• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

SpaceX Attempting 1st Stage Landing After Rocket Launch (AKA Crazy Space Stuff)

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
Beautiful picture. Glad they did it at night, because it looks awesome.
 
Jezbollah

Jezbollah

Member
Gallbaro said:
Barge or land?
Click to expand...

Land. Landing Complex 1, Cape Canaveral

CWyI_WtUsAATPyu.jpg
 
J

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
Absolutely incredible.

Let's spread word of this monumental achievement. It ought to catch on, what with Star Wars fever.

We need people to care. This is something worth caring about. It will never not be worth caring about.
 
O

Oriel

Member
Juan29.zapata said:
Yep. This is competition doing wonders for everyone. Except those who like the status quo.

I'm also glad SpaceX is slowly gaining the right for doing military contracts. Having 'first ever vertical stage 1 landing' will certainly help their case.
Click to expand...

It took way too long for the USAF to provide SpaceX with certification. Musk had to threaten legal action to get their asses into gear. The Pentagon has invested a lot in the Atlus V so it was hardly surprising they and their launch contractors Boeing/Lockheed would try and stop at all costs any attempt for a new upstart to enter their patch, And Congress, more specifically the GOP, showed that their alleged support for the free market was wafer thin by refusing to permit open competition for govt contracts in space launches. Capitalism on Earth, socialism in space was how Musk put it. Ironic no?

And to heap further irony onto the situation the US military continue to be wholly reliant on Russian made engines (the RD-180) to launch their payloads into space, something Musk points out wouldn't be an issue if full and transparent competitive bidding was allowed for all government bidding processes.
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
JeffZero said:
Absolutely incredible.

Let's spread word of this monumental achievement. It ought to catch on, what with Star Wars fever.

We need people to care. This is something worth caring about. It will never not be worth caring about.
Click to expand...

Already did my part! Twitter followers probably going to be a bit annoyed with all my retweets.

Oriel said:
It took way too long for the USAF to provide SpaceX with certification. Musk had to threaten legal action to get their asses into gear. The Pentagon has invested a lot in the Atlus V so it was hardly surprising they and their launch contractors Boeing/Lockheed would try and stop at all costs any attempt for a new upstart to enter their patch, And Congress, more specifically the GOP, showed that their alleged support for the free market was wafer thin by refusing to permit open competition for govt contracts in space launches. Capitalism on Earth, socialism in space was how Musk put it. Ironic no?

And to heap further irony onto the situation the US military continue to be wholly reliant on Russian made engines (the RD-180) to launch their payloads into space, something Musk points out wouldn't be an issue if full and transparent competitive bidding was allowed for all government bidding processes.
Click to expand...

Yep, Elon and co. deserves every bit of success they get.
 
N

Nelo Ice

Banned
JeffZero said:
Absolutely incredible.

Let's spread word of this monumental achievement. It ought to catch on, what with Star Wars fever.

We need people to care. This is something worth caring about. It will never not be worth caring about.
Click to expand...

Already done have spread the word on all my social media. O wait forget IG brb lol.
 
B

bootsthecat

Banned
Awesome stuff, never ceases to amaze...

Regarding Bezos, what's the difference between what was accomplished tonight with the landing, versus what Blue Origin did in November?

edit:
HariKari said:
SpaceX's rocket is much larger and has something like 10x the thrust. Much harder.
Click to expand...
oh I see
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
bootsthecat said:
Awesome stuff, never ceases to amaze...

Regarding Bezos, what's the difference between what was accomplished tonight with the landing, versus what Blue Origin did in November?
Click to expand...

Height from which the first stage landed, the size of said stage, and the thrust it had. Way harder what SpaceX had to accomplish.
 
P

Pristine_Condition

Member
bootsthecat said:
Awesome stuff, never ceases to amaze...

Regarding Bezos, what's the difference between what was accomplished tonight with the landing, versus what Blue Origin did in November?

edit:

oh I see
Click to expand...

More than that, Blue Origin basically goes straight up-down and very low. Space-X is an actual orbital launch vehicle.
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Member
Definitely an awesome achievement. I think the only thing that slightly blemished the achievement was that it wasn't on the barge.
 
R

RyanDG

Member
Phoenix said:
Definitely an awesome achievement. I think the only thing that slightly blemished the achievement was that it wasn't on the barge.
Click to expand...

The barge was never a long term objective though. It was basically a safety precaution as I understand it. The long term goal was always to come back to land.
 
E-Cat

E-Cat

Member
bootsthecat said:
Awesome stuff, never ceases to amaze...

Regarding Bezos, what's the difference between what was accomplished tonight with the landing, versus what Blue Origin did in November?
Click to expand...


From WaitButWhy:

What SpaceX is trying to do is roughly 100 times more difficult. Some reasons:

A) They’re trying to do it on a real launch with a real payload, meaning they’re carrying a huge amount of stuff and have very little room for extra fuel for descent.

