SpaceX does it again!!! + Rolling out Starlink

[Rilder]

http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/breakingnews/entries/2008/11/23/massive_rocket_test_shakes_up.html


:lol:

[Onkel Neal]

By diagem
November 22, 2008 11:42 PM
well shucks. I live over her in Teague on the Due hiway and my barn rattled so hard it knocked a couple bales of hay down from the top loft and scared my cows and they went hitailing thru the fence and out on the due hiway and pulled two big old pecan trees down and blocled the darn hiway. I don’t reckon it’s anyone’s fault though.



:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[August]

At least it's not the Astronaut Farmer (also a Texan iirc) :lol:

[Buddahaid]

Successful launch of Falcon 9 today! :woot:

http://www.spacex.com/multimedia/videos.php?id=51

[VonHesse]

:woot:

Really hope this "redirection" from public funding to private companies works. If it does, it could mean a whole new era in space travel and exploration - and save the US taxpayer a bundle in the meantime.

:woot:

[Nippelspanner]

http://img.new.livestream.com/events/00000000001c99ee/dc3f71c7-ed17-40f2-bb04-da17cc1d9722.png

Space X Stream (http://new.livestream.com/spacex/crs2)

Space.com Stream (http://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html)

NASA Stream (http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html)


Have fun watching! :up:

[Sailor Steve]

Pretty cool! Thanks for the links. :rock:

[Dowly]

Damn! Missed the launch by 9 minutes! :/\\!!

[Gerald]

Damn! Missed the launch by 9 minutes! :/\\!! Because you were with women, the price you pay :O:

[Nippelspanner]

Whoever missed that, it was awesome... I will watch every launch from now on. Pretty exciting!

[Dowly]

Because you were with women, the price you pay :O:

That wouldnt take nine minutes. :hmm2:


HEY! Who said that!? :stare:

[Gerald]

That wouldnt take nine minutes. Thus, less time :D No one has said that you were with a woman just a natural thing to do,:)

[eddie]

They made it into orbit, but only one set of thrusters is working ATM. Hope they get it sorted soon.

http://news.msn.com/science-technology/update-problems-for-spacex-launch-to-space-station

[geetrue]

It must be frustrating to be so rich and so smart and still have troubles you didn't think of ahead of time


SpaceX: Spacecraft crippled, but Musk optimistic it will recover (http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-spacex-nasa-problem-update-20130301,0,7535477.story?track=rss)

Los Angeles Times·16 hours ago
After a successful launch of its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX has ran into a thruster issue with its Dragon cargo-carrying capsule as it orbits the Earth

[eddie]

Problems with the capsule have been solved. Will dock with the spacestation on Sunday!:up:

http://news.msn.com/science-technology/update-spacex-capsule-cleared-for-space-station-docking-sunday

[eddie]

And the SpaceX capsule has made it to the station!

http://news.msn.com/science-technology/spacex-capsule-arrives-at-space-station

[RickC Sniper]

Good video of Spacex Grasshopper making a half mile (744meters) hop.

The rocket that can take off, go into space (eventually) then land itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZDkItO-0a4

[mapuc]

Today or yesterday a huge leap was taken in the aerospace development, when a Space X rocket manage to return to earth.

http://www.iflscience.com/space/welcome-back-baby-historic-spacex-rocket-landing-greeted-wild-celebrations

Markus

[GoldenRivet]

oh wow. :up:

[Oberon]

It was a good landing, I was quite annoyed I missed it. Congratulations to Space-X. :up:

[Jimbuna]

Yep, quite an achievement.

[mapuc]

Earlie today on the news they not only let the viewer see this spectacular event but even a two minutes of all the failure they have had to wards this goal.

Guess that in every success the road to wards this success is filled with failure.

I can't only go one way after this

Markus

[Oberon]

Oh aye, Space-X has nailed the ground almost as much as the F-104, but if at first you don't succeed....

[Mr Quatro]

This will go down as one of the biggest space feats yet.

Someday this will be a normal as can be ... :yep:

Who will be the first man or woman to ride the rocket up and back? :o

[Nippelspanner]

Oh aye, Space-X has nailed the ground almost as much as the F-104, but if at first you don't succeed....
What's wrong with the Starfighter? :hmmm:

[Oberon]

What's wrong with the Starfighter? :hmmm:

Me and Schroeder have had this conversation before, to be honest it was actually a good kite, and the pilots did like it once they got the hang of its...interesting handling characteristics.
But, they say that the nickname of an aircraft tells a story, and the F-104 had a few, including the "Fliegender Sarg", "Witwenmacher" and (my favourite) "Erdnagel". Hartmann didn't think much of it, and Steinhoff grounded the lot until the safety record improved and the wings stopped falling off.

Still, can't really gloat, our Lightning wasn't much better for loss rates, in fact I think it was probably worse, and the Harrier on introduction killed quite a few RAF pilots trying to figure out the whole VTOL thing. :dead:

[Nippelspanner]

Most you hear today about the Starfighter is nothing but a myth.
The famous widowmaker etc. I believed it too. Then I had a debate with a guy who really knows his tuff in that regard and he showed me articles/sources that 'fixed' a lot of these claims and put them into a way different perspective.
Thing is, the Starfighter - an interceptor - was used as a bomber, for example, with the German air force. That alone caused many problems.

The plane itself wasn't as bad as they made it. They simply abused it for the wrong purpose, training was bad/insufficient and of course, the plane was not one of the safest after all.

But the famous widowmaker thing...nah... not the plane's fault.

[Sailor Steve]

What's wrong with the Starfighter? :hmmm:

Most you hear today about the Starfighter is nothing but a myth.
Well, we can start with the infamous downward ejection seat, which was replaced, but not before it had killed 21 pilots. Add to that the problem of a series of automatic engine shutdowns on takeoff. Then came more engine problems, along with the shimmy problem with the front wheel cause the plane to lose control on landing.

These are all problems that could affect any new aircraft, but the fact is that the F-104 had by far the highest accident rate of any Century-Series aircraft. Even with the problems solved the plane was difficult to fly and difficult to land. On the other hand several pilots have said it was their favorite.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter

[Commander Wallace]

Today or yesterday a huge leap was taken in the aerospace development, when a Space X rocket manage to return to earth.

http://www.iflscience.com/space/welcome-back-baby-historic-spacex-rocket-landing-greeted-wild-celebrations

Markus


An awesome achievement.

[vienna]

Yeah, but soon such landings will be all too commonplace; think of the parking problems.... :D


<O>

[Eichhörnchen]

they say that the nickname of an aircraft tells a story, and the F-104 had a few


I always recall the nickname "missile with a man in it"

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?pictureid=7939&albumid=941&dl=1429963312&thumb=1 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/album.php?albumid=941&pictureid=7939) (Screenshot from Strike Fighters combat flight sim, click to enlarge)

[Jimbuna]

But, they say that the nickname of an aircraft tells a story, and the F-104 had a few, including the "Fliegender Sarg", "Witwenmacher" and (my favourite) "Erdnagel".

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force called it Eiko ("Glory"). The Pakistani AF name was Badmash ("Hooligan"). Italian pilots called it the nickname Spillone ("Hatpin"), along with Bara volante ("Flying coffin"). In the Canadian Forces, the aircraft were sometimes referred to, in jest, as the Lawn Dart, the Aluminium Death Tube, and the Flying Phallus.

[mako88sb]

Well, we can start with the infamous downward ejection seat, which was replaced, but not before it had killed 21 pilots. Add to that the problem of a series of automatic engine shutdowns on takeoff. Then came more engine problems, along with the shimmy problem with the front wheel cause the plane to lose control on landing.

These are all problems that could affect any new aircraft, but the fact is that the F-104 had by far the highest accident rate of any Century-Series aircraft. Even with the problems solved the plane was difficult to fly and difficult to land. On the other hand several pilots have said it was their favorite.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter


I remember watching a interview with Kelly Johnson quite some time ago, late 70's perhaps, and he was asked about the widow maker reputation of the F-104. You could tell he was a bit miffed and he said a big part of the reason for it was the fact that this interceptor was pressed into roles it wasn't designed for. I found this site that lists all F-104 crashes but won't have time for awhile to look through it for awhile. Could be some truth to what he says but there's no denying it had design issues.
https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=f-104%20crashes

[NeonSamurai]

Anyhow back on topic...

While landing the first stage is a huge technical achievement, there are some massive problems. Namely the extra mass required to do this feat.

