SpaceX's Falcon 9 Appears As UFO In Australia 143
RobHart writes "ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Commission) has reported extensively on a bright spiraling light that was seen in Eastern Australia just before dawn. It has just broadcast a report from an Australian astronomer who has suggested that the light was probably the successful Falcon 9 launch, which would have been over Australia at that time on its launch trajectory."
Update: 06/05 22:20 GMT by T : Setting aside the literal exhaust fumes, reader FleaPlus says, It's "interesting to look at the reactions from those in Congress who control the purse-strings for NASA (one of SpaceX's biggest customers). The successful launch was congratulated by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL and former astronaut) and Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL), both praised and criticized by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) due to the successful launch being a year later than previously predicted, and blasted by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) for merely replicating what 'NASA accomplished in 1964,' who added that the company's success 'must not be confused with progress for our nation's human spaceflight program.'"
Second Stage Burn over australia (Score:1, Interesting)
SpaceX has been kinda quiet about it... But the second stage did try to do another burn over Australia to make escape velocity. The burn didn't go as planned, probably due to the fact of the uncontrolled spiraling of the first burn. They were targeting escape velocity, but it only burned for about 8 seconds. After scrambling to keep a couple of ground stations up to track it, they found it tumbling still in about the same orbit as the first burn. As usual Elon put a good spin on it saying they just wanted to do a quick burn to slightly change the orbit. When you don't release what your targeting to the public before hand its easy to call that a success, but in actuality, that's not what they had planned. Still a great day for SpaceX for a first launch of this rocket.
Some perspective: (Score:4, Interesting)
Some perspective: I used to live in Huntsville, AL, and I currently live in Austin, TX.
Shelby's just trying to protect the funding of of the Marshall SFC NASA group in Huntsville, AL. In their defense, the HSV group kicks a lot of ass, and is a welcome outpost of science and engineering in Alabama.
KBHutchinson is just an ignorant asshole.
Re:Congress is happy (Score:3, Interesting)
The Republican party never has been for free markets and never will be. Every single time they win, government still expands by leaps and bounds. It is mostly false rhetoric by leftists trying to prove that free markets don't work. Case in point is the quote from this fine senatorial idiot.
Re:Congress is happy (Score:2, Interesting)
Timothy is such a luddite for turning this into a Red vs. Blue thing. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL) also down played SpaceX's accomplishment. All of the politicians downplaying the achievement are just lamely trying to protect their area's piece of NASA's salted pork.
Rep. Kosmas: "The successful test launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is a significant step in the development of the commercial space industry. There is no doubt that commercial spaceflight will play an important role in the future of our efforts in space, and I believe private companies can bring new job opportunities for the Space Coast's highly skilled workforce. But we must both support the emerging commercial space industry and ensure a robust, NASA-led human spaceflight program in order to maintain our international leadership in space and keep our economy strong. I will continue fighting at every opportunity to minimize the human spaceflight gap, protect jobs, and ensure a bright future for the Space Coast."
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/04/4465072-spacex-fans-and-foes-speak-out [msn.com]
Re:Sen. Richard Shelby's Comment (Score:4, Interesting)
Bwahahahaha!!!! That is rich, fucking hilarious even. No, it is not like that at all, or at least not like you mean.
A private company succeeded in launching its first sub/low orbital rocket and it was only a year late. There are no truly innovative technologies used in the Falcon 9. It is comparable to a Titan III rocket, first launched in 1965.
The most innovative part of the Falcon 9 is that both stages are "designed" to be reusable, but that capability is not certain but rather hoped for and has yet to be demonstrated.
Literally, this is the equivalent of a private company demonstrating its new single core, 32 bit, RISC processor. It is old technology that has been mastered repeatedly by others and is nothing special.
Re:Politicians (Score:1, Interesting)
Russia, China, and soon India all have more advanced space programs than the USA right now. China will have a *permanent* manned lunar base by 2025. They *will* do this, not just talk about it. Japan will have a robot base by around then. You will have... nothing. Very shortly, your only way to get a human into space will be to beg rides from the Russians or Chinese. Your weather satellite network is falling apart and your GPS network is being superseded by a more accurate European one.
I think that qualifies as "losing".
Re:Congress is happy (Score:5, Interesting)
Normally I'm all for Republican-bashing, but in this case I think it goes to something more primal than Republican luddism.
Whether a congressman approves or disapproves of Space-X has nothing to do with his/her party, beliefs, or political position, and everything to do with, "Do I have a NASA manned spaceflight center in my district?"
Space-X has gotten jeers from Florida, Alabama, and Texas; cheers from just about everywhere else. At least Florida and Texas have a role to play in a privatized spaceflight arena. Alabama, on the other hand, is watching the Marshall Space Flight Center evaporate like a puddle of liquid oxygen, and is going to fight like hell to keep ol' Werner von Braun's playground alive.
Re:Second Stage Burn over australia (Score:3, Interesting)
Thing the first: the next test flight will put the prototype Dragon into orbit for tests. It won't go to the ISS.
Thing the second: the real Dragon (as opposed to the dummy atop yesterday's test launch) has quite a comprehensive set of maneuvering & attitude control thrusters. It should be quite capable of stabilizing itself, even if it ends up rolling.
Thing the third: that roll is going to be a problem for any launch that doesn't involve a spacecraft with its own attitude control system. Which almost certainly means that that's what SpaceX is going to be working on come Monday...assuming they're not all still hung-over anyways.
Re:Politicians (Score:2, Interesting)
Here's another way of looking at it. Kind of a Republican way, though Sen. Shelby would hate to admit it.
The achievements of NASA are not the only things the U.S. has accomplished. For all its weaknesses, the U.S. is the only country on Earth where some random dude from South Africa can come, get an education, become a citizen, start a company to revolutionize the way the world buys stuff, sell it for bajillions, and then start launching rockets into orbit, partly because it's awesome, partly as a stepping-stone toward getting humanity off this damned rock.
The achievements of Elon Musk and SpaceX do not just demonstrate America's flaws. They point out what's *great* about America.