SpaceX sucess

[No Greater Fool]

The streaming video of the SpaceX launch and recovery was amazing. Reading my local fishwrap this morning you'd never know it happened.

[MajGenl.Meade]

What happened?

[Lord Jim]

Apparently NGF is channeling wes...

Nevertheless, pretty impressive stuff:

The Falcon Has Landed” – SpaceX Soft Lands Rocket after Launch in Historic Feat

“The Falcon Has Landed!” gushed exuberant SpaceX officials following tonight’s (Dec 21) history making upright ground landing of the firms spent Falcon 9 boost stage barely 10 minutes after if launched on a critical mission to deliver a constellation of communications satellites to Earth orbit.

Following a spectacular nighttime blastoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla, SpaceX has just successfully recovered and soft landed the 156 foot tall first stage of their Falcon 9 rocket back on the ground at the Cape – in a monumental and historic space feat that will reverberate around the world. This is a game changing moment that will alter the future of space travel.

About 3 minutes after liftoff and about 60 miles altitude, the spent first stage separated from the second stage which continued to orbit with the Orbcomm satellites.

While moving at extremely high speed, the rocket was then commanded to fire cold gas nitrogen attitude thrusters to reorient itself and to turn the vehicle around – its sort of like riding on a broomstick in a hurricane. It then conducted a boostback burn with a first stage Merlin 1D engine to create a reversed ballistic arc. Then it conducted a reentry burn and finally a landing burn above the ground at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral.

http://www.universetoday.com/124020/suc ... ex-launch/

You can see the landing here:

The text says it starts at the 31 minute point in the video, but it's more like 32:20....

[oldr_n_wsr]

[wesw]

wow, amazing. spacex .

[No Greater Fool]

[quote="Lord Jim"]Apparently NGF is channeling wes...

How do you figure?

[wesw]

no link. googling is strenuous for the elder statesmen ...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Apparently NGF is channeling wes...

How do you figure?

wesw enjoys posting cryptic utterances without explanation, assuming that any readers will go a-googling to find out what his point is. He is working hard to ameliorate this habit. I guess.

[TPFKA@W]

That was the kewlist. I am so jealous of those young people who will probably see a man walk on Mars before they make their departure from this life.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'll take that bet. Those aren't "young people" but pre-pre-pre-zygotes

[Lord Jim]

I believe I may live to see it...

[Lord Jim]

I like the description:

"It's like sending a pencil over The Empire State Building, then having it turn around, come back, and land on a shoe box in a wind storm"....