Just finished the stream, those IR shots were indeed quite lovely to look at. A little disappointing that there wasn't any footage of the satellites being actually deployed, but that's really the only bad thing I can say.
SpaceX finally nails a droneship landing!
- Thread starter jeshikat
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Watching them bullseye the first stage landing (even recorded) hasn't gotten old to me yet. Gotta second @iFreilicht - would've been amazing to actually watch the payload deploying. Maybe they'll film it onboard next time and then download the video when they get within range of a suitable ground station.
One more thing: not that I've done any research, but what happens to the 2nd stage once the payload is deployed? Does it actively brake (as opposed to just letting the orbit degrade by friction) and fall back into the atmosphere to burn up?
One more thing: not that I've done any research, but what happens to the 2nd stage once the payload is deployed? Does it actively brake (as opposed to just letting the orbit degrade by friction) and fall back into the atmosphere to burn up?
Haha, he was smart to add the words "or so".
That basically means "as early as next month" aka, sometime in the future.
I'm eager to see whatTony Stark Elon Musk will do next.
That basically means "as early as next month" aka, sometime in the future.
I'm eager to see what
Doubt they'll hire a Swedish international drilling company but I bet me and the foreman will have fun dreaming they will :'D
It's a rather more boring project: the SpaceX campuses are separated by a few large roads with no crossing points nearby. Worse, their main parking structure is on the opposite side to their head offices, so they've had a shuttle bus operating between them for the past few years due to several accidents with employees trying to cross the road. They've been trying for years to get approval to build a pedestrian overpass, but it seems they've now given up and started on a more expensive (but less disruptive to traffic, which is why the overpass kept getting rejected) tunnel instead.
Maybe that boring project would only boring from a billionaire's perspective, and that it will literally involve boring through a lot of rock and dirt underground. It's still crazy to know that he has enough money to say, "oh I think I will buy a huge tunnel boring machine today" and that's like a pet project to him, as casually as any of us walking to a hardware store to buy a few power tools 
That's my thoughts on it too.
That's my thoughts on it too.
Congrats to SpaceX for another successful launch (from the historic Pad 39A) and landing!
And Elon just loves to troll
And Elon just loves to troll
SpaceX coming in with the announcement to fly two people around the moon. HOLY COW.
I was expecting the announcement to be a planned launch date for Falcon Heavy, or the first Crew Dragon test flight, but this really builds upon those two things in a big way.
And I have a hunch that it will take place in the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8 (first manned flight beyond LEO).
I was expecting the announcement to be a planned launch date for Falcon Heavy, or the first Crew Dragon test flight, but this really builds upon those two things in a big way.
And I have a hunch that it will take place in the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8 (first manned flight beyond LEO).
The ultra-wealthy one-upping each other with ever more expensive supercars, mansions, yachts, etc. is such a waste of resources to me.
If we could get a billionaire version of the "keeping up with the Joneses" but with the side effect of pushing the envelope of manned spaceflight, now that's something I could get behind
If we could get a billionaire version of the "keeping up with the Joneses" but with the side effect of pushing the envelope of manned spaceflight, now that's something I could get behind
It's going to be interesting to see how far the collaboration with NASA can go. No NASA astronauts under the Commercial Crew programme will fly on Dragon 2 until Falcon 9 Block 5 has been flown multiple times and man-rated (recent launches are still Block 3), with no announced plans to ever rate Falcon 9 Heavy for human spaceflight. Even if the commercial passengers are not NASA employees, they will still likely need NASA to train them, assist with long-term PLSS, assist with long-range telemetry (long-duration priority time the on already crowded Deep Space Network), allow pad operations at LC-39A, etc. These are not capabilities SpaceX can reasonably replicate in a two year timespan. Some of these duties could be performed by Roscosmos (who have experience training supernumerary crew for flights to the ISS, and have a limited deep-space tracking network) but that has logistical issues when not launching on a Soyuz from Baikonur (e.g. ITAR issues with sending a Dragon 2 simulator to Star City).
Weird seeing consumer marketing techniques applied to large utility projects:
For context, south Australia is having issues with intermittent power outages, and someone at Tesla suggested they could install a 100MWh battery storage facility within 100 days of signing the contract.
Mr Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Atlassian, called Tesla out on it and Elon (in typical fashion) upped the ante, I'm sure much to the chagrin of the managers who would be responsible for actually making this happen
For context, south Australia is having issues with intermittent power outages, and someone at Tesla suggested they could install a 100MWh battery storage facility within 100 days of signing the contract.
Mr Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Atlassian, called Tesla out on it and Elon (in typical fashion) upped the ante, I'm sure much to the chagrin of the managers who would be responsible for actually making this happen
To be fair, they have hyped the usefulness of their batteries for ppwer infrastructure before, though I think the main method thry suggested was using parked cars for thst when they weren't otherwise in use.
Look at it this way: Even if Tesla 'fail' to do it within the 100 day timeframe, for the cost of a system install they get the most valuable training possible in rapidly rolling out a grid-level buffering system: a live trail in a production environment. Plus, if they can even come close to that sort of timeframe, they can add that both as a selling point, and use it as a stick to beat clients with (because projects dragging on means employees tied up pointlessly).
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