# SpaceX space :-)



## garsh

There have been many articles lately about how SpaceX fuels their rockets, and how it will apply when they start launching people. Traditionally, fueling is completed first, then people board the rocket. This way, people aren't stuck inside the spaceship in case a bad accident happens during fueling, as happened to the last (cargo-only) Falcon 9.

SpaceX, however, fuels the rockets as close to launch as possible. This is because they super-cool the fuel, and want to leave as little time as possible for the fuel to boil off before launch. SpaceX plans to have people board the spaceship before fueling the rocket because of this.

There have been many, many articles written about NASA not liking this plan. But I believe that SpaceX's plan is actually safer. The people board the rocket when the rocket contains no fuel. There's no arguing that this step is safer than boarding the rocket while it is already full of fuel. In addition, there will be support personnel to help astronauts board the rocket, and those people are also placed in danger. So this first part of the process is safer for both the astronauts and the support personnel than the traditional process.

SpaceX then fuels the rocket after the people have boarded. This part is inherently more dangerous, but at least at this point the danger is only to the astronauts - no support personnel are in danger. So it does put fewer people at risk. In addition, I believe this risk is offset by having the people on a Dragon spacecraft - a spacecraft with the ability to perform a powered abort. If an anomaly is detected (such as the "fast fire" that took out the last rocket), the Dragon can launch away from the rest of the rocket, saving the crew and cargo. I think in the end that SpaceX's proposed process will prove to be safer than the traditional boarding process.


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## MelindaV

SpaceX releases the cause of the launchpad explosion in September and planning for January 8th launch.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spacex-explosion-cause-20170102-story.html


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## Michael Russo

Super news on the Space X launch today!

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/820346008068452352

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/820342628252196865


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## Steve C

Michael Russo said:


> Super news on the Space X launch today!
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/820346008068452352
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/820342628252196865


When SpaceX has a successful launch it is usually reflected on TSLA stock price.

I'm interested to see if the excitement has worn off before the Monday trading day or if it will drop as profits are taken from this big run up.

I am stoked that it went off without a hitch as well. It just makes you smile when you watch and hear the cheers from the employees.

They are building huge radio antennas on the island that are all new as well. Apparently to assist with docking with the space station.


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## MelindaV

Steve C said:


> I'm interested to see if the excitement has worn off before the Monday trading day or if it will drop as profits are taken from this big run up.


the US stock market will not be trading today for the MLK holiday, so one more day to wait to see.


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## Daliman

Well folks today is historic for Elon and Spacex!!! Encourage everyone to watch SES-10 Launch, Landing for the first time in human history! Also trying to catch faring with a helicopter.

http://www.spacex.com/webcast


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## Daliman

Relaunch, Relanding, Satelite delivery, Farrings landed; Job done!!!!! Amazing day. They are going to use six more this year and want to turn around boosters in a day by next year. Cost could drop by a factor of 100. Elon working on saving our planet and opening up the solar system for our kids. H.. S..!!


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## garsh

Daliman said:


> Fairings recovered


I thought that was a joke when I saw it on Reddit. I mean, I knew SpaceX wanted to do it _eventually_, but it sounds like they actually did it (or attempted to do it) yesterday!

Do we have any more details? Any pictures of the recovered fairings? Did they actually have helicopters capture them, or did they just let them splash down for this first test?


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## MelindaV

garsh said:


> I thought that was a joke when I saw it on Reddit. I mean, I knew SpaceX wanted to do it _eventually_, but it sounds like they actually did it (or attempted to do it) yesterday!
> 
> Do we have any more details? Any pictures of the recovered fairings? Did they actually have helicopters capture them, or did they just let them splash down for this first test?


http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/30/1...-fairing-landing-falcon-9-thruster-parachutes


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## Daliman

Editted my cmment as I hadnt seen what Elon said during the press conference. Said the farrings have boosters and cotrolable chutes. They landed in the ocean this time. They havent said if they were recovered. Elon said that they will land on a bouncy castle in the future and be reused as they cost six million. I guess some kind of inflatable barge? Also said might try to recover second stage.


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## garsh

Daliman said:


> Also said might try to recover second stage.


Really?
Interesting. I know at some point he said that they weren't going to bother trying to recover the Falcon 9 second stage - that they'd wait to implement second stage recovery for a follow-on rocket.

But maybe "Falcon 9 Block 5" *is* that follow-on.


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## Daliman

He said it in a half joking tone. If you miss and it blows up it was going to blow up anyway. A lot of comments on reddit about how they need to do this to get to rapid reusability. Press conference on youtube if you are interested.


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## garsh

The microphones weren't working, so you need to turn the volume to maximum to make out anything.


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## garsh

The press conference was interrupted at 12:50 with news about the fairing.
Fairing was found intact (well, each half was intact) and floating in the ocean.

The fairing costs $6 million. Has the great comment of "if there was a pallet containing $6 million cash falling out of the sky, would you let it burn up or try to recover it".

He also says that the they didn't originally intend for the F9 to have a reusable upper stage. Then says might as well try to recover it, since even if you fail, it was going to blow up anyway.


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## Ctesibios

Falcon Heavy is vertical!

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/28/falcon-heavy-raised-on-pad-39a-for-first-time/


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## Daliman

What a beautiful sight! So looking forward to going to this one.


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## thredge

So I was really surprised not to see a thread on this yet, but how many people are going to the Falcon Heavy event, or preordered tickets?

I'm really bummed right now, and still trying to decide what to do. I'm in Florida this week, and really wanted to see the Falcon Heavy Launch, so preordered tickets before the targeted date was set. Desperately hoping (irrationally as it may have been) that the launch might slip into this next week. Unfortunately with the targeted date set on February 6th now, it would require me to extend my trip 5 days, and I don't know if that is going to fly with the fam.

I talked myself into it as the closer package was only $15 more than a daily admission (at the time, appears to have gone down $10 in the last few days), and it came with a 2 day admission, so figured I was only out a little cash if I missed it and could use the ticket part whenever. Then talked myself into the Closest package.

