Space X Latest Launch

[Dryson]

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016...ness-with-futuristic-pop-up-rooms-launch.html

Space X has finally stuck that damned sea platform landing. It's about time.

 

[publiusr]

Down!
https://weather.com/science/space/news/spacex-successfully-lands-rocket

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=39766.msg1513378#msg1513378




Not bad--with that chop.

Lots of good pro-space news:

DARPA looks at their options: http://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2016-04-07b
Dream Chaser looks to be coming to my home state of Alabama:
http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2016/03/will_huntsville_be_a_spaceport.html

 

[PurpleBuddha]

Fuck yeah!

 

[BoxWhatBox]

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016...ness-with-futuristic-pop-up-rooms-launch.html

Space X has finally stuck that damned sea platform landing. It's about time.

And it is truly a marvel of human engineering. Hears hoping the tie that thing down before it gets tipped over from a big wave. Also, I can't help but think it would have been cheaper to lease an island somewhere along the flight path and just land there. Thoughts?

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Droneship: “I still love you!”
Falcon: “My affection for you is nominal.”

 

[sojourner]

Here's the landing in 4k:

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[MarsWeeps]

And the on board view:

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[publiusr]

More on the mission
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/04/spacex-dragon-rtf-falcon9-launch/

Here in this first post--you see video of a similar article being secured
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=39350.600

That looks to be on land, now that I have taken a second look at it.

I can't wait to see the barge reach shore.

 

[Dryson]

Now that Musk has landed on a sea platform when will he launch his Estes Rocket from a similar platform?
When will he put the first humans in the command capsule and launch them from a similar platform as well?
When will the Command Capsule be landed on the Sea Barge?

I was also reading about how a sail boat was in the Red Zone and held the launch up. If a sail boat is able to get into the Red Zone how easy would it be for terrorists to get a sail boat into the Red Zone and shoot a manned launch down with a Stinger SAM?

Manned launches is one of the only targets that terrorists have not yet attempted to attack.

I can't forget about Blue Origin either as both are pioneers on the same front.

https://www.blueorigin.com/news

 

[sojourner]

Now that Musk has landed on a sea platform when will he launch his Estes Rocket from a similar platform?

No need to.

When will he put the first humans in the command capsule and launch them from a similar platform as well?

There's no need to.

When will the Command Capsule be landed on the Sea Barge?

And again, no need to.

 

[Reanok]

I watched the launch and landing on Youtube a little while ago. They had a news Conferece with Nasa and Elon Musk explaining how they changed the legs on the Rocket and put engines on the barge to have a successful landing of their rocket. It certainly worked this time.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Now that Musk has landed on a sea platform when will he launch his Estes Rocket from a similar platform?
When will he put the first humans in the command capsule and launch them from a similar platform as well?

He has no plans to ever do EITHER of those things, even if there was a reason to do that, which there isn't.

If a sail boat is able to get into the Red Zone how easy would it be for terrorists to get a sail boat into the Red Zone and shoot a manned launch down with a Stinger SAM?

A terrorist who has a MANPAD missile, a boat, the navigational acumen to actually get himself into the landing zone undetected at just the right time to intercept that rocket, would be better off using that amazing combination of skills to attack literally ANY OTHER TARGET IN THE WORLD.

Manned launches is one of the only targets that terrorists have not yet attempted to attack.

Not true. They have yet to attack hotdog stands, ice cream trucks, chicken-n-waffle restaurants or Starbucks.

In seriousness, they haven't even attacked American mass transit (trains and busses) despite these being the mother of all soft targets. Especially in Chicago, where the public basically has unrestricted access both to the vehicles and their tracks 24 hours a day.

Worrying about terrorists attacking a space launch is like worrying about getting ebola from a can of baked beans. It's not impossible, it's just silly.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Why isn't it needed to have a manned launch? Isn't that the whole point to this to get vehicles to take people into space and bring them back?

 

[sojourner]

Why isn't it needed to have a manned launch? Isn't that the whole point to this to get vehicles to take people into space and bring them back?

Why isn't what needed? To take off from an ocean going platform? There's no need for it. The only reason they use a barge to land on is that there isn't enough fuel on those missions to make it back to shore to land.

 

[MarsWeeps]

^ FYI...once engines were added it stopped being a barge and became a ship.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

The landing "ship" was placed around 200 miles downrange of the launch pad. Thing is though, there must be lots of other places in the souther latitudes of the continental US that would have 200 miles of eastward stretch and still be on land. Are they saying that with a mobile landing pad they can move the pad to wherever makes the most sense to have a cost-efficient landing, based on the mass of the payload and rocket hauling it to orbit? FOr that matter, what about doing it the other way around and having a mobile LAUNCH platform? I'm guessing that would be too cost-prohibitive to have a big enough ship for the rocket, payload, plus fuel and all the stuff you need to put it into the rocket and control it... Not like there are many old aircraft carriers or supertankers that could be converted...

Mark

 

[sojourner]

Thing is though, there must be lots of other places in the souther latitudes of the continental US that would have 200 miles of eastward stretch and still be on land

And most of those places have lots of people living in them that don't like the idea of rockets falling out of the sky.

Plus, if you look ata map, Florida and the southern tip of Texas is pretty much it for "southern latitudes".

If an idea sounds like an easy answer, there's probably a reason it isn't.

 

[PurpleBuddha]

The landing "ship" was placed around 200 miles downrange of the launch pad. Thing is though, there must be lots of other places in the souther latitudes of the continental US that would have 200 miles of eastward stretch and still be on land. Are they saying that with a mobile landing pad they can move the pad to wherever makes the most sense to have a cost-efficient landing, based on the mass of the payload and rocket hauling it to orbit? FOr that matter, what about doing it the other way around and having a mobile LAUNCH platform? I'm guessing that would be too cost-prohibitive to have a big enough ship for the rocket, payload, plus fuel and all the stuff you need to put it into the rocket and control it... Not like there are many old aircraft carriers or supertankers that could be converted...

Mark

You make some compelling points, and even more compelling counters to those points! Well positioned sir!

 

[arch101]

Elon is almost convincing me he will have people on Mars before any government will.

 

[PurpleBuddha]

It is already a partnership.