In rocketry the fuel requirements for increased payload is exponential, because the more you gotta carry up the more fuel you need to cover the extra weight and you then need fuel to cover the mass of the extra fuel needed to carry the weight (and fuel to carry that fuel, etc).

So to land a rocket like that you need to carry extra fuel to slow the rocket down and land it, and carry more extra fuel to cover the weight of the extra fuel to land it. plus you also need more fuel for the parts that allow the rocket to land without damaging the engine and so on.

So it all gets to be a massive problem very quickly, particularly once you try to scale up the rocket and its payload capacity. So while this may be more economical for smaller rockets, that economy gets lost very quickly once you start scaling up.

[Oberon]

Space-X has managed to finally land the first stage back on a drone barge at sea in the Atlantic.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfjGUQZUIAAgNJY.jpg:large

[Rockin Robbins]

And since they successfully landed on land first shot, then went back to failing to land on barges until now there must be a compelling reason they kept at the more difficult landings. Nobody's talked about why they needed that capability either.

[razark]

To get back to land, they need to stop and turn around. Having the barge means they don't have to go back so far, so they can use more fuel for lifting the payload. It might also give them a better choice in launch locations, since they're not bringing the booster back to land, they don't have to worry about hitting anything else on the way down.

[Oberon]

Better fuel consumption rates, if you launch at a ballistic arc from any US East coast launchpad then your arc will take you back down into the Atlantic.
Better fuel consumption rates mean cheaper launch costs, and more options as to what altitude your first stage will boost up to.

[Rockin Robbins]

I can't imagine sea conditions in mid-Atlantic being smooth enough to land a booster, and then bringing that barge all the way back through seas smooth enough to keep the missile from tipping over. If they were landing on an aircraft carrier, sure. That barge? It's a tough sell.

Where was the barge this time? From the video it looks like it was offshore, not in a protected inland waterway.

[Gargamel]

This will go down as one of the biggest space feats yet.

Someday this will be a normal as can be ... :yep:

Who will be the first man or woman to ride the rocket up and back? :o

Considering this is only a technique to recover the first stage booster of the rocket, nobody will probably ever ride one.

Of course rocket VTOL has been done before, even manned, but this system isn't designed to be manned, unless you get some stow away clinging to a fin.

[Gargamel]

Anyhow back on topic...

While landing the first stage is a huge technical achievement, there are some massive problems. Namely the extra mass required to do this feat.

In rocketry the fuel requirements for increased payload is exponential, because the more you gotta carry up the more fuel you need to cover the extra weight and you then need fuel to cover the mass of the extra fuel needed to carry the weight (and fuel to carry that fuel, etc).

So to land a rocket like that you need to carry extra fuel to slow the rocket down and land it, and carry more extra fuel to cover the weight of the extra fuel to land it. plus you also need more fuel for the parts that allow the rocket to land without damaging the engine and so on.

So it all gets to be a massive problem very quickly, particularly once you try to scale up the rocket and its payload capacity. So while this may be more economical for smaller rockets, that economy gets lost very quickly once you start scaling up.

From what I've been reading, the added mass to have this system work is "minimal". Minimal as in the cost of the extra mass is far less than the cost of a new first stage system. Also the extra fuel mass was already within the specs of the booster to start with, they just fire off the second stage a little sooner.

The first stage booster is coming down in the Atlantic regardless of how. They just found a way to safely recover the first stage, without exposing it to salt water, to greatly reduce re-usability costs.

[Oberon]

Also, I think the platforms can be used as launch facilities as well as recovery locations, so in theory the rocket can launch from sea, perhaps in the Pacific, and land at Vandenburg.

[Onkel Neal]

Man, that's pretty good tech, they can land the booster and make it look easy.
https://www.blueorigin.com/gallery

This is Jeff Bezos' baby. :up:

[Buddahaid]

Not even in the same class as SpaceX but still cool.

[Onkel Neal]

No doubt. Space X is planning mission 1 to Mars in 2 years. (http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/27/11514844/spacex-mars-mission-date-red-dragon-rocket-elon-musk)

[Jimbuna]

Very cool :cool:

We now need a landing pad built at the Ponderosa and cross-Atlantic visitors will find it easier to visit :03:

[eddie]

This morning SpaceX launched a satellite into orbit and landed the first stage of the rocket aboard a ship again!! Congrats for a great job!!:yeah:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/spacex-launches-communications-satellite-and-sticks-another-landing/ar-BBsIo3Q

[Oberon]

A Falcon 9 rocket conducting a static fire test at Cape Canaveral just opted to conduct a Static Rapid Disassembly Test instead. :oops:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrRWg16WgAEs6d3.jpg

[Von Due]

I'm no rocket scientist, to make an understatement, but I read that it had a $200.000.000 payload on top when it blew up. Is that the norm? Sounds strange to have a payload on when you want to test fire the engines. At least they can conclude the rocket disassembles real quick which is good to know.

[mako88sb]

SpaceX has confirmed that the explosion was not due to their Falcon 9 but from some sort of launch pad anomaly. Here's a closer shot:

https://thespaceport.us/forum/uploads/monthly_09_2016/post-10859-0-13074700-1472741449_thumb.jpg

[Von Due]

Some info here
https://www.reddit.com/live/xix3m9uqd06g

The mishap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BgJEXQkjNQ

[Oberon]

Wow...yeah, that's going to leave a mark.

At least it wasn't the fault of the vehicle, something must have ignited the propellant whilst it was being loaded onto the vehicle. The payload fairing actually survived the initial explosion but not the sudden onset of gravity caused by the rocket underneath it atomising.

[Von Due]

A major bummer for Spacecom. Quote from the news link above
"Devastating blow for Spacecom, the owners of the AMOS-6 satellite:
Elon Musk has stated that because the rocket didn't intentionally ignite for launch, the loss of payload is not covered by launch insurance."

From what I understand, they are a small company that have been in talks about being bought by another company, depending on the success of this launch. Hard to talk when things explode around you.

EDIT: They really do have rotten luck. This satelite, Amos-6 destroyed and the previous one Amos-5 stopped calling home last year. 1/3 of them out is not a shortcut to financial success.

Another quote from the same link
"Spacecom, the owner of the satellite onboard today's Falcon 9; are down 9% on their stock exchange today; and continuing to fall."

[Jimbuna]

Lady Luck is certainly not smiling on them atm.

[Von Due]

The quote earlier
"Devastating blow for Spacecom, the owners of the AMOS-6 satellite:
Elon Musk has stated that because the rocket didn't intentionally ignite for launch, the loss of payload is not covered by launch insurance."
has now been retracted, it seems, but neither Musk nor SpaceX mention any of it in any tweet or other newspost I have seen. One can hope for Spacecom that the relevant insurance companies are playing ball.

[mapuc]

Not trying to sound like an evil person

Every setback is at most a positive thing it is mostly through these setback we learn a lot more than if everything was working great, but with hidden failure

Markus

[Von Due]

Not trying to sound like an evil person

Every setback is at most a positive thing it is mostly through these setback we learn a lot more than if everything was working great, but with hidden failure

Markus

That I agree on. Of course, that only holds true if you don't go broke or do a Nedelin but yeah, failure and learning is one step towards perfection.

[Jimbuna]

Footage of the incident:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BgJEXQkjNQ

[mako88sb]

The quote earlier
"Devastating blow for Spacecom, the owners of the AMOS-6 satellite:
Elon Musk has stated that because the rocket didn't intentionally ignite for launch, the loss of payload is not covered by launch insurance."
has now been retracted, it seems, but neither Musk nor SpaceX mention any of it in any tweet or other newspost I have seen. One can hope for Spacecom that the relevant insurance companies are playing ball.

Sounds like their marine cargo insurance will cover it.

[Von Due]

I am not going to touch the frothingly insane theories that pop up now concerning the incident but one thing really depresses:

A search on Youtube for Facebook Satellite gave me 1120 hits (filtered for past 24 hours) :/\\!! and various media are hot onto it, parroting the same nonsense.
Spacecom isn't even spelled the same way as Facebook, let alone pronounced the same way but still, good luck trying to tell the nutters it wasn't Facebook's sat.

[mako88sb]

Here's a quote and image from FB SpaceX group user Ross Sackett;

"I used a trick we sometimes use to fix the position of a star in an astrophoto(graphy.) While the fireball is burned into the image making it hard to locate the center, the lens flares (probably diffraction spikes) are centered on the brightest part. Make of this what you will.