Anyway end of the story, I've got 6 Closest Package tickets and 2 parking passes that I'm not sure what I'm going to do with yet. I may get to ebaying pretty soon, or maybe offer them up to any interested forum members first. Still deciding.

So who actually gets to go? I saw it looked like Trevor might have changed his mind from not going earlier in the week.


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## Brokedoc

Iowa is outside of the blast radius in case there’s an accident. Safer to go home and watch the livestream.:rocket:

All kidding aside, there are SO MANY variables when it comes to rocket launches let alone the very first launch of a new design, you will end up rescheduling your entire life and risk triggering a divorce from your wife only for an event that can get delayed further due to weather or technical stuff. Unless you’re you you xue and have no family and no commitments, life has to go on!


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## thredge

Yeah, that was the other thing I was afraid of. Even if we were able to rework everything to be available on the date, a cancellation at that point would really suck. They have the other Falcon 9 going off on Thursday 1/30 right now too, and that would still be pretty cool. I might have missed tickets for that though, but sounds like we can watch from the Kennedy Space center just with an admission.


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## SoFlaModel3

thredge said:


> So I was really surprised not to see a thread on this yet, but how many people are going to the Falcon Heavy event, or preordered tickets?
> 
> I'm really bummed right now, and still trying to decide what to do. I'm in Florida this week, and really wanted to see the Falcon Heavy Launch, so preordered tickets before the targeted date was set. Desperately hoping (irrationally as it may have been) that the launch might slip into this next week. Unfortunately with the targeted date set on February 6th now, it would require me to extend my trip 5 days, and I don't know if that is going to fly with the fam.
> 
> I talked myself into it as the closer package was only $15 more than a daily admission (at the time, appears to have gone down $10 in the last few days), and it came with a 2 day admission, so figured I was only out a little cash if I missed it and could use the ticket part whenever. Then talked myself into the Closest package.
> 
> Anyway end of the story, I've got 6 Closest Package tickets and 2 parking passes that I'm not sure what I'm going to do with yet. I may get to ebaying pretty soon, or maybe offer them up to any interested forum members first. Still deciding.
> 
> So who actually gets to go? I saw it looked like Trevor might have changed his mind from not going earlier in the week.


Damn!

I'll be on a work trip that gets back home to Florida on the red eye first thing in the morning on the 7th. Would have been awesome to take delivery of the Model 3 and immediately drive up for the launch!!


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## garsh

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I'll be on a work trip that gets back home to Florida on the red eye first thing in the morning on the 7th. Would have been awesome to take delivery of the Model 3 and immediately drive up for the launch!!


There's a decent chance that the launch gets postponed, so don't give up on that idea just yet.


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## SoFlaModel3

garsh said:


> There's a decent chance that the launch gets postponed, so don't give up on that idea just yet.


That's a good point!


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## @gravityrydr

My plan is to drive down to see the first Falcon Heavy possible after I take delivery of my car. I had hoped it would be the maiden flight but it's certain that won't happen. Maybe the 2nd.


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## thredge

Well, looks like I'll be putting my "Closest" package tickets up for sale. Will try to hit the the Tuesday Falcon 9 launch this week.

Let me know if anyone is interested (wanted to give the forum first crack) otherwise I'm going to get them up on eBay this week probably. Going to be a bit of a pain selling these while on vacation.


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## John

Too bad there's no landing Tuesday. Expendable launch.


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## Watts4me

I will be there. Bought the Feel the heat tickets and made all reservations for the trip. I truely hope it doesn't get postponed.


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## @gravityrydr

Just as well I wasn't going to this launch. I now have to go to sunny Philadelphia on business next week.Not only will I likely be in meetings when the launch happens but I'll be watching the Superbowl at a hotel bar Sunday. On the plus side, I'm rooting for the Eagles so I'll be in friendly territory.


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## Brokedoc

I just called SpaceX and the very knowledgeable person on the phone says that the Falcon Heavy launch will definitely take place on time with no delay because the weather will be perfect and Elon hasn't planned for any RUD event. In fact, her computer shows that invites will be going out this week for those that have reserved for the SpaceX tourism flights. Invites for non-Tesla owners will be going out next week.:rocket::fireworks:


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## thredge

John said:


> Too bad there's no landing Tuesday. Expendable launch.


Aww, I didn't know that. Not that I have much choice though with the plans as they are. Gotta make due.  Got our tickets for the launch viewing tomorrow though. Missed out on getting some for my in-laws for some reason. I tried to break up the order to get 2 parking passes, and it kept saying there was a payment problem with the second order, so tickets sold out on me after trying that a few times over the next few hours. Sounds like they weren't that into going though, so oh well.

Should still be pretty cool, I believe it said the outdoor viewing area is less than 4 miles from the launch pad, so closer than the heavy launch is allowing. I've never seen a live launch either, so I'm sure it will be fun.

Sounds like good news for the heavy launch then if they plan to launch almost no matter what. We got back to out rooms too late tonight for me to confirm if I got the parking placards they were fed-exing to the hotel supposedly for the heavy launch. That is going to be the pain in the but for transferring tickets, getting these physical placards off to someone. Will have to check again tomorrow.


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## garsh

Today's Falcon 9 launch succeeded at its primary objective - it successfully placed a satellite in the correct orbit.

But as you know, most Falcon 9 launches have a secondary objective. This rocket was meant to test some new high-thrust landing technique, then crash into the ocean. SpaceX failed to crash their rocket. It's just floating there, perfectly intact, in the ocean.

ULA has never failed to crash a rocket, FYI.


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## Hobbot

"Crap it's not sinking now we have to tow it back"


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## Frank99

I wonder what the local recycling center is paying for used booster stages these days?


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## MelindaV

@garsh - shouldn't your title really be 'rocket crash failure'? they didn't fail the launch part, just the crash part (which really... they should have that down pat by now!)


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## Maevra

Aww poor thing just wanted to go for a quick dip to cool off.


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## Twiglett

I guess the nice thing is that now that can "waste" the older booster and still experiment with them.
Great planning. Teslarati had the thought that SpaceX didn't want to risk breaking the drone ship because they know they need it for the Heavy launch next week.
But the whole concept of not using drone ships at all and STILL recovering the booster is just amazing.


