Comments on: SpaceX finally makes it to orbit

SpaceX finally makes it to orbit

b1tr0t — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:52:37 -0800

SpaceX's fourth flight was successful. Scaled Composites' X-Prize winning SpaceShipOne made the first privately funded hop into space. SpaceX just took the next big step and inserted a dummy payload into orbit. Next, they will launch the much larger Falcon 9 and later test out the human-carrying Dragon. CEO Elon Musk also enjoys dabbling in banking and exotic electric cars.

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:53:37 -0800

Latest news is on the webacast page, but that will probably be taken down in a few days.

By: panboi

panboi — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:06:33 -0800

With the forthcoming space elevator, all we need now is our personal jet packs and we'll officially be in the Future.

By: DU

DU — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:09:49 -0800

I'm reading about about this stuff right now, so it was really weird seeing all these names on the front page. It's also a little disheartening that in the N years since that book was written, they've only made a couple extra flights. We should be on Mars by now!

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:12:11 -0800

what book are you reading?

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:14:21 -0800

It would be nice if it could pick up some of the slack after the Shuttle shuts down in 2010.

By: DU

DU — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:16:44 -0800

Rocketeers, which I now realize is actually only 3 months old. In my defense, I'm only up to around 2004.

By: netbros

netbros — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:26:21 -0800

Future

By: smackfu

smackfu — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:15:51 -0800

How did Space-X manage to get viable? Was it the mass infusion of cash?

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:20:02 -0800

The cash came last month, so it is unlikely to have made much difference in today's launch.

By: agress

agress — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:23:23 -0800

Well, I guess fourth time's the charm... Here's hoping their later designs don't have this much trouble.

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:32:18 -0800

A dummy payload? "To be on the safe side and not give people arriving on the scene that there was a dead person in the suit there was a placard inside the visor of the helmet with the word 'Dummy' (MAKET in Russian). This precaution had been taken at the direct orders of chief designer Sergei Korolev."

By: Naberius

Naberius — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:54:19 -0800

"This precaution had been taken at the direct orders of chief designer Sergei Korolev." Yeah, he was always a prankster, that Korolev. The shit he used to get up to at the Zvezda Christmas parties...

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:47:38 -0800

I love how, in my lifetime, technology has moved forward, and changed the world, at a faster pace than ever in history, allowing us to communicate instantly with almost anyone in the world, giving us a chance for the first time to set up stable communities which can all interactwith one another, telecommuting giving us the opportunity to work from home and reubanization the chance to thrive within walking distance of one's domicile, and yet we still can really only see "the future" in terms of how far and how easily we can travel.

By: autodidact

autodidact — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:10:33 -0800

Elon Musk for president!

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:14:03 -0800

Elon Musk for president! Not much chance of that, but he could be the next governor of California.

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:32:26 -0800

Ooh, man, Korolev is one of the secret chiefs, I shit you not. Seriously worth reading up on.

By: dirigibleman

dirigibleman — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:40:38 -0800

Personal Jet Pack

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:45:48 -0800

Correction: It looks like today's flight with the dummy payload pushed the flight with the Malaysia/ATSB payload back in the schedule. My guess is that the customer didn't want to finance another trial flight, and the cash injection from a third party investor allowed SpaceX to run the launch with a dummy payload. Now that they've succeeded, customer confidence is probably back up. Malaysia/ATSB's payload on a Falcon 1 is next, and the first Falcon 9 follows after that. The cash is unlikely to have had any impact on the engineering of today's flight, but could have been a critical step in keeping the customers happy and ensuring the company's continuing operation.

By: exogenous

exogenous — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:50:02 -0800

Falcon 1 Flight 4 vehicle carries a payload mass simulator of approximately 165 kg (364 lbs) Sweet: that's me, a spacesuit, a parachute, a small rocket to decelerate out of orbit, and a case of Dogfish 60 Minute IPA.

By: jamstigator

jamstigator — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:52:35 -0800

By 'dummy load', they mean John McCain is suspending his campaign to help with the launch by being the dummy. The McPayload is due to fall back to earth several hours later, landing in a secret location in Pakistan, roughly between Gatesofhellistan and Osama bin Laden's cave, where he will deal with our greatest enemy in hand-to-hand combat, slaughtering him mercilessly with a plastic MRE spork, before returning to a hero's parade and a naughty behind-the-curtains (and out of sight of Cindy) tongue kiss from Sarah Palin. Didn't you get the talking points yet?

By: Cyrano

Cyrano — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:41:30 -0800

Really? You had to bring that into this thread?

By: Artw

Artw — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:47:03 -0800

Google Ron Paul in Space!

By: p3t3

p3t3 — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:59:18 -0800

As someone who rarely ever follows this type of news, I'm almost surprised that it has taken this long for a privately funded space mission since the technology has been around for so long. So when can we expect the consumer models to show up at Wallmart?

By: Mr_Zero

Mr_Zero — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:03:46 -0800

Rock on Elon, rock on.

By: agress

agress — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:24:48 -0800

re: jamstigator, Do you honestly believe that McCain could survive a trip into space, much less be able to have enough range of movement in his arms for anything naughty? Of course, if we're lucky, maybe we could convince him to Maverick himself on a mission to walk on the sun. He's a POW you know, he can handle it.