This centers near an S bend in a large strongback (electrical?) conduit near the level of the common bulkhead in S2. There are other connections to S2 near there.

L2 SpXers sound like they're focussing on something, but will wait for Musk to pull the trigger publicly."
https://thespaceport.us/forum/uploads/monthly_09_2016/post-10859-0-53379000-1472805441_thumb.jpg

[Oberon]

Scott Manley takes a look at the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye0EOENUw0c

[Von Due]

Scott Manley takes a look at the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye0EOENUw0c

I enjoy Manleys videos a great deal. He has his feet on the ground and knows his physics and what critical thinking means. A breath of fresh air in the madhouse on the internet this weekend over this incident.

[mapuc]

I for one are going to wait for the investigations report.

Markus

[Von Due]

I for one are going to wait for the investigations report.

Markus

That is wisdom right there.

[mako88sb]

Missed this somehow. First re-use of one of their flight-proven Falcon 9's:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ses-10-launching-orbit-spacexs-072200113.html

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spacex-rocket-20160829-snap-story.html

[Von Due]

A bit unrelated to the main theme but related to rocketry, here's a bit of trivia:

Here is a picture of one of the nuts that held the strap-on booster attached the core of the Shuttle launch vehiecle.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jetforme/5028220753
The Shuttle had big ones for sure. And to think every gram counts when calculating the launch.

[mako88sb]

A bit unrelated to the main theme but related to rocketry, here's a bit of trivia:

Here is a picture of one of the nuts that held the strap-on booster attached the core of the Shuttle launch vehiecle.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jetforme/5028220753
The Shuttle had big ones for sure. And to think every gram counts when calculating the launch.

I'm not sure if you're reading the description right. It says it's one of the frangible nuts for a hold-down bolt. Not for how the booster was attached to the rest of the launch system.

[Von Due]

I'm not sure if you're reading the description right. It says it's one of the frangible nuts for a hold-down bolt. Not for how the booster was attached to the rest of the launch system.

Could quite possibly be my bad for reading wrong a post where the image was linked up.

[Eichhörnchen]

http://i.imgur.com/3mM6v3g.jpg

[Von Due]

http://i.imgur.com/3mM6v3g.jpg

Your pyrotechnic nuts, that it. Goodness gracious!

[razark]

Here is a picture of one of the nuts that held the strap-on booster attached the core of the Shuttle launch vehiecle.
When my father retired from NASA, some of the folks he worked with at KSC gave him a plaque with half of one of those nuts mounted on it. It's quite impressive to hold even half of one.

[mako88sb]

Elon Musk's presentation for his plans to colonize Mars. I was skeptical that landing the Falcon 9's first stage booster back on Earth would be doable, especially on a barge so was very impressed when SpaceX pulled it off enough times to show it can be done. However, I must admit to finding a whole lot of what I saw in his presentation to be more of a sales pitch that needs so much to happen on a scale never seen before that I guess I'm skeptical again. For one thing, having 42 engines in the booster stage has me thinking about how well the Russian N1 worked out and it only had 30 engines in the first stage. There are many other issues but that one point really stands out for me. How many of those 42 engines are going to be mission ready for the next launch after having the fuel module loaded? Anyway, here's the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFA6DLT1jBA

It will be interesting to see how the next few years go and hopefully, my skepticism is doused again.

[Oberon]

I for one are going to wait for the investigations report.

Markus

Here we go:

http://www.spacex.com/news/2016/09/01/anomaly-updates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBcoTqhAM_g

[mapuc]

^ Thank you for the link.

As I thought there was absolutely no conspiracy over this explosion it had a natural causes due to some technical failure and temperature.

Markus

[Catfish]

https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article161182815/SpaceX-gelingt-nach-Explosion-triumphale-Meereslandung.html

:up::)

Has been quite a walk from the first tumbling and exploding starts all those decades ago, to a successful vertical(!!) landing on a tiny spot in the sea :yeah:

[Oberon]

Well, to be fair it's their first landing in the Pacific, they've landed on the barge in the Atlantic a few times already. Was a damn good landing though, right on the center circle. It's good to see them back in top form after the Cape explosion.
The next big milestone to come up is next month when SES-10 is launched using a first stage booster that has already been up once. Then there's the un-crewed Dragon 2 test flight to the ISS due in the latter half of this year, and then hopefully a crewed one in 2018. In fact, 2018 should see the end of the Russian monopoly on crewed space launches, because NASA also has a crew capsule on the way, the CST-100 Starliner, providing they don't have to bin it due to budget cuts.
After that...well...as Buzz Aldrin would put it:

http://media2.whosaystatic.com/886340/886340_762x762.jpg

[Jimbuna]

I've never felt so enthused since man walked on the moon.

Exciting times ahead.

[yubba]

Until you've seen it come down and land from your back yard like I have, you'll never know how impressive it really is..

[Gargamel]

Until you've seen it come down and land from your back yard like I have, you'll never know how impressive it really is..

While it would always be exciting to see that, the amount of excitement would be indirectly proportional to amount your backyard was supposed to be the LZ.

[vienna]

Last night (12/22), SpaceX launched a rocket carrying ten communications satellites from Vandenberg AFB in California. The launch was notable not only for the fact it was done using a previously flown and recovered rocket, it also provided one of the most spectacular light shows ever. In spite of the fact local media in SoCal had reported the imminent launch earlier in the day (in fact, SpaceX had released the launch info a week earlier), the sight caught a very large number of observers unawares, with a surprising number of people actually thinking it was a UFO. I knew about the launch and deliberately made sure I would be able to watch the rocket as it flew over LA. Here are a few videos of the sight:


News Report:

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2017/12/22/satellite-vandenberg-spacex/


Video shot by onlooker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BXLd48QYs4


The launch could even be seen as far away as Arizona:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3_4Bc6tRp4&pbjreload=10


The phone lines for fire and police were clogged by calls from people reporting the spectacle. A local reporter, who was driving in to the studio at the time, reported drivers stopped cold on the road or pulled off to the side of the road; she said one truck driver was staring at the object and rear-ended a car in the lane next to her. When I saw the launch, I was standing in front of a high-end private gym and workout studio and patrons and workers came outside when they saw the beginnings of the contrail through the gym windows. It was kind of funny listening to the speculations of what the objects and lights were; I finally told them about the rocket launch and they seemed disappointed it was something rather mundane...








<O>

[Eichhörnchen]

Great pictures. Why can't British Telecom organise something like that for us?

[Jimbuna]

Most impressive :cool:

[STEED]

Great pictures. Why can't British Telecom organise something like that for us?Too busy over charging its customers. :rolleyes:

[Jimbuna]

I'm surprised you have a phone then.....too modern and comes at a relatively low cost.

[Von Due]

SpaceX rockets carry alien tech: Mind control units that causes people to lose their minds and scream "UFO! Aliens!!". Of course. Why wouldn't they carry that? It amuses me mildly to read "Don't believe the lying Govt. Believe what I, a complete stranger with no creds to my name, am telling you instead!".

[vienna]

There is a guy out of Boston who posted on YT about the launch and it was a wild video. If the guy is serious about his posting, mental health care is way inadequate; if it was tongue-in-cheek, then he came disturbingly close to some of the real whacked out claims about the launch...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cwcw2YyWQAA6cHf.jpg


(Is it just me or does that meme look curiously like Jeff Sessions?)...








<O>

[STEED]

I'm surprised you have a phone then.....too modern and comes at a relatively low cost.

Post Office jim, good deal and cheaper. :)

[ikalugin]

https://youtu.be/m1d6GbKCwtA
ICBM does a spiral patern.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJnfTAs4BtM
Ofc people for some reason views them as UFOs.

[STEED]

Alien invasion...No need to panic.

S.H.A.D.O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US7IF31wDVM

[Sailor Steve]

Ofc people for some reason views them as UFOs.
In the literal sense they are UFOs. UFO doesn't mean it's alien, just that it's unidentified.

[ikalugin]

Except they are not unidentified b/c they are identified.

[Von Due]

"An unidentified flying object identified as a Nebula class Mothership from the Andromeda Galaxy by a man who was too drugged up to reveal his name but who kept repeating 'OOOHM RA GOODGODGETTHEMOFFME', was seen over...." is pretty much how identification happens.

