SpaceX Livestreams Sunday's Rocket Launch (space.com) 74
An anonymous reader quotes Space.com:
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the 10 satellites for Iridium Communications is scheduled to liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 1:25 p.m. PDT (4:25 p.m. EDT/2025 GMT). The live webcast is expected to begin about 1 hour before the opening of the launch window, and you can watch it on SpaceX's website, or at Space.com. This is the second of eight planned Iridium launches with SpaceX. The launches will deliver a total of 75 satellites into space for the $3 billion Iridium NEXT global communications network. "Iridium NEXT will replace the company's existing global constellation in one of the largest technology upgrades ever completed in space," according to a statement from Iridium. "It represents the evolution of critical communications infrastructure that governments and organizations worldwide rely upon to drive business, enable connectivity, empower disaster relief efforts and more."
After the mission the booster rocket will attempt to land on a droneship. The droneships name is "Just Read The Instructions."
After the mission the booster rocket will attempt to land on a droneship. The droneships name is "Just Read The Instructions."
Re: (Score:2)
Slow news day.
Reminds me of news in Iceland. I remember one time reading an article about how two Icelanders were at an episode of the Tonight Show or something like that. Not on the show, just in the audience ;) Checking the news right now, I see one article about an unattended rooster seen walking around a national park.
Cynical much? (Score:4, Interesting)
Slow news day.
Maybe for you. I find launches like this to be Must See TV. Doesn't matter if it's SpaceX or someone else. If you don't find satellite launches fascinating then you are either impossible to impress or you don't understand what is happening. Or maybe you are just being snarky for no good reason.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I actually watch and enjoy them all. But Slashdot does not.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe for you. I find launches like this to be Must See TV. Doesn't matter if it's SpaceX or someone else. If you don't find satellite launches fascinating then you are either impossible to impress or you don't understand what is happening. Or maybe you are just being snarky for no good reason.
If you leave out the reusable rockets we've been shooting satellites into orbit for 60 years. it's a bit like gawking at a horseless carriage. And not to piss on SpaceX's parade, but even this rocket's unlaunched big brother isn't nearly as big as the Saturn Vs they launched in the 60s. Nor has SpaceX to my knowledge delivered a single payload outside earth's orbit. Landing the first stage is a neat trick to cut costs further, on top of their already relatively cheap launch prices and that's all very neat a
Re: (Score:2)
By far the largest existing today. And not costing over a billion dollars per launch, or cost a meaningful fraction of the US's economy to develop.
First off, that's a weird remark. The launch vehicle has nothing to do with what the payload does after it's launched; interplanetary transfer stages aren't part of a launch ve
Bored by life (Score:2)
If you leave out the reusable rockets we've been shooting satellites into orbit for 60 years.
Yes and what is your point? It's still cool as shit. If you think it isn't cool as shit I have to wonder why you are posting someplace like slashdot.
And not to piss on SpaceX's parade, but even this rocket's unlaunched big brother isn't nearly as big as the Saturn Vs they launched in the 60s.
Again so what? Just because something has been done before doesn't mean it is no longer interesting.
The day Musk tries to land on Mars instead of Earth then I'll be glued to my seat.
Oh so you're just being a hard to impress hipster. I get it. So sorry you are so bored by life.
Re: (Score:3)
Indeed. Personally, I'm impressed by the constant stream of new innovation work - it seems every other launch is trying something new, even if minor - some new part, some new extreme in the flight or landing envelope, some new attempt to work towards additional parts recovery or reusability, etc. I love how they're experimenting with fairing recovery. If they keep improving the durability of their F9 stages like they've been doing incrementally (e.x. in this launch, the titanium grid fins), we may well get
Re: (Score:3)
I dunno, I've seen a ton of satellite launches (on TV and online) since the 80s and they're mostly pretty run of the mill. What SpaceX is doing with the landings is still a new frontier and it seems they keep pushing for more complex landings - on Friday they had the rocket come back "hotter" than any other they've tried because of the altitude they needed the first stage to reach and had to do a 3 engine landing - and they nailed it. Today it was sketchy weather, you could see the booster hitting heavy t
Re: (Score:2)
An incredibly scenic country, and kudos for the well-done hiking trails. Now if only you could teach the British to build trails that were not designed to funnel rain directly down the trail to create a mud bog at every local low point.
And your whales are really tasty - like filet mignon.
Re: (Score:2)
Not sure which trails you went on, but glad you enjoyed them. :) They're of course mixed quality - the Reykjadalur one used to be a "mud bog" trail, but they've since fixed it because it got popular. But in general we do a good job, I think. Especially given that "mud bog" is kind of the default state around here ;)
Speaking of that... ;) [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, we descended Reykjadalur on the first day after climbing Hengill, as well as touring the Hellisheiði power plant. Snow and sleet in June, and I've never seen so many different shades of moss.
Re:Other recent SpaceX launches (Score:5, Informative)
Anyway, spoiling it for those who didn't see it: nice clean landing (despite the stormy weather at the landing ship and the new experimental titanium grid fins), SECO completed as nominally, awaiting startup 2 after the S2 coast phase (40 mins).
Re: (Score:3)
And there is goes, all 10 satellites successfully deployed. Another nice mission.