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## Sarah

thredge said:


> So I was really surprised not to see a thread on this yet, but how many people are going to the Falcon Heavy event, or preordered tickets?
> 
> I'm really bummed right now, and still trying to decide what to do. I'm in Florida this week, and really wanted to see the Falcon Heavy Launch, so preordered tickets before the targeted date was set. Desperately hoping (irrationally as it may have been) that the launch might slip into this next week. Unfortunately with the targeted date set on February 6th now, it would require me to extend my trip 5 days, and I don't know if that is going to fly with the fam.
> 
> I talked myself into it as the closer package was only $15 more than a daily admission (at the time, appears to have gone down $10 in the last few days), and it came with a 2 day admission, so figured I was only out a little cash if I missed it and could use the ticket part whenever. Then talked myself into the Closest package.
> 
> Anyway end of the story, I've got 6 Closest Package tickets and 2 parking passes that I'm not sure what I'm going to do with yet. I may get to ebaying pretty soon, or maybe offer them up to any interested forum members first. Still deciding.
> 
> So who actually gets to go? I saw it looked like Trevor might have changed his mind from not going earlier in the week.


Hello. My name is Sarah and I've recently joined this Forum. We are not yet Tesla owners but are hoping to be in 2020 (I know it's a way always but it's our bucket list top item and we are saving our pennies). I would love to take my daughter to the rocket launch next week to inspire further her developing interest in math and science. If you still have the tickets available (we can afford to pay a little extra if that helps), we would love to purchase them. Please let me know. Thank you!!!


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## thredge

Sarah said:


> Hello. My name is Sarah and I've recently joined this Forum. We are not yet Tesla owners but are hoping to be in 2020 (I know it's a way always but it's our bucket list top item and we are saving our pennies). I would love to take my daughter to the rocket launch next week to inspire further her developing interest in math and science. If you still have the tickets available (we can afford to pay a little extra if that helps), we would love to purchase them. Please let me know. Thank you!!!


Sorry, Sarah, I probably should have updated the thread. I sold them all off on ebay Wednesday of this week since it didn't appear anyone on here was really interested. We will just have to reserve ourselves to catching one of those future launches. Would have been cool to see this one though. Although, if you are in the area I guess the locals know other good viewing spots to see launches from that don't need tickets, although not as close as at the center, if that is even an option. I didn't get into researching where those spots are though.

As a heads up, it looks like the best way to be notified for those launch sales is to follow the Kennedy Space Center twitter account. That is how I found out about the heavy tickets. Also, for more standard launches like the Falcon 9 launch last week, I guess sometimes viewing tickets don't go on sale until the day before a lot of the time.

Sorry about that, hope you guys get to see a launch sometime in the future.


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## thredge

So, I should probably update the thread even though it isn't really about the Heavy Launch.

As some of you probably saw, the Tuesday Falcon 9 launch was postponed a couple hours before the launch window. Wind was a bit high and they also decided to swap out some sensor from what I read. And since this was a family trip, I only had the one day as a shot to see the launch (couldn't let the kids down with Disney on the itinerary for the next day). Soooo, we were kind of luckyish, we were still waiting in line for the bus when the launch was scrubbed so our options were come back tomorrow (our tickets were still good for that), or use the value in the gift shop. So we ended up with $210 worth of gift shop stuff. LOL. Probably better than those that had been on the bus (which I estimate was about half the ticket holders). The agreement says those tickets are considered used in full, even if they didn't make it to the site and get their T-shirt souvenir yada-yada-yada. Guest relations said they would have to buy another viewing ticket for the next day if they wanted to come back and see the launch. Only problem with that was as far as I saw, they never did get tickets listed to sell for those people to be able to get them, so that is kind of an odd policy, cancel the ticket and not provide the new ones they say you need? I'm guessing it was a pretty uncrowded viewing day.

So basically I struck out twice on this trip. Still yet to see a launch in person.

So back to the Falcon Heavy launch, since I didn't get any interest on here, I put my tickets up on eBay for the price I paid. Ate the cost of the Auction, PayPal fees, and shipping of the parking placards required to get to the center on the day. Still better than not getting any of that money back and having the tickets go to waste. At least someone will enjoy them. So for taking that chance, not knowing the date on the Heavy launch, I'm out about $125, plus scrambling a little during vacation to sell them and ship the parking stuff.

So I'm a little sad about that. Still had a pretty good vacation overall though.


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## Michael Russo

A true 'must watch' animation video to go along for the ride...  :rocket:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/960619869036146688


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## thredge

Tomorrow’s the big day already. Not sure if I’ll be able to catch the live stream at work or not, but excited to see how it goes.


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## garsh

Spoilers:

https://goo.gl/CYYHnb


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## Dan Detweiler

I'm really excited about this. I hope they get it into orbit. A successful mission would mean a great deal to SpaceX. I don't really think it will hurt them much in the long run if it blows up either. Still, it will be a tremendous show regardless of the outcome!

Dan


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## Michael Russo

Dan Detweiler said:


> I'm really excited about this. I hope they get it into orbit. A successful mission would mean a great deal to SpaceX. I don't really think it will hurt them much in the long run if it blows up either. Still, it will be a tremendous show regardless of the outcome!
> 
> Dan


And here are some live comments from the Man himself...


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## Quicksilver

Saw the launch and it was beautiful...especially the 1st stage landings at the cape. Still wondering about the core landing at sea.


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## Dan Detweiler

OMG! That has to be the most exciting 45 minutes I have witnessed. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on this momentous accomplishment! 

Dan


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## Michael Russo

Can't get tired of this beauty!


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/960981580641693697

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/960989276321320960


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## Michael Russo

And if you want to keep track of Starman in Elon' (ex-)Roadster, the Man just tweeted this: 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/960994034960416768


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## Quicksilver

Michael Russo said:


> And if you want to keep track of Starman in Elon' (ex-)Roadster, the Man just tweeted this:
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/960994034960416768


Love it! Roadster on Autopilot V3.0...wonder if Starman has range anxiety heading to Mars...