[ikalugin]

https://pp.userapi.com/c840334/v840334291/3b5ce/XNx8jnN8rOg.jpg
ICBMs make all sorts of interesting stuff, on the immage above you could see Topol as seen from Turkey.

[Rockin Robbins]

Night launches are the best! We see them so often from Florida nobody even comments on them these days. The most spectacular night launch I ever saw was before the You Tube days, but made this look like a candle from a mile away.

It was the first ever launch of the Saturn V, Apollo 4, an unmanned launch in April of 1968. I watched it from the beach at Daytona Beach, 40 miles away, and it looked like an arc welder 10 feet away or so. 200 seconds later I heard for the first time a rumble of such low frequency that my ears itched and I felt in in my feet as the ground shook. This was the launch where NASA discovered pogo before the Russkies did, but we did it in a much less destructive manner.

Apollo 4 shut down the center engine of the first stage before any harm was done and continued on the four outside boosters. It messed up the planned orbit, but didn't terminate the flight with an unscheduled disassembly of the rocket.

The very next flight of the Saturn V launched Apollo 8 to the moon where they learned that the second stage suffered from pogo too. Oops. It's a credit to NASA that they worked with the problem in real time and it affected the mission so little that almost nobody remembers it happened.

[Rockin Robbins]

After exhaustive research, drugs, drink and holding my breath for inappropriate lengths of time, I've come up with the TRUTH. This woman is the world's foremost expert on...............I'm sure something........and she has this earth-shattering revelation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7oVsUjQCrM

[Rhodes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7oVsUjQCrM

No, I think that was a weather balloon!

[STEED]

No, I think that was a weather balloon!

RUBBISH!

Swamp gas caught in lighthouse beams. :yep:

[vienna]

I found this really good YT video of the SpaceX Iridium launch, covering it form the first sighting to the final fade away. The video was shot from the city of Alhambra, a suburb of LA, about 9 miles east of Downtown LA; the LA skyline is the collection of tall buildings in the center of the beginning frames of the video:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE5C3O71Xqo


The night was cold and clear and the sun had set about a half an hour before the launch. From my vantage point, I saw the beginning of the contrail and watched it until the fade away. The videos don't really show the full prismatic effect of the vapor flow after the first stage separation; the sun was still casting rays into the very high altitudes of the rockets path and the refection/refraction produced a sort of beautiful aurora effect. The most curious part of the launch was how clearly visible the separated booster was in the wake of the second stage's contrail; you could actually see it sort of tumble and roll and the firing of what appeared to have been thrusters on the booster, most likely to steer it to a splashdown course...


Night launches are the best! We see them so often from Florida nobody even comments on them these days. The most spectacular night launch I ever saw was before the You Tube days, but made this look like a candle from a mile away.

It was the first ever launch of the Saturn V, Apollo 4, an unmanned launch in April of 1968. I watched it from the beach at Daytona Beach, 40 miles away, and it looked like an arc welder 10 feet away or so. 200 seconds later I heard for the first time a rumble of such low frequency that my ears itched and I felt in in my feet as the ground shook. This was the launch where NASA discovered pogo before the Russkies did, but we did it in a much less destructive manner.

Apollo 4 shut down the center engine of the first stage before any harm was done and continued on the four outside boosters. It messed up the planned orbit, but didn't terminate the flight with an unscheduled disassembly of the rocket.

The very next flight of the Saturn V launched Apollo 8 to the moon where they learned that the second stage suffered from pogo too. Oops. It's a credit to NASA that they worked with the problem in real time and it affected the mission so little that almost nobody remembers it happened.


Night launches truly are the best. There are several here in the SoCal area from Vandenberg AFB; most are pretty mundane with a single, compact contrail. It used to be, the launches were never announced since a great many of the pre-SpaceX launches were of highly classified payloads. More often than not, the public would know bout the launches when they saw the contrails in the sky, usually with the attendant speculations (UFO? Russkies? Nuke War?, etc.). Tis last launch was announced in the morning, but I guess it was lost on a public too absorbed in anticipation of the new Kardashian Xmas card, etc. ...








<O>

[ikalugin]

The trail got explained fairly well in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ6nn8fZOmc

[Platapus]

Alien invasion...No need to panic.

S.H.A.D.O



That is still one of my favourite opening sequences for a TV show. :up:

[mako88sb]

Really looking forward to this. Hopefully, if it all goes according to plan they will try for Feb 6/18:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snoIYik0xv4

I found out recently that NASA expected a 50% launch failure rate with the Saturn 1 & 1B's which ended up with no failures as did the Saturn V. Pretty amazing considering all the previous issues with much smaller and far less complicated rockets. Can SpaceX pull off the same record?

[Onkel Neal]

This. is. AMAZING!:k_confused:

Saturn V vs Falcon Heavy (https://newatlas.com/falcon-heavy-saturn-v/53090/)

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BRU26Pr0z-M/V1uO5mi9rGI/AAAAAAABJ7U/MinPinOihEkMZ5q5qGmARiNhSc1FSgTsQCLcB/s1600/mars-colonial-a.png

[Dowly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c

Fingers crossed!

[Gargamel]

:popcorn:

Of all the goofy stunts he's pulled, putting a Car into Martian orbit has to be up there....

[Mr Quatro]

This is powerful and exciting ... two big rockets coming back for a landing :o

[Mr Quatro]

:popcorn:

Of all the goofy stunts he's pulled, putting a Car into Martian orbit has to be up there....

plus the 90 million dollars it cost too :o

[Gargamel]

3-1 it gets scrubbed for some reason.

1-10 Some thing catastrophic happens.

[Gargamel]

plus the 90 million dollars it cost too :o

Well, they needed a weighted payload, as they were going to do the test flight regardless. The car is just a great publicity stunt. The final orbit is so weird, that there weren't alot of research or commercial payloads willing to take a ride, let alone risk the craft altogether on an untested vehicle.

[Gargamel]

3 minutes to go!

[STEED]

I rather go to bed. :zzz:

I find Space dark and cold and full of trash floating around Earth's orbit. :rolleyes:

[Gargamel]

This is powerful and exciting ... two big rockets coming back for a landing :o
3. The main booster will land on a barge. Hopefully.

And yes, I'm treating this thread like a chat room :)

[Mr Quatro]

less than a minute

[Gargamel]

Holy crap that's a beautiful sight!

[Mr Quatro]

Wow!

[Eichhörnchen]

I just missed it... is it over?

[Gargamel]

HA!!!! The navsat screen on the car says DON'T PANIC! LOL!

If I didn't know that was rel, there would be no way you'd convince me that image of a car in space wasn't CGI.

[Gargamel]

I just missed it... is it over?

Boosters are coming down now... watch the feed!

[Gargamel]

Holy... wow.... synchronized booster landing!

[Mr Quatro]

I can't believe I just watched the same two (2) rockets that launched the darn heavy thing came back and landed right in front of me ... Live :o

[Gargamel]

Curious as to the main booster.

[Dowly]

https://i.imgur.com/FEr6eva.jpg

:rock:

[Gargamel]

Wonder if they put any air in the tires? Or would they just drill a hole in the side of each one?

[Gargamel]

Word from the KSP forums is the core missed the barge.

[mako88sb]

Pretty amazing! Just in time as I have to leave for work. What a great day for space exploration!

[mapuc]

Saw it on the News channel live.
It was great to watch

One thing is certain though

We are not going to hear

Someone or somebody has stolen the car radio, while it was in space
Or
Someone or somebody has stolen the car, while it was in space

Guess it will be
The car is lost in space.

Markus

[Dowly]

Word from the KSP forums is the core missed the barge.Seems like it. If you switch the video to the second view, at 38:30 you hear someone say "We lost the center core".

[Catfish]

This was awesome, thanks for posting it here! :up:

Now lets get mankind into space, before the sophons arrive and earth will be destroyed :03:

[Gargamel]

Saw it on the News channel live.
It was great to watch

One thing is certain though

We are not going to hear

Someone or somebody has stolen the car radio, while it was in space
Or
Someone or somebody has stolen the car, while it was in space

Guess it will be
The car is lost in space.

Markus

Well, it won't be stolen.... They've put alive camera on the car:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M&feature=youtu.be

[Dowly]

Can't say I expected to ever see something like this. :)
https://i.imgur.com/Q6vW1k7.jpg

Apparently, there's also a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a towel in the glovebox.

[mapuc]

A question

What about the main booster, will this be recycled as the two help booster is ?

