lol, did he insult your honor?

9/20/2012 11:45:27 AM

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/10/07/spacex-dragon-set-to-blast-off-to-space-station/

SpaceX's Dragon is set to lift off tonight in it's first, non-test flight to the international space station!

10/7/2012 3:41:30 PM

For those who don't know the background, the significance of the Dragon is what?

It looks like this is an unmanned cargo delivery mission, but the system is designed to ultimately send up people. Is that right?

10/7/2012 5:00:02 PM

Right... SpaceX is Elon Musk's company... he was the founder of Paypal. (he also owns Tesla motors)

Anyway, they are one of two private company frontrunners in providing manned launch services to low Earth orbit, specifically to the International Space Station (ISS). Their "Dragon" capsule they are launching today is the cargo version, and this is the first non-test flight which is part of a 12 launch, 1.6 billion dollar contract with NASA to resupply the ISS.

They are working on a "Dragon Rider" version which will be manned, but we won't see launches of manned dragons for several more years.

10/7/2012 8:32:38 PM

T-2 min to launch!

10/7/2012 8:33:05 PM

In orbit!

10/7/2012 8:45:21 PM

apparently one of the engines went out mid-flight, but the other engines were able to compensate... good demo of their "engine out" capabilities.

10/8/2012 10:27:43 AM

So I missed watching this live, but I wanted to check it out after Smath said an engine went out. But I read some stories discussing it, and they all agreed that it straight up exploded. I watched it and saw the same thing. Damn thing doesn't just cut off, it blows itself right off the side of the vehicle. They are supposed to have a presser about this later today. Still damn impressive that they can have the launch system cope with this without missing a beat, or its orbit.

Here is the launch video. Go to 90 seconds to see that bitch explode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRTYh71D9P0

[Edited on October 8, 2012 at 11:31 AM. Reason : ]

10/8/2012 11:11:34 AM

yeah! Is that the slow-motion video? (I can't see it at work)

there is a slow-mo video that shows it pretty good... i posted it on my facebook which i can't access at work.

[Edited on October 8, 2012 at 11:25 AM. Reason : ]

10/8/2012 11:25:10 AM

Here is the full speed and slow motion video of the engine explosion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvTIh96otDw&hd=1

10/8/2012 11:30:07 AM

the best part is that it made it to orbit exactly where it was supposed to go!

10/8/2012 11:47:55 AM

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20121003.html

Quote :

"NASA's Curiosity Rover Checks in on Mars Using Foursquare 10.03.12 PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Curiosity Mars rover checked in on Mars Wednesday using the mobile application Foursquare. This marks the first check-in on another planet. Users on Foursquare can keep up with Curiosity as the rover checks in at key locations and posts photos and tips, all while exploring the Red Planet. "

I think Curiosity has Mayor on lockdown for a while.

10/8/2012 4:46:56 PM

lol at using foursquare

10/9/2012 1:24:42 PM

ESA Abandoning NASA, will contract with China from now on.

But it's cool, NASA is busy making robots update Twitter accounts and paying eccentric billionaires to do the real work.

10/11/2012 1:45:22 AM

LOL

10/13/2012 10:44:41 PM

bull. the fuel tank and booster rockets would TOTALLY be sponsored by Viagra and/or Trojan

10/13/2012 11:07:10 PM

^^Totally agree honestly. Corporate sponsorships would solve the entire funding problem. We'd have to work on those paint jobs, though, all that extra paint is too heavy.

10/15/2012 11:15:00 AM

10/15/2012 11:44:28 AM

There is no "funding problem". The budget is ample for a superficial, nationalistic diversion.

10/15/2012 4:23:26 PM

Here's another failed project and waste of taxpayer money being towed through the streets of Los Angeles as a publicity stunt...the Spruce Goose! Funny how history repeats.






[Edited on October 19, 2012 at 1:29 AM. Reason : .]

10/19/2012 1:26:35 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/nasas-curiosity-rover-finds-more-shiny-objects-mars-181026535--abc-news-tech.html

Quote :

""Confidence for going ahead with the third scooping was based on new assessment that other bright particles in the area are native Martian material," NASA said in a statement. "One factor in that consideration is seeing some bright particles embedded in clods of Martian soil." "At that point when they first saw the bright particles in the hole created by the second scoop they weren't sure what they were," NASA spokesman, Guy Webster, told ABCNews.com."

Looks like Curiosity is finding a bunch of weird crap on Mars.

10/19/2012 12:27:26 PM

Today I learned:

The Opportunity rover on Mars is still functioning. It was updated Oct. 20, that was Saturday. It's been there >3000 Martian days.

http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity.html

10/22/2012 3:45:48 PM

does the curiosity have an on-board FTIR by any chance

10/22/2012 11:59:11 PM

I don't think so, although some equipment has a spectrum that includes some infrared.

