Private space travel companies set to make big leaps in 2013

[mstng86]

Weather is always an issue with this. Why did NASA select FLORIDA to launch out of? There are storms everyday in that state. Wouldn't it be better to launch from the desert or from another coastal site thats not tropical?

[Strychnine]

Weather is always an issue with this. Why did NASA select FLORIDA to launch out of? There are storms everyday in that state. Wouldn't it be better to launch from the desert or from another coastal site thats not tropical?

A few things combine into the decision.

A Florida based launch trajectory, heading east, does not take anything over land in when there's a chance it could fail and land on people.
Also the further south you launch from (or closer to the equator), the less energy it takes to get into orbit (taking advantage of the Earth's rotation). Hence Florida, as opposed to Virginia or something.

This is why Space X has started some work in far south Texas - the launch trajectory would go out over the gulf.

[mstng86]

A few things combine into the decision.

A Florida based launch trajectory, heading east, does not take anything over land in when there's a chance it could fail and land on people.
Also the further south you launch from (or closer to the equator), the less energy it takes to get into orbit (taking advantage of the Earth's rotation). Hence Florida, as opposed to Virginia or something.

This is why Space X has started some work in far south Texas - the launch trajectory would go out over the gulf.

Sounds like Brownsville would be a decent alternative.

[Strychnine]

Sounds like Brownsville would be a decent alternative.

http://www.space.com/27234-spacex-texas-spaceport-groundbreaking.html

SpaceX Breaks Ground on Private Spaceport in Texas
September 23, 2014

The private spaceflight company SpaceX has begun construction on a new launch site in Texas, a seaside spaceport that will be used to blast commercial satellites into orbit a few years from now. SpaceX officially broke ground on the facility, on Monday (Sept. 22) in Brownsville, Texas. The new launch site will be located near Boca Chica Beach, at the far southern tip of the Lone Star State.

[mstng86]

cool.

close enough to drive and watch one day.

[Strychnine]

10 sec

[Strychnine]

Stage 1 separation... cross your fingers, it's on it's way down.

[Strychnine]

"stage 1 entry burn has started"



(I'm seriously nerding out on this. this is sci-fi type shit happening real time)

[Strychnine]

Quote from Elon just now

"Ascent successful. Dragon enroute to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival."



But they hit the target again!

[Shorty]

Just hitting the droneship is mind boggling to me.

[Sgt Beavis]

QOTD on Twitter

@SpaceXEngineer: We falcon punched the barge... @SpaceX CRS-6

https://twitter.com/SpaceXEngineer/status/588075066757361664

[Strychnine]

Just hitting the droneship is mind boggling to me.

No shit! There are a lot of people in the world who can't manage to drive a car down a street without crashing into things... but there are also people out there who can work together to launch a fucking rocket, put a capsule in orbit, then get the rocket back down into a bullseye on a boat.

QOTD on Twitter

@SpaceXEngineer: We falcon punched the barge... @SpaceX CRS-6

Fucking hilarious.

[Strychnine]

Just before it landed "too hard"

[Strychnine]

Elon: "Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing."

"All we have right now is low frame rate video (basically pictures). Normal video will be posted when ship returns to port in a few days."

[Sgt Beavis]

Excess lateral velocity makes me think they need to change the landing approach so it comes to a hover for a couple of seconds before touching down..