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Posted

Cross-posting from Nerdz due to higher traffic:

Does anybody know the direction that the rocket will go on tonight's California launch?  A few years back, I could see one from my backyard and it gave me a woodie.  

Posted

Beautiful clear night here, and yes, I saw it.  
Last night launch from Vandenburg I saw very bright light.  This time, it was mostly a really red light. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Gil Bang said:

Beautiful clear night here, and yes, I saw it.  
Last night launch from Vandenburg I saw very bright light.  This time, it was mostly a really red light. 

I went outside to look, no joy.  I’m in Point Loma though.  North County obviously better 

Posted

Legitimately historic launch tonight. First ever all-civilian orbital flight, and they're going to get some spectacular views out of the new panoramic cupola.

On a personally selfish note, they're also doing some experiments on motion sickness mitigation along with a ton of other human spaceflight health data collection. Even doing some cool stuff testing the feasibility of using an ultrasonic emitter and sensor paired with an iphone to do scans of organs while in orbit. 

Solving long-term human spaceflight problems. Doing some damn near sci fi shit. Makes me feel like a kid getting so excited 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Blotto said:

supercool shit. those getups they are wearing need some work. 

Lol those vacuum rated flight and space suits? Better than the Boeing smurf suits at least imo

Anyone got a spare couple hundred million lying around? I wanna go to space

Posted

Wow both the capsule AND the booster were previously flown. Fully reusable spaceflight is here, they only hardware they lose each flight is the 2nd stage booster. 

Commercial spaceflight is coming. 

Posted

I posted this in the other thread, but what the hell...


Congrats to the entire SpaceX team. This was another milestone, but... "Grumpy old FDO" here... the broadcast public affairs team for SpaceX is an absolute embarrassment.

The giggling fanboi mode of the broadcast team and the ridiculously over the top cheering and hooting from the crowd at HQ that overwhelms the actual events makes it almost unwatchable for me.

Having said that... SpaceX continues to kick ass, and I'm impressed. The technical aspects continue to improve and show their growing expertise in human spaceflight.

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Posted
13 hours ago, Captainant said:

Lol those vacuum rated flight and space suits? Better than the Boeing smurf suits at least imo

Anyone got a spare couple hundred million lying around? I wanna go to space

Cash out refi should get you there.

Posted
I posted this in the other thread, but what the hell...


Congrats to the entire SpaceX team. This was another milestone, but... "Grumpy old FDO" here... the broadcast public affairs team for SpaceX is an absolute embarrassment.

The giggling fanboi mode of the broadcast team and the ridiculously over the top cheering and hooting from the crowd at HQ that overwhelms the actual events makes it almost unwatchable for me.

Having said that... SpaceX continues to kick ass, and I'm impressed. The technical aspects continue to improve and show their growing expertise in human spaceflight.

That makes sense considering your line of work, but I think a lot of us less knowledgeable folks kind of enjoy that aspect. Where you’re looking at it like a former player or an analyst on the team, we’re like the fans. We’re hoopin and hollerin along with them. BUT they should be better about lowering the volume in HQ enough that we can hear what’s actually being announced.
Posted
1 hour ago, SquishMitten said:


That makes sense considering your line of work, but I think a lot of us less knowledgeable folks kind of enjoy that aspect. Where you’re looking at it like a former player or an analyst on the team, we’re like the fans. We’re hoopin and hollerin along with them. BUT they should be better about lowering the volume in HQ enough that we can hear what’s actually being announced.

Fair, but they made some absolutely unforgiveable technical mistakes, too ...  for instance, they showed the second-stage engine with a lit horizon in the background and stated that it was a "beautiful sunrise" that they were heading towards.

When, in fact, since they were heading *east*, it was a sunSET they were heading away from.

I remember a few others, but a NASA PAO would've been mortified by that fundamental mistake.

Posted
9 minutes ago, RamjetFDO said:

Fair, but they made some absolutely unforgiveable technical mistakes, too ...  for instance, they showed the second-stage engine with a lit horizon in the background and stated that it was a "beautiful sunrise" that they were heading towards.

When, in fact, since they were heading *east*, it was a sunSET they were heading away from.

I remember a few others, but a NASA PAO would've been mortified by that fundamental mistake.

I noticed that too. Heard the sunrise comment and I was like, didn’t they take off just after sunset?

Posted
15 hours ago, Captainant said:

Commercial spaceflight is coming. 

In what manner? Just a quick joyride into low orbit? I suppose people would pay for that but I sure wouldn't. 

Posted
11 minutes ago, Sandman said:

In what manner? Just a quick joyride into low orbit? I suppose people would pay for that but I sure wouldn't. 

The cost to access space is getting lower and lower, and our ability to lift heavier payloads on a regular basis is only going to improve. If starship were to dock with the ISS, it would nearly double the internal volume of the station. 

The improvements in manufacturing process can't be overstated. Engines and turbopumps can be tweaked and iterated without slowing down production, not to mention the dramatic decrease in part count in SpaceX's manufacturing process. 

