Post: #1

Another routine launch for them (yawn) right? But this one is their return to flight with an upgraded rocket after the summer's loss of a cargo mission to the space station. (Weak uncertified struts holding a high pressure helium bottle failed inside the stage 2 LOx tank, should be an easy fix)

BUT MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, this may be the historic first recovery of a rocket stage intact after lofting a useful payload. Refurbishment of the fuel tank and expensive Merlin engines will eventually drive down the cost of these puppies by a factor of 10, from $60-100M to $5-10M (price variability depends if you're a commercial customer with insurance and less certification or a government agency without insurance and more certification). Other launch vehicle companies are already looking at reuseability - ULA Vulcan for example and Blue Origin's New Shepard.

Launch window begins at 8:33 pm EST, so log in here about 15 minutes earlier to get a solid video stream and any last-second excitement. The window is only 1 minute long so if it doesn't go right away then it's likely postponed until later in the week:
http://www.spacex.com/webcast

Best place for updates on the first stage landing is Elon Musk's twitter: https://twitter.com/elonmusk

From the SpaceX website:

SpaceX is currently aiming for a Monday, December 21st launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, carrying 11 satellites for ORBCOMM. The launch is part of ORBCOMM's second and final OG2 Mission and will lift off from SpaceX's launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This mission also marks the first time SpaceX will attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket on land. The landing of the first stage is a secondary test objective.

The launch webcast is targeted to begin at approximately 8:10pm ET with liftoff at approximately 8:33pm ET. The launch webcast can be viewed at spacex.com/webcast. For updates, visit http://www.spacex.com and http://www.orbcomm.com.

Post: #2

Success!!! Huge news for the spaceflight community. This enables colonization of Mars in our lifetimes, cheap access to orbit for an entirely new class of satellite, and space tourism.

Post: #3

(12-21-2015 08:44 PM)Engineer Wrote:  Success!!! Huge news for the spaceflight community. This enables colonization of Mars in our lifetimes, cheap access to orbit for an entirely new class of satellite, and space tourism.

Truly a big accomplishment, considering what they just pulled off, and all of those spectacular crash videos. I wonder if this will unlock more interest and funding into NASA and/or at least SpaceX. Lets hope so.

Post: #4

A historical day indeed.






The landing is at 10 minutes in the video.

Post: #5

Spacex just had a successful CRS-8 Dragon launch and first stage reentry with landing on the drone ship.

Post: #6

Here is the video, just wow!

Post: #7

I hear SpaceX hires only women

Post: #8

I was laughing the entire time while watching the launch as they had a piece of eye candy woman reporting. The woman kept making stupid comments while always having to go to the guy for scientific input. The entire background looked like it was filled with nothing but men. Men are building great things and furthering the possibility of space exploration. I wonder how much of the leg and hard work will have to be done before more women want to come aboard and reap the benefits.

Even so, the landing was groundbreaking and great to watch.

Post: #9

I saw just a clip on the news of the previous attempts and the how close they have come. Congrats to a successful landing. The name of the remotely controlled barges have been funny.

This most recent one was named "of course I still love you"

A previous one was named "just read the instructions"

Post: #10

Here's the full webcast:




So fucking sick.

Post: #11

They had a fat fuck as host? ugghhh

Post: #12

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-...ce=twitter

SpaceX breaks Boeing-Lockheed monopoly on military space launches

The U.S. Air Force on Wednesday awarded billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX an $83 million contract to launch a GPS satellite, breaking the monopoly that Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and Boeing Co (BA.N) have held on military space launches for more than a decade.

Post: #13

I think Musk wants to be the first man on Mars.

Post: #14

That's the only place where he could escape the impending ass-rape from his 2nd divorce with the same woman.

Post: #15

Post: #16

I couldn't find any other SpaceX threads this might belong in so I went with this one.

SpaceX wants to give the whole world internet via satellite

This could be interesting...