SpaceX's Grasshopper VTVL takes a 40 meter hop

The One Doctor

Exploding rockets are far more fun though. Entertainment gold watching $50m of engineering undergoing unplanned disassembly followed by explosive lithobraking.

Maximus Alexander

Ah, so you're the reason Michael Bay has stayed in a job. :pac:

_Tombstone_

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Attempt 3 is at 23.46 for this...........or tomorrow

It's unknown if theirs a "GO" Tonight or not. Who have they posting this stuff?? And that guy last night was all over the place with info??

A state agency, Space Florida, said on its website Monday that the launch was set for Monday evening, then said Tuesday evening, and finally changed the information to say "TBD" for To Be Determined. SpaceX itself has declined to confirm a new time.

Space Florida chief of strategic alliance Dale Ketcham acknowledged that the agency posted wrong information and apologized. The Air Force had previously said a launch would not be considered until Tuesday evening.

Clip of how close they were to launch last Night

We'll just have to wait...



The “super chill” reason SpaceX keeps aborting launches

_Tombstone_

Ren2k7 wrote: »

SES have shown themselves to be very committed to SpaceX.

SES’s 2016 Outlook Clouded by Falcon 9 Failure

This Rocket is actually 9 Months delayed now, I thought it was 6.

Ren2k7

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

SES’s 2016 Outlook Clouded by Falcon 9 Failure

This Rocket is actually 9 Months delayed now, I thought it was 6.

SES themselves asked to be the first launch customer on the newer Full Thrust F9. The delays have clearly been of concern to SES who see SES-9 as being vital to its business model but thus far they've been saying great things about SpaceX for some time now:

http://spacenews.com/ses-applauds-spacexs-willingness-to-sacrifice-falcon-9-first-stage-recovery-for-main-satelilte-mission/

_Tombstone_

Ren2k7 wrote: »

SES themselves asked to be the first launch customer on the newer Full Thrust F9. The delays have clearly been of concern to SES who see SES-9 as being vital to its business model but thus far they've been saying great things about SpaceX for some time now:

http://spacenews.com/ses-applauds-spacexs-willingness-to-sacrifice-falcon-9-first-stage-recovery-for-main-satelilte-mission/

Yea, I linked that earlier in Thread, they're not skipping it though. It's trying to get enough fuel in for a landing that's delaying it. No one really seems bothered though, if that was my company I'd be getting P-ed off.

Ren2k7

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Yea, I linked that earlier in Thread, they're not skipping it though. It's trying to get enough fuel in for a landing that's delaying it. No one really seems bothered though, if that was my company I'd be getting P-ed off.

Satellites like SES-9 are multi-million dollar programs spanning years of development. A few months waiting time is neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things. Though if the delays run into the summer then I'd imagine SES will be starting to ask questions. In fairness though SpaceX will have it flying tomorrow assuming no more wandering vessels.

_Tombstone_

Ren2k7 wrote: »

In fairness though SpaceX will have it flying tomorrow assuming no more wandering vessels.

And tomorrow it is, big window from 23.35 - 01.05. 80% chance of a GO

Good Article on the Boat here and how all that sorta stuff works - safety zones and radio warnings stuff.

Ghost Train

being rescheduled to Friday probably

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/704770247769722880

_Tombstone_

I'd take this over a Tesla any day:pac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roO4P0cTN48

Ghost Train

t minus 5 minutes

Wonder will we finally get lift off tonight, so far so good

Maximus Alexander

Stage 2 burning, fairing is away. All looks good.

Maximus Alexander

Here we go... first stage coming in. :eek:

Ghost Train

Wonder did it land okay, video was a bit of a tease how it cut in and out

Peregrine

You're killing me here!

Ghost Train

Maybe the video loss and not coming back was because it crashed and damaged barge

Maximus Alexander

That was my first thought, but they said on the stream it's to be expected. Without explaining why...

Westernyelp

I'd say its in a thousand bits

Westernyelp

Strange they never even mentioned the landing on the second part of the webcast

Thor

Westernyelp wrote: »

Strange they never even mentioned the landing on the second part of the webcast

That's because it didn't make it.

The video cut out, but it clearly showed it off by a good bit to the left. At least, that's what I was making out.

nokia69

Thor wrote: »

That's because it didn't make it.

The video cut out, but it clearly showed it off by a good bit to the left. At least, that's what I was making out.

I would bet the rocket blowing up is what killed the video

Not to worry the rest of the launch looks like a success

Maximus Alexander

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/705917924972736512

Wibbs

nokia69 wrote: »

Not to worry the rest of the launch looks like a success

That was the part I was impressed by. First launch of payload to geostationary orbit for them is it not?

Peregrine

Wibbs wrote: »

That was the part I was impressed by. First launch of payload to geostationary orbit for them is it not?

No, Falcon 9 v1.1 put SES-8 into a GTO in 2013. This was the most massive payload to GTO yet though.

It is the first payload into GTO for the Full Thrust version and its second launch overall.

nokia69

http://spacenews.com/spacex-says-reusable-stage-could-cut-prices-by-30-plans-first-falcon-heavy-in-november/

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell on March 9 said the company expected to conduct 16 more launches this year, including an inaugural Falcon Heavy rocket in November, and would accelerate its launch rhythm in 2017

Falcon Heavy has now slipped to November

Capt'n Midnight

nokia69 wrote: »

Falcon Heavy has now slipped to November

Hardly a surprise given the history of rocket development.

For accelerated development you need to be throwing several percent of GDP at the project. Each R7 site was costing 10% of the USSR's annual defence budget.

nokia69

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Hardly a surprise given the history of rocket development.

For accelerated development you need to be throwing several percent of GDP at the project. Each R7 site was costing 10% of the USSR's annual defence budget.

In this case I don't think its a lack of money, they clearly at some point decided to finish the F9 upgrades and get first stage recovery working before launching the Heavy, then of course last years launch failure caused another delay

_Tombstone_

April 8 for next go.

Back to the Barge (its a Barge) after a special resupply run to ISS that contains the inflatable Bigelow module. Built for just $17 Mil in 2 years.

NASA/ESA price tag was $500 Mil.

Lots more info/pics of the banged up Barge after failed landing/spacex new hanger blah blah

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/03/spacex-prepares-two-missions-mcgregor/

_Tombstone_

Looks like Slovakia will be first to get a Hyperloop up and running.

http://gearpatrol.com/2016/03/28/hyperloop-comes-to-europe-vienna-to-bratislava-in-8-minutes/

_Tombstone_

Broadcom Sues SpaceX for Allegedly Poaching Employees

Broadcom’s co-founder and chief technology officer Henry Samueli met with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in October 2015 in attempts to solidify an agreement, at which time Musk insisted Broadcom keep its “A-team” on the project, according to the complaint.

But even as Samueli and Musk were meeting, other SpaceX representatives were attempting to uncover the identities of the “A-team” engineers working on the Space X project, Broadcom says in its complaint.

Five Broadcom engineers – all of whom worked on the SpaceX project – resigned their positions with the company effective March 11, and refused to disclose their new employer, according to the complaint.

Broadcom says SpaceX confirmed they hired the five engineers on March 9, saying nothing prevented them from hiring other Broadcom engineers.

For its part, SpaceX says the Broadcom engineers – all named as defendants in Broadcom’s complaint – approached them.

The computer chips are likely for SpaceX’s planned 4,000 satellite constellation for global Internet service.