There's going to be an immense amount of progress in spaceflight over the next decade, with private business building the way

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Posted
In what manner? Just a quick joyride into low orbit? I suppose people would pay for that but I sure wouldn't. 
You're most likely not the target demographic
Posted
2 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

What’s the product?  A few orbits, up and down in the same day?  3 day orbit like what went up yesterday, in that small capsule?  Trip to space hotel for a week?  All of the above?

Membership in the 360 mile high club

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Posted
46 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

What’s the product?  A few orbits, up and down in the same day?  3 day orbit like what went up yesterday, in that small capsule?  Trip to space hotel for a week?  All of the above?

For space tourists - yes. A trip to the "Four Seasons - Low Earth Orbit" in the future.

For private business - private space stations for R&D/manufacturing.

Posted
3 hours ago, RamjetFDO said:

Fair, but they made some absolutely unforgiveable technical mistakes, too ...  for instance, they showed the second-stage engine with a lit horizon in the background and stated that it was a "beautiful sunrise" that they were heading towards.

When, in fact, since they were heading *east*, it was a sunSET they were heading away from.

I remember a few others, but a NASA PAO would've been mortified by that fundamental mistake.

The flat earth confuses a lot of people in this regard 

Posted

I thought the main application was to fly from one side of the earth to the other in like an hour. In other words, its not just to go to space for its own sake and to brag you've been to space, but super high speed travel.

Posted
1 hour ago, texastough said:

I thought the main application was to fly from one side of the earth to the other in like an hour. In other words, its not just to go to space for its own sake and to brag you've been to space, but super high speed travel.

 

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Posted

I'm looking forward to space travel for regular people. Some fat redneck in a wife beater, cargo shorts, and flip flops going into a rage and ripping the space helmets off his fellow passengers, in the name of his freedoms, will make for some great posts on Instagram.

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Deej said:

I'm looking forward to space travel for regular people. Some fat redneck in a wife beater, cargo shorts, and flip flops going into a rage and ripping the space helmets off his fellow passengers, in the name of his freedoms, will make for some great posts on Instagram.

Get me another space beer. I’ll tell you when I’m cut off. 

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Posted

Commercial space flight doesn't just include tourism.  The applications are virtually limitless if the price is right.  Giant solar arrays that beam power back to the ground via microwave or some other medium are the ultimate in clean power.  Years away but no longer just the realm of science fiction.  Asteroid mining and in orbit processing and manufacturing would be a game changer.  Obviously we're years away from that but smaller scale space industry is close to being profitable if the price of lifting material is reasonable.  Not to mention it's basically an exponential growth curve once the first facilities come on line.  You can build in orbit and thus your lifting costs are nothing except for people and people are light. You can even make your own oxygen and water. 

Still probably decades away from even beginning to be viable but we are watching the first steps.  If there is a chance at a profit, industry will make it happen eventually.

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Posted
5 hours ago, Felix said:

Commercial space flight doesn't just include tourism.  The applications are virtually limitless if the price is right.  Giant solar arrays that beam power back to the ground via microwave or some other medium are the ultimate in clean power.  Years away but no longer just the realm of science fiction.  Asteroid mining and in orbit processing and manufacturing would be a game changer.  Obviously we're years away from that but smaller scale space industry is close to being profitable if the price of lifting material is reasonable.  Not to mention it's basically an exponential growth curve once the first facilities come on line.  You can build in orbit and thus your lifting costs are nothing except for people and people are light. You can even make your own oxygen and water. 

Still probably decades away from even beginning to be viable but we are watching the first steps.  If there is a chance at a profit, industry will make it happen eventually.

I'm really interested in the material science advances we'll see with more access to a microgravity environment - zero g opens up a whole new world of design and structure 

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Posted
5 minutes ago, Captainant said:

I'm really interested in the material science advances we'll see with more access to a microgravity environment - zero g opens up a whole new world of design and structure 

It's an incredible time to be alive if we can navigate the societal changes.  I wish I were a few years younger as I won't be around to see the really cool stuff.

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Posted
32 minutes ago, Felix said:

It's an incredible time to be alive if we can navigate the societal changes.  I wish I were a few years younger as I won't be around to see the really cool stuff.

You'll still be around to see orgies in orbit.

Posted
54 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

At an advanced age, orgies in orbit would be far more appealing than orgies in gravity

I dunno, it might be like fucking with a floating raincoat on

Posted

This Inspiration4 thing is just utter bullshit, especially the name.

"We're going to show how civilians go into space and the kind of science they can do and what our capsules are like in orbit"

Inspiration4 gets to orbit and then very little video is released, and supposedly a little live-streaming with a hospital and that's it.

How the fuck are they not live-streaming during the daytime here in the US and answering questions from school kids and shit?

@RamjetFDO is right about SpaceX's PR people - NASA would have had all kinds of interaction with schools, etc.

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