On Fourth Launch Attempt, SpaceX Falcon 1 Reaches Orbit 518
xp65 writes with the just-announced success of Elon Musk's SpaceX's long efforts to reach orbit with a privately-developed launching craft: "T+0:08:21 Falcon 1 reached orbital velocity, 5200 m/s Nominal Second stage cut off (SECO) — Falcon 1 has made history as the first privately developed liquid fueled launch vehicle to achieve earth orbit!"
dbullard adds "This was a completely new vehicle — it's not using any previously developed hardware. All developed from scratch. No government supplied hardware, Russian engines, or old ICBM motors. My hat's off to the employees of Space X — all 550 of them. (Note — no 'cast of thousands,' just 550).
They've got video of the entire launch."
It's not news because (Score:3, Funny)
we can't use a telescope and a microscope simultaneously.
sorry i'm late guys (Score:1, Funny)
I got too close to my cock's Schwarzchild radius (which all hypermassive objects have) and time got really dilated. [www.goat.cx]
Not only men, I hope (Score:4, Funny)
May SpaceX be there to participate as man finally reaches for the stars.
Let's bring some women too.
Re:A toast (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Let's revisit his recent quote... (Score:3, Funny)
You mean "Him"?
Re:Frickin awesome (Score:3, Funny)
Wow, you like cursing and insulting other people huh? Let's brush that silly ad hominem aside and look at the facts.
Many people have ALREADY put their money into F1 launches, check their launch manifest. And that was when, by your standards, they had a 100% failure rate. I expect SpaceX to receive more bids now.
The F9 and F9 Heavy uses the Merlin engine, but in multiple configurations for added thrust. Now, you would want to prove your concept in the smallest scale possible to minimize losses, so they did, the F1 flying around our rock as we speak.
Now if they say the F9 Heavy will take about 30 tons to LEO, don't mind if I believe they can deliver.
Re:Not THAT impressive (Score:3, Funny)
Perhaps I should take your lead then. Any articles about the Shenzhou programme (which, btw, is doing pretty well to cost only 20 times as much as Musks effort considering how much more they are doing) are dogged with comments about 'chinks' and how they must be faking it because they couldn't possibly grasp high technology, followed by some comments about Tibet by people who get awfully defensive about Iraq. It gets pretty ugly.
Sure, and as we've just seen, apparently stories about SpaceX's successes are dogged with comments about slashdotters wanting to jump on CEO's cocks. Fortunately both sorts of comments tend to get modded down pretty quickly as ignorant and/or irrelevant.
Recommend you don't click (Score:3, Funny)
I agree... 80% is a bit high... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Recent discussion/interview with SpaceX's CEO (Score:2, Funny)
Of course, thirty years from now the tiny zinc-aluminum $1M coin will be the smallest unit of US currency.
Re:Cost (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A challenge from the Falcon 1 team... (Score:3, Funny)
He then Falcon-Punched the reporter into orbit for dramatic effect.
Re:All Aboard! 80% Launch Failure Rate! (Score:5, Funny)
I imagine he'd do pretty badly, since he can't even calculate the failure rate correctly.
Re:Cost (Score:2, Funny)
$7.9 million? MASA [aol.com] will launch any payload and successfully land it on the moon for two hundred dollars [wikipedia.org].
And how much in taxes does the average taxpayer have to pay to subsidize that $200 launch cost?
There is no free -- or even cheap -- lunch when it comes to any government-sponsored program.
The fourth one stayed up! (Score:2, Funny)
Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up!
Re:implied (Score:2, Funny)
It is true that the early history of NASA was obviously targeted towards national defense -- and thus justified. However, the work would have been eventually done using private capital if the end result -- satellite communications for example -- were profitable -- and therefore sustainable.
Re:Cost (Score:4, Funny)
I think he is trying to make amends for Paypal.
Cant really blame him....
Re:multi-engine test stand firings (Score:4, Funny)
Not since the final flight of the Saturn 1B rocket in 1975, has a rocket had the ability to lose any engine or motor and still successfully complete its mission,â said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX.
I hear what he's saying and I'm sure it can survive an engine quietly losing thrust, but I wouldn't quite bet on it with any of the more spectacular failure modes.
Re:Escape Velocity (Score:5, Funny)
I would be fascinated to hear how you measured the radius of the Earth to the nearest proton diameter.
Re:Not only men, I hope (Score:3, Funny)
e are problems with women in space. The catheters they use for space suits are still pretty awkward, and menstruation is apparently very awkward. But heck yes, bring women. They're lighter and take less oxygen/kilo and fewer calories/workload.
No, you just have to convince them that a bigger space station will have better schools for the kids, then the wives will insist the husbands mortgage themselves up to their eyeballs to build it. "Suzanne researched this!"