Space - Spacex, NASA, Rocket Lab
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@Stockcar86 said in SpaceX:
I was watching the pre-launch live while in the passenger seat on the way to work in Timaru in my bosses Tesla, on autopilot, after he downloaded the latest car software patch over his motel Wifi last night. We really are living in the future
That is all sorts of awesome!
Other than the Timaru bit...
that's harsh ... I like Timaru
I lived there for 9 months. I do not.
Didn't you have a pad that over looked the ocean??
That's Dunedin. I still have it! (and hopefully the solid capital gains hold up, post-Covid).
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Gee, watching the launch is making me feel like a school-kid again.
Loving the non-nonsense NASA coverage.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in SpaceX:
Gee, watching the launch is making me feel like a school-kid again.
Loving the non-nonsense NASA coverage.
That is so impressive. The ship looked great, very sci-fi. And the controlled return of the first stage onto the ship is very cool. Does the capsule splash down on return, or land on the ship?
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@canefan is how a spaceship should like at this stage. Not a fucking 60s supercomputer
That's what happens when you get the private sector to design it
86 million dollars for that launch.
Last space shuttle cost 1 billion dollars...
That's crazy. And that doesn't take inflation into account I assume? Someone stole big time
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@canefan is how a spaceship should like at this stage. Not a fucking 60s supercomputer
That's what happens when you get the private sector to design it
86 million dollars for that launch.
Last space shuttle cost 1 billion dollars...
That's crazy. And that doesn't take inflation into account I assume? Someone stole big time
Capsule will land in the water, they have a design that can land on a drone ship or land but it’s not approved yet. Water is safer.
Shuttle launches were more expensive because didn’t reuse boosters, had more of them and were larger. Shuttle was significantly more complex as well, so no stealing going on, just a very inefficient design.
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@canefan is how a spaceship should like at this stage. Not a fucking 60s supercomputer
That's what happens when you get the private sector to design it
86 million dollars for that launch.
Last space shuttle cost 1 billion dollars...
That's crazy. And that doesn't take inflation into account I assume? Someone stole big time
Capsule will land in the water, they have a design that can land on a drone ship or land but it’s not approved yet. Water is safer.
Shuttle launches were more expensive because didn’t reuse boosters, had more of them and were larger. Shuttle was significantly more complex as well, so no stealing going on, just a very inefficient design.
The return and reuse theory was good, they just reached the wrong conclusion going for a complicated reusable orbiter launched by expensive non-reusable rockets
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@canefan and baked in some terrible decisions. Needed to fly with wings, but for political reasons. Big fuel tank to feed the engines, and then eccentric centre of mass relative to thrust.
Then two solid fuel boosters to get the whole thing off the ground and it's an overly complex piece of engineering.
Then, to add insult to injury the orbiter is below the tank, so anything like frozen foam that falls off can damage the vulnerable heat tiles. And, of course, the crew isn't up the top well away from everything. It's a massive dog, and they were amazing to get it going and keep it flying as long as they did.
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@canefan is how a spaceship should like at this stage. Not a fucking 60s supercomputer
That's what happens when you get the private sector to design it
86 million dollars for that launch.
Last space shuttle cost 1 billion dollars...
That's crazy. And that doesn't take inflation into account I assume? Someone stole big time
As a few pundits have said: when the contracts operate on a cost-plus basis, you're not going to get great outcomes.
In that way, private enterprise took advantage of government thinking. I reckon in terms of cost, SpaceX now have a bit of leverage to scoop some handy profit.
The Soyuz launches are apparently $80M a seat, so even if you tell NASA / US Govt that its $60M a seat it becomes a no brainer.
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@canefan is how a spaceship should like at this stage. Not a fucking 60s supercomputer
That's what happens when you get the private sector to design it
86 million dollars for that launch.
Last space shuttle cost 1 billion dollars...
That's crazy. And that doesn't take inflation into account I assume? Someone stole big time
Capsule will land in the water, they have a design that can land on a drone ship or land but it’s not approved yet. Water is safer.
Shuttle launches were more expensive because didn’t reuse boosters, had more of them and were larger. Shuttle was significantly more complex as well, so no stealing going on, just a very inefficient design.
TBF, technology has moved on a lot in the last 40 years since the Shuttle was designed as well, & SpaceX has taken advantage of that.
And an awful lot of that technology simply didn't exist until NASA developed it
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@Victor-Meldrew said in SpaceX:
@canefan is how a spaceship should like at this stage. Not a fucking 60s supercomputer
That's what happens when you get the private sector to design it
86 million dollars for that launch.
Last space shuttle cost 1 billion dollars...
That's crazy. And that doesn't take inflation into account I assume? Someone stole big time
Capsule will land in the water, they have a design that can land on a drone ship or land but it’s not approved yet. Water is safer.
Shuttle launches were more expensive because didn’t reuse boosters, had more of them and were larger. Shuttle was significantly more complex as well, so no stealing going on, just a very inefficient design.
TBF, technology has moved on a lot in the last 40 years since the Shuttle was designed as well, & SpaceX has taken advantage of that.
And an awful lot of that technology simply didn't exist until NASA developed it
Absolutely, and SpaceX have worked closely with NASA to develop safe manned flight. Their recent test was spectacular.
Their main point of difference is their focus on making space travel cheap. Musk often talks about the cost per tonne getting into orbit. He’s actually trying to get an industry going here.
Compare with Lockheed/Boeing that are building their alternative using the same tactics as with the shuttle. Government lobbyists, massive cost overruns, running late but still getting paid. And to top it all off, it’s failing safety tests.
One of their parachutes didn’t open on their capsule, it vented poison gas all around the landing site. Their orbiter had a flaw that under closer examination found 20 more problems that potentially could have killed astronauts.
And to top it all off, the estimated cost per launch will be back to a billion dollars, and it’s not a reusable rocket.
So it’s just not about technology, it’s about a will to do things differently. We are at a point that without SpaceX, the future of American space exploration was looking pretty bleak.
In the next 3/5 years, there will be a SpaceX rocket landing on the moon and flying back to Earth. Probably all streamed to YouTube:)
