Brevard County, Florida Space ping.Let me know if you want on or off this low volume ping list.
(not associated with the county government)
Posted on 12/07/2014 9:58:28 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. —Never mind rocket launches -- the first rocket landing in Space Coast history is a couple of weeks away, if things work out.
SpaceX is expected to announce this week that the company is bringing in a revolutionary ocean-going landing pad for its next launch.
Looking down the side of the SpaceX rocket, there are landing legs sticking out, and a set of fins – that look a little like tennis racquets – pop out. They’ll guide the rocket as it flies backwards – down, not up – to a perfectly placed landing at the test site.
In a Cape Canaveral hangar is a powerful Falcon 9 rocket, set for launch on Dec. 16. In the Gulf, ready to head for the Cape, is the ocean-going landing pad for the rocket, a converted oil-drilling barge.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said this week its thrusters are repurposed from deep-sea oil rigs to hold its position within 3 meters even in a storm, providing a steady target for the incoming rocket. So when the rocket launches next month, it’ll release a cargo pod filled with supplies for the space station and then return.
Earlier this year, in another SpaceX experiment, the same kind of rocket can be spotted descending through the clouds off the Cape for a practice landing on the ocean surface. The rocket sank, as expected, but with the new landing platform in place, this one may become the first rocket to land after an orbital launch.
If you can recover a rocket, it means you’re not throwing away millions of dollars’ worth of hardware. Launches would cost a fraction, perhaps a tenth, of what they cost now.
So the revolution of landing a rocket could produce a big increase in the launch business – good for the Space Coast if it happens there. But SpaceX is building a new launch pad in Texas, and many of its future launches will happen there.
SpaceX is also sending up satellites for private customers.
NASA does that too.
But SpaceX is much cheaper! Their goal is $500/lb. or possibly even better.
Their goal???????
SpaceX is cool but they are doing what NASA did 40-50 years ago.
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Go to Mars. That’s SpaceX’s goal.
Has the gubmint landed people there yet?
Has SpaceX landed on the moon yet? Have they put a human into space yet? Have they even put something into high orbit?
Maybe SpaceX should be a religion.
Who wants to fly on a rocket that has never flown before? Even the car you buy new has been started. They will also get used to paying for the launch and not the whole vehicle pretty quick.
NASA can’t put anyone in space at all anymore. Want a ride? Call the Russians. You will notice that all their goals have remained comfortably far enough out that they never have to take the trouble achieving them.
How long has SpaceX been around? Certainly not as long as NASA.
Is NASA planning to back to the Moon? No!
They will put people into space when they get the Falcon 9 man-rated which entails fourteen successful flights with the fourteenth being this next launch.
Their Dragon space capsule has to go through a series of refinements and will be ready for a first flight in two to three years. Once this happens they’ll be flying to the ISS, going to the Moon, and Mars.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said... if you can recover a rocket, it means you're not throwing away millions of dollars' worth of hardware. Launches would cost a fraction, perhaps a tenth, of what they cost now.They've reduced launch costs already, simply by re-inventing some wheels in-house. Naturally it's hard for me to criticize what he's saying, because he's shown he knows what he's doing time after time, but IMHO the fact is, payload costs will go up with this part of his approach, because the mass budget for the payload will go down. The workaround will have to be, using more rocket than would ordinarily be needed, in order to orbit the same payload while also carrying the fuel for the landing.
And that is the core of the issue. Bam bam killed NASAs manned flight programs, refocused them on muslim outreach and then handed huge contracts to his friend at SpaceX.
Who killed NASAs plans? Why the same guy who handed the contracts to SpaceX.
NASA still plans to go to an asteroid and to Mars in about 20 to 25 years.
Once again, who killed their plans? Who redirected them to muslim outreach.
Obamy and Bolden!
But I think it’s time to get government out of the space biz.
This is the only decision I have agreed with them on. Let NASA simply double check the space industry’s work similar in practice to the FAA does with the aircraft/flying industry.
Brevard County, Florida Space ping. I used a variation of that line in a newspaper ad to sell a sailboat -- "raced only on Sundays by little old lady" -- worked like a charm.
That’s hilarious!
You oughta go into standup...!
Spacex's design is radically different because Musk's goals are radically different. The Space Shuttle was designed to go into orbit. Musk's vehicles are each stepping stones to go to Mars.
The Space Shuttle, at launch, consisted of the orbiter, a main fuel tank, and two solid rocket motors. The main fuel tank was only used once. The solid rocket motors were reused, but at such a high cost to refurbish them it did not save money over just making disposable solid rocket motors. Only the shuttle orbiter was really reused, and it required expensive maintenance as well.
What Spacex wants to do it greatly increase the reusability. This test soon is to land the first stage back safely in a condition that it can be reused.
SpaceX's crew module, the Dragon, is also going to be reusable, but it is not a glider like the shuttle. The reason it is different is because it is a design that can land on Mars, where a shuttle type glider must have a runway, and a thicker atmosphere.
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