[Cog]

Video of the landing attempt. They nail the landing as far as location but one of the legs buckle. They are getting closer to getting this right on each attempt.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jshk8ZVIgdI

[Synapsid]

Cog,

They got it right on 21 December.

As you indicate, though, there's still a ways to go.

[AgentR11]

Guns are so old fashioned. We need these. God Rods. Even the name itself sends a tingle up your leg doesn't it?

And because of concepts like this; all the majors have anti-satellite capability. Problem of course is that when you use an anti-satellite capability, you fill large, functional orbits with an unsurvivable debris field.

Weapons in orbit, especially at this time in our development, where even LEO is extremely challenging, is the most idiotic thing imaginable. It doesn't give you an offensive capability that you couldn't achieve by other means, and it does create an unimaginably high potential cost in the event of a successful use an of anti-satellite weapon to defend against the orbital weapon platform.

Just buy more cruise missiles. Cheaper and more flexible anyway. Even a heavily defended target can be overwhelmed by simple numbers. Keep earth targeting systems out of orbital space.

My potential future grandkids are gonna: WANT OUR MTV! lol.

[Subjectivist]

Throttling up to more than a million pounds of thrust at SpaceX’s Central Texas test facility, a Falcon 9 rocket booster recovered after a commercial satellite launch in May passed a key milestone Thursday as the company sets its sights on re-flying a used first stage on a mission this fall.

Nine Merlin 1D engines mounted at the base of the rocket ignited for nearly two-and-a-half minutes during Thursday’s test, funneling a plume of exhaust through a concrete flame duct out the side of the test stand.

Restraints kept the kerosene-fueled vehicle grounded.

The 156-foot-tall (47-meter) first stage rocket booster launched May 6 from Cape Canaveral with the JCSAT 14 communications satellite, a Japanese video and data relay platform, and detached from the Falcon 9’s upper stage less than three minutes after liftoff.

Soaring through the upper atmosphere at hypersonic speed like a flying broomstick, the rocket deployed aerodynamic grid fins and fired a subset of its nine Merlin engines to slow down for landing on a barge stationed in the Atlantic Ocean about 400 miles (650 kilometers) east of Florida’s Space Coast.

After extending four landing legs and nailing a vertical, engine-assisted touchdown, the rocket returned to Port Canaveral several days later for transport to SpaceX’s hangar at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A. Engineers inspected the blackened rocket for damage, then shipped it to SpaceX’s sprawling test facility in McGregor, Texas.

The company plans to run it through a series of tests to make sure it could withstand the stresses of another launch, and Thursday’s hold-down firing is a major accomplishment in the run-up to a re-flight.

But the booster fired in Texas will not fly again. That distinction will go to a Falcon 9 first stage that landed on SpaceX’s recovery vessel after an April 8 launch with a Dragon supply ship for the International Space Station.

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/07/29/sp ... usability/

[Cog]

Satellites fail, thus needing replacement. This is basic science pstarr and I shouldn't have to school you on this.

[ennui2]

One has to ask oneself: what needs to be inserted inexpensively into near-earth orbit?

One doesn't have to ask. You do, but "one" doesn't. This is the 21st century. So sorry that there's more going on than people running around with loin cloths and spears. Luddite techno-phobes like you should just deal with it.

[ennui2]

'Wake' me up when you have a POINT to make besides just expressing raw hatred towards modernity.

[asg70]

I actually don't think Tesla is best suited for Musk's personality. SpaceX is. Musk took over Tesla originally because he didn't think Martin Eberhard was doing a good job. If Tesla really doesn't get its sh*t together with the Model 3 rollout probably the best thing they could do to restore confidence would be for Musk to move over and put someone else with more established auto industry street-cred in charge. Stuff like the Model X falcon wing doors or the Model 3 dashboard represent Musk's penchant to overdesign and be gimmicky. The recent flip-flop where he said the Y would be on a whole new platform and then he said he was reigned in by handlers a great example where he's his own worst enemy as far as not knowing the value of restraint. He really needs someone to be more of a check against his excesses. Maybe it's already too late. But he's backed himself into a corner yet again which is the sort of excitement he feeds on. We'll see what happens. I think if he doesn't really get the assembly line running smoothly within the next six months that things will start to fall apart. The entire company's future was always riding on the Model 3 so it's make or break time.

[asg70]

SpaceX is another joke.

Of course. All technology other than stone knives and bearskins is a joke to you. Your analysis is worthless.

only happen over water as per FAA,

You are an idiot. Many of the landings of the boosters have been on land and you offer no evidence that by having it on a barge it somehow destroys the savings of recycling the boosters.

[Cog]

SpaceX is another joke. It's selling point is the resuse, but that can only happen over water as per FAA, Dept. of Defense etc. All re-entry of all space vehicles have come down, mostly in the Atlantic/Caribbean. The cost to deploy and site a landing barge to capture each launch vehicle will render the scheme DOA.

You haven't seen stage one recovery occurring on dry land at Cape Canaveral? They have done so several times. Musk has undercut everyone else on launches and has gained a major share of all commercial launches. Musk is a showboater but SpaceX is not an example of that.

[Subjectivist]

SpaceX is another joke. It's selling point is the resuse, but that can only happen over water as per FAA, Dept. of Defense etc. All re-entry of all space vehicles have come down, mostly in the Atlantic/Caribbean. The cost to deploy and site a landing barge to capture each launch vehicle will render the scheme DOA.

