Live rocket launch in 10mins here

 

http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

Scrubbed. Not surprising.

8 minutes ago, Cheese said:

Scrubbed. Not surprising.

any particular reason why?

5 minutes ago, Zico said:

any particular reason why?

They’re trying to fire Cliff Morrises ashes into space but the payload is too heavy

4 minutes ago, Zico said:

any particular reason why?

A valve wasn't operating properly apparently. Probably frozen. Exactly the type of issue these test launches are designed to weed out. Probably be test launching again before the end of the week.

22 minutes ago, Cheese said:

A valve wasn't operating properly apparently. Probably frozen. Exactly the type of issue these test launches are designed to weed out. Probably be test launching again before the end of the week.

what happens if a test launch is a success, do they go ahead and launch? or line up an actual launch at a later date, which then might fail a test?

27 minutes ago, Zico said:

what happens if a test launch is a success, do they go ahead and launch? or line up an actual launch at a later date, which then might fail a test?

In this case, they launch it, fly at suborbital altitude for a bit, then crash it into the sea.

Technically, all test launches are successful, even if they don't launch, because they discover something that prevented them from launching...

Edited April 17, 20233 yr by Cheese

7 hours ago, Cheese said:

In this case, they launch it, fly at suborbital altitude for a bit, then crash it into the sea.

 

And I take it that's because they can reuse these rockets 

Unlike the old days 

When it was launch or not 

 

17 minutes ago, Zico said:

And I take it that's because they can reuse these rockets 

Unlike the old days 

When it was launch or not 

Don't quite understand what you mean? They've already succesfully landed and reused the smaller rockets dozens of times, but like all initial development tests, the first one of this type (the Super Heavy Booster) will be ditched into the sea, probably unrecoverable.

Edited April 17, 20233 yr by Cheese

8 hours ago, Cheese said:

Don't quite understand what you mean? They've already succesfully landed and reused the smaller rockets dozens of times, but like all initial development tests, the first one of this type (the Super Heavy Booster) will be ditched into the sea, probably unrecoverable.

Ah ok 

Thought the rockets were one offs that would be reused, but not ditched 

So it's an actual test model designed to be used once and not for an actual mission 

Got it

47 minutes ago, Zico said:

Ah ok 

Thought the rockets were one offs that would be reused, but not ditched 

So it's an actual test model designed to be used once and not for an actual mission 

Got it

Its a lot of money either way.

1 minute ago, gonzo said:

Its a lot of money either way.

Paid for by blue ticks on twitter

I would imagine these re-useable rockets are starting to make a tidy sum for them now. 

Lots of companies wanting to shove satelites up there.

They're trying again in the next few hours...

 

fuck the tests

I'll wait for the main event

Simply incredible.

Edited April 20, 20233 yr by Cheese

Watching a rocket take off or a man piss himself

That is one expensive firework

Oh, they are recovering it. Didn't think they were bothering for some reason.

Fascinating.

One powerful beast.

I reckon 5 or 6 of us on here could build a rocket that explodes soon after take off.

You’d think Musk had just cured cancer

1 hour ago, Spider said:

I reckon 5 or 6 of us on here could build a rocket that explodes soon after take off.

You’d think Musk had just cured cancer

🤣

SpaceX. Space cowboys.

wish I'd watched it now

it's like F1

might tune in to watch at crash at the beginning

would never tune in for qualfying though

28 minutes ago, Zico said:

wish I'd watched it now

it's like F1

might tune in to watch at crash at the beginning

would never tune in for qualfying though

The explosion wasn't very exciting really. Regardless of what happened after the launch, it was going to be destroyed. Almost like they thought "We've done what we wanted, let's get people talking about it..."

I noticed a fair few of the 35 raptor engines didn't seem to fire up then we saw the rocket climb.