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Falcon Heavy Launch [video]
- dougmwne 4y agoDid the center booster land? What timecode was that at?
- BluSyn 4y agoCenter booster was expended in this launch
- chasd00 4y agoi believe the orbit and mass requirement meant there was no fuel left for landing the center stage. I think the configuration where they can't re-use the booster is called "full thrust".
- LightG 4y agoOr ... "max waste" ... no harm being honest about it and keeing peoples eyes on the prize!
- invalidusernam3 4y ago"Max waste" would be all three boosters not surviving. One booster being expended is more like "min waste" (besides losing none, obviously)
- krisoft 4y ago"max waste" would be all 3 boosters exploding on the pad with the engineering team swarming around them. Nedelin style.
- bryanlarsen 4y ago"Full Thrust" is the name for Falcon 9 v1.2 when they upgraded to Merlin D engines which are a lot more powerful than Merlin C. All current Falcon 9's are Full Thrust, expandable or reusable.
- chasd00 4y agoThe couple seconds of tracking camera footage of the boosters coming back down looked amazing. I wish it wasn't so foggy at the pad! When the second stage separates there's a few cables that are flying around. Does anyone know what those are used for? Electrical connections between the stages maybe?
- somedude895 4y agoThe first time the boosters landed side by side it was perfect weather and they touched down perfectly synchronously: https://youtu.be/l5I8jaMsHYk https://youtu.be/l5I8jaMsHYk
- misiti3780 4y agothat was one of the coolest things i think i may ever get to see in my life.
- derekp7 4y agoWas watching it at work, and a crowd was gathered around the desk thinking it was a trailer for a new Star Trek film or something. Told them, no, this is real, and the look on my non-geek office mates faces was absolutely priceless.
- derekp7 4y agoI recall that the synchronous landing was unintentional, they are supposed to be staged a few seconds apart for tracking purposes. Also the live feed for the first launched accidentally used the same camera feed from one booster on two windows, instead of the second booster on the second window. This was corrected in the archived video (what you see currently on YouTube for the first launch isn't exactly what was shown live). So that made it look like (from the on board camera perspective) that both landed at exactly the same time.
- dotnet00 4y agoI'm guessing you're referring to the stiffener that helps the second stage engine's nozzle hold its shape?
- Klathmon 4y agoOne really cool thing I heard in this video, is the double sonic booms from each booster. There are reasons behind it that I don't really understand, but each booster makes 2 distinct sonic booms as it comes in to land. With Falcon Heavy launches, it makes a total of 4 of them!
- MontagFTB 4y agoSmarterEveryDay has a great video explaining this audio phenomenon from a previous Falcon Heavy launch: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ImoQqNyRL8Y https://youtube.com/watch?v=ImoQqNyRL8Y
- dotnet00 4y agoThe booms are probably from the bottom and then the grid fins.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- nosequel 4y agoAs a kid I used to watch the Space Shuttle come in for landing, and it always had a distinct triple-boom on entry. Someone said it was the body and wing tips each making their own boom, but I never really confirmed it.
- PM_me_your_math 4y agoIIRC it was shocks at nose, wing tips and tail.
- plegresl 4y agohttps://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/space-exploration-technologies/double-triple-landing-falcon-9-creates-three-sonic-booms/ https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/space-explo...
- numpad0 4y ago
- post_break 4y agoSeeing those boosters land will never get old. I drive by one on my way to work every day and it's just amazing how large they are.
- WithinReason 4y agoAnd for some reason seeing 2 land at the same time is a 100 times cooler. Seems like coolness is non-linear.
- foobarian 4y agoBrings a tear to my eye every time I see them land ever so smoothly.
- geocrasher 4y agoYou're not alone. I watched it live before work this morning, and I simultaneously got the chills and started tearing up. It hits all of my aerospace nerd, rocket geek, engineering-minded nerves at the same time, and it's quite an experience.
- wzyoi 4y agoI think, to some degree, this is because we got used to seeing one landing.
- somenameforme 4y agoIt's hard to measure objectively but I feel I was dramatically more impressed seeing first Falcon Heavy come down than I was seeing the first successful (non-heavy) landing. I've shown a lot of people (who aren't otherwise into space) the original Falcon Heavy landing video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c The most common response, by far, is: "Is that real?" It really is just that amazing. Even look at the YouTube comments. It's enough to make even the internet become a place of shared awe, wonder, and inspiration. Makes one wonder what the world would be like if we had media that focused more on things like this and less on things that divide and agitate people.
- usrusr 4y agoNow that Falcon 9 landings have become so routine, it feels surprisingly wasteful to see that mission profile with the center booster burning up without even trying. I wanted to write something about that lack of center booster reuse on falcon heavy feeling irrationally worse than a single F9 launch in the non-reusable profile (for a slightly higher payload iirc), but then I discovered that the non-reusable F9 profile hasn't happened in quite a while. Nice! When they started with the reuse, I was expecting the full payload profile to be a far more regular occurrence. (even if in hindsight I see that none of my reasons for that expectation make any sense)
- wiredfool 4y agoEdit: Units... I'd be the one going in mph through the surface of mars. ~The booster was going 12km/sec at MECO, which is more than escape velocity. What they're doing with the second boost, they're not telling anyone.~
- xcskier56 4y agoThe booster was doing 14,000km/h at MECO which is about 3.8km/s. Orbital velocity is 7-7.5km/s depending on altitude and escape velocity is even higher, so no, it was not at escape velocity or anywhere near it.
- cecilpl2 4y agoNo, it was going 14,240km/hr according to the video, which is about 4km/sec. Not near escape velocity.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoIsn't orbit tracking trivial? Also, orbital velocity depends on altitude, so perhaps they are just going to a higher orbit.
- wumpus 4y ago> What they're doing with the second boost, they're not telling anyone. This is a direct-to-GEO launch, and some of the payloads are public.
- davide_v 4y agoThe boosters landing will always give me goosebumps.
- cuSetanta 4y agoI was lucky enough to be on-base for this launch and landing. The sound was something else.
- dom96 4y agoThe way the boosters land feels so alien and CGI-like. I'm curious how close you can get to viewing the landings in real life, would really love to take a trip to do that at some point.
- cuSetanta 4y agoAs I said in another comment, I was on the base for this launch and landing. We were standing at the SpaceX Hangar AO which is about 4km from the landing site. There may have been closer personnel, but the majority of us on-base were around there. The tourists viewing the launch were scattered around the Cape, with the most popular spot being here: https://goo.gl/maps/ohaudmEggCLmr7gu8 https://goo.gl/maps/ohaudmEggCLmr7gu8 Which is about 13 km from the landing site.
- nozzlegear 4y agoI had the same thought when watching it, it looked like they had overlaid a CGI demonstration of what the landing was supposed to look like. Really cool stuff.
- dools 4y ago
- Vermeulen 4y agoYou don't need to imagine - just look up the SLS program and it's budget + timeframe
- thallium205 4y agoAnd the fact it will cost about 10x as much compared to SpaceX rockets to deliver something to orbit. SLS is a total failure.
- misiti3780 4y agoIt's amazing how many people hold this opinion (OP) when it could be resolved with < 1 minute of research.
- comeonbro 4y agoIdeological commitments that could be resolved with < 1 minute of research, will not be resolved with < 1 minute of research.
- malfist 4y agoDepends on what you consider it's mission objective. If you consider it a jobs program that we happen to get a rocket out of, it's an astounding success. If you consider it a rocket program it's an abject failure. To give you an example of why it's a jobs program and not a rocket program. Congress forced NASA to build a multimillion dollar testing facility they never intended to use for the SLS nor for any other rocket NASA has.
- MichaelCollins 4y agoEven judged that way, SLS is substandard. As a pointless jobs program, the TSA definitely has SLS beat.
- cheschire 4y agoInformation on that mission based on the code at the bottom of the video: https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/1151 https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/1151
- xcskier56 4y agoThe view from below of the boosters after entry burn where you can clearly see they're not just falling straight down but actually achieving some horizontal velocity across the ground was really cool. I've always known that they had some cross-range capability, but this was a really excellent visualization of it!
- supergeek 4y agoScott Manley did a good break down of their landing profile. They maintain a ballistic trajectory set to miss the landing pad / barge and it's only on successful re-ignition of the engine that they align with the landing pad.
- bpodgursky 4y ago3,700 kg to geosynchronous orbit... man that is a hefty satellite. Would love to know what they packed in there.