Markus

[Gargamel]

Apparently, there's also a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a towel in the glovebox.

Supposedly that came from a Twitter suggestion to Elon. Cool on him.

And a curcuit board from the roadster:


https://instagram.com/p/Be31IJxgOoK/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_ufi_control

[Gargamel]

A question

What about the main booster, will this be recycled as the two help booster is ?

Markus

That was the plan, it was supposed to land on an unmanned barge in the Atlantic, but it apparently had to ditch right before landing, splashing down 30m from the boat. I don't know if they can recover much, but we'll have to wait for official word, SpaceX's twitter feed is quite mum on it right now.

[mapuc]

That was the plan, it was supposed to land on an unmanned barge in the Atlantic, but it apparently had to ditch right before landing, splashing down 30m from the boat. I don't know if they can recover much, but we'll have to wait for official word, SpaceX's twitter feed is quite mum on it right now.

Thank you

I hope they will have success with this-´cause a spacerocket who are
100 % recyclable is the future.

Edit:
Friends I have a used Tesla Sports car for sale-Only 1 cent, yes you heard and read it correctly, only 1 cent.
The only thing is
You have to come and get the car by yourself, it's floating somewhere around Mars

Markus

[Platapus]

I wonder what some alien explorer will think if they find this orbiting car with an empty space suit. :haha:

[vienna]

"Poor guy. He must have missed his offramp...."....











<O>

[Buddahaid]

"Poor guy. He must have missed his offramp...."....
<O>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSg3WfOcfTM

[Onkel Neal]

Heavy Metal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMPe3wF9jQ

.

[Dowly]

Center Core confirmed lost; from the post-launch press conference:

The center one lit but the outer two did not, and that was not enough to slow the stage down. Apparently it hit the water at 300 miles per hour and took out 2 of the engines on the drone ship. That sounds like some pretty fun footage, so if the cameras didn't get blown up as well then we'll save that for the next blooper reel.Further burns have been successful and Starman is on its way to the Asteroid Belt. :up:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/961083704230674438

[Catfish]

Heavy Metal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMPe3wF9jQ

.

Hah this was the first i thought of :haha: :up:

[Jimbuna]

Well, that's another positive step forward for mankind :cool:

[Skybird]

I did not see it live. Not before now I realised that it was no joke and no fake that the car is in space, but that it is real.

I'm laughing, else I am speechless. :haha:

[Skybird]

I did not see it live. Not before now I realised that it was no joke and no fake that the car is in space, but that it is real.

I'm laughing, else I am speechless. :haha:

Bought myself an ebike yesterday. That was my personal car-in-space moment, so to speak.

[Aktungbby]

Wow!

I just missed it... is it over?

Apparently, there's also a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a towel in the glovebox. "DON'T PANIC" IS WRITTEN ACROSS THE DASHBOARD! :har: https://i0.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/DVYmpNtXkAIgN4c.jpg?resize=600%2C336&ssl=1

[Gargamel]

I wonder what some alien explorer will think if they find this orbiting car with an empty space suit. :haha:

That's pretty much what Elon said in the press conference.

[Catfish]

Spoiler: (though that's usually Schroeder's part :haha: )

Those extraterresrtrials will be disappointed.. I wonder how long those Tesla batteries will last, near zero Kelvin :O:

[mako88sb]

Here's a great video of the Falcon Heavy to be used with headphones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImoQqNyRL8Y

[Gargamel]

Spoiler: (though that's usually Schroeder's part :haha: )

Those extraterresrtrials will be disappointed.. I wonder how long those Tesla batteries will last, near zero Kelvin :O:

The car batteries were removed prior to launch. They were not rated for space and may leak, or if there was an explosion, spread battery goo all over South Florida.

[Platapus]

To me, the coolest thing is the landing of the boosters. :up:

[vienna]

Last night on the CBS Late Show, Stephen Colbert pointed out the US TV show, 3rd Rock From The Sun, may have presaged the Falcon Heavy payload:


http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/graphics/news3/3rdRock_S2.jpg




BTW, am I alone in wondering if Elon Musk might try to make new mileage claims for this Tesla model, you know "Yes, the Tesla Roadster get at least 33.9 million miles per charge!"... :hmmm:












<O>

[Dowly]

Knowing Elon Musk, I bet it is more likely the idea came from the opening to Heavy Metal. :yep:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMPe3wF9jQ

[Mr Quatro]

https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/27545226_10156080893942974_2246103784640757515_n.j pg?oh=527285c83efb9f29a0cb1b06a32555f9&oe=5B11717E

[vienna]

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ebaumsworld.prod/uploads1518049648627-q7JWe3L9VkjzP7z24NEQ8lhYXAa9ny0Srg68orN3Xo4.jpg











<O>

[Jimbuna]

https://i.imgur.com/ExHMQMI.png

[Gargamel]

https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/27545226_10156080893942974_2246103784640757515_n.j pg?oh=527285c83efb9f29a0cb1b06a32555f9&oe=5B11717E

Not to be a nit, but the roadster isn't new, I believe it was Elon's personal car for many years, and he was planning on retiring it anyways.

[Mr Quatro]

Not to be a nit, but the roadster isn't new, I believe it was Elon's personal car for many years, and he was planning on retiring it anyways.

You will have to take that problem up with Starfleet Command they haven't upgraded their sensor's since June 3, 1969.

I am aware of remakes and other shows with the same characters using Spock as the Science officer on the USS Enterprise, but sensors are expensive to keep up with :yep:

[vienna]

To me, the coolest thing is the landing of the boosters. :up:

Absolutely the best part of the launch event...

Say, I wonder where Elon Musk got that idea?... :hmmm:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jAlPQau5Hc


:D










<O>

[Dowly]

https://i.imgur.com/D0vtfuB.jpg


:cool:

[Onkel Neal]

This is pretty exciting... hope I live long enough to witness it.

SpaceX's Starship Hopper Turning Elon Musk's Dreams of a Mars Rocket Into Reality (https://www.inverse.com/article/51087-spacex-starship-mars-rocket-elon-musk)

https://fsmedia.imgix.net/d1/03/e7/2a/1009/489e/8cb8/f770881bbb0c/how-spacex-envision-a-mars-colony.jpeg?auto=format%2Ccompress&w=650

[Jimbuna]

https://i.imgur.com/lZiVj8F.png

I'll get my coat :03:

[Gargamel]

Well, considering the test bed hopper just fell over and collapsed.....

[mapuc]

I'm fascinated by it.

I also hope I will live long enough to see it come true.

Markus

[Skybird]

Those returning booster-rockets point-landing on their landing pads is a view that stuns me time and again. That a pole with flames at one and lands in this fashion on its end without wings, without rotor, without any visible assistance device or guiding rail, just does clicks in my head and then echos on and on. For me a truly unbelievable sight. Thats sight mesmerizes me more than a landing orbiter or a walk on the moon.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-47903788/spacex-nails-triple-booster-landing-after-satellite-delivery

Like a movie of a missile start played backwards.

[Dowly]

Another job well done for SpaceX! :up:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY-fSnKTLqw

[Catfish]

Yes, it's phantastic and unbelievable to watch. Doing that only by "analogue means" alone like gyrocompass and hydraulics was probably not possible before.

Has been a dream for some time ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdSxDNnqRlo

[Sailor Steve]

Pretty amazing, that. As usual, yesterday's science fiction is today's experimental technology and tomorrow's mundane reality. When Star Trek first aired the Communicators were thought to be impossible. Just fifty years later the modern cell phone is so far beyond what they dreamed of then that those too young to have been there can't imagine what it was like.

These vertically-landing rockets were also once the stuff of science fiction, and there was a time when even travelling into space was unimaginable. My own grandfather grew up in a time when there were no airplanes, no cars and no electric lights. I just wish I could see what the next hundred years will bring.

[Eichhörnchen]

I had no idea about this... ASTOUNDING!

When I was a kid my favourite show was Thunderbirds and this kind of landing was perceived then as becoming routine one day... but I never thought I'd live to see it

[Skybird]

These booster rocket landings remind of old Ray Bradbury stories, namely the Martian Chronicles. Bradbury repeatedly described scenes of a spacehsip from Earth landing, and the spaceshipo always was shaped like an conventional rocket.

Ray Bradbury is one of my absolute favourite authors.

[Platapus]

That is always amazing to watch.



I used to laugh when I watched Sci Fi movies made in the 1950's for their unrealistic and impossible vertical landings.





Not laughing any more. :up:

[Jimbuna]

Great stuff :sunny:

[August]

Bah easy stuff. Press a button and it either happens or it doesn't. Try changing tack in a square rigger off Cape Horn in a gale with a short handed crew. :)

[Rockin Robbins]

Those returning booster-rockets point-landing on their landing pads is a view that stuns me time and again. That a pole with flames at one and lands in this fashion on its end without wings, without rotor, without any visible assistance device or guiding rail, just does clicks in my head and then echos on and on. For me a truly unbelievable sight. Thats sight mesmerizes me more than a landing orbiter or a walk on the moon.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-47903788/spacex-nails-triple-booster-landing-after-satellite-delivery

Like a movie of a missile start played backwards.

But as the Everyday Astronaut (check out his You Tube channel) says, those aren't poles, they're freaking 15 story buildings with flamey stuff coming out the bottom that land light as a feather. We are living in the future and it's great!

[eddie]

The main booster was supposed to land like that on a barge at sea, wonder if it made it? Didn't work the first time, hope it does this time anyway.

[Dowly]

The main booster was supposed to land like that on a barge at sea, wonder if it made it? Didn't work the first time, hope it does this time anyway.All three boosters made it back; two on ground, one on the drone ship/barge "Of course I still love you". :up: Check the highlights video I posted in post #2 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2602880&postcount=2).

[eddie]

Thanks Dowly!:up: That is really incredible!!!!

[Onkel Neal]

This will be huge for folks who don't live in the cities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giQ8xEWjnBs

[Onkel Neal]

A New Launch. Every two weeks.
https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-ufo-terminals-how-network-works-2020-1

[Onkel Neal]

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/01/12/before-2020-is-over-spacex-will-offer-satellite-br.aspx

On Monday evening, January 6, SpaceX successfully launched its second "official" Starlink mission, carrying 60 satellites into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. In addition to the 115 operational satellites put into orbit on previous launches, this gives the company about 175 operational internet satellites in orbit today.

Assuming SpaceX continues putting satellites in orbit at a rate of 60 satellites per launch (and doesn't attempt to accelerate deployment by using bigger Falcon Heavy or Starship rockets), 11 more Falcon 9-Starlink missions should suffice to surpass the 800-sat threshold for "moderate" internet coverage. At a planned launch rate of two Falcon 9 launches per month, therefore, Starlink should reach this goal by the end of June 2020. By the end of the year, Starlinks in orbit should reach 1,500.


Of course, the most important advantage SpaceX should get from its rapid rate of rocket launches this year is also the most obvious: less time to market.

A more rapid launch pace means faster deployment of SpaceX's Starlink satellites to orbit. That means the company can begin reaping the 60% operating profit margin that SpaceX expects to earn from providing broadband internet service from space sooner. By 2025, internal SpaceX documents show the company hoping to earn as much as $22 billion in annual operating profit -- most of it from selling satellite internet service.

And 2020 is the year it all starts to happen.

[Catfish]

So Starlink would be available from everywhere in the world.. for free? Looks liek some countries will build a giant jamming device.. :03:

[Sean C]

I just hope they're able to minimize the interference to astronomy as they said they will try to do. We have enough problems with light pollution on the ground - we don't need more up there.

[Onkel Neal]

:up::up::up:
SpaceX successfully performed an escape test for the Falcon9 rocket, the test is meant to “demonstrate Crew Dragon’s ability to safely escape the Falcon 9 rocket in the event of a failure during launch.” Here’s what it looked like:


https://youtu.be/mhrkdHshb3E?t=736

[Onkel Neal]

So Starlink would be available from everywhere in the world.. for free? Looks liek some countries will build a giant jamming device.. :03:

No, not free. It's a service, just like other iSPs, except significantly better if you live out of the cities. :)

[Catfish]

Just :up:

[Catfish]

Ah ok, that makes of course more sense. Though i can imagine that Musk will grant some regions of the world free access.. just to make information available and shake things up a bit :03:

Our out-in-the-green spot of a "village" has now been connected with a glass fibre backbone, which means 400 to 1000 mbit/sec download speed. Costs are around 20 Euro/month first year and around 40 in the second year, for internet and voip telephony. The initial connection costs from street to house (some 30 meters here) are being paid by the provider (finally by you of course, lol). After the second year you can choose another provider, if you want.
So it is not cheap, but cheaper than what the German Telecom demands now.. and streaming films etc. is a joy.

If StarLink can provide similar performance via satellite .. let's wait and see.

[Onkel Neal]

Starlink launch 4 happening now live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KmBDCiL7MU&feature=emb_logo

[Eichhörnchen]

We live out in the Fens (flat, like Holland) and our next-door neighbours... after years of putting up with a painfully slow service via their phone line... had a dish put up on the roof to get wireless internet from a mast a few miles away

They've never looked back... and I was planning to follow suit until I read this

[Onkel Neal]

Mission 4 was a success, looking forward to the next launch. History in the making. :Kaleun_Applaud:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90458407/spacex-satellite-broadband

The company’s 60 Starlink nano-satellites are delivered to low Earth orbit by a partly reused Falcon 9 rocket and gently ejected one at a time from a rack, as if it were a Pez dispenser. They bring SpaceX’s broadband project up to 242 deployed satellites. That’s about a third of the 720 the company will need for “continuous coverage of most populated areas,” as the company tweeted last May.

But while the Starlink constellation is becoming increasingly real as it grows towards a planned mesh-network array of 7,518 satellites, much mystery remains about the internet service that Elon Musk’s space-exploration firm plans to start selling later this year.

The obvious virtue of Starlink’s design, as well as that of other next-gen satellite-broadband services, is that it doesn’t send data on a roughly 44,000-mile round trip. Current space-broadband services require that journey, thanks to their reliance on satellites parked 22,236 miles up in geosynchronous orbits that keep them over one spot on Earth. Starlink’s first satellites occupy an orbit of just 340 miles up, while later waves will provide service from 210 and 710 miles high.

[Sailor Steve]

James Watt made a steam engine that could actually supply power. It was a novelty. Then, thanks to the development of rolled iron, they were able to make boilers small enough to fit into a ship. Then Robert Fulton commercialized the thing and steam had a means and a purpose. Before long they had a boiler that would fit into a land vehicle and the steam locomotive was born.

Hans Otto developed the first gasoline powered internal combustion engine. At first it was a novelty, but in just a year Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz had each constructed an automobile. Today it is rare to go anywhere and not see someone not driving a car.

Rudolf Diesel developed a working compression-ignition engine. At first it was just a novelty, but today almost all heavy machinery of any kind, especially in the transportation industry, is diesel powered.

Wilbur and Orville Wright won the race to be the first to fly, but their real contribution was the control system that was fitted to virtually every airplane built by anybody anywhere right up to the beginning of the First World War. Until that point the flying machine was just a novelty. Today every city in the world has at least one airport, and most cities have several.

The Russians put the first satellite into orbit. If they hadn't the Americans would have. Then the Russians put the first man into orbit. If they hadn't the Americans were only a few months behind. This led to more and longer space flights, until the Americans put a man on the moon. If they hadn't the Russians would have. All this is just exploration. The satellites continued to go up in ever-increasing numbers, and with the exception of military satellites put up by governments, they were funded by companies for commercial purposes. Still, they were put up by government agencies.

Now we are seeing the culmination of that process. Commercial rocketry is taking the place of the governments, with a whole space program dedicated to bringing a service to a portion of the population unlikely to get it any other way. The point for the company involved is the age-old evil - to make money. To me this is a marvelous turn of events. It falls into the "If we can do this, we can do anything!" category.

I've commented before on the tail-end landing system, and how it was once accepted that while in movies and TV from the 1940s to the '60s it was nice, in reality it was impossible, once again it turns out that "Common Knowledge" and "Conventional Wisdom" are wrong, and now we see something once dismissed as "impossible" becoming reality. It's still rare at this point, but there's a good chance that our younger members will see this kind of system become so common that, as with the steam engine, the diesel and gasoline internal combustion engines, the gas turbine or "jet" engine, and the rocket engine, it will become a common sight and accepted as the way to get into space.

[Onkel Neal]

SpaceX Launch schedule
https://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/

Impressive. That's industry level activity.

[Catfish]

^ If there was a LIKE button i would have pressed it several times. Good post! :up:

[Onkel Neal]

Yes sir, me too!
This works and it will change the world.