Can't wait until the first Falcon Heavy launch... now that's going to be something that Slashdot ought to have an article on ;)
Re: Other recent SpaceX launches (Score:2)
Impressive! (Score:2, Troll)
Re:Impressive! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
20 seconds, 3 engines at nearly-empty is some pretty significant delta-V.
Re:Impressive! (Score:4, Insightful)
We should be spending this on food for the hungry and cancer instead.
Getting food and medicine to those most in need requires reliable communications to remote locations in places like central Africa, and rural India. One why to do that is with communication satellites designed for exactly that.
Re: (Score:1)
Maintaining medicine stockpiles in tropical regions is difficult because the parrots eat 'em all.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Impressive! (Score:5, Informative)
because yeah, there's been 0 comm sats up there before today, and STILL there's millions starving.
There are many, many fewer people starving, and better communications is a big part of the reason. African economies are growing at over 4%, and growth is far better in areas that have cell coverage. With reliable communications, logistics is way more efficient, people can compare prices, report corruption, lookup information, and even do internet banking. Collectively, these things make a big difference.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Capitalism is evil. We should be spending this on food for the hungry and cancer instead.
The whole lame 'priorities' argument doesn't apply to private-sector projects. Go harass some government program.
I am guessing... (Score:2)
...somebody wanted to name the droneship RTFM and the politically correct management screwed it up.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
It's unlikely that Mr Banks is going to be writing books faster. (He's dead Jim)
Re: I am guessing... (Score:5, Funny)
He's still faster than George R R Martin
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Never heard of this guy. Not sure how it applies to geek credentials but yeah, between this and not liking Star Wars I am guessing I am not a proper nerd. Oh well. Nothing against nerd culture btw.
Re: (Score:1)
I only know him (and bought his books) because of the SpaceX drone ship names.
So the "geek credentials" bit is not really about knowing a particular author, but about not having come across any mention of these drone ship names and their origin even though they have been mentioned many times in articles about SpaceX, webcasts, tweets, etc...
Re: (Score:2)
Ian Banks, aka Ian M. Banks.
Novelist and SF writer, most famous for his Culture novels:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
My favourite collection of books.
In the culture series there are powerful AIs/ALs, called "Minds". They control space ships and orbitals/habitats.
They usually have names like: "Peace makes plenty", "Attitude Adjuster", "So much for Subtlety" etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
He has also interesting ship classifications: ROU - rapid offensive unit, VFP -
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't memorized the list, but I recognised the style.
Re: (Score:2)
Mars is going to be more inhospitable than Earth until we're technologically capable of terraforming on a planetary scale. And if we can do that, we can just fix Earth's atmosphere.
Re: (Score:1)
Why would 15x more CO2 be a bad thing? Plants love CO2, and some extra greenhouse effect is probably more than welcome at that distance from the sun.
Re: (Score:2)
Because CO2 is toxic to humans at that concentration would be a starting point. More specifically high concentrations of CO2 make it impossible to breath out the CO2 from your blood stream irrespective of the level of oxygen.
Drone Ship (Score:2)
After the mission the booster rocket will attempt to land on a droneship. The droneships name is "Just Read The Instructions."
You know, if you can't go with, "Read The Fucking Manual," the joke loses something.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Where's the attitude adjuster when you need it?
Re: (Score:2)
It's the name of a starship in Iain Banks' novel "Player of Games" [wikipedia.org].
Their other drone ship, "Of Course I Still Love You" is also named after a starship in that novel.
You should check out Banks' Culture series of novels, they're really good reads.
Re: (Score:2)
You know, if you can't go with, "Read The Fucking Manual," the joke loses something.
The droneship being named "Of Course I still Love You" while the rockets were crash landing makes up for it.
Block 5 (Score:1)
It seems this is Falcon 9 block 5, because of the titanium fins.
Block 5 also has 8% more thrust and " thermal-protection coating instead of paint on the first stage to help protect it from reentry heating"
This is probably the first recovered stage that won't need refurbishing
Re: (Score:1)
Or they just decided to test the fins on the current generation model before going all-in on them with block 5.
I don't know, but if it was really a new version, I think they would have mentioned it.
Re: (Score:2)
Also, the paint on the first stage still looks scorched as usual after landing.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not scorched. It's covered in soot from the engine exhaust.
orbital manoeuvres in the dark (Score:2)
Does anyone know how the deployment is planned to happen ?
From the webcast it seems they waited to be around the opposite side from launch, probably at apoapsis, then release the 10 sats in short bursts.
Were they in a stable orbit at the time (would force you to deorbit stage 2) ? or were they with a low apoapsis (you only get one shot to stabilize) ?
How do they plan to distribute the sats equidistantly along the orbit ?
Please explain this to a Kerbin University graduate
Re: (Score:2)
They're in a stable orbit.
The maneuvers required for the satellites to achieve their individual orbital parameters require only a minimal amount of dV. The constellation is 7 different planes of 10 satellites each, so they just need to vary TA with respect to each other. As a Kerbin University graduate, you're aware that you do this by making a small burn to increase or decrease orbital velocity, and thus orbital period, then recircularizing as you cross back over the orbital plane at the desired TA.
The sec