- foobarian 4y agoI would doubly love to know given they thanked the USSF at the end. Maybe a giant laser cannon? :-)
- chasd00 4y agothe little ad played in the middle of the launch footage made me think it was a military communications payload.
- euroderf 4y ago
- billfruit 4y agoIs that a high number? An upcoming Viasat- 3 communication satellite is expected to weigh 6400 kg and one of them is planned to launch on an Atlas-V.
- dotnet00 4y agoThe difference is that this is a full ride to GEO, so the satellite stays attached to the second stage and the second stage does the circularization burn at GEO. Thus it has a much higher mass penalty than most commercial launches, which are to GTO, where the rocket only puts the satellite on the path to GEO (a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit) and the satellite does the circularization burn at the destination. Even Falcon 9 can put a 6.4t satellite onto GTO in expendable mode and Falcon Heavy can while recovering all 3 boosters, but direct insertion into GEO of 6.4t would probably be stretching the limits of Falcon Heavy if even doable at all.
- thepasswordis 4y agoAlways inspiring to see the work spacex is doing!
- booboofixer 4y agoWhen does/do the research/space programs enabled by these more frequent launches start to benefit us all? It must have already contributed to something somehow. Agriculture? Defense? Oil exploration? Seems like the sort of information that's hard to find.
- quest88 4y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies This doesn't perfectly answer your question.
- Spooky23 4y agoUkraine has access to world class command and control with it and is leveraging to obliterate the Russian military. People living in areas that telco and cable refuse to serve are finally able to join civilization.
- CrazyStat 4y agoMillions of people are benefiting from Starlink, which is SpaceX's biggest launch customer.
- robotresearcher 4y agoStarlink already provides decent internet to places it didn’t reach before.
- fsiefken 4y agoFalcon9 launched Starlink, without which the course of the Ukraine war might have been significantly different. There's also the plan to pull CO2 from the atmosphere to create rocket fuel. https://labusinessjournal.com/manufacturing/aerospace/big-plans-spacex-2022/ https://labusinessjournal.com/manufacturing/aerospace/big-pl... There's the Dragon 2, the only US human space vehicle in operation, as the Space Shuttle has been retired in 2011 due to expenses and safety issues. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Dragon_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Dragon_2
- 4y ago
- OJFord 4y agoPossibly the most expensive thing in the world with a publicly listed price ($97M) and sales contact (sales@spacex.com)? https://www.spacex.com/media/Capabilities&Services.pdf https://www.spacex.com/media/Capabilities&Services.pdf Just find that amusingly 'accessible'.
- rajnathani 4y agoIn similar light, SpaceX has also been positively transparent about their payload delivery ("rideshare") prices: https://www.spacex.com/rideshare/ https://www.spacex.com/rideshare/
- dr-detroit 4y ago
- yellowapple 4y agoIt's indeed kinda refreshing to see a company actually put such a high pricetag out there... and all the more frustrating that so many companies demand contact info for a "quote" when I don't need to do that to launch something into outer fucking space.
- pencilguin 4y agoOf course nobody actually pays that.
- wongarsu 4y agoThat goes for anything sold B2B for more than a couple hundred dollars. But still, I can immediately budget it at that price, and if the price comes down 20% in negotiations that pays for everything else that's behind schedule and over budget
- ur-whale 4y ago>Of course nobody actually pays that That's not the point.
- deleted 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- sidcool 4y agoDid they discard the centre booster?
- 4gotunameagain 4y agoThe military propaganda at 9:30 was interesting. Showing Chinese people while saying "our adversaries". Has it ever been done so overtly before ?
- tjpnz 4y agoGiven that the Chinese military will spend weeks pouring over the footage it would be rude not to say hello.
- ChrisClark 4y agoIt's actually at 11:50. You managed to get me to watch the entire propaganda section that started at 9:30. Are you sure you're not part of it? ;)
- 4gotunameagain 4y agoyou are right, mea culpa :)
- fallingknife 4y agoGood. Call China what it is.
- tyho 4y agoA country with a impressive history of not declaring war on another state and who has drawn the ire of USA simply because they see it as credible economic competition?
- engineer_22 4y agoTo be fair, the Chinese society has seen it's share of war. Let's not also forget the Chinese are rapidly expanding their military. In the calculus of a command economy, what is the point of military spending, if not to use it?
