SpaceX is doing a launch today. This is starting to get routine. https://www.space.com/37780-spacex-nasa-cargo-launch-crs-12-webcast.html
These look pretty funky - SpaceX crew pressure suits, not designed for spacewalk so can be lighter and more aesthetic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...chnology:homepage/card&utm_term=.c8be0b73d966
Ron Paul hates SpaceX, because by allowing them to bid on government rocket launches is anti-competitive, even though, prior to this, only one company was launching payloads for the government. https://arstechnica.com/science/201...-paul-has-taken-to-fox-news-to-skewer-spacex/
It's very nicely edited to the musical score. Inspiring. Makes me want to go out and blow up something. ETA: Sousa's march "The Liberty Bell" was also the theme song to Monty Python's Flying Circus. I thought it sounded familiar.
I never realized that The Liberty Bell called for anvil in the last stanza (makes sense -- it's representing the Bell), despite playing in band a few times. Love that march.
Musk wants to send colonists to Mars starting in 2024 using a "big fucking rocket." https://www.space.com/38313-elon-musk-spacex-fly-people-to-mars-2024.html
that's some audacious shit. I'd have said maybe in 100 years. Maybe in a Heinlein novel. 7 years? Collecting underpants?
Musk's other plans for his Big Fucking Rocket. This raises some interesting questions, if he's able to pull it off. In one of his novels, Robert Heinlein said, "The shortest distance between two points is time." If it becomes faster to take a trip from NYC to Tokyo (for example), than it does NYC and DC, someone might decide that they'd rather vacation in Tokyo, instead of DC. (Because you're unlikely to be able to catch a rocket between NYC and DC.) What kind of shift in travel patterns might we see? Would a business in Syndey be more likely to forge closer ties with a city/business in a place like England than they would in Perth, because while they're physically closer, it's faster to get to the UK, than it is the other side of the country? Is there going to be an increase in people traveling to the opposite sides of the globe, since you're no longer on a plane for extended periods of time? What happens when one of these things crashes (as it inevitably will)?
Depends on the cost. If it's another Concord it won't be economically feasible. Could get interesting. Could make the next generation SSTs irrelevant.
3rd this month. It's become mundane. When they launch a "heavy" it will be time to tune in again. Unless of course something 'splodes in the meantime.
It's kinda cool (source): “I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future,” he wrote on Twitter. After some confusion Saturday over whether he was serious or not, the plan was confirmed by the company, which appeared to be taken aback that it was tweeted out seemingly spontaneously. SpaceX, which had hoped to launch Falcon Heavy years ago, has said that after several delays it would finally launch in January from Launch Complex 39A, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the site of many of NASA’s historic Apollo and space shuttle launches. The Falcon Heavy is an incredibly complex vehicle, with 27 engines, all of which have to be fired at once. This year, Musk conceded that the rocket was “way, way more difficult than we originally thought. We were pretty naïve about that.” It's so complex that the chances of it blowing up on its maiden flight were high. “I hope it makes it far enough away from the pad that it does not cause pad damage. I would consider even that a win,” he said. “Major pucker factor, really. There’s no other way to describe it.”
SpaceX freaked out LA last night. My Facebook feed was filled with people who were certain the government was spraying mind control chemicals. This, I have to say, is an awesome pic of the flight.
They've parked a Falcon Heavy on the pad at KSC. They're going to do some tests, and then Musk's sending that puppy towards Mars. https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/28/falcon-heavy-raised-on-pad-39a-for-first-time/
He's not sending a puppy! He's sending a Tesla to Mars. The acronym FH makes my internal voice say, "Fuckin' Heavy." Elon is hedging his bets. I think somewhere he's quoted as saying a RUD is the likely outcome of the first FH launch. Building this was a lot more tricky than they thought it would be.
Some obfuscation concerning yesterday's government sekret launch. Seems either it is lost in space, burned up entering the earth's atmosphere (2nd stage failure), or was entirely successful. In a statement issued Tuesday morning, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said: "For clarity: after review of all data to date, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night. If we or others find otherwise based on further review, we will report it immediately." Maybe it's using a cloaking device. I hope Elon hired Gwynne entirely on the basis of her surname.
I think the best way to tell which scenario is correct is to see if SpaceX continues to launch on a regular schedule.
Based on what is publicly known, I think that the most likely scenario is that whatever government agency put the payload together stuffed up and it didn't separate from the second stage correctly. The coolest idea (which I think unlikely) is that the payload was some experimental drop pod, testing the ability to drop down to a location from orbit and it was never intended to be up for more than one orbit.
