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NEWS Space X nails it!
- Thread starter Flash
- Start date
Wait, so the first time it landed back on Earth, it did it at night? Did anyone ORM this? What about 14 day simulator currency? How was everyone qualified to be on station if they hadn't landed it at night before? And approaches...did everyone have the mins before attempting this? Cowboys.
Also, I thought Mission Control would have been located in Elon's Volcano liar. But California works, too.
Also, I thought Mission Control would have been located in Elon's Volcano liar. But California works, too.
Unfathomable hard hard that is to do. What's almost as impressive is why they would even want to. It has to do with increased re-entry speeds from deep space missions where the landing areas may be huge, and thus mobile..........like an ocean going platform.
Little bit off subject but space related: astronomers are debating "Planet 9". Most of us grew up with 9 planets, then Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet. Scientists are now speculating there is another planet - roughly 10 times the size of Earth - orbiting wayyyyy out - 700 times the distance of our own orbit. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35996813
Dogpatch09
Member
This is awesome, SpaceX is downright inspiring, I can't wait to see the crewed version of Dragon do it's test flight.
It will be good to see SpaceX and the other commercial ventures working alongside with NASA's Orion program - getting the US back into the manned space business. I think that once our space program starts to do exciting things again - like returning to the moon - there will be a lot more public interest than the routine STS or ISS missions.
That would make it "Planet 10"
Neil Degrasse Tyson is an asshole if he thinks he can take Pluto away from us.
Pickle
That would require a capsule like the Dragon to survive reentry. I suppose if those aren't made to splash down, then they would use the ship for that.
What this gets them is on the other end of the mission: launch. The ship gives them the ability to use a bunch more of the first stage's schlitz (delta-V) to give the payload a bigger bag of knots, prior to having to separate the first stage and set up for landing. Or give the same bag of knots to a heavier payload.
If you have a ship out in the middle of the ocean, you can basically fire the first stage in a ballistic arc like an ICBM, and park the ship at the end to catch it. This costs loads less fuel than turning the first stage around and sending it back where it came from. That requires killing all of the downrange velocity, and then adding more to get it going in the other direction. This extra energy can get transferred to the payload, so you can launch heavier payloads or launch to higher orbits.
It's basically energy management, rocket-style.
Also it ensures you get your first stage back and then you can ship it back to your launch facility and refuel and reload it; wash, rinse, repeat.
Yep. I was going more for the "why use a ship, not a landing pad at Cape Kennedy."
I'm interested to see what they find out the turnaround MX requirements are, now that they have another recovered stage to play with.
Probably a lot of reasons...like you mentioned it's easier to catch it down range then return. It's also probably cheaper to put a boat in international waters than it is to try and negotiate a catch site on downrage countries. Additionally, a boat ensures you can do it from different locations and different orbit shots; eg KSC, Vandenberg, etc.
All I can say is if I was on the bridge of a ship right over the horizon to that (and perhaps not up to date on my Notice to Mariners and Safety messages) and seen that thing coming down, there probably would have been a hysterical call to the Old Man and it might have involved the words "aliens" and "repent! repent!"
That's why places that shoot big rockets over the water have range clearance assets such as radar airplanes to make sure Jim Bob isn't out there. The first attempt to launch the ill-fated Antares rocket from Wallops awhile back was scrubbed because of some guy in a sailboat in the hazard area.