- origin_path 4y ago
- PM_me_your_math 4y agoThe launch blowing the fog off the pad was exceptionally cool! Loved it. 5 stars. Would launch again.
- rippercushions 4y agoI'm kind of surprised a random SpaceX launch is #1 on HN, when on the same day, China just completed their modular space station: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33422779 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33422779
- systemvoltage 4y agoIt is basically a rivalry now so not surprised. Same thing happened with China's mars rover. In some ways, I am down with this type of rivalry than wars. I want an intense space race between China and US.
- boringg 4y agoI mean its not a rivalry at this point. China is just playing catch up.
- ryanisnan 4y agoI would agree with you if this was a normal falcon launch.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- m3at 4y agoThis is a launch of falcon heavy, there's only been a handful (unlike single falcon 9, which are more common and might be the "random SpaceX launch" you had in mind). It's also a live stream instead of a news article. But other space news events are interesting too of course
- TOMDM 4y agohttps://archive.ph/2bXGR https://archive.ph/2bXGR
- eagerpace 4y agoSpace Stations have been done before. Most of what SpaceX is doing has not.
- hydrogen7800 4y agoI'm always a bit bothered by the cheering during a SpaceX launch. Maybe I'm just historically attached to the scenes of stoic engineers at JSC mission control, but space fight is always hard and risky, and cheering at every event shows a lack of humility, IMO. Cheer when the mission is successful. As an extreme case, imagine cheering as Challenger cleared the launch tower.
- soared 4y agoImagine being mad at other people’s happiness.
- binaryblitz 4y agoAs far as I'm aware, the cheering is outside of the main control room (which is where the broadcasters are). Also: there are no people on board. If it blows up, it's "only" money that's lost.
- hydrogen7800 4y agoYes, big distinction between manned vs unmanned. I don't remember if the situation was the same for the first crew dragon launch. It's just something that stuck with me since watching one of the first broadcasts of high profile falcon launch.
- GrumpyNl 4y agoHow come you dont see or hear a sonic boom when the go faster as sound or did i miss that?
- aaroninsf 4y ago
- notright5 4y ago
- davidw 4y agoSeems like an altogether more productive use of time and resources than futzing about with content moderation.
- comeonbro 4y agoSomething like this is only possible at the end of an unimaginably long chain of absurd and impossible feats of organization. The things he is concerned about when he's "futzing about with content moderation" are deep enough in that chain that it's easy to lose connection, but are absolutely part of it.
- boringg 4y agoI enjoyed seeing it 15k km per hour but i was trying to figure how it accurately measures velocity or is it not that precise?
- chipsa 4y agoRange control uses radars to determine the location and speed of it. Also, pretty sure it's got non-COCOM limited GPS receivers to be able to do the landing, which also would give you velocity.
- zasdffaa 4y agoDid I miss something or did this rocket have no stack - it was a single stage (with boosters, but aside those still one undivided rocket)? Can anyone comment on that please.
- chipsa 4y agoIt's side boosters, center booster, and second stage. But the second stage is the same diameter as the boosters, so you can't easily see the difference if you don't know what to look for.
- zasdffaa 4y agoI see. Seems rocket engine efficiency must have seriously improved while I was not looking, thanks.
- jakswa 4y agoduring the stream, multiple times they said: they hid the last rocket stage at the request of customer (US gov)
- MasterYoda 4y agoI read that last time falcon heavy flied was in june 2019, 3 years since. Why has it not flied to space since then? No mission or problems needed to be resolved?
- eterevsky 4y agoIt's mostly due to the competition from the "normal" Falcon 9, which is quite capable and could be used for most of the existing payloads. Besides that, currently the payload is limited by the size of the fairing. SpaceX is working on the bigger fairing, but it is not available yet.
- virtuallynathan 4y agoThere were no missions... there are now 4 or 5 more on the manifest for the next 12 months.
- chasd00 4y agofalcon heavy was always this awkward middle child relative to F9 and Starship. Like iirc it was announced pretty close to F9 blk5 going to production, but very late, and then the starship concept took off and consumed resources and attention. The moment starship is operational then FH is cancelled I bet. I bet F9 hangs around even after Starship is operational however.