SpaceX finally nails a droneship landing!

[jeshikat]

Sat is healthy!

Yaay they did it this time! A little annoying that the rocket would've been good to go on both previous launch attempts, but better safe than sorry.

Yeah, it must suck for people who try to see the launch in person. But that's rocket launches for you.

 

[EdZ]

Less than 24h to go!

 

[jtd871]

Don't know if the suit is functional, but I'll predict now that somebody will write a work of fiction that has the protagonist happening across the suit to use in a (unrealistically convenient) escape/rescue scenario (similar to the conveniently left-behind scuba tank in For Your Eyes Only).

Most likely suspect: Star-Lord in a future Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, as this plot element was shamelessly used in both installments thus far.
2nd most-likely suspect: Dominic Teretto in a future Fast and the Furious sequel, with the bonus that he drives the car into either the villain's spacecraft or crashes it into the villain's secret Martian base.
3rd most-likely suspect: Mark Watney in "Return of the Martian" Plot spoiler: Turns out he left his Bitcoin wallet on a thumb drive in the habitation module.

 

[confusis]

It's amazing that the current space race isn't country vs country, it's company vs company. The Falcon heavy launch is hot on the heels of RocketLab's recent launch from New Zealand, which on their second ever launch, got a commercial satellite into orbit, as well as the Humanity Star.

 

[EdZ]

It's amazing that the current space race isn't country vs country, it's company vs company. The Falcon heavy launch is hot on the heels of RocketLab's recent launch from New Zealand, which on their second ever launch, got a commercial satellite into orbit, as well as the Humanity Star.

There's also Bezos' Blue Origin. Who seemed to have abandoned their previous motto of "Gradatim Ferociter" and intend to jump straight from their current 'New Shepherd' vehicle - a single-stage single-engine sounding rocket with a TWR diallable below 1 for a gentle hover landing - to New Glenn: a super-heavy-lift orbital class multi-stage multi-engine booster with an enormously higher entry velocity, landing TWR >1 (requiring a hoverslam), using different propellants (Methalox vs. Hydrolox) and different engine cycles (full-flow staged combustion vs. combustion tap-off) for the booster stage.

 

[Phuncz]

It's amazing that the current space race isn't country vs country, it's company vs company. The Falcon heavy launch is hot on the heels of RocketLab's recent launch from New Zealand, which on their second ever launch, got a commercial satellite into orbit, as well as the Humanity Star.

Apple's even building a circular space ship they call their campus. We all know it's going to be an Ark for Mars.

 

[AleksandarK]

He just keeps teasing.

 

[CC Ricers]

Everything's looking good on the maiden flight. And the side cores landed in synchronization! That means the animation for that wasn't just artistic liberty to show off.

 

[EdZ]

Yep, I guess the 'insider info' was one-for-two: no on the 15-sec sequence separation between side booster post-stage events, but yes to the stack flying 'vertically' rather than 'flat' like Delta IV Heavy does.

 

[jtd871]

Photo of "starman" in the roadster reminds me of the opening sequence in the animated film Heavy Metal.

 

[EdZ]

Livestream of Starman in orbit: