Posted on 12/28/2017 6:12:09 AM PST by Kaslin
I feel like I’m reading the transcripts from the Muppet Show with the two old cratchety old critics watching the stage just complaining and complaining some more
The power plants are solid. The Merlin 1D engines are an engineering marvel and a solid win in the column for US space superiority. All they've done is strap three cores together and done the math. All signs point to this being a success.
Elon is simply hedging, and there are no contract payloads or human beings being sent up on the the maiden voyage; just Elon's Tesla roadster. If it succeeds or fails, they'll have tomes of data to pore over before the next flight, and that flight will likely consist of contract payloads, not humans.
The Falcon Heavy and BFR are man-rated. That doesn't mean they're only sending human beings. It means that they could.
SpaceX and Blue Horizons doing what they're doing, regardless of financial backing, is nothing but good for America. The Russians are consistently suffering setbacks with their space program due to mechanical or human errors while America is reemerging as the preeminent standard-bearer for space flight.
I wish Elon and Bezos nothing but the best of luck in their endeavors. I hope to one day take a trip around the moon, and they may be the ones to send me there.
She did not used to be. And I still have not forgiven her for her incredibly disrespectful rendition of our National Anthem a few years back.
So make insurance part of the contract. If the launch does not proceed as planned, then Musk pays out the cost of the satellite. Doing that will exclude unreliable low-bidders (at least after the first failure).
And, in 2012 she ran for president with Cindy Sheehan as her running mate. She has a way to go to convince me she is not a leftist in sheep’s clothing.
The Saturn 5 was 310,000 lbs including sending 107,100 lbs of that payload to Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI). If it had been all just to LEO then the payload could have been higher still. A trans-lunar injection (TLI) is a propulsive maneuver used to set a spacecraft on a trajectory that will cause it to arrive at the Moon.
The consequence of adding reusable technology will mean that the Falcon Heavy will have a reduced payload to GTO. But, that will mean it will take longer to get a particular project assembled in orbit.
If we are going to go into space at all Musky's vehicles will actually save many millions of dollars on what would otherwise be all taxpayer funded. Cutting off incentives such as matching funds, grants, prizes just disincentives private businesses in the first place, leaving the tax payers to foot the bill, else vacate the whole notion that the US is great, or will be anything at all in the future other than a dumping ground for Chinese goods.
Space is expensive - especially when new things are being developed and only gets cheaper when the tech is mature.
Of course if you really want to go cheap, there is always the 1963 Project Orion, which had not there been a total failure of political will, would have by now have explored all the planets in the system, colonized some of them, and had a return mission from Alpha Centuri as the ships were capable of 50% light speed. See this FR article for more on OrionStudy: Martian Surface Water Was Absorbed by Planet’s Crust
FYI, your Mars article link doesn’t work...
SpaceX is saving taxpayer dollars.
SpaceX says the Falcon Heavy will debut in January 2018, but in reality, who knows – it also said it would launch in 2013 or 2014, Spring of 2016, and late 2017. Earlier this year, SpaceX was estimated to have a $10 billion backlog of over 70 missions, and it continues to experience regular mission delays. The Falcon Heavy seems to be just another chapter in the textbook of the company’s broken promises, and a long one at that.
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The author is either ignorant or deceptive. The single core Falcon 9 has been upgraded over the years and has already carried payloads originally intended for the Falcon Heavy.
And in spite of not meeting his usually optimistic forecasts Musk is still way ahead of the competition.
Yes SpaceX is launching a Falcon Heavy with novelty cargo.
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If the launch is a success, Musk and his companies will receive a fortune in free publicity in the coming years. It reminds me of something Trump would do.
The consequence of adding reusable technology will mean that the Falcon Heavy will have a reduced payload to GTO.
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The FH can also launch as an expendable with more payload and still be cost effective compared to the competition. While FH will have two thirds the thrust of the Saturn, I think the Saturn carried a lot more fuel and had three stages.
Unfortunately, no. They DO have the Dragon 2 capsule in development, and that WILL transport humans. But...they have yet to carry humans aloft.
If anyone can beat NASA to getting a manned mission to orbit anytime soon, it's SpaceX.
Personally, I'm excited to see if Falcon Heavy can do what Musk says it can. When it launches, I'll do my best to be watching.
Yup.
30 years after launch, we’re still talking about the Voyager 1 “golden record” (limited-release reproductions sold recently).
If the first Falcon Heavy uses the usual concrete block as test payload, it will be forgotten; with the “Elon’s cherry Tesla Roadster Space Oddity” onboard, it will be discussed for decades (someday someone will even try to go get it).
Capitalism gets odd at times, but it _works_.
Yeah that’s right about the S5. Still there are many of us that would like to see the S5 reborn, but we are just wishing - couldn’t build it now if we tried.
Perhaps the BFR will actually work and the US can get back in the game. But then ... I read a year or two ago that the Russians are developing a new type of rocket tech which would equal or superseed the BFR - how far along that project is now, I have no idea.
I’m with ya there
Wow, what an aggregation of negative connotations. From this article, you’d think SpaceX has never accomplished a thing, or that nobody else’s rockets ever blew up. Despite NASA’s judgment that landing a rocket on its tailfins was forever impossible, SpaceX spent billions of taxpayer dollars and crashed rocket after rocket. Yep. And now SpaceX has landed 20 consecutive rockets.
NASA is proud that there has been NOT ONE launch failure of the Space Launch System after 15 years of development.
Maybe we can get technical assistance from North Korea. The Norks rocket program seems advanced these days. extreme sarcasm.
Yeah those two fruit loops on American Pickers
NASA = Need Another Seven Astronauts X Two
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