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I don't think that most people realise what an achievement this is. This is major, three boosters landing simultaneously and one of them is landing on a moving
by ninjamayo 7y ago
I don't think that most people realise what an achievement this is. This is major, three boosters landing simultaneously and one of them is landing on a moving object in the middle of the ocean. And they will reuse the two side boosters for the next FH launch.
- rhizome 7y agoI don't think that most people realise what an achievement this is. What makes you think that?
- phamilton 7y agoBecause those of us that are paying attention can barely fathom how awesome this is. A case of "the more you know, the more impressive it is".
- neltnerb 7y agoSufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic indeed. They make the landings look trivial.
- rhizome 7y agoRidiculously bad-faith.
- phamilton 7y agoI must have misunderstood your comment. The original statement: that most people don't realize how awesome it is. At face value, I've observed that less than 50% of people I know are even aware this is happening. So on that observation alone the statement is true. Among those that do know, when I've explained that there are something like 10 dimensions to solve (x/y/z velocity, x/y/z position, pitch/roll/yaw, and time) and that you have to solve all of them using only 4 inputs (lower booster, and 3 lateral boosters), they are more amazed. In my experience, almost everyone I meet has the potential to be more impressed by this event by just learning a bit more about it. Therefore "most people don't realize how awesome this is".
- rhizome 7y agoSo they have an idea how awesome it is, but you don't think they think it's awesome enough? you have to solve all of them using only 4 inputs (lower booster, and 3 lateral boosters), they are more amazed. I thought they used those grid wings on launch, too.
- phamilton 7y agoAh, I see the gatekeeping angle. Fair enough. Gatekeeping aside, the point stands that I, and others, appreciate it more as we learn more about it. Which is pretty cool.
- ethbro 7y ago* Two boosters landing (mostly) simultaneously, the center core landing later downrange due to the higher altitude and velocity it commenced reentry at
- mellow-lake-day 7y agoTwo boosters are intentionally offset a bit. Don't remember the exact reason but something about different radar signatures to tell them apart.
- lrkrmstr 7y agoThey do this to prevent the two boosters from interfering with each other's guidance systems, which I believe uses radar. I recall from the first FH launch that the two boosters landed almost simultaneously and that was a fluke, they wanted to land then staggered a little bit. Thankfully the guidance systems still did their jobs.
- zoeysaurusrex 7y agoI do think most people realize it. When I’ve been around the country, when SpaceX launches come up, people are amazed by it.
- spaceheretostay 7y ago> people are amazed by it. Being 'amazed by it' isn't equivalent to fully realizing what SpaceX's achievements imply: specifically tracking the progress of SpaceX means counting down the years until you can buy a ticket to Mars. Do most people realize that these launches are primarily done to create Mars colonies? Do most people realize that the goal of SpaceX is to terraform Mars into a planet livable like Earth? Do most people really grasp all this? I haven't met a single person (aside from existing friends) IRL that understands any of this. It seems to be mostly "cool, rockets!" to most people - none of the full understand of what each success is to SpaceX: money in the bank for Mars development and experience launching rockets to colonize space. The vertical landing via rocket is to make it easy to launch and land on any solid surface in the solar system. Do most people realize the impact of this? I would be shocked.
- saagarjha 7y agoI don't see us terraforming Mars anytime soon. Also, just FYI, your comment comes across as incredibly elitist as well, which is made even worse because the so-called "implications" don't actually follow from what we saw today, or do so only barely.
- spaceheretostay 7y agoOh I agree, it won't be soon! But that's the real goal of today's launch: to learn more about the technology that will enable the technology to terraform Mars (and to bank money to fund it). I think that is lost on most people. There's no point in today's launch for SpaceX if they don't get closer to colonizing and then terraforming Mars. They don't care otherwise - that is the goal. Edit: Not sure what you mean by elitest, but okay. Every SpaceX launch, including today's, works towards this goal: this is what watching SpaceX launches is about for a lot of people, maybe most who watch.
- gibolt 7y agoMost people don't even know that this happened. I talk to people about it often and most don't know that there is a Tesla floating in space.
