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Neonmoon

By Neonmoon
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RamjetFDO
RamjetFDO
RamjetFDO
RamjetFDO

Got a buddy who does launch photography at the cape ... this is one of his (just released):

RamjetFDO
RamjetFDO

Couple more from my launch photography friend ... cool time lapse shots:  

Posted Images

RamjetFDO

RamjetFDO 10575

Posted
Posted

I'm torn here -- 

On one hand - FUCKING BRAVO SPACEX.  That was amazing.  A massive huge success getting the integrated vehicle off the pad, fully through stage one and powered staging, and sub-orbital flight.  Those plasma heating (compression, not "friction", you GenX SpaceX BratPack public affairs dipshits) video feed views were fantastic!

On the other hand - I'm getting very tired of the "oh well, we lost another Starship" casualness.  You are eventually going to run out of taxpayer money (funneled through Elon).

 

image.png.f1ee57215efedd6186b1f494f8eb5f03.png

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locodos

locodos 5387

Posted
Posted (edited)
15 minutes ago, RamjetFDO said:

On the other hand - I'm getting very tired of the "oh well, we lost another Starship" casualness.  You are eventually going to run out of taxpayer money (funneled through Elon).

 

I agree with your sentiment.  It's helpful to consider that other Aerospace Cos just lose that money without launching a thing. 

They just burn that money in the waterfall design process.  Starliner?  When will it fly in production?  

I think that Space X has shown that they can deliver, and perhaps more importantly can capture the public's attention and therefore government cash.   Maybe think of these flights as 75% development 25% marketing

Disclosure:  Fuck Space Elmo

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RamjetFDO

RamjetFDO 10575

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, locodos said:

I agree with your sentiment.  It's helpful to consider that other Aerospace Cos just lose that money without launching a thing. 

They just burn that money in the waterfall design process.  Starliner?  When will it fly in production?  

This is actually a very accurate comparison and I agree with you.  Good points.

I'm just of the age and environment that if you launch something that done-did-blown-up, you didn't succeed... and you weren't celebrated for it.  NOW - having said that - yes, I get that I'm yelling at clouds here and "things are different old man".  SpaceX is doing fantastic things when they do actually succeed.  I just don't want them to fail when people are aboard because of the cavalier attitude they have now in these design/test flights.

Much like sports and military training ... "train like you fight means you fight like you train".  It's an operational mindset that was burned into me that I don't think commercial space (in general, but SpaceX specifically since they're the most visible right now) has with their operational teams.  

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horncyclist

horncyclist 1387

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Posted

Isn't that their whole approach? To take risks in order to gather real-world data that in the end leads to faster development than if they just kept refining on the ground. It's a move fast and break things sort of mentality and seems to be the reason for their vast lead over all other commercial space.  Look at how they  learned to land the Falcon 9 boosters. I don't think it's a "cavalier attitude," it's calculated risks and when people on board blowing things up is okay.

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RamjetFDO

RamjetFDO 10575

Posted
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20 hours ago, horncyclist said:

Isn't that their whole approach? 

100%.  And as I agreed with @locodos above, it's working for them on their commercial space unmanned product line.

 

Quote

I don't think it's a "cavalier attitude," it's calculated risks and when people on board blowing things up is okay.

Ah... here we go.  "Two things can be true at the same time".  

It's ABSOLUTELY a cavalier attitude that has permeated everything that SpaceX does.  I know guys who work there that I trust, and they're very worried.  They see the social-media-driven generation making decisions based on public and fanboi positive comments rather than taking just a little bit longer and doing things right.  Do you think the technical oversight of not launching IFT-1 with flame trench deflectors was because of anything other than GO-fever and not wanting to be embarrassed on Twitter/X?  A total sense of "we know what we're doing, to hell with those old guys" hubris?

Trust me on this one ... NASA's not immune either.  The Apollo guys didn't have this problem, because they were also pretty much the Mercury/Gemini guys.  On Shuttle, we had a transition where a lot of the Apollo guys were on the way out, but some were still there to try to pass along the culture and the mindset.  Challenger happened just as much because of the bad decisions, misdirected focus, and not applying basic cockpit resource management to the decision processes as due to the technical design flaw.  That was a slap in the face and we learned... until we didn't again with Columbia.  

