SpaceX Falcon 9 launch a success!

[Cratermaker]

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/06/04/spacex-falcon-rocket-launches-despite-snags-delays/

[Cratermaker]

Launch starts about 3:00. On board camera about 5:00.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuwq4bNQ-gQ&feature=player_embedded

[Wing_Z]

Isn't it great to live in times when such giant leaps are made?
Apollo, Shuttle, Falcon...
Commercial spaceflight just became a reality.
Bravo Elon Musk.

[Bjoern]

Isn't it great to live in times when such giant leaps are made?
Apollo, Shuttle, Falcon...
Commercial spaceflight just became a reality.
Bravo Elon Musk.

...and a while later you'll be having a guided tour of Mare Tranquilaris, breakfast on Phobos and your honeymoon in Uranus' orbit.

I'm looking forward to that. :d

[Cratermaker]

...and a while later you'll be having a guided tour of Mare Tranquilaris, breakfast on Phobos and your honeymoon in Uranus' orbit.

I'm looking forward to that. :d
Well, that may be a ways off still. I bet their will be a breakfast/honeymoon package in EARTH orbit in my lifetime. Maybe even Lunar. That's just the thing: we don't know when private industry will really take off. But when it does, the speed of events unfolding will probably be dizzying. Sort of like the pioneer days of civil aviation.

[empeck]

Isn't it great to live in times when such giant leaps are made?

No. I've seen transition from black and white to colour TV, beginnings of the Internet (at least in my country), now birth of commercial space industry. I'd rather see cybernetic implants, augmented reality, colonies on the Moon and Mars and mining of Helium-3 in the atmosphere of Jupiter :/

Joking aside, I'm very happy that SpaceX Falcon 9 launch was a success!

[Bjoern]

No. I've seen transition from black and white to colour TV, beginnings of the Internet (at least in my country)

Being a former eastern bloc citizen that's not hard. ;) :d

[empeck]

Hehe, indeed.

[cheezyflier]

the commercialization of space flight is the worst thing that could have happened to the program.

[Cratermaker]

the commercialization of space flight is the worst thing that could have happened to the program.
Actually, I think nobody spending ANY money on space would be the worst thing that could happen to the program.

Do you mind elaborating on your statement though?

[Bjoern]

the commercialization deregulation of space flight the airline industry is the worst thing that could have happened to the program.

Same statement, different target and time.

That deregulation thing didn't work out too well, huh? Bummer...;)


(If they keep spaceflight safe, why the heck not? Commercialisation offers way more chances and flexibility than those cumbersome molochs of federal space programs. At least now you won't have tax payers complaining all the time.)

[cheezyflier]

the reason being that all the best technology that we currently take for granted was given to us by the space program, and handed to the public. here is just a partial explanation, but enough to get my point across:
http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html

see, with space exploration now soley in the hands of private industry, the benefits of new technology will be tied up with patents etc, and held quietly while companies figure out how to milk every dollar from a given idea, and protect their interests before the public ever gets to see them. corporations are not known for their altruistic attitudes toward mankind. especially lately, with enron, the banking scandals, the BP disaster, just to name a few. corporations are no friend to anyone. at least with the government, once they figured out how to kill somebody with a given idea, they gave it to the rest of us to see what else could be done with it.
your grandchildren will not know the massive technological advances (comparatively speaking) that you did.
that's why i say it was a huge mistake.

[Bjoern]

the reason being that all the best technology that we currently take for granted was given to us by the space program, and handed to the public. here is just a partial explanation, but enough to get my point across:
http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html

Tax payer (citizens, companies, etc...) -> space agency -> contract/money to companies/universities developing this stuff -> testing in space -> release of results and conclusions for common use, because the research was paid for by taxes (-> companies acquire knowledge -> produce stuff containing "space technology" -> sale to customer, say tax payer)

With commercialization, you just eradicate a really fat middle man and (theoretically) take the financial burden and risk of space exploration away from the tax payer.


see, with space exploration now soley in the hands of private industry, the benefits of new technology will be tied up with patents etc, and held quietly while companies figure out how to milk every dollar from a given idea, and protect their interests before the public ever gets to see them. corporations are not known for their altruistic attitudes toward mankind.

Companies are composed of humans, who, to a varying degree, have altruistic tendencies.
Yes, there will be patents and "exclusive" technologies but one didn't invent reverse engineering and industrial espionage for nothing.


corporations are no friend to anyone.

Depends on what they do. EADS ain't too bad (once they positively reply to darn internship applications).
Finance corporations on the other hand aren't, because they spawn off those pesky financial advisors who are the natural and mortal enemy to us engineers.
:icon_lol:


your grandchildren will not know the massive technological advances (comparatively speaking) that you did.

Massive technological advances so far in my life: None.


Don't paint it black. This stuff will either work or won't. No biggie.

[ericts]

I am happy to see that this worked. I hope that they can keep their schedule.

[tigisfat]

No. I've seen transition from black and white to colour TV, beginnings of the Internet (at least in my country), now birth of commercial space industry. I'd rather see cybernetic implants, augmented reality, colonies on the Moon and Mars and mining of Helium-3 in the atmosphere of Jupiter :/

Joking aside, I'm very happy that SpaceX Falcon 9 launch was a success!

No matter whether space travel is commercial or not, I'd support space exploration before I supported trips en masse to low orbit. Exploration fuels all other technology, and mankind has only come this far because of it. The day we stop exploring could easily be seen as the formal start of the end of mankind.

[Wing_Z]

...all the best technology that we currently take for granted was given to us by the space program..,
I don't know if this is an urban legend, but the ballpoint pen is said to have been developed (at a cost of several million dollars to the US taxpayer) to address the issue of writing in space - fountain pens don't work in zero gravity...
The Russians on the other hand, sent their Cosmonauts up with a bit of paper - and a pencil.

NASA was necessary to foster the initial growth of the space industry.
Now it's time to hand it off.
If for no other reason than this, 2nd para from your link:
Out of a $2.4 trillion budget, less than 0.8% is spent on the entire space program!
Unbelievable...

The technologies from commercial space exploration will filter through into other fields, exactly the way they have from the commercial aerospace industry.

[tigisfat]

The technologies from commercial space exploration will filter through into other fields, exactly the way they have from the commercial aerospace industry.And fuel industry....

[Silver Fox]

The commercialization of space is a wonderful thing!

The world wasn't colonized by the military... it was by homesteaders and those that wanted to make a buck off of homesteaders. With a bit of luck the rest of this century will see mankind push outward. Some won't come back, victims of tragedy... but some won't come back because they are building new lives out there and just don't want to come back.

The next big step is starting, and the whole Solar Systems is waiting for us... except Europa. :)

[Quixoticish]

I don't know if this is an urban legend, but the ballpoint pen is said to have been developed (at a cost of several million dollars to the US taxpayer) to address the issue of writing in space - fountain pens don't work in zero gravity...
The Russians on the other hand, sent their Cosmonauts up with a bit of paper - and a pencil.


It is an urban legend I'm afraid.

[Wing_Z]

But it illustrates nicely what happens in a taxpayer-funded incubator that goes past its use-by date.
They manage to eat through $2.38 trillion of non-core activity...