By: Artw

Artw — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:29:43 -0800

At least Sputnik bleeped.

By: Freen

Freen — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:36:17 -0800

Elon Musk: "Optimism, pessimism, fuck that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work."

By: Mr_Zero

Mr_Zero — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:48:31 -0800

At least Sputnik bleeped. Come on. This is Metafilter and an amazing accomplishment. Even trolls shouldn't shit on this.

By: 5MeoCMP

5MeoCMP — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:07:15 -0800

Even trolls shouldn't shit on this. Fuckin' A. Congratulations to SpaceX. Fingers crossed things go as smoothly (in the long run, I'm aware that the first four flights were learning experiences) for Falcon 9 and Dragon.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:05:09 -0800

By 'dummy load', they mean John McCain is suspending his campaign to help with the launch by being the dummy. No, I believe the campaign hired someone else to be the dummy.

By: atrazine

atrazine — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:32:05 -0800

Well, I guess fourth time's the charm... Here's hoping their later designs don't have this much trouble. Succeeding on the fourth try is actually a pretty reasonable performance for a launch vehicle.

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:41:18 -0800

NO AUTHOR FOUND posted "SpaceX just took the next big step and inserted a dummy payload into orbit." All that just to elevate some unknown dummy? These pointy-headed scientists should have thought to honor the greatest President ever, George W. Bush.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:24:37 -0800

How was the first one not "privately funded"?

By: sotonohito

sotonohito — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:08:27 -0800

Excellent news. I hope it starts being profitable for them soon. On a side note, does anyone know why they went with an oxygen/kerosene engine instead of oxygen/hydrogen? I couldn't find an answer on their website. I'd always been under the impression that an oxygen/hydrogen reaction was preferable (more bang for your buck), and that the only reason the US used oxygen/kerosene was because of materials difficulties that have been solved since the development of the Space Shuttle. Apparently I'm mistaken, but does anyone have a link explaining why I'm wrong?

By: agress

agress — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:18:43 -0800

Well, I guess fourth time's the charm... Here's hoping their later designs don't have this much trouble. Succeeding on the fourth try is actually a pretty reasonable performance for a launch vehicle. It is, I guess it's more the fact that I've been following SpaceX ever since Musk announced it, and it's been kinda hard watching them get so close and having it fall apart at the end. In any case, I'm glad they got this one.

By: Popular Ethics

Popular Ethics — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:58:58 -0800

On a side note, does anyone know why they went with an oxygen/kerosene engine instead of oxygen/hydrogen? I don't know for sure, but there are secondary costs to using hydrogen: Though the specific energy (energy per unit mass) is higher, the density is significantly lower, so you need a bigger fuel tank which cuts into the weight savings somewhat. Plus handling liquid hydrogen at -250 C is significantly harder than either liquid oxygen at -180 C or kerosene at ambient temperature. I bet, in the final analysis, kerosene ends up being cheaper, even if it is less efficient. (which makes me wonder whether solid fuel wouldn't have been cheaper still)

By: CaseyB

CaseyB — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:13:01 -0800

inserted a dummy payload into orbit [link to definition of escape velocity]. Escape velocity is not relevant to rockets. A rocket could leave the earth's gravity well at a constant 1 mph if so designed. Escape velocity is effectively about the muzzle speed of guns trying to launch things into orbit. We don't do that much.

By: Popular Ethics

Popular Ethics — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:22:06 -0800

Come again CaseyB? In order to get into orbit with a rocket, gun, or plasma accelomator, you need to have a kinetic energy equal to your gravitational potential energy. That means going fast. Like Mach 3 Fast.

By: Popular Ethics

Popular Ethics — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:58:35 -0800

Caveat: I'm talking about orbital velocity which is different, but not unrelated to, escape velocity. You could I suppose leave earth orbit by moving at 1mph until the force of gravity from earth reduces to a point where you only need to be going 1mph to escape, but that would: a) take a ridiculous amount of fuel (far better to reach orbital velocity first), and b) have no relevancy to the discussion about an orbital vehicle.

By: uncle harold

uncle harold — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:00:58 -0800

Popular Ethics: No, CaseyB is right - escape velocity applies only to objects without propulsion of their own (it's even in the article you linked).

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:49:01 -0800

Do you honestly believe that McCain could survive a trip into space Yeah, come on, send the chimp. You know who I'm talking about.

By: zap rowsdower

zap rowsdower — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:02:34 -0800

Re: why they didn't go with solid fuels...solid rockets aren't throttleable, and tend to accelerate much faster than liquid fuels. It's good for the vehicle to throttle back around the time of maximum atmospheric pressure on ascent ("max q") for both the payload and the vehicle itself. Plus, once you turn on a solid rocket, you're going somewhere, cause you sure you ain't turning it off...

By: Popular Ethics

Popular Ethics — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:17:15 -0800

They could have used a solid fuel, liquid oxidizer engine to gain throttleability, like SpaceShipOne. Maybe its that liquid fuels allow spacex to test on the pad.

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:17:21 -0800

Mods: can you change the orbit link in the post to this?

By: crataegus

crataegus — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:33:49 -0800

♥ I don't really have anything to add to this other than gushing.