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## John

On the video at 8:36 on the flight clock, they announce, "We've lost the center core."
And after that there are images of the drone ship in what appears to be a pitching sea with no booster on it.
Also, someone got three frames of video of the retro burn that appeared to be off to the side of the ship.
One monitor flashes brightly and quickly (too quick for a burn) at one point.

Not sure why the secrecy. My guess is "Let's have no bad news today. Keep it positive and don't focus on the little part that failed."
But it was kinda obvious they squelched it and weren't comfortable sitting up there pretending for very long. Quite awkward.


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## Michael Russo

Possibly, @John , yet you know the classic saying 'two out of three ain't bad' and overall up to now, against Elon's own 50/50 odds of success, the test is right up there!


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## Michael Russo

Sequel to #24 above, two other very beautiful pics by Tom Cross for Teslarati, great source of info on Space X, in addition to T≡SLA...
Got to these nice guys thanks to @GeneL ! 

















Here is the detailed article by Teslarati's Eric Ralph, another great guy, specialist on space matters!
https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-simultaneous-rocket-landing/


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## Dan Detweiler

Kind of ironic that the two Falcon 9 boosters that we know landed safely were both reused rockets from previous missions. The center core was the only new one.

Even if they lost it, what a tremendously successful day for the entire SpaceX family. So happy for them!
Dan


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## Michael Russo

Dan Detweiler said:


> Kind of ironic that the two Falcon 9 boosters that we know landed safely were both reused rockets from previous missions. The center core was the only new one.
> 
> Even if they lost it, what a tremendously successful day for the entire SpaceX family. So happy for them!
> Dan


Dan, seems like the jury is still out on the center core and in any case, to your point, the test is a formidable success.

Boy, can y'all believe this is the same Elon Musk who is making us wait for 2 to 3 years for a car... And now, pretty soon we'll want a ticket to Mars!!


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## Michael Russo

And in case the car meets an interested alien:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/961006748214718466


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## Dan Detweiler

Michael Russo said:


> Dan, seems like the jury is still out on the center core and in any case, to your point, the test is a formidable success.
> 
> Boy, can y'all believe this is the same Elon Musk who is making us wait for 2 to 3 years for a car... And now, pretty soon we'll want a ticket to Mars!!


Delivery center opening on Mars...2020!

Dan


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## Maevra

Dan Detweiler said:


> Deliver center opening on Mars...2020!
> 
> Dan


First 100 Martians to reserve a Tesla* will receive free intergalactic supercharging and a replica Starman figurine.

*ETA for delivery approx. 200 days.  Transportation cost from Fremont to Mars: $$$$$$$$$


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## Michael Russo

One last for the road.. Good night my friends... 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/961015523122216960


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## garsh

John said:


> On the video at 8:36 on the flight clock, they announce, "We've lost the center core."
> And after that there are images of the drone ship in what appears to be a pitching sea with no booster on it..


At T+4:16, it sounds like mission control says "center core defect on shutdown".


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## Maevra

SpaceX has confirmed the loss of the center core due to only 1/3 required engines firing. The core crashed into the Atlantic Ocean at 300 mph. Note that the center core is different and specially made for Falcon Heavy and not like the two outside cores. Sad that the third rocket didn't make it home, but in no way does this diminish SpaceX's amazing success today.

I'm still getting goosebumps from watching the twin Falcons land on LZ1 and 2! :hearteyes:


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## Dan Detweiler

Maevra said:


> SpaceX has confirmed the loss of the center core due to only 1/3 required engines firing. The core crashed into the Atlantic Ocean at 300 mph. Note that the center core is different and specially made for Falcon Heavy and not like the two outside cores. Sad that the third rocket didn't make it home, but in no way does this diminish SpaceX's amazing success today.
> 
> I'm still getting goosebumps from watching the twin Falcons land on LZ1 and 2! :hearteyes:


Apparently not enough remaining propellant to fire the outer two engines. Took out two of the engines on the drone ship too. In Elon's words, "It sounds like really fun footage. We'll be sure to release it if the cameras didn't blow up." Typical Elon... gotta love it.

Dan


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## Love

Michael Russo said:


> One last for the road.. Good night my friends...
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/961015523122216960


Painting the Model 3 symbol in the sky. With fire. The. End.


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## victor

Lovesword said:


> Painting the Model 3 symbol in the sky. With fire. The. End.


#NotAFlamethrower :rocket:


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## Watts4me

It was an amazing experience. I'm happy my wife and I got to see this in person.


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## Dr. J

I got my brother in Nebraska to watch it live while we texted back and forth....or rather I texted upon launch and shortly after:
{expletive deleted}
Cool!
Geeks! (it was a crowd shot)
Wow!

His response:
That's amazing!

Later he thanked me for the heads up and said it was the "highlight of the year so far." Indeed.


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## Maevra

Dan Detweiler said:


> We'll be sure to release it if the cameras didn't blow up." Typical Elon... gotta love it.
> 
> Dan


Haha I really hope they recover the footage.

On that note, I always wondered why SpaceX doesn't have a bunch of actual flying drones surrounding the drone ship for this scenario. Even if the drones were a mile or so away for safety that'd be some pretty cool video.


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## MelindaV

The roadster's official satellite ID is NORAD 43205 (2018-017A internationally). Click the link to see where it currently is (at least while still in earth's vicinity)


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## John

MelindaV said:


> The roadster's official satellite ID is NORAD 43205 (2018-017A internationally). Click the link to see where it currently is (at least while still in earth's vicinity)


Wonder why it shows the altitude dropping so much. I thought they had done second burn away from orbit...


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## Michael Russo

Updated Teslarati article for late this evening (PT time) with a collection of rare photos... This Tom Cross guy is amazing!! 

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-breathtaking-falcon-heavy-launch-photos/


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## Michael Russo

For the fans (), some post event comments by Elon at press conference (longer version of the - presumably now not so - LIVE YouTube coverage available too as you'll see...)


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## Roderick80

John said:


> Wonder why it shows the altitude dropping so much. I thought they had done second burn away from orbit...


