SpaceX Falcon Update With Pictures 30
Toren Altair writes "SpaceX made good progress with their Falcon 9 rocket. Check the progress with pictures. 'Today we fitted the F9 skirt to the fuel tank end of the 1st stage. Also had movement on the erector, with the upper aluminum truss just coming back from being painted. Activity on the floor is constant and will remain so throughout the week and weekend as we prepare the F9 structures for shipping to Texas for testing before they head to the Cape.'"
Isn't this just a copy of the SpaceX website? (Score:5, Informative)
Given that its a pure copy, and the submitter links back to the same site; I think we're just increasing someone's pageviews.
The original is: http://www.spacex.com/updates.php [spacex.com]
Re:Isn't this just a copy of the SpaceX website? (Score:5, Funny)
Update the schedule while you're at it. (Score:3, Interesting)
Activity on the floor is constant and will remain so throughout the week and weekend as we prepare the F9 structures for shipping to Texas for testing before they head to the Cape.
Which you're going to get done by Dec 31 right? No? They update the launch manifest [spacex.com] which says Falcon 9 Maiden Flight, Cape Canaveral, target date: Q4 2008, where "target date" is curiously defined as "vehicle arrival at launch site" which is a very strange term to use on a launch manifest, but hey.
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Seriously, IIRC, they added after the Summer separation incident. They just wanted to say 2008 Launch, rather than slipping the sched. I wonder if NASA required it for COTs?
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I see your point, but I guess from their view once they deliver it their work is done. Things are then totally in someone else's hands. For a deliverable on a project timescale it kind of makes sense. Their target date is the thing they can effect. Misleading yes, but understandable.
Well apart from the mission control stuff they'll eventually start to do, but according to the videos on their site they haven't built that bit yet so I guess they're relying on someone else for that at the moment.
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Given what I've heard, arrival at launch site doesn't mean that its ready to launch, because a lot of the integration work is easiest to do at the cape. I think the biggest reason for setting that date and sticking to it, even if the date of the eventual launch slips, is that this way its putting up a big ad at the cape for the new administration and the transition team to say "Hey, remember us when you're figuring out the future," since (if everything goes as expected) they are the path of least resistanc
Rockets are exciting and all... (Score:4, Funny)
... but seriously it's something else entirely that causes movement on my erector.
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No doubt somebody is thinking of the children... longingly, wistfully, achingly thinking of them.
Of course the only appropriate response to Rule 34 is... 42.
I didn't see this on slashdot (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/breakingnews/entries/2008/11/23/massive_rocket_test_shakes_up.html#comment-207370303 [wacotrib.com]
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Here's the test footage. [spacex.com]
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I read that blog but only figured it out the following day. The ones that are still so angry at SpaceX because they were afraid it was the end of the world, even though it was clear it was the media who chose not to air the story?
I think what's really bugging them is that they are still disappointed that it wasn't the End Times and that they were not caught up in the rapture. Thinking "It's time! Hallelujah!" and then feeling like an idiot is going to leave you set up for a lot of cognitive dissonance and a
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Got it all (Score:5, Funny)
What more could you want? ;-)
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...mated...vertical...178 seconds...increases...liquid...1st stage
From TFA. :)
Re:Key words... (Score:4, Funny)
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You may be thinking of SpaceXXX.
That explains the name SpaceX (Score:1)
awesome. (Score:1)
Oh my! (Score:3, Funny)
"Also had movement on the erector"
Commencing schoolboy humour in 3... 2... 1... GO!
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In mission control terms, you're T+8 hours too late with that comment.