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[Crispy75]

Technology and engineering have come a long way when you see things like this.

Thing is, there's nothing fundamentally new going on here. This could have been done 20-30 years ago. It's just that the space launch business was so ossified, nobody dared to try.

 

[blu]

Thing is, there's nothing fundamentally new going on here. This could have been done 20-30 years ago. It's just that the space launch business was so ossified, nobody dared to try.

Exactly. And now, in the course of just a few years from inception to demonstration, we've had two private companies successfully doing VTOL of rocket stages. No, I'm not gonna just straight discard what Blue Origin have done, even though their achievement is not at orbital-flight level. Instead I'll just show the numbers:

                       SpaceX                 Blue Origin

MECO (speed@alt)       6K km/h @ 75km         4.56K km/h @ 61km *
separation (speed@alt) 5.9K km/h @ 80km       76km *
stage thrust (kN)      6,806 kN               489 kN
trajectory             ballistic              elevator
bullseye               positive               affirmative

* Using this as a reference.

 

[Doikor]

Did they give up on the barge?

They will still need the barges once they start doing falcon heavy launches. The core booster (middle one of the three f9 1st stages it uses) will go too far away out to sea to be able to return to land and thus has to have a barge catching it on the sea.

 

[nekkid]

They will still need the barges once they start doing falcon heavy launches. The core booster (middle one of the three f9 1st stages it uses) will go too far away out to sea to be able to return to land and thus has to have a barge catching it on the sea.

Are you sure? SpaceX themselves produced a video showing all three landing separately at the cape. On phone so can't find it right now.

 

[blu]

Are you sure? SpaceX themselves produced a video showing all three landing separately at the cape. On phone so can't find it right now.

Elon said as much in his pre-launch article the other day.

 

[Frankenstrat]

What a time to be alive.

 

[gutterboy44]

It is amazing to think of how long mankind's space program has been going on and this is the first time we didn't have to ghost ride the first stage into the ocean. Such an insane leap in cost savings, not to mention it looks absolutely bad ass when that thing lands. Hnnnnnnnng just thinking about even bigger stages landing in the future.

Edit: I tried coming up with an analogy to explain to some people on my Facebook feed about the signifcance of last nights achievement. It seems a lot of people assumed rockerts always came back home and landed safely. My guess is people confusing the space shuttle with entire rockets or SRBs. This was the best I could come up with, I am sure it has several logic holes in it.

If anyone is wondering what the significance of the Space X mission last night was, I will give an analogy. Say ever since we have been building cars, that when you drive them to a destination, right as you get there, you had to bail out and your car would go careening into a lake. Cars got better, more people started using cars, but still, whenever you arrived at your destination, bail out, car in the lake. As you'd imagine, this makes things like trips to the grocery store rather expensive. Sure you'd get there safe 99% of the time, but you would have to buy a new car for every trip. So imagine this going on until modern day, with the amazing, high tech expensive cars we have, but still ghost riding those amazing machines into the drink with every trip. Well yesterday, for the first time in history, someone finally drove their car to the store and then drove back home and parked their expensive ass car safely in the garage. Now think of how much money you would save going to the grocery store now. Maybe you'd try driving to a completely different state! Replace car with rocket ship, and grocery store with space and you have the incredible achievement of Space X last night.

Edit 2: Added the Space Shuttle to the analogy since it was a form of cost saving, just in a different way.

To continue with the analogy I should mentioned the Space Shuttle and credit NASA with trying to at least mitigate some of the costs of this ghost riding cars into the lake scenario. NASA thought, maybe we can keep most of the car intact! So they made a system where once you arrive at the store, your car would eject the transmission, turbo charger, and gas tank. Your car would then have enough power to coast back home after the groceries. However, this car was incredibly complex, costed several times more than a regular car, was less safe, and you still had to replace your gas tank, turbo charger and transmission after every trip. Not to mention you couldn't make any wrong turns on the way home because your were coasting on fumes.

 

[reKon]

I just happened to watch this live at a get together at my friends cousin place. He works at Space X, on the supplier side, and I was watching this live with his brother and all of his cousins. He was so happy and the atmosphere at Space X was electric.

I've taken a tour at SpaceX and it's really incredible on what they've been working on and they've just accomplished. That has to feel amazing after working all those years.

