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LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby Johan G » Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:38 pm

Just now stumbled upon this livestream on YouTube

Launch is in 20-ish minutes.

It's guaranteed to be exciting. :wink:




Elon Musk about the launch:



Edit:

The post-launch stream is quite something too. :mrgreen:

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Re: LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby wlbragg » Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:57 pm

I've tear in my eyes. What a boost to the world this is!
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Re: LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby Catalanoic » Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:18 pm

It was perfect!! brutal launch, separation and then side cores landed without problems. need to know if the central core landed correctly. meanwhile our starman on the red car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M
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Re: LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby Johan G » Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:27 pm

Yeah, that dual sidebooster landing was one of the more amazing things I have ever seen, right up there with SpaceX's first successful booster landing.

I absolutely did ot expect the launch to go that well, though that was what hoping and praying for.

Truly historical stuff. 8-)
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Re: LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby www2 » Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:08 am

Love the launch.
Current i watch the adventures of Starman.
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Re: LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby wlbragg » Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:46 am

Starman looks a bit anxious to me!
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Re: LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby wkitty42 » Wed Feb 07, 2018 2:36 pm

Catalanoic wrote in Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:18 pm:need to know if the central core landed correctly.

the central core is completely destroyed... it ran out of starter so only one engine fired instead of three... as a result, it impacted the ocean (i've seen various distances) ~100 feet from the drone ship at 300 mph... i don't think they'll be able to use it again ;)
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Re: LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby Catalanoic » Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:43 pm

i think they avoided the autonomous ship to don't destroy it as no fuel for secure landing. maybe some don't expect too much from that rocket configuration because no actual case business but 'til first flights of BFR sometime 2020-23 we can see a lot of FH launches reusing some of the flight proven F9 boosters and expertise reusability and fly from more launch pads (texas, ...). No lunar flyby with FH or Red Dragon capsule marshoot, i think better to focus on manned ISS operations, maintain insanely launch rate and develop BFR, if no long-lasted setbacks on this first two milestones we can see BFR on proposed timeline. 8)
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Re: LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby Thorsten » Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:49 pm

I seem to be the only one to entertain a healthy dose of skepticism, but... if someone claims to be able to do something much cheaper than the competition, the first thing I wonder - have there been cuts on things like... safety?

The Space Shuttle flew a grand total of 135 missions and two vehicles were lost - one during ascent, one during entry. Generally that was perceived as 'a lot' - and as contributing factors were cited NASA's desire to please commercial customers by competing with other space agencies and to 'launch every time on time'.

So far, one Falcon has exploded during ascent, another re-fueling - out of 48 launches - already a good three times more explosion-prone than the Shuttle.

The landing record of the spent stages seems quite a bit more dismal than of the Shuttle. A center stage crashing into the recovery barge and heavily damaging it? I wonder if everyone had cheered if Columbia would have crashed into the VAB while trying to land in Kennedy Space Center on the grounds that the crew managed to bail out and at least the two boosters were recovered intact.

I recently read the SpaceX manned capsule did not get certified because it could not meet the safety limits of NASA (which these days accept the loss of a manned craft every 270 flights... which would mean NASA thinks losing one Shuttle was sort of halfway okay, just the second was too much...)

So no, the Falcons don't blow every launch - that's not how statistics works. You might expect one in twenty to blow if they keep going at the current track record and don't get more reckless. Which might be acceptable for commercial payloads (or not) - but anyone wants to go to Mars with that kind of Russian roulette?

Sorry, I see a rather clear picture emerging how the near-miraculous 'success' of SpaceX is achieved - it seems the pattern is all too familiar from the wonderful world of business...
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Re: LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby wlbragg » Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:17 pm

Manned VS unmanned for one. Testing VS application for another.
I wouldn't even think about putting a person on this thing until it has a track record. How do you get that track record, re-supply? How do you get it for the for the "heavy"?
If we learn more from our mistakes than our successes and we have the money to afford to keep making mistakes until we get it right, then so long as a safety factor is in place until we reach that point, I see it as a learning curve. NASA has been doing this for how long and at what price? You think we would have the automobiles we have now days if NASA had been the only designer and entity that was working the industry? Is this perfect, no, is it going to get people killed, probably. Kind of the nature of the game I think. After all, this is rocket science.

I recall 3 astronauts burning up on the launchpad too, that statistically at that time probably made it look like the odds weren't to good and the risk extreme. They learned that lesson pretty quick and at a very high price.

I agree with you in principal though, both Shuttle accidents were avoidable. The data was there, but they were pressured and in a hurry.

It would be interesting to know the true nature and scale of these things in the Russian program, or any other program for all that matters.
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Re: LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby Thorsten » Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:24 pm

Don't ask about the early Russian space program - this was insane. Gagarin had to jump out of Vostok-1 with a parachute because there was no landing concept. They got so incredibly lucky in so many situations, it's breathtaking. Though the Russian moon rocket never made it into orbit - it blew a few times, so finally statistics caught up with them.

Well, I guess my counter-argument is that air travel is very safe these days because airlines are prevented from competing by lowering safety standards because they just get grounded if they do - so they have to compete in other areas.
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Re: LIVE SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Postby Lydiot » Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:20 am

Johan G wrote in Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:27 pm:Yeah, that dual sidebooster landing was one of the more amazing things I have ever seen, right up there with SpaceX's first successful booster landing.


Yeah. Definitely.
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