If you think that this culture of backwards-cap-wearing on console, fanboi-screaming adoration, and casually claiming "success" when failure is the real outcome won't come to bite SpaceX in the ass one day... you're misreading history.  There's nothing wrong with staring out by saying "hey, we're disappointed at the failure of the Heavy booster not performing on flyback and we're puzzled and more than a bit worried about what happened with Starship" and then going on to say, but we'll learn from what did go right, fix what went wrong, and those things won't happen again... but that's not even close to the public presentation that they're putting out there.

The story, sadly, is unfolding in front of us unless something changes and soon.

Again - I WANT them to succeed... but I see what's happening based on history and experience.

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Armybrat

Armybrat 40822

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yep, the current crop of rocketeers in Boca Chica probably think the Navy’s Vanguard program was a success because the engine ignited at the end of the countdown in 1957 and eventually achieved orbit in 3 of 7 attempts.

 

 

E6BDBD29-2F1F-4A6E-965E-118A64D02EF5.webp

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RamjetFDO

RamjetFDO 10575

Posted
Posted

This was a FAR sight better all around for the vehicle performance.

The "realtime plasma cam" was absolutely spellbinding.  I loved every second of that... and yes, what a surprise... plasma "finds a way" through gaps (that pivot point for the forward flap was an obvious plasma pathway), but it was very impressive to see how well it withstood those incredible temps/pressures anyway.

Once again, though, I find my blood boiling at the absolute giggle fest of the SpaceX commentary team.  While that plasma burn-through on the flap was happening, my mind was thinking about Columbia, and this giggling buffoon was adding nothing at all to the feed.  They did a better job (at least at first) of turning *DOWN* the volume of the fanboi crowd screams, but seemed to ramp the volume up again at the end.

Overall?  Great job, SpaceX.  You're almost there.

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Dahobbs

Dahobbs 17526

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9 minutes ago, elfenix said:

maybe i got the wrong idea, swear everyday astronaut said they'd left tiles off at that location

They had cameras at that location because they knew it would be a hot spot. They already changed the location of the flaps for that reason. They left tiles off in other, non critical areas. 

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Armybrat

Armybrat 40822

Posted
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An acquaintance who live in Las Vegas just posted these photos this morning…

Quote

Talk about a lucky moment…
Just as we were driving out of our neighborhood I spotted what looked like a rocket launching across the sky.
Stopped the car and captured these shots…it was a Space X launch from Vandenberg.

 

IMG_3356.jpeg

IMG_3357.jpeg

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RPM

RPM 26317

Posted
Posted (edited)

 

Liftoff of Super Heavy Booster 12 and Starship 30 for Starship Flight 5 is expected for 7:25 a.m. CDT / 12:25 UTC (see countdown in the upper left corner).

 

Edited by RPM
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Hagbard Celine

Hagbard Celine 10851

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i didn't read the rocket report last week so i had no idea the faa was considering the permit for sunday sunrise

really sad i missed this

kudos to abc news, they showed it again on monday as the last story at 5:58 to close the program

love or hate him, but musk has just rendered every other space program on the planet worthless for any purpose other than maintaining independent launch capability for national security payloads

sunday was the biggest revolution in rocketry since the successful launch of apollo 4 in november 1967

falcons 9 and heavy are spacex v1.0

i am unable to conjure the words that concisely describe reusing starship

fIJlJkEkIyBUSDqBlpX3inrBZJQsiM4oXDmv8Rb7XGg.thumb.webp.a6dd7e89010e717e095ac06eebe75601.webp

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utbone04

utbone04 15

Posted
Posted
On 10/16/2024 at 9:32 PM, Hagbard Celine said:

this article is fantastic and needs to be memorialized

this guy finds the words

https://www.aei.org/articles/moores-law-meet-musks-law-the-underappreciated-story-of-spacex-and-the-stunning-decline-in-launch-costs/

Yep exactly. This video from Wendover 6 years ago also describes this economic revolution in the space flight industry by SpaceX very well. As Sam said, just imagine a new $2000 car, a new $100 laptop, or a new $70 iphone..... that is what SpaceX and Elon have been and are achieving with within the space industry.

 

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