I'm curious about this too. The final burn was a little too successful- overshot Mars orbit.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/961083704230674438


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## Love

Maybe the new orbit it's on just happens to get closer to earth one more time (perhaps to slingshot?) before being on it's way. Godspeed, Starman.

Also, thanks @thredge for the post! I admit that I knew nothing about this until I saw your post... I should keep up more on this exciting venture known as SpaceX!
I totally forgot about it again while at work yesterday, then remembered and thought "dang it! I missed it"... did a quick google search and saw it had been delayed and was on a half hour countdown. Great timing like I planned it! ha!


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## Uricasha

I wonder if it shipped with Alcantara or cloth headliner...?


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## Roderick80

Matthew Morgan said:


> I wonder if it shipped with Alcantara or cloth headliner...?


Probably a good thing it was a convertible, for Starman's sake.


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## NJturtlePower

Updated full Falcon Heavy Launch event w/ Tesla Roadster deployment.  It's kinda hard to stop watching!


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## victor

*And the circle is now complete.*


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/961239782817853441


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## Mattstyle

Spaceship controls? Is this what Elon was talking about?


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## Dash

Roderick80 said:


> I'm curious about this too. The final burn was a little too successful- overshot Mars orbit.
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/961083704230674438


So I thought the plan was for it to stay in Mars orbit for some years. 
Now the roadster just passes Mars and thats what he calls successful?


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## Dan Detweiler

Dash said:


> So I thought the plan was for it to stay in Mars orbit for some years.
> Now the roadster just passes Mars and thats what he calls successful?


Yes, it is. This was a test mission to prove what Falcon Heavy can do. It succeeded by virtually all accounts with the exception of the core that was lost, not due to any system malfunction but a lack of propellant. The car is in an orbit that will intersect Martian orbit. This is a non issue however as that was never part of the mission. Elon stated that it would be sent into deep space but it was never stated as a goal of the mission. The mission was to demonstrate what the system could do and they succeeded on every front. Falcon Heavy can now be considered the only choice for many missions dealing with large payloads that no other rocket system in the world can handle.

Dan


----------



## Dan Detweiler

NJturtlePower said:


> Updated full Falcon Heavy Launch event w/ Tesla Roadster deployment.  It's kinda hard to stop watching!


This will now be my daily input of positive juju to take my mind off of the delayed delivery of Model 3 and to demonstrate that it will all be good in the end.

Dan


----------



## Dash

Thanks Dan, seems like I misinterpreted his tweet.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/936782477502246912
Totally thought the Mars orbit counted as deep space 

Now, what about the core? I totally missed that. I only got that the landing wasn't shown in the live stream. So it crashed somewhere?


----------



## Dan Detweiler

Dash said:


> Thanks Dan, seems like I misinterpreted his tweet.
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/936782477502246912
> Totally thought the Mars orbit counted as deep space
> 
> Now, what about the core? I totally missed that. I only got that the landing wasn't shown in the live stream. So it crashed somewhere?


Center core systems functioned perfectly but there was insufficient propellant to light all three landing burn engines. Center engine fired, outer two did not. Elon said in the press conference following the mission that it hit the water some 100 meters from the drone at about 300 miles per hour. Some damage to the drone ship as well as the lost core. None of these cores were planned for reuse anyway and Elon was joking about the "fun" footage of the center core crash.

Dan


----------



## Love

For some reason, I also thought it was going to be orbiting Mars. Then I envisioned a recovery mission years from now when Mars is being colonized so someone could drive it around on the red planet!


----------



## Dan Detweiler

Lovesword said:


> For some reason, I also thought it was going to be orbiting Mars. Then I envisioned a recovery mission years from now when Mars is being colonized so someone could drive it around on the red planet!


Nope, they did a pretty good job of explaining at the beginning of the video above. It is a heliocentric orbit, or an orbit around the sun, not around a planet. It would however intersect Mars' orbit.

Dan


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## MelindaV

Lovesword said:


> For some reason, I also thought it was going to be orbiting Mars. Then I envisioned a recovery mission years from now when Mars is being colonized so someone could drive it around on the red planet!


see tweet below.... 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/961290409782603776
it was to roughly be in the same orbit as Mars, now more likely within the meteor belt beyond the mars orbit.


----------



## Love

Hmmm, interesting...
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/18343/did-the-u-s-air-force-bomb-a-rogue-spacex-booster-rocket


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## Dr. J

Lovesword said:


> Hmmm, interesting...
> http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/18343/did-the-u-s-air-force-bomb-a-rogue-spacex-booster-rocket


"the firm likely did not have a plan in place about what to do if the booster came down largely in one piece. "
So Elon has no plan even for unexpected rocket success...


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## John

The orbit will have an "Apotesla" at out 1.71x the Earth's orbit (not quite in the asteroid belt, that was an exaggeration according to astronomers watching it now), and a "Peritesla" just inside Earth's orbit (0.99x).


----------



## RandyS

Wonder what all those flat earthers think now?


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## NJturtlePower

RandyS said:


> Wonder what all those flat earthers think now?


Not surprisingly, they are skeptical... (AKA still comprehend less than small children) 

https://www.livescience.com/61688-flat-earthers-spacex-falcon-heavy-conspiracy.html


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## Dan Detweiler

NJturtlePower said:


> Not surprisingly, they are skeptical... (AKA still comprehend less than small children)
> 
> https://www.livescience.com/61688-flat-earthers-spacex-falcon-heavy-conspiracy.html


I really believe that these people are suffering from a perverse need to control their little corner of reality. I think the thrill for them is in the argument...not the position itself. They could care less if the Earth is flat or not but they know for sure that swearing up and down that it is flat is sure to get a lot of attention...and vicious argument (the ultimate goal). Pretty sad really.

Dan


----------



## Dan Detweiler

Just sayin'...

Dan


----------



## Mattstyle

^^^^^
LOL, Awesome!
Way to go ‘merica!


