Posted on 12/22/2015 2:46:25 AM PST by WhiskeyX
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Monday with a payload of communications satellites before the reusable main-stage booster turned around, soared back to Cape Canaveral and landed safely near its launch pad in a dramatic spaceflight first.
The successful mission, capped by delivery of all 11 satellites to orbit for launch customer ORBCOMM Inc (ORBC.O), unfolded in just over 30 minutes and marked a pivotal reversal of fortunes for privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, founded by high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Cheers for the SpaceX team!
USA is now far in the lead in space.
Best news in a long, long time.
Hey, I guess we can thank Obola for giving us the private US space industry.
“Hey, I guess we can thank Obola for giving us the private US space industry.”
It was in the works long before Obama became a Federal politician.
There, fixed it...
The tone of the Rooters report is so biased...referring to the “reversal of fortune”!
So how is SpaceX doing on their Muslim outreach? /s
The Russians and Chinese have human space missions....we don’t. Not that we couldn’t if we really wanted to. But until we go BACK....we are not in any lead
Space-x has a manned capsule in the works to ferry astronauts to the space station. Should be ready in the next 18 months. Their ultimate goal is a trip to Mars.
This technology has implications FAR beyond saving money on launches . . . One of the requirements for establishing a base on the Moon or on Mars is the ability to do carefully targeted landings by resupply craft. We need to do better than the 9-by-55-mile oval characteristic of our Mars probes; at the same time, the occupants of a base would like to be sure the resupply craft wouldn’t land right on top of the base. If this technology can set a resupply craft down adjacent to (but not on top of) a base structure, that’s a considerable advancement.
In my book he’s a FECAL politician.
Heinlein is happy now.
I know what we have and what we need and agree with both your ideas about what we have and what we need.
We still need a to orbit platform before we stopped the shuttle program (not a huge fan of the shuttle program but it worked and was still working when zer0 $h!7-canned it.
Here is another video of the landing shot from a closer range.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCBE8ocOkAQ
As put by the team after the landing: “USA! USA! USA!”
It’s like something out of a scifi movie to watch that booster land. Neat.
Talk about a bulls eye landing!!! Thank you for the video link.
Well, I have traveled East,
And I have traveled West.
And I hope to travel some more.
But, I HAVE NEVER seen anything like that before!
TAXMAN BRAVO ZULU TO THE ENTIRE SPACEX TEAM!
America’s greatness had to go underground—into private sector—Good job SpaceX Team! Next stop Flash Gordon’s spaceship then its on to Mongo (or Mars)
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