And the SpaceX capsule has made it to the station!

http://news.msn.com/science-technolo...-space-station

Spacex rocket
 

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

Its a huge leap in the aerospace development
 

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/welc...d-celebrations

Markus

oh wow. :up:

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

Yep, quite an achievement.

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

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

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

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:

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.

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/Lockhe...04_Starfighter

An awesome achievement.

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


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