B) They’re going to orbit, which is very different than going to space. Space means going 60 miles up and coming back down. Orbit means going higher up, but more importantly, it means going unbelievably fast sideways. You can’t just go “float” in orbit, because gravity in low Earth orbit is almost the same as gravity on the Earth’s surface—to stay in orbit you have to be going so fast sideways that it’s like a giant throwing a ball so hard that by the time it curves down to the Earth, the curvature of the Earth’s surface is falling away proportionally. Being in orbit means continually falling towards Earth.

So when you put A and B together, you have SpaceX trying to land a rocket that’s going much higher and much much faster than Blue Origin’s, but with far less fuel to use for descent.
Click to expand...
 
E

Elfforkusu

Member
Phoenix said:
Definitely an awesome achievement. I think the only thing that slightly blemished the achievement was that it wasn't on the barge.
Click to expand...
Landing on the launchpad is way better than landing on a barge.

For one, you don't have to send somebody way the hell out there to get it.
 
W

_woLf

Member
I wonder if anyone here are excited about how they're cheering and showing their excitement in public

Jokes aside, this is FANTASTIC. What a wonderful christmas present for the team :)
 
X

XGRaViSmOrSX

Member
oh man, this is so rad! I really hope this just makes everyone else out there kick their ass in gear and get us back in space faster than relying on govt budgets and a cold war.
 
C

cameron

Member
Extollere said:
Ah, yeah... that's what I remember hearing about.

So, will SpaceX actually reuse this stage 1 in a future mission, or was its return strictly for test purposes?
Click to expand...

Test only.
Assuming the booster lands in one piece, it is expected that SpaceX will use it as a test article to practice and prepare KSC’s historic Launch Complex 39A for upcoming operational missions with the Falcon-9, Falcon Heavy, and crewed flights to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX signed a 20-year lease for the former Apollo and space shuttle launch site in spring 2014.

“The first stage, if they successfully get it back, will then be the test article here (39A), and it will go into the hangar where they (SpaceX) will do a little refurbishment, and they will actually put it on the transporter erector and roll it out to the pad to do fluid checks, electrical checks and propellant loading with that test article,” said NASA.
Click to expand...
http://www.americaspace.com/?p=89910
 
O

Oriel

Member
The Albatross said:
If Cold War 2 is being fought between Bezos and Musk, instead of Kennedy and Kruschev, then I'm all for it
Click to expand...

China and the US were supposed to relaunch the space race but that turned out to be as exciting as a damp firework so I'm all up for a battle of the billionaires where the winner gets us to Mars. Because waiting around for national govts to get us off this planet is proving to a complete waste of time. Thank god for private sector innovation and resourcefulness.
 
K

killer rin

Member
Amazing work by Space X. This is only the first step, but I can't wait to see them further perfect this. :)

Dan27 said:
Land. Landing Complex 1, Cape Canaveral

CWyI_WtUsAATPyu.jpg
Click to expand...

Did they give up on the barge?
Also is this the first time they successfully landed on land? I swear I heard of them doing it before.
 
F

F!ReW!Re

Member
killer rin said:
Amazing work by Space X. This is only the first step, but I can't wait to see them further perfect this. :)



Did they give up on the barge?
Also is this the first time they successfully landed on land? I swear I heard of them doing it before.
Click to expand...

Land was always the better option, now you don't have to bring the rocket back from the sea.
 
E-Cat

E-Cat

Member
killer rin said:
Amazing work by Space X. This is only the first step, but I can't wait to see them further perfect this. :)



Did they give up on the barge?
Also is this the first time they successfully landed on Land? I swear I heard of them doing it before.
Click to expand...
Not so much "give up", they had to do the barge first because landing on land right away was deemed too risky.

They've had several landings with the Grasshopper prototype, but only from a mile or so high. This was a real mission with a real payload, and the rocket experienced hypersonic speeds, like a wet noodle flying through a hurricane.

Totally different ballpark.

Elon Musk said:
Falcon 9 standing on LZ-1 at Cape Canaveral
Click to expand...

CWzMPm2U8AAca4k.jpg:large
 
N

NightOnyx

Member
Amazing! As someone who grew up close to the space center, I've seen a ton of Shuttle and Rocket launches and it never gets old, especially at night. To see them finally land one like that even more incredible though. Elon Musk is such an inspiration and I love how him and his companies are pushing technology and paving the way for the future.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

The Chinese Tianlong-3 Rocket Accidentally Launched During A Engine Test
28
2K
Cyberpunkd replied
SpaceX will try to launch most powerful rocket ever Monday
2 3 4 5
217
13K
Tams replied
In a first, a Sony CubeSat propeled itself in orbit using water vapor
0
665
ParaSeoul replied
2024 Moon Landing no longer possible due to new space suit designs being delayed.
2
54
4K
BigBooper replied
NASA announces $2.89 billion contract with SpaceX to use custom version of Starship to land on the Moon
2
73
7K
Smiles and Cries replied
Top Bottom