SpaceX is doing it again

[RegisterMe]

Yeah I like nasaspaceflight.com, but they're nothing official in terms of NASA or SpaceX etc.

[clakclak]

From someone who has no technical knowledge of spaceflight whatsoever.

What exploded here? Hadn't it allready landed again? Is there still so much fuel left after the landing?

[BrasatoAlBarolo]

From someone who has no technical knowledge of spaceflight whatsoever.

What exploded here? Hadn't it allready landed again? Is there still so much fuel left after the landing?

I think there's a lot fuel after landing. An by "a lot" I mean "enough to be dangerous". You don't want to have your can empty when you only need a couple turns before finishing an endurance race.

[pjknibbs]

From someone who has no technical knowledge of spaceflight whatsoever.

What exploded here? Hadn't it allready landed again? Is there still so much fuel left after the landing?

The last thing you want to do is have the thing run out of fuel the second it touches down. What if atmospheric conditions or the like force you to use more fuel during the braking burn? Are you OK with running out of fuel 100m up and just regular crashing? So of course there's going to be some reserve fuel available. In an ideal world said fuel wouldn't explode shortly after landing, but we don't live in that one, unfortunately.

[Gavrushka]

I think, forgetting it didn't quite work this time, the visual impact of seeing a damned rocket do stuff like that still feels like science fiction. It's simply awesome.

And I imagine part of the testing will involve landing it with fuel to see what happens. I don't know how much fuel it burns in a second of flight on its way up, but I'm sure there's always gonna be a few seconds leeway for the upward leg, meaning it's gonna have more than a few kilos of boom fluid still in when it kisses the ground....

...or Glasgow kisses it on occasion.

[Mightysword]

And then lol.

Damn I wish I could afford this for a hobby .

You can move to Thailand. They have a yearly rocket festival. Not quite as glamorous and scientific as SpaceX of course, but if you want a lot of smoke, things shooting off platform and explosive landing as a hobby, it'll fit right in.

[Redvers Ganderpoke]

I'm still waiting for Elon to go to Mars. I can think of a few other people who could accompany him.

(I'm thinking Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B here though.)

[Ethan13]

I think, forgetting it didn't quite work this time, the visual impact of seeing a damned rocket do stuff like that still feels like science fiction. It's simply awesome.

And I imagine part of the testing will involve landing it with fuel to see what happens. I don't know how much fuel it burns in a second of flight on its way up, but I'm sure there's always gonna be a few seconds leeway for the upward leg, meaning it's gonna have more than a few kilos of boom fluid still in when it kisses the ground....

...or Glasgow kisses it on occasion.

The last two live broadcasts seemed to me to be computer graphics. And so many people have also talked about it.
It's great that real tests of space rockets can now be mistaken for graphics.
I wonder what awaits the first manned mission to Mars?

[mr.WHO]

I'm still waiting for Elon to go to Mars. I can think of a few other people who could accompany him.

I recall his said he won't be moving to Mars even if he could, but he will allow his kids if they will want to (which I doubt - as a child of billionare I wouldn't want to go to cold desert wasteland of Mars).

[Ethan13]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/03 ... cex/?amp=1

What European space companies do you think can create a good alternative for Europe?
Everyone needs to launch satellites. Which companies do you see as the best? Or which ones do you root for?

[clakclak]

Literally no knowledge when it comes to rockets, like I allready mentioned plenty of times, but I would assume a big company like Airbus Defence and Space might have an easier time breaking into the market than smaller start ups.

[BrasatoAlBarolo]

Airbus, Alenia, Avio are the first ones coming to my mind possibly having the know how to attempt something like this. But they're just the "famous" ones, so I'm sure a miss a lot of valid companies.
And I wouldn't exclude some engineering division from automotive.

[euclid]

If you still count the UK as part of Europe then Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic) would be a future candidate.

Cheers Euclid

[pjknibbs]

Arianespace is already there and has an excellent reputation as far as launch vehicles go, so it's really up to them to lead this competition.

[red assassin]

SpaceX now has years of lead-time in the development of reusable rockets. Existing established players now have a lot of catching up to do after decades of relative stagnation in the launch industry, while other startups are a long way behind SpaceX's position. Established players have some reputation and reliability positives, but as Boeing has demonstrated, being a long-established, respected company doesn't necessarily mean freedom from stupid errors. And SpaceX's launch cadence means their lifetime reliability stats are rapidly ticking upwards. There's some space (ahem) in the market for, say, small satellite launchers like Rocket Lab's Electron, and big enough government agencies and companies obviously have an interest in preserving some competition in the launch market and/or indigenous capability even if that means paying for more expensive rockets sometimes. But that aside... why would you not fly with SpaceX at this point? And more to the point, how long is it going to take to get to the point that there is realistic competition again? I'm not convinced the legacy launch industry is capable of catching up at all at this point, and it's difficult to see many startups making it until one comes along that figures out how to significantly one-up SpaceX like they have the existing industry.

[Mightysword]

Established players have some reputation and reliability positives, but as Boeing has demonstrated, being a long-established, respected company doesn't necessarily mean freedom from stupid errors.

The thing with Boeing is after its original scions died out and with the management took over after a merge (long story about that), the company basically made a culture shift that changed how the company operate, and it still took decades for Airbus to catch up while being heavily subsidized. I think SpaceX will remain far above the rest for a long time, in part of what you had already said, and in part because for all the flaws he has as a human, Elon is a visionist. He reminds me a lot of how the old Boeing family used to be, as long as he's at the helm I don't think SpaceX will stray very far from what their core purpose is. And the guy is still relatively young with many years ahead of him.

[Roeleveld]

SpaceX is the living embodiment of try, fail, learn, try again, repeat.

They deserve a lot of respect for that.

For playing Kerbal Space Program with real rockets?

[Ethan13]

I would say that there is competition. But in the small satellite launch market. There are so many companies around the world that I do not have time to follow their new products. Everyone has good ideas.
I think it would be a good advantage to reduce environmental damage at the next launch. (Airplanes have more emissions, but new fuel could come from the space sphere)

[silenced]

As someone actually working in the Space Industry, all I can say is: it's good that SpaceX exists, they actually do something to get everything forward.

[mr.WHO]

I think it would be a good advantage to reduce environmental damage at the next launch. (Airplanes have more emissions, but new fuel could come from the space sphere)

If you burn pure hydrogen with Oxygen, there is little to none enviromental dammage. Planes or Cars produce much more pollution than rockets.