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[Epithemius]

And thus begins the corporations taking over all the space.

Y'know, this doesn't bother me so much. It gives common folk like you and I a better chance of going up, even if it's only a "day trip".

The thought of corporations owning stretches of space doesn't sit well with me. Reminds me of the 'Caldari State' from EVE-a corporate dictatorship ruling the stars. 

There are other stories where corporations are vital to space travel and the government. Businesses aren't always evil, y'know.

They're not evil, but the main goal is profit making. Sometimes, companies will do evil in order to balance the books.

[Meansdarling]

I'm happy. Any space travel is better than no space travel.
I wish that NASA and SpaceX worked together in vehicles.
NASA has a lot of information that I'm sure could be useful.

Doesn't NASA make most of their stuff public domain?  A lot of technical stuff about the space program is available on the internet.

I don't know everything so you may be right. I'm not an authority, but my mom works at NASA. She worked on an escape vehicle for six years until it was canceled. It was almost done. Very painful. I don't think they put up all the information that went into making that project on the internet. I did find some sites with information on the vehicle (x-38) though.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-038-DFRC.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_X-38
Well, the family is over that and now my mom is working on parachutes for the Orion capsule. This link is to one of the videos of her teams work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNQEvoeWdEM&context=C4e15b90ADvjVQa1PpcFPg9mkZ6Sd01QHvYUvZNS41yUPSOqok2J4=

I guess Space X probably has up to date info anyway. They're the ones actually doing space travel right now.
I just want NASA involved more because then I'd be closer to the action. lol

[MetalSlimeHunt]

And thus begins the corporations taking over all the space.

Y'know, this doesn't bother me so much. It gives common folk like you and I a better chance of going up, even if it's only a "day trip".

The thought of corporations owning stretches of space doesn't sit well with me. Reminds me of the 'Caldari State' from EVE-a corporate dictatorship ruling the stars. 

There are other stories where corporations are vital to space travel and the government. Businesses aren't always evil, y'know.

They're not evil, but the main goal is profit making. Sometimes, companies will do evil in order to balance the books.

No disagreement, but that won't be a problem with space travel. Profit margins or none, in the business of extraplanatory activities everything is vital. Everything is vital to the survival of everything else and thus the action as a whole, so cutting corners is going to lose you more money than you gain from doing so when your corporate shuttles start exploding every time they try to leave Earth.

[alway]

A bit of an update, the launch will be delayed by about a week, with May 3 being the earliest potential date of launch.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47150276/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.T5YoDKtSQtQ
New launch date decision by NASA pending; I'll update again when the final launch date is chosen.

[Sirus]

Still watching, because I still want to know about this

[Cthulhu]

Yes, corporations only care about profit margin.  Believe it or not, that can actually be a good thing in the right circumstances.  People get shit done when there's money in it, and like MSH said, space travel is the kind of thing you can't afford to skimp on

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's also worth mentioning that there is, in fact, a lot of money in space travel. You might not see your returns for a while, but when they do come to pass anyone who got onboard early will find themselves at a vastly elevated risk of death by drowning in piles of money. Once the Bill Gates of the space industry inevitably shows up everyone else will want a cut of the profits, and that is how humanity as a whole will finally gain a literally invested interest in space.

Just thinking about it makes me want to join Space X. Too bad I have no applicable skills on this subject.

[Starver]

Mainly posting to watch (didn't see this before) but...

Can it even go from zero to full thrust instantly? I would think there would be a rather long acceleration period on a rocket designed for space travel.

Full thrust, yes...  Or at least as instantly as the fuel/oxidiser feeds can be opened (or whatever hybrid method this lot are trying again, I forget), which should be nearly the same thing.  Then on full thrust the most possible acceleration will be applied until someone can throttle it down again (assuming it isn't a total screw-up that can't be reversed, of course, but that'll already be accounted for, hopefully).

Full thrust while almost at the hatch would probably not do much more than 'dock harder', unless it's a lateral jet in which case you've got to consider what else it might hit.  Full thrust much further away should have a reaction time to make preventative or even swerve-away thrusting.  I'd worry about it failing/flaring at a distance where the corrections don't get made in time, for the maximum accumulated relative velocity (on top of whatever it was doing 'normally' at the point it failed) by the time it hits.  But they've probably worked out what's possible, when's a particularly bad time, at what point in the approach to have at least three people keeping an eye on the relevant abort-switch, etc...


Sorry, waffled, as usual.  YGTI.

[PTTG??]

I wonder how they're doing the livestream with a camera mounted on something that's going to space. I suppose they could be going up to a satellite, then bouncing back to control, then hosting the stream.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Nah, they just have a really long USB cable.

[Starver]

And switching to Firewire for re-entry. *nodnod*

[sneakey pete]

a few things
-this is the third launch of the falcon 9, the second launch of the capsule itself which did 2 orbits back in 2010.
-NASA is heavily cooperating with spaceX, sharing data and know-how, as far as i know.
-the capsule itself doesn't "dock" with the ISS, but berths with it. The difference being that docking is performed using thrusters etc of the pod, whereas berthing is accomplished by the robotic arm of the ISS grappling the spacecraft and guiding it into the airlock/portal. So no risk of it suddenly thrusting up and damaging the space station or anything.
-however they work the camera (probably just a direct link with a station on the ground), its frigging awesome that we can watch a livestream of it.

I'm really, really, really hoping this goes smoothly

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Note that in 2013 SpaceX will be launching their next creation, the Falcon Heavy.

[Siquo]

two additional [...] strap-on boosters

As if it wasn't phallic enough already.

[Nilik]

And thus begins the corporations taking over all the space.

Y'know, this doesn't bother me so much. It gives common folk like you and I a better chance of going up, even if it's only a "day trip".

The thought of corporations owning stretches of space doesn't sit well with me. Reminds me of the 'Caldari State' from EVE-a corporate dictatorship ruling the stars. 

Funny you should mention that, something was pointed out on the EVE forums recently; take a look around the SpaceX site, particularly here http://www.spacex.com/falcon1.php, and take a look at the names of some of the components. Falcon. Merlin. Kestrel. All names of Caldari ships! And they're all gunmetal-grey for the most part. I'm not saying that SpaceX is eventually going to form part of the MegaCorp which eventually becomes Caldari State but... actually I'm totally saying that. If they name any of their other parts "Raven" then that seals it.