Wow! SpaceX Lands Orbital Rocket Successfully in Historic First

Space.com ^ | 21DEC2015 | Mike Wall

[Jack Hydrazine]

Videos at link.

[Jack Hydrazine]

See this other thread about it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3375370/posts

[Moonman62]

Another related thread.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3375177/posts

[Jack Hydrazine]

Other news articles here.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/21/news/companies/spacex-launch-rocket-landing/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/science/spacex-rocket-landing.html?_r=0

http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/news/a18682/spacex-nails-a-vertical-landing-at-cape-canaveral/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/12/21/elon-musks-spacex-pulls-off-dramatic-historic-landing/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/12062912/SpaceX-succeeds-in-historic-in-rocket-launch-and-landing-live.html

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/12/spacex-rtf-core-return-attempt-og2/

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2015/12/21/watch-live-spacex-falcon-9-launch-landing-cape-canaveral-air-force-station-orbcomm/77722448/

[Jack Hydrazine]

Here is the vision Elon and SpaceX have for reusable rockets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSF81yjVbJE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf_-g3UWQ04

I can’t find the video, but he does show the Dragon capsule landing on Mars.

[Forgotten Amendments]

Are they taking 3rd grade science projects into space, lecturing us on climate change and solidarity with the Muslim faith? And, oh yeah, blowing up a crew every couple of decades to give a President a chance to make a real cool speech?

If not, they'll probably be outlawed in the USSA.

[Jack Hydrazine]

A Dragon on Mars! Elon Musk backs Nasa plan to send SpaceX capsule on sample return mission in 2020
15SEP2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3235880/Elon-Musk-details-mission-Mars-SpaceX-founder-Nasa-plan-send-Red-Dragon-capsule-sample-return-mission-2020.html

[Jack Hydrazine]

I wouldn’t be surprised if DC somehow puts the kibosh on man traveling to other worlds. That means they would lose control and they aren’t going to have any of that.

[Moonman62]

I think I remember him saying the Dragon can deliver rovers to Mars using the abort rockets for a soft landing.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Red Dragon (spacecraft)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dragon_(spacecraft)

(excerpt)
Red Dragon is a proposed modified SpaceX Dragon capsule for low-cost Mars lander missions using Falcon Heavy rockets. Proposed uses call for a sample return Mars rover to be delivered to the Martian surface while also testing techniques to enter the Martian atmosphere with equipment a human crew could eventually use.[1][2]

[Monty22002]

These guys are the right stuff!

[Jack Hydrazine]

SpaceX Makes History- Dec 21 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m813ddoMx2A

[Jack Hydrazine]

Launch of Falcon 9 Full Thrust on Return to Flight OG-2 Mission
22 minute video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRLPGptow80

[Jack Hydrazine]

ORBCOMM-2 Full Launch Webcast
45 minute video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5bTbVbe4e4

[dsrtsage]

Glad to meet somebody as old and cynical and crotchety as myself (and I am still in my 40’s)...I am an engineer by trade, and by the nature of my many projects I am involved in, I keep up as best as I can with the latest science and technology on a daily basis....I assume from your level of snark you are about my age and some kind of REAL CLASSICAL STEM as well, perhaps even Apollo level?

[Kirkwood]

I neve understood why they wasted time trying to land on a pitching barge deck.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Safety reasons.

[Forgotten Amendments]

I'm old school & grew up in the ‘60s LOVING NASA in the Gemini era, knowing all the astronauts names, and drinking Tang!

Alas, like every bureaucracy, NASA became ... well ... you know. :(

So has the CIA. And now, the Marines.

You want to talk old and crotchety???

;)

[ctdonath2]

Probably couldn’t get permission for anywhere remotely close to populations until they darn near nailed the landing way out in the ocean.