10/23/2012 8:47:49 AM

I'm assuming they have ruled out the possibility of it being space junk from previous missions there that may have fallen in that area?

10/23/2012 9:32:13 AM

yeah.

10/23/2012 9:57:55 AM

Looks like dirt on a lifeless planet to me.

In the meantime, bow down to your Russian masters.

10/24/2012 9:44:18 AM

Dirt isn't shiny.

10/24/2012 11:30:52 AM

10/24/2012 12:47:13 PM

Or metal or some type of crystal. Or some type of silicate. Or the shit you leave on this thread somehow rocketed to Mars.

10/24/2012 1:09:32 PM

Maybe if we ask nicely India or China will tell us the answer one day.





Has America forfeited the space race? Magic 8 ball says: "All signs point to yes."

[Edited on October 24, 2012 at 1:29 PM. Reason : .]

10/24/2012 1:17:22 PM

Dragon has splashed down successfully in the Pacific ocean as of a few minutes ago! This is the first time since the last shuttle landing in summer '11 that a significant amount of cargo has been returned from the International Space Station.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/10/spacexs-dragon-return-earth-precious-cargo-iss/

Fairly detailed article about it!

[Edited on October 28, 2012 at 3:30 PM. Reason : ]

10/28/2012 3:29:22 PM

Terrific news!



http://defundnasa.org

10/28/2012 7:05:52 PM

get the fuck out of this thread with your trolling.

10/28/2012 7:10:19 PM

When a private company can do the same job for pennies on the dollar, doesn't that make them obsolete? What kind of communist regime are we running here if the cheapest bid doesn't win out?

10/28/2012 7:15:34 PM

this thread is not a political debate.

10/28/2012 7:41:16 PM

I agree, let's get the crony politics out of this discussion.

SpaceX is clearly the future of manned space flight.

10/28/2012 7:44:38 PM

whoa... ok. I'm very optimistic about SpaceX and their philosophy of trying to make space flight cheap and reliable. I do worry that there is bound to be a very public and costly mistake... if it were a government program they would be ok and fix it, but SpaceX seems to be very fragile right now and a lost vehicle (for example) might be costly enough to crush the company

10/28/2012 8:09:19 PM

The whole point is for them to prove that a "private" space company can handle that kind of risk.

10/28/2012 10:45:05 PM

THeir expertise was built on what NASA learned, NASA isn't the enemy.

NASA still is doing great work with space probes and telescopes, that's not something that would ever turn a profit in the private sector (companies like SpaceX don't strike my as being purely profit motivated, they're clearly passionate about space exploration for exploration's sake), despite the fact that the things we learn from those missions do provide new opportunities for the private sector. To top this off, SpaceX is practically being kept afloat by NASA. NASA is their biggest customer.

A NASA's problem was that congress politicized them, rather than letting them be explorers. Congress demanded they run programs a certain way in order to benefit specific districts. If they just let NASA run NASA, they would probably be more efficient.

10/28/2012 11:27:55 PM

SpaceX is doing a good job but I feel sorry for their workers. I've got a ton of friends that work for them (and know others that interviewed with them) and they are working like 60-80 hour work weeks They have to double and triple check every single thing even moreso then you normally would for something dealing with spaceflight. They know that if they do mess up something major it could set the private space industry back by years so they have a lot of pressure on their shoulders.

10/28/2012 11:56:30 PM

^ yeah, but I bet a lot of that motivation is internal, and not coming from the top down.

I would imagine NASA's engineers go through the same thing.

It's the nature of being in an industry like this. It's as much passion as anything else.

10/29/2012 12:11:49 AM

so by linking to a site that doesn't exist I'm getting that smc is conceding that no, we shouldn't defund NASA.

10/29/2012 9:10:32 AM

10/30/2012 9:40:50 AM

The day has come that kids no longer dress up as astronauts for Halloween, but instead pretend to be robots. I love it.

10/30/2012 8:24:54 PM

yeah, dressing up as robots is completely new.


(from a 1934 popular mechanics article)

10/30/2012 10:04:29 PM

Wait, are you supposed to smoke a cigarette and blow the smoke out the top? Haha that's great.



It looks like part of the tail blew off. A secure, climate-controlled facility was part of the deal for any museum to get a shuttle...and these guys put it in a swimming pool cover. I wonder if NASA will take the shuttle back as punishment.



[Edited on October 30, 2012 at 11:08 PM. Reason : .]

10/30/2012 10:54:58 PM

It really makes me angry that New York didn't take better care of the Enterprise. "hey, lets just put it on the deck of a museum ship under a blow-up tent"

10/30/2012 11:10:31 PM

Arg.
"Hey this giant hurricane is coming. Maybe we should throw a tarp or something over the orbiter? Yeah that should do it."

10/31/2012 9:34:30 AM

It wasn't an emergency tarp...that's their "building" that they planned to use for years until maybe one day they could raise enough money to afford to build a hangar.

10/31/2012 3:01:57 PM