 

[CyclopsRock]

The Falcon is often referred to as the only rocket designed entirely in the 21st century, given the nationalised (and ULAs) habit of evolutionary design work rather than revolutionary. Maybe a somewhat eccentric billionaire is what the Space industry needs (or two).

 

[nekkid]

Haha, Jeff Bezos is salty as fuck.

"Welcome to the club" he says on Twitter.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

They will still need the barges once they start doing falcon heavy launches. The core booster (middle one of the three f9 1st stages it uses) will go too far away out to sea to be able to return to land and thus has to have a barge catching it on the sea.

That's not what the SpaceX Falcon Heavy simulation shows. Their simulation shows all three rockets landing at the same landing complex.

https://youtu.be/u26-CIDaazQ?t=57

 

[jotun?]

That's not what the SpaceX Falcon Heavy simulation shows. Their simulation shows all three rockets landing at the same landing complex.

https://youtu.be/u26-CIDaazQ?t=57

Promotional video, not simulation

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/330395232564826112

JP Burke ‏@yatpay
@elonmusk Is it possible to launch from Texas and land in Florida?

Elon Musk @elonmusk
@yatpay Side boosters fall short & center core goes too far + Florida is heavily populated. Landing permission tricky

So if the center core goes too far to even land in Florida after launching from Texas, it certainly wouldn't be able to make it back to the launch site. They'll need to use a barge for it, or just ditch it, or come up with something completely different

 

[blu]

That's not what the SpaceX Falcon Heavy simulation shows. Their simulation shows all three rockets landing at the same landing complex.

https://youtu.be/u26-CIDaazQ?t=57

That's not a simulation, that's an infomercial.

This, on the other hand, is from yesterday.

 

[nekkid]

That's not a simulation, that's an infomercial.

This, on the other hand, is from yesterday.

But there's no need to falsify it to look good. Having one stage land on a barge would look no less impressive.

 

[blu]

But there's no need to falsify it to look good. Having one stage land on a barge would look no less impressive.

It doesn't have to be falsified to be wrong, just outdated.

 

[Jezbollah]

Itshappeningbunker.gif

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/679399307271892992

"I'm reliably informed there's *amazing* footage of the Falcon 9 OG2 S1 external cam view of the staging, boost back, entry burn and landing!"

 

[Oriel]

Itshappeningbunker.gif

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/679399307271892992

"I'm reliably informed there's *amazing* footage of the Falcon 9 OG2 S1 external cam view of the staging, boost back, entry burn and landing!"

Jesus that would be PPV quality material right there. Can't wait to see that, IF SpaceX releases the video.

 

[Dead Man]

Thing is, there's nothing fundamentally new going on here. This could have been done 20-30 years ago. It's just that the space launch business was so ossified, nobody dared to try.

Well, I'm not sure it's fair to say no one tried.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X

The first flight of the DC-XA test vehicle was made on 18 May 1996 and resulted in a minor fire when the deliberate "slow landing" resulted in overheating of the aeroshell. The damage was quickly repaired and the vehicle flew two more times on 7 and 8 June, a 26-hour turnaround. On the second of these flights the vehicle set its altitude and duration records, 3,140 metres (10,300 ft) and 142 seconds of flight time. Its next flight, on 7 July, proved to be its last. During testing, one of the LOX tanks had been cracked. When a landing strut failed to extend due to a disconnected hydraulic line, the DC-XA fell over and the tank leaked. Normally the structural damage from such a fall would constitute only a setback, but the LOX from the leaking tank fed a fire which severely burned the DC-XA, causing such extensive damage that repairs were impractical.[6]

In a post-accident report, NASA's Brand Commission blamed the accident on a burnt-out field crew who had been operating under on-again/off-again funding and constant threats of outright cancellation. The crew, many of them originally from the SDIO program, were also highly critical of NASA's "chilling" effect on the program, and the masses of paperwork NASA demanded as part of the testing regimen.[citation needed]

NASA had taken on the project grudgingly after having been "shamed" by its very public success under the direction of the SDIO. Its continued success was cause for considerable political in-fighting within NASA due to it competing with their "home grown" Lockheed Martin X-33/VentureStar project. Pete Conrad priced a new DC-X at $50 million, cheap by NASA standards, but NASA decided not to rebuild the craft in light of "budget constraints".[6]

 

[Jezbollah]

Oh god. This is amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YldQM1Wk_s

 

[DrForester]

THEY DID IT!
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1205630