----------



## NJturtlePower

Dan Detweiler said:


> Just sayin'...
> 
> Dan


I was thinking about something like this the other day...like every marketing department of other auto companies watching those fairings blow away and seeing the Tesla soaring for the first time..... Lots of F-bombs, frowny faces and "what now's" hahaha


----------



## Love

Lovesword said:


> Hmmm, interesting...
> http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/18343/did-the-u-s-air-force-bomb-a-rogue-spacex-booster-rocket


Just to clarify an earlier post by myself.
http://www.americaspace.com/2018/02...-to-destroy-floating-govsat-booster-not-usaf/


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## Dr. J

Lovesword said:


> Just to clarify an earlier post by myself.
> http://www.americaspace.com/2018/02...-to-destroy-floating-govsat-booster-not-usaf/


*SpaceX Hired Company to Destroy Floating GovSat Booster, Not USAF*

So SpaceX didn't hire a company to destroy the USAF, but rather the floating GovSat booster. That's a relief. :rocket:


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## garsh

Dr. J said:


> So SpaceX didn't hire a company to destroy the USAF, but rather the floating GovSat booster. That's a relief. :rocket:


Yeah, SpaceX needs to acquire some sharks before they try to take on the USAF.

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/962750602223566848


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## KarenRei

Dr. J said:


> *SpaceX Hired Company to Destroy Floating GovSat Booster, Not USAF*
> 
> So SpaceX didn't hire a company to destroy the USAF, but rather the floating GovSat booster. That's a relief. :rocket:


If any private company could pull it off, SpaceX would certainly be on a shortlist.  Although they'd probably need to work with Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed. If you happen to see Musk hanging out with Erik Prince, book a flight out of the country immediately!


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## NJturtlePower

Wise man once said...."Holy Flying F***, That thing took off!"

https://video.nationalgeographic.co...usk-falcon-heavy-launch-behind-scenes-vin-spd


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## NJturtlePower

Last look at the Tesla Roadster in space.... 

https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk...lescope/?ftag=COS-05-10-aaa0a&linkId=48058692


----------



## Michael Russo

Very interesting interview, with a small section on synergy with Elon and his continued involvement and influence on Space X.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/963645032870940675


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## garsh

Not the most accurate article, but mostly good.
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/spacex-s-falcon-feat-may-be-just-prelude-main-event-ncna846446

But this part reminds me of why I hate journalists:


> "I noticed that the one question Elon was unwilling to answer at the press conference was whether he was racing Jeff Bezos," Miller says. "Why wouldn't he answer the question? I think Elon is a little scared!"


No, I think Musk just didn't feel like pointing out to the bozos in the press just exactly how far behind Blue Origin really is. Their current rocket is really small, and only capable of barely making it to space. They don't have the capability to put anything into orbit yet.


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## KarenRei

garsh said:


> Not the most accurate article, but mostly good.
> https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/spacex-s-falcon-feat-may-be-just-prelude-main-event-ncna846446
> 
> But this part reminds me of why I hate journalists:
> No, I think Musk just didn't feel like pointing out to the bozos in the press just exactly how far behind Blue Origin really is. Their current rocket is really small, and only capable of barely making it to space. They don't have the capability to put anything into orbit yet.


It's ignorance, not maliciousness, on the journalists' part. They don't know enough about rocketry to understand the difference of degree between different systems' maturity. They see "it went to space" and think that's virtually equivalent to "it went to orbit".


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## Dr. J

In fairness, the quotation was from a source, not the reporter:

Charles Miller, a private-space entrepreneur and advisor to the Trump administration.


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## garsh

Dr. J said:


> In fairness, the quotation was from a source, not the reporter:
> 
> Charles Miller, a private-space entrepreneur and advisor to the Trump administration.


Charles Miller counts as a journalist, even though he was another journalist's source for this particular article. He knows better. Therefore, I assume he did this for the attention rather than actually believing it. He did it for the headline & attention.

http://www.thespaceshow.com/guest/charles-miller


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## Dr. J

garsh said:


> Charles Miller counts as a journalist, even though he was another journalist's source for this particular article. He knows better. Therefore, I assume he did this for the attention rather than actually believing it. He did it for the headline & attention.
> 
> http://www.thespaceshow.com/guest/charles-miller


Maybe this is a generation gap thing, or possibly a Dr.-J-just-doesn't-get-it thang, but he sounds more like a lobbyist than a journalist. Back in the day, a journalist was someone who made a full time living doing journalism stuff, and who avoided conflicts of interest.


----------



## garsh

Dr. J said:


> Maybe this is a generation gap thing, or possibly a Dr.-J-just-doesn't-get-it thang, but he sounds more like a lobbyist than a journalist. Back in the day, a journalist was someone who made a full time living doing journalism stuff, and who avoided conflicts of interest.


Nope, my mistake. I thought he was hosting that show. It looks like he was just a guest a few times.

This is why I would be a terrible journalist.


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## KarenRei

garsh said:


> Nope, my mistake. I thought he was hosting that show. It looks like he was just a guest a few times.
> 
> This is why I would be a terrible journalist.


Meh, you could always get a job at Fox  _*ducks*_

_(Obligatory: both the left and right have their own share of poor-quality news outlets. Sometimes I feel like if another person on my Facebook friends list shares another "NaturalNews" article I'll unfriend them on the spot  )_


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## garsh

The random walk of cars and their collision probabilities with planets


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## Michael Russo

garsh said:


> The random walk of cars and their collision probabilities with planets


Yeah, saw this story... whew.. we're good until 2091... will have to tell grandkids to be on the lookout!


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## NJturtlePower

Time to catch some Falcon 9 / Heavy gear! 

https://www.livescience.com/61814-m...er17d03&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook


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## NJturtlePower

Can you see me now? Hello Starman

https://www.livescience.com/61816-t...cial&utm_source=facebook#sthash.E1FPpnqI.gbpl


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## Brokedoc

Is it just me or does this whole parafoil catch with a net thing seem like someone trying to catch a meteor with a baseball glove in the middle of a tornado?


__
http://instagr.am/p/BfgHKDNAplx/


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## garsh

Brokedoc said:


> Is it just me or does this whole parafoil catch with a net thing seem like someone trying to catch a meteor with a baseball glove in the middle of a tornado?


I think it's more like trying to catch a leaf with an RC toy boat.

I'd love to see some video of the attempt.


