Posted on 12/21/2015 5:37:27 PM PST by Trueblackman
The Falcon 9 Rocket cleared the tower at 8:29 EST and the rocket seem on point to deliver its payload into space as the first stage is on point to return for a landing tonight with the landing burn coming up
Would love to see a friendly rivalry between them.
I thought I read it would hit 157 km altitude before falling back. Having witnessed it, I can assure you it gained some altitude before the return.
I think they’re saying if the rocket was scaled down to the height of a pencil, then it’s proportional altitude would have been equivalent to the height of the Empire State Building.
It went quite a wayz before we noticed the seperation. Orange plume all the way up, then a poof and blue plume. We could see the booster fall away. Lost sight of it for about thirty seconds...then the boosters fired as she was coming down.
This thing was cookin, I mean traveling very fast back to earth. As it got close to the cape, the boosters fired again and appeared to right the rocket. It then slowly decended vertically to the launch pad.
It was truly amazing to watch a rocket land back on the pad.
Bezoz IS building an orbital rocket. Also, the engine for that rocket was selected to replace the Russian engines in the United Launch Alliance’s rockets. Blue Origin is moving at its own pace, but it is doing good things.
Don’t kid yourself. The Falcon 9 and other models in the new wave of private venture rockets are based on decades of scientific and engineering work by NASA and the US military. Guided by veteran rocket engineers — and unlike NASA and the military — the Falcon relies on a design philosophy of low cost reliability. Notably, the one major Falcon innovation — the return landing of the booster — has proven troublesome. Mastering that trick will unlock billions in economic value.
Thanks. What a weird analogy. You’d think almost everybody would understand “it went 100 miles high”
I saw it from 200 miles away. The ascent seemed more vertical than usual. I also thought the reentry burn was brighter than the launch burn. It’s great to see history with my own eyes.
Always wondered why they didn’t build Moon Base and Setup a large Diameter Telescope.
Hubble can see things we never knew existed. Imagine a Telescope 10X as large with no Atmospheric distortion.
Maybe I saw the Movie “2001” way too many times. LOL
Replay video here:
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/
The history making 1st stage landing starts at about 31:45 into the video.
I was confused by their analogy too, at first I thought they were saying the rocket only went up 1000 ft, and I thought that would only be about 10 times the length of the rocket. It would have to be a pretty slow moving rocket to be able to stop at such a low altitude!
They both are doing good things. Hat tip to both.
Yeah, that’s exactly what I took away from the cartoon. For it to reach only 6X its height, it would have had to have been made of lead and carried almost no fuel.
I saw 2001 in the 80s in a 70mm theater that was bigger than most IMAX theaters today. Watching the Pan-Am space shuttle dock with the space station to the music of the Blue Danibe in that theater was an experience I will never forget.
Saw it at the Cinerama Theater in Hollywood.
Sat about ten rows back from the Screen. It enveloped you.
The Special Effects were amazing for the time period.
There are no other buyers for the Dragon vehicle. The entire program has been funded, albeit in a somewhat different commercial contract that does place the risk on SpaceX, by NASA. In the hopes that a low cost vehicle to low earth orbit will be the end result, but the ~3 billion dollars NASA has paid to SpaceX since the program start is still government funds. But better SpaceX than Russia.
Yes indeed. Well done, Space X!
That must have been so cool.
Bezos’ rocket went straight up and came straight back down which is much, MUCH easier than landing a rocket from LEO.
In the future he’ll be landing the second stage and the capsule.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSF81yjVbJE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf_-g3UWQ04
Time for an Americas Space Cup that the billionaires can compete for. ;-)
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