Posted on 04/21/2014 6:36:31 AM PDT by Robe
SpaceX says it made two key strides toward the eventual reusability of the Falcon 9 rocket this week with the controlled splashdown of the rocket's first stage in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceflightnow.com ...
And the video showed what looked like a payloadless booster taking off and landing all inside less that a couple thousand feet.
The first time they test fired a motor, Space X didn’t announce it. Scared the crap out of the people in McGregor.
To me, it’s the sound of progress.
/johnny
/johnny
Parachutes are cheaper than propellant.
The Shuttle solid rocket boosters were recovered from the ocean and reused, but SpaceX has plans to return their boosters to dry land. Elon Musk says if they have to do a lot of refurbishing work it won’t be profitable.
Ok. My bad....I looked at thread title, and clicked to see the video that was advertised, and I made some assumptions - mea culpa. But tell me, should I have to match up the story narrative (linked) with the video (mentioned in the title, but not the real video that was intended?)
It’s an old cliché, but the carpets really should match the drapes. :o)
/johnny
That’s okay....I got caught up in the hype of the video and didn’t read the fine print :o) Democrat politicians and government is a lot like that too... take care. I’ll shut my mouth and let others here who really think it’s neat to discuss it. I guess I just got too jaded about the whole Shuttle thing and lived through all the promises when it was first like this.
Fortunately, SpaceX can't lie it's ass off like NASA did.
One of the guys that SpaceX hired from NASA made a suggestion about something technical, and he was told "So do it". Freaked him out.
He said that at NASA, his suggestion would have led to a formal report, which would have been reviewed by a committee, which might have written a report to add a possible agenda item to an agenda meeting where something might get discussed.
It's a whole different world.
/johnny
that night we had some kind of weird weather inversion and it forced the sound down, so it sounded considerably louder and add to it a reddish orange glow. I think more than beer was spilled.
Made the local news
/johnny
We’ve heard all this equivocation and optimism before - it was call the Shuttle.
You missed something...
"We were able to control the boost stage to a zero roll rate, which is previously what has destroyed the stage -- uncontrolled roll where the on-board nitrogen thrusters weren't able to control the aerodynamic torque and spun up," Musk said. "This time, with more powerful thrusters and more nitrogen propellant, we were able to null the roll rates."
“And the video showed ...”
And that is why you should have read the article.
The VIDEO was hyped in the thread title.
“The VIDEO was hyped in the thread title.”
If all you are going to read is the title then limit your comments to the title.
Actually, I did get around to reading the article after it was pointed out that the video and the narrative of the story weren’t exactly one in the same. I also read about various stages of success in the separate tests.
I think my original suppositions about the difficulty of the video land based landing and a water landing hold. In the narrative they are talking about survivability and retrieval from sea.
Regardless, I’m not going to bother anyone here any more with it.
Somehow this fact was missed. The waves destroyed it moments later.
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