SpaceX And/Or Rocketry In General

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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RE: RE: These are high

Quote:
Quote:

These are high performance hot-rods. If they were public I'd find $20K and invest ! :-)

Cheers, Mike.

There is a lot to be said for not having stock holders. You only have to please yourself - your schedule your objectives.


True. I'd much rather own the company. :-)

{ Doh. It was 21/09/2014 : the video said so! }

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) Now we see where all the burn marks come from ! :-)

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Anonymous

RE: RE: RE: These are

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:

These are high performance hot-rods. If they were public I'd find $20K and invest ! :-)

Cheers, Mike.

There is a lot to be said for not having stock holders. You only have to please yourself - your schedule your objectives.


True. I'd much rather own the company. :-)

{ Doh. It was 21/09/2014 : the video said so! }

I noticed that date when watching the video. So what are they doing up there now that we won't know about until ~2019 - should they decide to share it. I too would like to "buy in" if they went public.

Quote:


Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) Now we see where all the burn marks come from ! :-)

mikey
mikey
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RE: RE: These are high

Quote:
Quote:

These are high performance hot-rods. If they were public I'd find $20K and invest ! :-)

Cheers, Mike.

There is a lot to be said for not having stock holders. You only have to please yourself - your schedule your objectives.

If they structured any stock sale right they could probably get around that, 1st by only selling to small investors so no one person has alot of say, ie limiting any one company or person to ie 5% total voting shares in the company. And 2nd by insulating each part of the company from the actual stock holders, ie GM share holders do NOT have a say in which cars are or are not made and sold. And 3rd by doing what Apple does and keep enough cash available to buy out any activist share holder who gets too frisky, along with Musk himself owning more than 50% of the voting shares.

BTW I too would invest if it were possible, he has some great ideas!!

AgentB
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Now this is neat, scroll up

Now this is neat, scroll up to watch 360 View | First Stage Landing on Droneship

Edit... note the downwind hop on landing.

Anonymous

RE: Now this is neat,

Quote:

Now this is neat, scroll up to watch 360 View | First Stage Landing on Droneship

Edit... note the downwind hop on landing.

excellent imaging. noted the hop. it looks like the lens on the camera provides a bit of a fish eye presentation so this may effect my interpretation of what I saw. When you view this video it looks like the rocket's vertical axis is not perpendicular to the bed of the platform. I also watched the horizon to see if the "off vertical" appearance was contributed/caused by the barge being slightly off of horizontal due to ocean swells. Definitely looks like a candidate for magnetic tie downs. It did appear at one point that it was dangerously close to going over.

Anonymous

Next launch: May 5 @ 0121

Next launch: May 5 @ 0121 (0521 UTC). Probably won't be up for this one.

archae86
archae86
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From a recent post on an

From a recent post on an enthusiasts website for this sort of thing:

Quote:

Other Links:
- SpaceX Website Broadcast: http://www.spacex.com/webcast
- SpaceX Livestream link is now been created for this launch: http://livestream.com/spacex/jcsat14

Launch and webcast info
SpaceX is targeting launch of JCSAT-14 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on May 5 (1:21am ET, 10:21pm PT, 5:21am UTC). SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will deliver JCSAT-14, a commercial communications satellite for SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). SKY Perfect JSAT is a leading satellite operator in the Asia-Pacific region and provides high-quality satellite communications to its customers using its fleet of 15 satellites. Following stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 will attempt an experimental landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You†droneship. Given this mission’s GTO destination, the first-stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing unlikely.

I actually think the probability of a successful landing is somewhat higher than this comment says. The most recent comments on the failure that pierced the barge say the stage ran out of fuel. If that is true it must have been extremely late in the game, as otherwise I doubt the rocket would've hit the barge at all. I don't think the grid fins have enough control authority at low speeds to handle the last few hundred feet of corrections on their own.

AgentB
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Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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RE: From a recent post on

Quote:
From a recent post on an enthusiasts website for this sort of thing:
Quote:

Other Links:
- SpaceX Website Broadcast: http://www.spacex.com/webcast
- SpaceX Livestream link is now been created for this launch: http://livestream.com/spacex/jcsat14

Launch and webcast info
SpaceX is targeting launch of JCSAT-14 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on May 5 (1:21am ET, 10:21pm PT, 5:21am UTC). SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will deliver JCSAT-14, a commercial communications satellite for SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). SKY Perfect JSAT is a leading satellite operator in the Asia-Pacific region and provides high-quality satellite communications to its customers using its fleet of 15 satellites. Following stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 will attempt an experimental landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You†droneship. Given this mission’s GTO destination, the first-stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing unlikely.

I actually think the probability of a successful landing is somewhat higher than this comment says. The most recent comments on the failure that pierced the barge say the stage ran out of fuel. If that is true it must have been extremely late in the game, as otherwise I doubt the rocket would've hit the barge at all. I don't think the grid fins have enough control authority at low speeds to handle the last few hundred feet of corrections on their own.


Agreed. The 'extreme velocities and re-entry heating' are controlled by fuel use to keep the speed down ie. one is paid out to relieve the other. So we'll see how much of both are spare after the throw. The key & interesting tension indeed : buyer's payload KE vs. provider's asset re-use.

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) At least SpaceX's approach to testing ( as demonstrated ) has reduced the sillier stances of some commentaries I have seen eg. they didn't know what would happen therefore they shouldn't have bothered, or even worse they did know what would happen therefore they shouldn't have bothered* ! That reveals alot about the authors of such comments, and literally nothing about SpaceX/rocketry/physics ! :-))

* ie. the point of testing is to obtain knowledge not otherwise garnered ( independent of expectation ).

( edit ) As for the barge damage I'd like to one day see any footage to see how close it was, without getting the cigar.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

archae86
archae86
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14 hours to go at the

14 hours to go at the moment.
Ship traffic spotters say the recovery craft are "out there".
But the time is in the wee hours for me, so I'll leave the live watching to those with home time zones or personal sleep patterns better suited to this one.

Reports from the ship spotters assert that two recovery tugs are operating in wind in the mid 30s knots. That needs to be OK for this technique to become routine, but might add a bit of sport.

Commenters think this is likely to be another 3-engine landing, as the propellant margin is thought not nearly enough to allow the 1-engine option. That probably adds quite a bit more sport than does a 35 knot wind.

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