----------



## garsh

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/966692641533390848


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## Brokedoc

garsh said:


> I think it's more like trying to catch a leaf with an RC toy boat.
> 
> I'd love to see some video of the attempt.


Leaf is way too slow. Catch is happening now. Video hopefully to be available soon.


----------



## garsh

Instead of trying to catch this thing in a net on a ship, just add a little outboard motor to the bottom, a camera at the top, and let it drive itself back to shore.


----------



## garsh

Nice article on PopSci:

*Meet the SpaceX ships that will never go to space*


----------



## garsh

New montage of the Falcon Heavy inaugural launch.
It includes a few seconds of the failed center core landing attempt.


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## KarenRei

That video, and Musk's comments, were so touching 

I do have concerns about that central core landing attempt... amplifying something I've noticed in previous attempts. It seems the core always keeps trying to land on the platform, _even when it's clear that such a landing will be impossible_. It should be detecting an impossible landing situation and switching focus to trying to _clear_ the platform as much as possible. But no, it's coming in at a steep angle trying to get back to the pad, without the nitrogen gas thrusters firing (except for one burst right near the end), so it looks like the vehicle just trying to do its standard "cancel out your horizontal momentum" approach. Instead, the instant it becomes clear that it can't land (such as insufficient engine ignition / thrust), the nitrogen gas thrusters should be working all-out to right it and point it _away_ from the pad. And if they can't, then the engines should be throttling _down_, not up. It should have been clear the instant that only one engine lit (aka, long before the rocket entered the frame) that this should be an abort scenario.

I hope this gets fixed. At sea, the worst case is drone ship damage ( = repairs, potential launch delays or a lack of booster recovery). But on land, the consequences of a lack of a "crash in a safe place" algorithm could be much worse. At least there's not much around the pad, and one presumes that the ballistic trajectory after the reentry burn doesn't point to anywhere bad. But that just moves the safety responsibility to having proper failsafes for how to deal with an improper reentry burn, and - if the engines are unusable afterwards - to try to reach a safe crash site with the grid fins alone. Once they've done boostback, it's going to hit _somewhere_ on or near the Florida coast. With a too-short reentry burn, that means an overshoot - aka, inland - aka, potentially even in the direction of Orlando.

Just imagine how much of a setback it would be to SpaceX's dreams if a Falcon crash-landed in a populated area. I *really* hope their failsafes are proper - but watching the videos of their crashes and the apparent lack of any recognition of a need to go into "abort mode", it makes be doubt that.


----------



## garsh

KarenRei said:


> At sea, the worst case is drone ship damage... At least there's not much around the pad


For a land landing, I believe the landing pad *is* the safest crash location. Outside of the landing pad, you have access roads, buildings, and a lot of kindling for a fire.










For sea landings, it could make sense to try to avoid drone ship damage, but I'm guessing that they don't want to bother putting in the engineering effort, at least not yet. There are so many ways that a rocket could fail to land. We've already seen stuck valves, running out of hydraulic fluid, running out of fuel, and running out of fuel igniter. The software required to "abort" the landing would have to have all kinds of scenarios to deal with these issues.

Currently, they prefer to re-engineer the rocket to prevent any particular failure scenario from happening a second time. If that's the case, then writing software to deal with such a failure is not worth the expenditure. And the "abort landing" software would also need to be tested to see what bugs it has, and really, who wants to expend the rockets just to test *that* branch of the code.


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## KarenRei

garsh said:


> For a land landing, I believe the landing pad *is* the safest crash location.


See: "_At least there's not much around the pad, and one presumes that the ballistic trajectory after the reentry burn doesn't point to anywhere bad. But that just moves the safety responsibility to having proper failsafes for how to deal with an improper reentry burn_"

If the reentry burn is normal but there's a problem in the landing burn, it'll likely crash somewhere on or west of the pad (but not far west, still in the general vicinity of the pad). But if the problem is a failure in the reentry burn, it could be on a much wider range of possible impact trajectories - generally significantly west of the pad. The dV from the reentry burn shifts the ballistic trajectory's impact point to the east in the process of reducing velocity, so if you have lower dV than intended, you have a further west impact.

There's an even worse possible failure case (excessive boostback burn), but it's not nearly as likely. Normally one's failure cases cause too little dV, not too much.



> For sea landings, it could make sense to try to avoid drone ship damage, but I'm guessing that they don't want to bother putting in the engineering effort, at least not yet. There are so many ways that a rocket could fail to land.


And all need to be addressed to the degree possible. But some - like engine ignition failure - are really lowest-hanging-fruit cases.

I hope your assessment is correct, that it's just been lower on their priority list. But when it comes to land landings, proper detection of abort scenarios and handling of them simply _can't_ be allowed to be lower priority. And the fact that they don't detect it for sea landings says they don't for land landings either; if they had the code for land landings, why would they deactivate it at sea?


----------



## KarenRei

ED: Based on some flight profile data I've looked at (such as this), I don't think a failed reentry burn could end up with the first stage reaching as far as Orlando (that would require an overly long boostback burn). But the Titusville to Rockledge area looks to possibly be in the potential impact area from a failed entry burn, depending on the profile. Certainly the Canaveral / Pine Island area is.


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## JWardell

I've seen comments on reddit that say the center core actually performed as programmed. They intentionally aim to land off to the side of the drone ship, and only if everything is nominal toward the end of the decent it changes to the center of the ship. In this case it knew engines failed to light, so it did not change its course. Note it did not deploy its legs either.


----------



## KarenRei

JWardell said:


> I've seen comments on reddit that say the center core actually performed as programmed. They intentionally aim to land off to the side of the drone ship, and only if everything is nominal toward the end of the decent it changes to the center of the ship. In this case it knew engines failed to light, so it did not change its course. Note it did not deploy its legs either.


I don't know who made said comments, but if the goal was to stay away from the ship, the last thing you want to do is to keep the rocket angled at the ship (rather than righting it with the nitrogen gas thrusters) and to keep the engine thrusting on max.

