DescentBB

The Future is Looking a Whole lot Brighter

A semi-lengthy but good article on Atomic PC on how certain entities in the private sector are making sensible inroads into the "Space Biz".

I am encouraged.
... but I have to ask ... why did it take THIS long to figure out? Oh well, better late than never I 'spose.

why now? i credit efforts like the X-Prize that started in 1995/1996, inspiring lots of exciting competition that was won by the SpaceShipOne/WhiteKnight spacecraft in 2004.
These prizes seem to be quite good at doing what they set out to do - inspire development.
There's all sorts of prizes now!

update: the May 7th Falcon9+Dragon launch to the ISS has been delayed till the 19th. They wanna run more simulations, or something

launch is in 21mins.
WEBCAST RIGHT NOW, tune in.
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

T-10mins

oh ★■◆●

1 million people confirmed dead, reports still comming in

oops, i misunderstood Lassie's message. Launch was aborted seconds after ignition, vehicle never left launch pad.
Millions dead disappointed. Repeat, disappointed. Not dead.

As always, Jeb had the time of his life.
[youtube]kJM-j8PLW-c[/youtube]

[youtube]89uUHKwINxs[/youtube]
haha

Self destruct in T minus...
...
...
Zero
Have a nice day!

Also you're evil. But I was reading the thread bottom-to-top so it didn't matter.

ok folks, next launch is Tuesday, 22 May 2012 at 07:44:00 UTC.
Just a few days.
Same Bat Time
Same Bat Channel
(Bill, Clean your spacesuit )

Launch aborted: slightly high combustion chamber pressure on engine 5. Will adjust limits for countdown in a few days.

...

Inspections found a faulty check valve on engine #5. We are replacing tonight.
Next attempt Tuesday, 5/22 at 3:44 AM ET

Launch in 1 hour.
(webcast starts in 15min or so http://www.spacex.com/webcast/ )

Watching on NASA TV right now.

Thanks for the link. That was beautiful.

Woooo, orbit!

omg
i came

.


...here to say how great that launch was.
Here's what we all watched
[youtube]julrL3o_yow[/youtube]
People will probably upload higher res vids, in time, but i can't be fuuuuuu BOTHERED finding them atm.

IIRC the Dragon (ie: the top bit of the rocket, ie: the only bit that's left, that's carrying the cargo) will do another burn in 2 days or so to get aligned with the International space station. Then the day after that they'll dock (if NASA is ok with it).

Dragon will do an ISS flyby 4 hours from righttttttt.... NOW. (flyby will be at 12:47am California time, later revised to "approx 1am")
Dunno if SpaceX will webcast that or what, it'll be 2.5 kms away from the space station.
edit: NASA's own webcast of it will start at 11:30pm California time http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv

man this NASA video feed is boring
BLOW SOMETHING UP

spaceX's mission control, all these triple screens, looks better than NASA's imho. but at the same time it's kinda like a 1% lan party(occupyronpaulronpaulronpaul)
also i just heard them saying somethign about somethign being delayed by 1 hour after their initial plans. urrrrgggghhhhh

actual ISS docking will be in a bit under 10hrs from now iirc.
(ie: it'll be at 11:20am Eastern (usa) Time)

NASA website says docking 9:10 am EDT. Sorry you will sleep thru it Roid.

man 5 hours ago they said it was gonna be 4:30 AM PT / 7:30 AM ET, ★■◆● keeps changin!

anyway, yeah i'm hearing 9:10 a.m. EDT now too, so less than an hour away from now.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
omg you can see it now. look at that dragon!
"dragon is currently sitting at 70meters"

Estimated docking time has been moved back to 9:40am CT / 10:40am ET. So, 1 & a half hours from now.
But you can just check the dragon sitting there in the meantime. As a great man once said:
YOU BIG BEAUTIFUL ★■◆●

They just got a go for capture, they are going to capture it with the arm right now. Tune in now to watch that arm go.

this docking stuff is infectious

well i'm going to bed.
i heard someone mention something happening in 6 hours from now, maybe it's when Berthing will happen i dunno.
Someone send me a psychic feed for that into my dream ok?

roid wrote:well i'm going to bed.
Someone send me a psychic feed for that into my dream ok?

oh haha very funny you guys.
what if i told you that i actually ENJOYED that fucked up dream you gave me last night? huh? how about that ★■◆●.
(you goddamn psychic terrorists)

There was another launch today (well, yesterday for me). First "official" cargo mission to the ISS, the previous launch from May was more of a test / demonstration of ISS birthing and the CAPABILITY of cargo resupply, they had some cargo but it was nothing amazing or absolutely nessesary (some clothes, food, blah) just incase the whole rocket exploded i guess.
This latest launch though was a proper cargo mission to the ISS.
Oh also it launched a satellite. Multitasking

[youtube]tRTYh71D9P0[/youtube]

One of the 9 rocket engines quite literally exploded at 1:30, but it can handle that, the engines are apparently armoured incase that happens. It automatically shuts off the fuel for that one engine, recalcalates and then burns the other 8 engines longer, woa.
That is pretty amazing. BLAM! naw dude, 'tis but a scratch.