@Steve, great references, these big leaps often surprise most of the population. And it's good if it makes money, a lot of it, for the company. It's likely they will take it and turn it into more amazing things.

Anyone wondering what I mean by this, read Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (https://www.amazon.com/?tag=cyberknight)


Australia’s regulator opens the door for SpaceX Starlink internet service
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/australia-regulator-opens-door-for-spacex-starlink-internet-service.html

[Onkel Neal]

OneWeb now getting into the act. Launched by Russians :O:
https://youtu.be/y13iQJ8m1Ms

[Onkel Neal]

SpaceX says it is considering spinning off its Starlink broadband Internet project into a separate company, while teams at Cape Canaveral ready to launch around 60 more of the flat-panel data relay nodes into Earth orbit as soon as Feb. 15.

I'm getting in on this one. :up:

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/07/spacex-considers-starlink-spinoff-as-teams-ready-for-mid-february-launch/

Another launch coming in days.

[Onkel Neal]

Feb 17th launch and deployment successful
https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/17/spacex-successfully-launches-60-more-starlink-satellites-but-misses-booster-landing/

Booster missed the barge.

Next launched planned for Mar 2.

[Onkel Neal]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=268&v=m05abdGSOxY&feature=emb_logo

[Catfish]

Fascinating, well done!


I wonder what they do to keep exact position and orbit.. or do they have to be replaced after some time.
So if there is position correction, do they have small jets, or is it done by "sunwind" pressure :hmmm:

[Onkel Neal]

Yep, they have small ion thrusters to move them around and keep them in place, and from what I have read, they are designed to be deorbited as newer tech is developed to replace them. As a property of their low Earth orbit by design, this will be routine: (https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/s/starlink)

... there’s the matter of attrition, as satellites will begin to deorbit after a few years and SpaceX will need to replace them regularly in order to maintain its constellation. In fact, Hugh Lewis – the UK Space Agency’s representative on the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee – recently stated that in order to maintain a constellation of just 4425 satellites, SpaceX will have to launch that many every five years.

However, SpaceX intends to use this to their advantage by gradually replacing inactive satellites with ones that offer superior performance. In this way, the constellation will gradually be upgraded with the addition of heavier satellites that are capable of transmitting more information, and which are placed in longer-lasting, higher orbits."

https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/24/spacex-reveals-more-starlink-info-after-launch-of-first-60-satellites/

https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/satellite__ION_THRUSTER.jpg

[Onkel Neal]

SpaceX is targeting launches March 6 and March 11 for its next two missions after swapping an upper stage for its next Falcon 9 rocket with another stage already being readied for liftoff at Cape Canaveral.

The launch targeted for March 6 from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will send a Dragon supply ship toward the International Space Station with nearly three tons of cargo, crew provisions and experiments, including a new mounting platform for external research payloads outside the station’s European Columbus lab module.

Liftoff is scheduled for 11:50 p.m. EST on March 6 (0450 GMT on March 7) on SpaceX’s fifth Falcon 9 flight of the year.

SpaceX teams a few miles to the north at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A will prepare a separate Falcon 9 launcher for liftoff as soon as March 11 at 10:40 a.m. EDT (1440 GMT). That mission will loft approximately 60 more satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink Internet network, which is expected to take up the bulk of the company’s 2020 launch manifest.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/26/spacex-swaps-upper-stage-for-next-falcon-9-launch/

[mapuc]

Looks like not everyone is happy about this

For the ESO facility, which houses the current Very Large Telescope and upcoming Extremely Large Telescope, one-in-30 long exposures will be affected by the satellite trails during twilight hours, and one-in-200 will be affected for shorter exposures.

Musk has said that they are working on lowering the albedo of future Starlink satellites, so they will have lower reflectivity, and that they will "tweak satellite orientation to minimize solar reflection during critical astronomical experiments" when needed, but is it enough?


https://www.iflscience.com/space/this-study-reveals-the-impact-of-spacexs-megaconstellation-satellites-on-astronomy/?fbclid=IwAR0YyCjIaQDq_0Ma0U0awa21RrY4k8NQBOwRfk1R TzdjPUSXYiSUvtUjTRM

Markus

[Onkel Neal]

They'll have to learn to live with it.

[Sean C]

Yeah. Because who cares about discovering the secrets of the origins (and possible future) of the universe when everyone on the planet can look at pictures of cats? :roll:

[Onkel Neal]

You have think of the greater good. A billion people use the internet every day, not so many worry about staring at the stars. Plus, you are using the internet to say we shouldn't have internet for other people.

[mapuc]

I thinik you totally missunderstod my last post.

I myself think it's great idea giving the entire world the possibility to access the Internet and not just us in the industrial part of the world.

It was in my news feed and when I read the article I remembered this thread, so I posted here with some quotes and link.

As it says between the lines in the article - Not everyone is happy about this project

Markus

[Onkel Neal]

Starlink mission 5 has successfully launched its payload of Starlink satellites just now. This launch will mark SpaceX's sixth batch of Starlink satellites and bring the number of satellites in orbit for the megaconstellation to 360. The mission is called Starlink 5, with the first Starlink mission in 2019 being an unnumbered test flight.

First stage booster recovery was a failure. This was the 5th launch for this booster but they were unable to land it. Appeared to be an engine failure and Space X knew it long before the booster re-entered, they cut away from the camera.

The Space X rep said these had a special coating to reduce the optical sig for atronomers. They also mention some kind of shade covers that will also decrease the optics.

[Sean C]

Plus, you are using the internet to say we shouldn't have internet for other people.


Fair point.


The Space X rep said these had a special coating to reduce the optical sig for atronomers. They also mention some kind of shade covers that will also decrease the optics.



Glad to hear that.

[Onkel Neal]

https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/starlink-darksat-results?fbclid=IwAR0AKImtSEsry1DNpP8FMXJyNiQybtLh5 Er-O_0kHh8SUfAYz5p10j-0BSE

SpaceX: Starlink DarkSat shows 'a notable reduction' in brightness

Astronomers have been vocal about Starlink satellites appearing too bright in the night sky. Many worried that the constellation could interfere with their astronomical observations. Starlink is launched in clusters of 60 satellites per mission, they are especially bright soon after launch, visible in train-like formations when flying at lower altitudes before reaching a higher, operational orbit (pictured below). SpaceX officials said the satellites' reflectivity was a surprise and that engineers are actively working on a solution to decrease Starlink satellites' brightness. "We certainly knew this was a novel spacecraft design in a novel architecture, but the level of brightness and visibility was a surprise to us," said Patricia Cooper, Vice President of satellite government affairs at SpaceX, who represented the company at the a American Astronomical Society meeting this year.

The founder of SpaceX Elon Musk, shared that engineers are in the process of developing a "sunshade." The satellite "sunshade" would deploy like an umbrella to cover the satellite in order to reduce its visibility from Earth. Anderson shared that the experimental Starlink satellite with the "sunshade" will be tested on a future mission.

Musk stated he does not believe Starlink would have a negative effect on astronomy. "I am confident that we not cause any impact whatsoever in astronomical discoveries," he said. "Zero. That’s my prediction. We will take corrective action if it’s above zero."

[Onkel Neal]

:Kaleun_Applaud::Kaleun_Applaud::Kaleun_Applaud:

FCC approves SpaceX to deploy up to 1 million small antennas for Starlink internet network

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/20/fcc-approves-spacex-to-deploy-1-million-antennas-for-starlink-internet.html

SpaceX got a key government license last week, federal filings reveal, as the company clears a regulatory hurdle that moves it closer to offering a new high-speed internet service from space.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has authorized SpaceX to begin rolling out as many as 1 million of the ground antenna the company will need to connect users to its Starlink satellite internet network. Starlink is SpaceX’s plan to build an interconnected network, or “constellation,” of about 12,000 small satellites, to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world. The company has launched 360 Starlink satellites in the past year.

The license details that each ground antenna is 0.48 meters in diameter, or just under 19 inches across.

“It looks like a UFO on a stick,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in an interview earlier this month. “It’s very important that you don’t need a specialist to install. The goal is for ... just two instructions and they can be done in either order: Point at sky, plug in.”

Starlink is intended for about the 3% “hardest to reach customers” for telecommunications companies, in rural areas where “5G is really not well-suited,” Musk said. SpaceX intends Starlink to have a high-speed connection for any users, with latency below 20 milliseconds.