- drcross 7y agoI flew several thousand miles to be on Cocoa beach that fateful day to witness it for my own eyes. It's one of the things I'm most proud of having accomplished. I cannot imagine what it feels like to actually work on the project.
- loblollyboy 7y agoBooking a flight?
- simonh 7y agoBeing a witness to history?
- ulfw 7y agoI think most people can safely and happily live their lives without having to know there is a Tesla floating in space.
- GuB-42 7y agoI think most people realize it thanks to the very good communication by SpaceX. Personally, from a technology standpoint, I am not that impressed compared to what we have done in the past when it comes to space exploration. Moon landings, space shuttle, Mars rovers... The current state of rocketry all but highlights how awesome it was before. The awesome part about SpaceX is not that their rockets are the best humanity can do. What's awesome is that it may very well make the first reusable rockets that make economical sense. Unlike NASA in the past, they don't have unlimited money, they are a private company, and even if they have help from the US government, they have to work with a budget. If anything the achievement is not the rocket itself but how it creates a regain of interest in rocketry, both popular and economic. I mean, our workhorse rocket (Soyuz) dates back from the 50s, and all of the awesome (and too expensive) stuff like the Saturn V and shuttle are now lost.
- aswanson 7y agoI wonder what sparked interest in rocketry in the USSR enough that they launched Sputnik, etc with no immediate military benefit. As berated as communism is, they had vision enough to see past the capitalists in that moment...into space.
- greedo 7y agoI think you're underestimating the military benefit of being able to launch something into space...
- le-mark 7y agoIndeed, it was always a military application, v-1, v-2, launching sputnik was demonstrating the ability to put a warhead anywhere on earth. It was called the 'red scare' for a reason.
- BurningFrog 7y agoControlling the higher ground is always a military advantage.
- 7y ago
- WheelsAtLarge 7y agoI think most people are just focused on other things. I'm sure there are plenty of other great achievements we never took time to appreciate. The discovery of CRISPR is probably one of those things. We just have a different focus. Life moves on...
- josephorjoe 7y agoNothing to add here except I'm completely impressed as a software engineer and a human. Congrats to all who made this happen -- you have done important stuff. Watched the video w my 10 year old kid and tried to explain how impressive this is and relate it to my own experiences watching space shuttle launches.
- majjam 7y agoWould you mind expanding on that last part regarding how these launches compare to shuttle launches?
- isostatic 7y agoThese are much more impressive imo Landing the boosters. Simultaneously. The entire live web stream, live video from space, the stats and maps, etc
- alex_duf 7y agoIt equates to comparing landing a 14 storeys high broomstick with landing a flying brick. Both are impressive, but spacex' achievement is making their booster truly reusable. The shuttle required way too much refurbishment to be commercially viable. These vehicles are also completely different in their purpose so it's hard to really compare, I find them both inspiring really. Here's a comparison made by everyday astronaut: https://youtu.be/HF69nqY3TZs https://youtu.be/HF69nqY3TZs
- huffmsa 7y agoThe shuttle was essentially just a glider once you got it out of orbit. Not a very good glider, but still an object intend to "fly". I think the best analogy I've heard for the boosters is that it's equivalent to throwing a pencil over the Empire State Building and having it land on it's eraser.
- GuB-42 7y agoBoth are impressive but it different ways. The shuttle impressive part is that they are landing the second stage, which is an order of magnitude harder than landing a booster. The Falcon (9/heavy) impressive part is that they are flying a reusable rocket in an way that is commercially viable (which, BTW, is what the shuttle hoped to achieve).
- tus87 7y agoTo be fair it is only a small, incremental improvement to the first FH launch which came within a whisker of doing exactly the same thing, if only for a small lack of fuel on the way down.
- sidcool 7y agoWhat about the core booster? Would that be reused too?
- fspeech 7y agoHere is the reuse record so far: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/wiki/cores https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/wiki/cores
- ilogik 7y agothe fairings were also recovered, and will be reused. (even though they landed in the ocean)