SpaceX Launch success

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5bTbVbe4e4

This is the control center video and camera views of the SpaceX launch that occurred at 8:34 PM

Primary objective was the launch of 11 satellites.
Secondary objective was to have the first stage rocket land back on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

Quote: RaleighCraps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5bTbVbe4e4

This is the control center video and camera views of the SpaceX launch that occurred at 8:34 PM

Primary objective was the launch of 11 satellites.
Secondary objective was to have the first stage rocket land back on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

It was loud! The wind was just right, I think; quite the boom (unusual) - I was afraid they had lost it. Beautiful in the night sky. One of the best things of living here is watching launches out of the back yard.

We took a cruise from Cape Canaveral in early Nov. and upon our return, we spent the day at NASA. It was an incredible day, and really got me to thinking about how much was accomplished with very little computing power in those days. It really is an amazing place to spend a day, or two.

The Science Channel has a new show called Secret Space Escapes that details many of the things that went wrong on missions that we never heard about. Those cowboys were really taking chances riding those bombs into space, and back to earth.

I was near the Cape one year when one of the shuttles was on the pad, ready to launch. We didn't go out to see it, and I have regretted it every day since they shut down the shuttle program.

I got the impression that the Falcon 9 rocket is launching at a much higher speed than what they used with humans on board, so that could be the reason for the louder sounds.
Did you see the first stage come back to earth?

Quote: RaleighCraps

I got the impression that the Falcon 9 rocket is launching at a much higher speed than what they used with humans on board, so that could be the reason for the louder sounds.
Did you see the first stage come back to earth?

No, saw it but didn't know what it was, and just now saw the tape of the return landing. That's what the loud noise was; sonic boom on re-entry. It was about 5 minutes after the launch, and I thought the rocket had blown up for a moment and that was the debris.

Quote: RaleighCraps

We took a cruise from Cape Canaveral in early Nov. and upon our return, we spent the day at NASA. It was an incredible day, and really got me to thinking about how much was accomplished with very little computing power in those days. It really is an amazing place to spend a day, or two.

The Science Channel has a new show called Secret Space Escapes that details many of the things that went wrong on missions that we never heard about. Those cowboys were really taking chances riding those bombs into space, and back to earth.

I was near the Cape one year when one of the shuttles was on the pad, ready to launch. We didn't go out to see it, and I have regretted it every day since they shut down the shuttle program.

It's (Cape Canaveral/KSC) a great value, and unique in the world. You honestly missed very little, not seeing the shuttle on the pad; they don't really let you get that close. If you went to the Rocket Garden, toured Shuttle Atlantis, and saw the IMAX movies, you got 98% of the experience of seeing the actual vehicle on the pad experience. The fun part was when they moved it upright from the VAB on the crawler to the pad. It moved extremely slowly on a big bed of crushed rock, and you could get right next to it sometimes. I have a very special souvenir from the shuttle days. They would strip all the heat-deflecting tiles in preparation for the next launch for the slightest reason, and on Family Day once they had a bin of it ready for the garbage they showed us and let us touch it. I palmed a little piece of it. It's like a stale meringue, lighter than you'd imagine, but surprisingly solid.

This would have been a great event to put some odds on success or failure. Too late now, but I wonder what the success odds would have gone off for? 100:1 ? 50:1 ?

Quote: RaleighCraps

This would have been a great event to put some odds on success or failure. Too late now, but I wonder what the success odds would have gone off for? 100:1 ? 50:1 ?

I don't think the odds would have been nearly that high especially after the other company successfully did it last month.

I remember watching a documentary of them moving the shuttle from the VAB to the launch pad. And I knew the crawler adjusted the bed to keep the shuttle perfectly upright as it went to the pad. What I DID NOT know, until I saw it on the launch pad tour, was the angle of the ramp up to the launch pad. Holy cow! That ramp was not 1* or 2*. It was much steeper than I imagined. I would love to see that crawler making the adjustments to keep the shuttle upright during that part of the move.

We did everything you mentioned. The rocket garden was thought provoking. The building with the Saturn rocket was AWESOME. Man that rocket was HUGE! The Atlantis shuttle was actually smaller than I had imagined it would be. The simulated launch ride was pretty cool. The memorial room for the crew of the two lost shuttles was sobering. We will definitely go back to Kennedy SC again next time we are in Florida.

Quote: DRich

I don't think the odds would have been nearly that high especially after the other company successfully did it last month.