[mapuc]

Saw some of these Starlink satellite some hours ago.

They were heading from south to north - They came over the horizon from my right(south) and passede over my head to left where they disappeared..Didn't count them, guess I saw 5 to 6 of them.

They were small yellow in colour.

Going to see if I can see them again tomorrow(If I remember it)

Markus

[Rockstar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLUFxTF_VRg


No I dont like the idea of polluting earth, space and cluttering the night sky for faster internet so people can just complain to more people about global warming on the internet.




BUT! Rocket launches are still waay kewl to watch :O:

[Jimbuna]

Great share :up:

[mapuc]

Thanks for the share :up:

Markus

[Catfish]

[...] No I dont like the idea of polluting earth, space and cluttering the night sky for faster internet so people can just complain to more people about global warming on the internet.
BUT! Rocket launches are still waay kewl to watch :O:
I like it! :up:
Excuse me now, will have to flagellate myself :D

[Onkel Neal]

SpaceX's Starlink could be months away from bringing the world online. (https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a32266155/elon-musk-spacex-starlink-internet-testing/)

Musk has said his goal for Starlink is to get to communities that have had almost no internet options until now. For these communities, Musk says, the “private beta” testing phase should begin in a few months, with public beta in six months.

[Onkel Neal]

Liftoff today for the first US manned mission from US soil since 2011
https://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg&feature=emb_logo

[Sailor Steve]

Umm...Uh...Umm...Ah...Umm...I hope this particular speaker...Umm...Ah...does'nt...umm...have to say anything...Umm...particularly...Ah...important.

[Mr Quatro]

50 50 chance right now for the weather to co-operate

Will be on ABC/CNN/MSNBC and Fox

100% chance for whatever Trump says will be fact checked :D

[Onkel Neal]

Entering the capsule now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg&feature=emb_logo

[Rockstar]

They closed the hatch

[Rockstar]

Weather cell over Orlando is eroding so looks like things are a go :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:

[Skybird]

Those new space suits and helmets. I thought if an Imperial Stormtrooper and Space Kerbals would have a baby, it would look like this. :D

[Onkel Neal]

T-45 minutes, go with propellant load

[Onkel Neal]

T-28 minutes.

Kinda hard to believe they will get this liftoff on day 1 without any kind of hold. Fingers crossed.

[Onkel Neal]

T-17 Launch abort

[Rockstar]

oh poo 5.100 scrub

[Skybird]

Bad luck, play another day. Weather is weather, but the technology they say has worked fine.

[mapuc]

An off topic input on this Space X adventure

If I had my own company like the Space X. I would give my engineers a task.

Develop a spacecraft that can be launch whatever weather it is and from any place on earth.

Furthermore develop some engine which makes it possible to use 2-3 types of fuel.
Like an engine who can:
1. Taking the spacecraft from earth to space
and
2. Transport in our solar system
and
3. Transport outside our solar system

Number 2 and 3 shall give the spacecraft a speed who shall be 10-15 times higher than it is today.

A Spaces shuttle had a speed around 17500 mph.

Which would mean this spacecraft would have a speed between 175,000 and 262,500 mph When in space.

Markus

[Platapus]

I am afraid that your engineers would tell you no the problem will be fuel weight. It would be very inefficient to make one engine that can operate in an atmosphere and higher gravity environment and operate in space in a micro gravity environment.



Launching in any weather is not a problem.
Any rocket can be launched in any weather these days.

Whether that launch will be successful and whether the crew survives the launch is the the problem

[vienna]

...

Launching in any weather is not a problem.
Any rocket can be launched in any weather these days.

Whether that launch will be successful and whether the crew survives the launch is the the problem



Picky, picky, picky...





<O>

[Platapus]

Just like with the SAR COV-2 virus. Killing viruses is easy. Killing viruses without killing the patient is the problem.

[mapuc]

I am afraid that your engineers would tell you no the problem will be fuel weight. It would be very inefficient to make one engine that can operate in an atmosphere and higher gravity environment and operate in space in a micro gravity environment.



Launching in any weather is not a problem.
Any rocket can be launched in any weather these days.

Whether that launch will be successful and whether the crew survives the launch is the the problem

To stay in this off topic discussion

And you're right.

I guess my scientist would say it's impossible.
They would probably tell me it's more efficient to develop an engine who works in space.
Which would mean, using a standard rocket to send astronaut from earth to space(docking with a space dock) and then use this spacecraft with this space engine to travel in space.

End off topic discussion

Markus

[Rockstar]

F.A. Ditty Bag its on the way :yeah:

[Jimbuna]

Quite an historic moment in space exploration.

[Skybird]

Congratulations!

I am still stunned by the sight of those rocket poles standing on the ship. Was stunned when i saw it the first time, am still stunned by it today.

[Catfish]

What you all said, incredible launch, and landing :):up:

[Onkel Neal]

Dragon docked with ISS and crew came aboard.

[Onkel Neal]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=151&v=KxPGBBZV1SQ&feature=emb_logo

Eighth batch of Starlink satellites, fifth landing success.

[Rockstar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=164&v=LbH1ZDImaI8&feature=emb_logo

[Rockstar]

Today's coffee is tomorrows coffee


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZkuQUCUYgM

[Onkel Neal]

Starlink gaining momentum,

SpaceX told the FCC in a late July presentation that the company’s Starlink unit is “now building 120 satellites per month” and has “invested over $70 million developing and producing thousands of consumer user terminals per month.”

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/08/07/spacex-closes-out-busy-week-with-launch-of-more-starlink-satellites/

Splashdown!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-HuNQGGBB4

[tmccarthy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdSxDNnqRlo


Looks like a shaky lift off and a little fire, still very impressive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1HA9LlFNM0

[Onkel Neal]

Here is a summary of the recently found Starlink speed tests

https://i.redd.it/7l3ofzyu6ng51.jpg

[Onkel Neal]

https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-12-internet-satellite-launch-webcast.html

SpaceX to launch 60 Starlink internet satellites today. Here's how to watch live.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/index.html

[Jimbuna]

Was talking to a neighbour yesterday about internet and tv access via 'unusual' means and he was full of the above but I was a little sceptical because he usually full of verbal crap.

[Onkel Neal]

Tom Cruise in Space.
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/22/spacex-sending-tom-cruise-to-the-space-station-in-2021/

[Onkel Neal]

Widespread beta tests are looking great!

About two weeks ago, SpaceX began sending the first invites for Starlink’s public beta, which costs $99 a month plus a $499 one-time fee for the equipment. Now that the system is finally serving actual consumers, we've been wondering, does it actually meet the hype?

To find out, we interviewed four beta testers, and all described Starlink as a game changer, particularly for rural internet users who have limited access to fast fiber-optic networks common in urban areas.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/from-painfully-slow-to-lightning-fast-spacexs-starlink-makes-rural-internet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gg6jcm3M38

[Rockstar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnChQbxLkkI


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_FIaPBOJgc

[Jimbuna]

Widespread beta tests are looking great!



https://www.pcmag.com/news/from-painfully-slow-to-lightning-fast-spacexs-starlink-makes-rural-internet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gg6jcm3M38

How expensive is that when compared to existing service providers?

[Onkel Neal]

How expensive is that when compared to existing service providers?

In a lot of places, there are no existing service providers. In other rural areas, all that exists is 1995-level internet, no Youtube, not Netflix, 128k download speeds. And that's between $75 and $95 a month.

I was getting by on 3mbps download speed with a hard 30GB a month cap, initially costing $180 a month. Over the last couple of years that slowly dropped to $120.

For what Starlink is expected to deliver, $500 for the setup and $100 a month is a terrific deal. A dream come true.

[Jimbuna]

In a lot of places, there are no existing service providers. In other rural areas, all that exists is 1995-level internet, no Youtube, not Netflix, 128k download speeds. And that's between $75 and $95 a month.

I was getting by on 3mbps download speed with a hard 30GB a month cap, initially costing $180 a month. Over the last couple of years that slowly dropped to $120.

For what Starlink is expected to deliver, $500 for the setup and $100 a month is a terrific deal. A dream come true.

Wasn't aware of any of the above figures till now so all things considered yes, it certainly is attractive :yep:

[Gerald]

I'm surprised that prices are still so high and that speed is not faster. In this part of the country, it is not possible to get less than 100 mbps at a cost of $ 30 a month.