You haven't seen stage one recovery occurring on dry land at Cape Canaveral? They have done so several times. Musk has undercut everyone else on launches and has gained a major share of all commercial launches. Musk is a showboater but SpaceX is not an example of that.

Tests, not operational spaceflights.

The technology certainly exists but those damn Obama-era regulations won't let the SpaceX plummet back to earth over Miami. grrrrhh Even though Miami is a terrorist entry point from Cuba.

Dead wrong, don’t you ever get tired of making stuff up a google search will disprove in 30 seconds.

[Subjectivist]

So Sub, you are saying the first-stage SpaceX will land over Miami?

Or that the first-stage SpaceX booster (hauled back from the deep Pacific) will be cost competitive with rockets that are simply thrown away? Allowed to burn up in the atmosphere?

You made the claim there have only been test flghts without operational space flghts. That is dead wrong, every flght was more thn a simple test and most of them were commercially successful. Pretending like technology has not advanced since 1997 doesn’t make you look smart, if anything it makes you look unaware of the real world around you.

[asg70]

if anything it makes you look unaware of the real world around you.

I think we all know what this REALLY makes him look like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfE93xO ... be&t=3m11s

SpaceX cost analysis does not include the entire infrastructure to actually aquired[sic] the returned vehicle.

How do you know? You work for SpaceX and have access to their accounting department?

[Cog]

When everyone interprets your writing the same way, then maybe you are the one with the problem pstarr. Did you ever consider that possibility? SpaceX is capturing a very large and increasing share of the commercial launch business. They do it at a rate that is less expensive than any of their competitors. I don't understand the hate doomers have for anything that goes against their narrative.

[Subjectivist]

Pstarr you insist you did not write what I pointed out you wrote, in effect calling me a liar. Directly below is your message I was responding to complete and unaltered, where you make the very claim you accused me of making up. Simply admit the truth and apologize, it is the adult thing to do.

SpaceX is another joke. It's selling point is the resuse, but that can only happen over water as per FAA, Dept. of Defense etc. All re-entry of all space vehicles have come down, mostly in the Atlantic/Caribbean. The cost to deploy and site a landing barge to capture each launch vehicle will render the scheme DOA.

You haven't seen stage one recovery occurring on dry land at Cape Canaveral? They have done so several times. Musk has undercut everyone else on launches and has gained a major share of all commercial launches. Musk is a showboater but SpaceX is not an example of that.

Tests, not operational spaceflights.

The technology certainly exists but those damn Obama-era regulations won't let the SpaceX plummet back to earth over Miami. grrrrhh Even though Miami is a terrorist entry point from Cuba.

[Tanada]

SpaceX moved closer to its next launch with a successful hold-down engine firing Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sailing through a readiness check for a planned liftoff Wednesday with a clandestine U.S. government payload named Zuma.

Throttling up to full power for a few seconds, the Merlin 1D engines ignited at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) Saturday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The static fire test clears the way for final launch preparations ahead of the deployment of a clandestine U.S. government payload named Zuma in orbit Wednesday.

It will be SpaceX’s 17th launch of the year, and the 45th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket since the commercial booster debuted in 2010.

SpaceX’s launch team loaded super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the two-stage Falcon 9 rocket Saturday evening, then ignited the booster’s nine main engines for several seconds while hold-down restraints keep the vehicle on the ground.

A plume of engine exhaust erupted from the north side of the launch pad, and SpaceX confirmed a good hold-down firing on Twitter a few minutes later.

The prelaunch static fire test is a customary step in all SpaceX launch campaigns.

The next step to prepare for Wednesday’s launch will be the rollback of the Falcon 9 to SpaceX’s hangar at pad 39A to meet Zuma, a mysterious payload for the U.S. government. Little is known about the mission, including which government agency is in charge of it. Northrop Grumman said last month it arranged for the payload’s launch with SpaceX on behalf of the government.

Liftoff with Zuma is scheduled during a two-hour window Wednesday that opens at 8 p.m. EST (0100 GMT Thursday).

The Falcon 9’s first stage booster will return to Landing Zone-1 at Cape Canaveral less than 10 minutes after liftoff, a maneuver that requires ample leftover fuel in the rocket after sending its payload toward orbit. The plan for a landing at Cape Canaveral, and not on an offshore ship, suggests the Zuma payload is likely heading for a relatively low-altitude orbit.

Saturday’s hotfire test came less than two weeks after SpaceX’s last launch from pad 39A on Oct. 30.

SpaceX plans to launch the following Falcon 9 flight from neighboring pad 40 in December, returning that launch complex to service for the first time since it was damaged in a rocket explosion last year.

Activity at pad 39A will focus on preparing for the first test flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, which could occur before the end of the year.

SpaceX

[asg70]

Until proven otherwise, common sense...

In other words...you got nothin'.

[Cog]

SpaceX is not NASA. SpaceX is innovative and isn't burdened by the NASA waste and rules prevalent in that agency. They have already re-used first stage boosters on operational flights.

[Cog]

You really should keep up with current events pstarr. Sad really. But in the interest of letting you embarrass yourself further I will let you go on until I correct your knowledge.

[asg70]

Regardless of PStarr's semantics, SpaceX is not standing still.

https://www.universetoday.com/137061/bu ... -blastoff/

Both of the side cores are also recycled boosters that will be launched for the second time each.

Oh, and BTW, there have been very few fully-expendable Falcon 9 launches. There's plenty of payload capacity for your typical satellite.