When only one engine lit, there was no chance it was ever going to reduce its velocity enough to land safely. This was obvious long before the craft came close to being in the closeup shot; a single-engine landing has to be started from a much higher altitude than a multi-engine landing to cancel out the dV. Yet you can watch the rocket try its hardest to get back to the drone ship in the distance shot, all the way up to impact. No nitrogen thruster righting of the craft. No shutdown of the engine. Just a continuous attempt to hit a drone ship it could not actually land on.

As for the legs, I don't know what is the actual triggering event for that. All I can comment about is what the rocket can be visibly seen doing in other regards.


----------



## JWardell

these couple of comments and graphic:


__
https://www.reddit.com/r/path%3D%252Fr%252Fteslamotors%252Fcomments%252F83j8r2%252Ffalcon_heavy_starman%252Fdvidsrp


__
https://www.reddit.com/r/path%3D%252Fr%252Fteslamotors%252Fcomments%252F83j8r2%252Ffalcon_heavy_starman%252Fdvjhdom


----------



## KarenRei

Lots of problems here. Let's start with that graphic.

2. The left and right side show two entirely different things. The right side contradicts numerous other graphics. The right side is also not remotely in-line with reality. Watch for yourself:






The stages are not coming in toward the landing pad vertically as drawn in that diagram, they're coming in at a significant angle. The engines light here:






There's no way that was aimed for the water like they're trying to draw it.

The drawing is just simply wrong. It's not even self-consistent.

You can see an entire landing burn from the side here:






That rocket is not in any remote way falling toward the ocean.

The rockets *are* aimed at the pad (actually toward the west side of the pad) when the burns start. And when the reentry burns start, they're aimed significantly further west.

I'm not sure who "JackONeill12" is. But he refers to SpaceX as "they", implying that he doesn't work for them.

Concerning the centre core landing: the rocket is not aiming for the ocean; it's coming in at an angle. It has to cancel out its horizontal momentum to reach the platform as close before landing as possible. To do this, the ballistic trajectory has to reach past the platform. It's not a safety measure, it's how the craft has to land.

By the time the craft comes into frame, even an engine relight (does the craft actually not know that it's out of TEA-TEB?) will not even come close to being able to avoid a collision with "something" (it hit the ocean at 300mph; any relight would have had to have occurred far higher). The only thing the rocket can control is how far away from the platform said collision is. It does nothing to maximize that distance.


----------



## garsh

Why are so many news organizations getting this wrong? The "short flights" next year are test flights on Earth. The Mars flights come later, and are not short. There won't be adventurous people dying on Mars next year!

https://www.aol.com/article/news/20...ake-short-flights-to-mars-next-year/23383303/


----------



## Michael Russo

garsh said:


> Why are so many news organizations getting this wrong? The "short flights" next year are test flights on Earth. The Mars flights come later, and are not short. There won't be adventurous people dying on Mars next year!
> 
> https://www.aol.com/article/news/20...ake-short-flights-to-mars-next-year/23383303/


To paraphrase Elon's quote, repeated a few times during the recent Q&A in Austin... 'wishful thinking'... ?


----------



## JWardell

@KarenRei Those reddit comments are talking about the middle core landing on the drone ship in the ocean, not the two returning to land. Obviously they are programmed to target the concrete landing pads and not the buildings next to them.


----------



## garsh

A few days ago, this happened:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1002357778818592769
I thought this sounded familiar.
Sure enough, déjà vu!


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/938816780444745728


----------



## KarenRei

A word of caution: when SpaceX is launching a rocket, activate Autopilot! 






(Skip ahead about 25 seconds)


----------



## KarenRei

Oops, just noticed that this was from 2017, not the most recent launch. Still....


----------



## JWardell

Forgot about this thread...

A few weeks ago, I interviewed someone for work that had recently had a contract with SpaceX, but similar embedded systems experience as me. I dug a little and pretty much everything he said he did I said hey, I could have done that. I never thought I would be qualified to work there or they had a need for electronics stuff..
Then last week my good friend in LA just started working there, and he's already feeding me job openings to lure me over. Thanks but no thanks, I'm not moving way out there.
Yet there's some temptation...I think I need to go visit first


----------



## Dr. J

JWardell said:


> Thanks but no thanks, I'm not moving way out there.
> Yet there's some temptation...I think I need to go visit first


Or maybe McGregor.


----------



## JWardell

Dr. J said:


> Or maybe McGregor.


There's no way I'm moving to Texas.
*OK, I can be lured with BBQ


----------



## Dr. J

JWardell said:


> There's no way I'm moving to Texas.
> *OK, I can be lured with BBQ


Pardner, you are what's known around these parts as a "cheap date." Not that's there anything wrong with that...


----------



## Love

Saw this "train" video of the Space X STARLINK satellites that were launched onboard Falcon 9, May 23rd. So cool! Also, do we not have a dedicated Space X thread? Did some searches but admit I didn't dig too much.

https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2019/05/wowowow-spectacular-view-of-spacex.html


----------



## Bokonon

Lovesword said:


> Saw this "train" video of the Space X STARLINK satellites that were launched onboard Falcon 9, May 23rd. So cool!


This is awesome.... I can't wait to show this to my son, who is riding a train today with a train-obsessed friend "just because". Hey guys, you thought that train to Providence was cool? Check out this 🌠SPACE TRAIN🚀!!



Lovesword said:


> Also, do we not have a dedicated Space X thread? Did some searches but admit I didn't dig too much.


Found it and merged. The long-running "SpaceX Space" thread lives again!


----------



## Love

Bokonon said:


> This is awesome.... I can't wait to show this to my son, who is riding a train today with a train-obsessed friend "just because". Hey guys, you thought that train to Providence was cool? Check out this 🌠SPACE TRAIN🚀!!
> 
> Found it and merged. The long-running "SpaceX Space" thread lives again!


Thank you sir!


----------



## garsh




----------



## EchoCharlie3189

JWardell said:


> There's no way I'm moving to Texas.
> *OK, I can be lured with BBQ


I also told my wife they had an Starship systems engineering position posted in Boca Chica and when she saw where the facility was located she said "Hell no!" Man I would love to design the environmental conditioning systems for starship though...


----------

