Space X Falcon Heavy Launch April 11, 2019

Very cool launch. Even more cool was watching the release of the satellite.

Yep!  I think all the cameras make for some really great video.  I was amazed while watching the video of the booster return to see the flames as it deorbited.  Wow!

"Rockets landing as God and Robert Heinlein intended them to!"

Gary

Yeah it was awesome. For those that missed it you can view it via GAFs link on the first post. It is worth viewing. How they manage to land the boosters and center core is a mystery. Unbelievable.

I still cannot figure the math that justifies the amazing vertical landing.  How much weight and propellant are needed to allow this?  I always thought rockets touching down on their tails only happened in old sci-fi movies and on Bugs Bunny cartoons!

Real G

I still cannot figure the math that justifies the amazing vertical landing.  How much weight and propellant are needed to allow this?  I always thought rockets touching down on their tails only happened in old sci-fi movies and on Bugs Bunny cartoons!

 

Right?  Rockets work because they are the lightest way to get stuff in orbit.  Their disposability is key to making this happen.  Now I understand that an empty booster is very light compared to when it lifts off, but the disadvantage to rocket engines is that they consume fuel at a tremendous rate.  The vertical landing seems to go against logic.  

When the DCX was being tested, I thought it was an interesting experiment, but asked the same question regarding the penalty of bring back weight of the propellant and landing gear.  Plus on its last flight it fell over and exploded due to one of the landing legs malfunctioning.  The Falcon boosters are a lot more slender/taller than the DCX, so the feat of landing is all the more amazing.

Perhaps the high thrust to weight ratio of the engines, combined with the low empty booster weight makes it practical.

I would imagine a horizontal landing booster would be heavier due to the additional weight of wings, plus the fuselage is subjected to bending rather than vertical compressive stress which would require more structure to handle both loads.

Too much to think about on a Friday morning...’cause it’s rocket science!  

Yeah, when I first saw that real tail-landing, I was awestruck!  

This was the way "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" and his crew did it way back in 1950.  The three cadets would climb into the Rocket Cruiser Polaris, run through a 5 second countdown, blast off for the Moon or Venus, and make a tail landing from the exact pad they left from at Space Academy, back in time for dinner on the same day!

This seemed perfectly logical to 10 year old kids back then, the way it ought to be.

Well, a tail-down landing is theoretically entirely feasible given precise (and fast!) computer control, something earlier space rockets did not have.  But it is kind of spooky, to an old analog person, to have to rely so much to go right in so little time.  Perhaps people in the future will laugh a people like me who distrust self-driving cars (and are aghast at self-flying airliners), and wonder what all the fuss was about.  But I will stubbornly subscribe to Murphy's Rule till the end.  What can go wrong will go wrong.  And for things that don't go wrong?  They will.  Just wait a while, get complacent, then it happens.

But no knock against SpaceX - they are doing a bang-up job of doing the seemingly impossible.

"Tom Corbett, Space Cadet"?  Heh heh, my generation references "Space Angels".  That Ace McCloud dude always reminded me of the Oakland Raiders logo, with his helmet and eye patch.

Well, let’s think now. Many concepts that were sci fi in the 1950’s are reality today. Home compueters? Pretty common for nearly three decades now. Portable Personal data and wireless communication devices that allow us to talk to people worldwide, even by video, or access an incredible amount of knowledge wherever we are... check. Harnessing various non combustion engine or non nuclear sources for power... coming along. Autonomous vehicle’s, both ground and aerial, coming along... Space stations... since the 1970’s! So many things described by Heinlein, Asimov, and Bradbury in their writings have come to pass. Why not stand up landing reusable rockets? It just took someone with the right combination of resources and motivation to make it happen. 

Science fiction becomes reality.  What surprises me is that in all the stuff happening in the world, little is said that the USA has set the goal of returning to the moon by 2024!  And Space X plans a flight around it even earlier.

Meanwhile, work continues on Skylon.  Science fiction indeed!

Gary

What has changed since the space race is that the question is not “Can we do it?”, but rather is “What is my rate of return?”  No going to the moon unless there is money to be made.  Human adventure has been replaced by a balance sheet.

We have advanced quite a bit since the 1960s, but we still have quite a way to go.

But private companies like Space X seem to be taking space travel where NASA no longer can.

Next up:  Space deregulation.  Cut rate orbital fares, discount satellites, and time shares on the moon.

Well, just like in the age of discovery, the space race was financed by nations, in the name of nations- the USSR vs the USA. Seafarers sailed to explore and claim lands for their empires. Next will come the space faring privateers and merchants. I won’t be surprised to see a space equivalent of the East India Trading Company one day the future... much like the the Alien films Weyland Yutani Corporation.  Spacefaring will be expensive... no bucks, no Buck Rogers 

Cadet Chuck

Yeah, when I first saw that real tail-landing, I was awestruck!  

This was the way "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" and his crew did it way back in 1950.  The three cadets would climb into the Rocket Cruiser Polaris, run through a 5 second countdown, blast off for the Moon or Venus, and make a tail landing from the exact pad they left from at Space Academy, back in time for dinner on the same day!

This seemed perfectly logical to 10 year old kids back then, the way it ought to be.

 

Ah, yes, Tom Corbett!  I found a place a few years ago selling DVDs of episodes of that program and bought a couple of episodes.  Would also like to find a few of Space Patrol, but have not found those yet.

Don, here is a Space Patrol DVD for sale.  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133001677332?ul_noapp=true

I have also found clips and even complete episodes of the show on-line, using Google.

I met Ed Kemmer (Commander Corry) at a film fest 20 years ago.  What a gracious and interesting person! I ended up sitting in the hotel bar with him and a handful of other fans, he bought a round of drinks and we spent about an hour talking about his experiences acting in the show.  That is something I will never forget.

Here is an excellent video of the rockets development.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn5HxXKQOjw&feature=youtu.be