rocket did, and sometimes more. But in some ways that's also why this launch is impressive. SpaceX is a private company that has developed its launch vehicles outside of a conventional government procurement program, on their own terms.…

Just makes me sad that they're not publicly traded, because I would have placed a big bet (investment) on the company last week. Then again, perhaps it's for the best so that Lockheed, Boeing and ULA friends don't just buy them and shut them down. I hope our 21st century Howard Hughes gets rich off this and starts even more disruptive companies with the spoils.

It's good SpaceX is not traded, not at this point. Think about time the ceo will have to spend talking to the money heads. shuddering...

Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit

#62

Post by speleding »

mehmehshoe wrote: post #2

I 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

That picture works really well as a desktop wallpaper (hi-res, dark, not too much contrast)

Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit

#63

Post by Pinckney »

sandGorgon wrote: post #18
ubernostrum wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, orbits are weird. As in, "burning your engines in space almost never does what you'd intuitively expect based on a lifetime on Earth with things like cars and planes" weird. In order to get geostationary, you need to get to a circular orbit at an altitude of 35,786km above Earth's surface. Trying to do that all in one burn is, I guess, theoretically possible but is going to waste an absurd amount of fuel. The rea…

Is this the same way that the Indian mars mission reached its "transfer altitude"?

They did a few things differently. Because their thrust was relatively limited, they made several short burns at perigee to raise their apogee in successive stages. Essentially, it was more efficient to fire their engine several times very close to perigee in 5-10 minute bursts, than make one long 30 minute burn.

Secondly, there was never any stage where they circularized their orbit, as one would do with a Hohmann. Rather, they kept burning at perigee until they escaped earth. Picture a an ellipse growing more and more eccentric until it becomes open at one end.

Also note that they never burned at apogee. The point wasn't to raise apogee so they could escape at apogee, but to increase velocity at perigee until they could reach escape velocity with a 20 minute burn on their last orbit.

http://www.isro.org/mars/mission-profile.aspx

Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit

#64

Post by toomuchtodo »

kilroy123 wrote: post #52
slackpad wrote: post #13

It's cool to see so many people excited about this launch. Just wanted to remind people that we have a lot of software job openings right now. People are often surprised to learn that SpaceX is hiring web developers - http://www.spacex.com/careers/position/3890 . There are some interesting internal tools projects that are critical parts of each mission. We have embedded developer, PM, and test roles open as well.

I'd LOVE to work for SpaceX, but I'm not sure I'd want to live in Hawthorne California...

From the glassdoor.com reviews, its long hours and you're paid undermarket (which is fine if you want to work there, you're probably there because you want to work on something cool).

I applied to their Director of Infrastructure position having 14 years of IT experience managing people and large infrastructure and was told I was under qualified. YMMV.

Re: SpaceX Successfully Completes First Mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit

#65

Post by toomuchtodo »

outworlder wrote: post #47
dasmoth wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there might actually be a bit of a scope for some public-side web development that interfaces (indirectly!) with the avionics. Some other launch providers do animations based on vehicle telemetry once the vehicle is out of range. Last night, SpaceX just showed a static image. Given that there's a lot of interest in their webcasts, I imagine they'd like to do better at some point... [Edit: kind-of wonder if th…

Yeah, I did expect to see some telemetry. At least, the orbital parameters. SpaceX should just provide an API for that, we'll build the rest ;)

You could always try to use an antenna and software defined radio to pull the telemetry directly if nearby a launch site. Probably encrypted though :(
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