From what I am reading, that is like apples and oranges though. Bezos' was a suborbital launch, so it was much lower, moving slower, and had no payload, so they could load as much fuel as they wanted to be sure they would not run empty.

SpaceX went into space (approx. 100 miles up), and because they had a real payload that had to go into orbit, their relative horizontal ground speed was much greater. They also had much less room for excess fuel.


It is pretty cool that they were able to pull this off, but I am conflicted on how I feel about an unmanned rocket, with explosive fuel on board, returning to earth, and targeting a landing area that has population in the vicinity. Not sure how close the nearest people are to the Air Force launch pad they are using on the Cape. We could see the pad from the Kennedy SC when we were on the launch pad tour, but I have no idea how far away it would be from any towns. Seems like we are just asking for trouble.

Quote: RaleighCraps

From what I am reading, that is like apples and oranges though. Bezos' was a suborbital launch, so it was much lower, moving slower, and had no payload, so they could load as much fuel as they wanted to be sure they would not run empty.

SpaceX went into space (approx. 100 miles up), and because they had a real payload that had to go into orbit, their relative horizontal ground speed was much greater. They also had much less room for excess fuel.


It is pretty cool that they were able to pull this off, but I am conflicted on how I feel about an unmanned rocket, with explosive fuel on board, returning to earth, and targeting a landing area that has population in the vicinity. Not sure how close the nearest people are to the Air Force launch pad they are using on the Cape. We could see the pad from the Kennedy SC when we were on the launch pad tour, but I have no idea how far away it would be from any towns. Seems like we are just asking for trouble.

They have rules about that, though they could have changed. The closest I got was the VIP stands in 1991 (I think it was) for a shuttle launch; it was 6 miles away. Otherwise the NASA causeway is a very popular spot, about 8 miles away. There's a little bunker a couple of people use that's 3 miles away, and I think that's the closest they allowed. But who knows what SpaceX is doing about that.

Quote: RaleighCraps

From what I am reading, that is like apples and oranges though. Bezos' was a suborbital launch, so it was much lower, moving slower, and had no payload, so they could load as much fuel as they wanted to be sure they would not run empty.

I agree they were not the same but once the other company did it I think it would have decreased the odds that SpaceX would also be able to do it. They were both impressive but this one accomplished more impressive goals.

You would think that given all we've learned and accomplished in technology and supercomputing in the last 20 years that we would have accomplished more in space travel and satellite launches.

I watched the whole thing, very excited about the SpaceX stuff, grew up getting up early to watch launches.

A few years ago I went back to KSP after over 30 years. My parents drove me down there when I was in 6th grade. I was following the Shuttle program and I lost my shit when I saw one on the launch pad, I kept saying it was impossible and trying to get the tour guide to explain, my dad told me to slow down and speak English lol (first language is French ) , It was just the Enterprise up there for launch pad adjustments, it was 3 years I think before the first launch.

It was emotional to be so close to Atlantis when I visited a few years ago, the display is just amazing. If you grew up a NASA kid like me, do yourself a favor and go see it. (I guess this is a different kind of trip report)

Quote: Asswhoopermcdaddy

You would think that given all we've learned and accomplished in technology and supercomputing in the last 20 years that we would have accomplished more in space travel and satellite launches.

We are too busy staring at our feet, we stopped looking up a while ago....

Quote: Asswhoopermcdaddy

You would think that given all we've learned and accomplished in technology and supercomputing in the last 20 years that we would have accomplished more in space travel and satellite launches.

I hope I can say this without being overdramatic. This is the tragedy of our lifetimes, that we had the universe in the palms of our hands, and we thought we had bigger priorities and better places to spend our money than to continue the mission. Did you know that, for every dollar spent on the space program, at least 7 have been returned to the economy? That thousands of things we depend on now, to the point of taking them completely for granted and forgetting we ever did without them, were originally developed for the space program? That if we lose this planet to nuclear war, massive bio crisis, or whatever Malthusian end-point, this point in human history, our lifetimes, will be the critical point at which we did not survive, because we failed to build on our success when we could?

I think this issue is the source of much of my anger and despair, when I fall into that pit. We had the imagination, the knowledge, and the resources to reach the stars, and we cared more about the Kardashians, bad politics, or whatever other nonsense occupies people's energy.

Wernher von Braun has a strange grave stone. The stone lists only his name, year born, year died and Psalms 19:1 which reads "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."