SpaceX Launch Thread - FALCON HEAVY

Toy rocket to nowhere.

>DESTINATION: An Earth-Mars heliocentric orbit.

So now this fucker wants to pollute the solar system with cars and junk.
Fuck, we humans never learn.

I'll spoon with you LAnon

Jealous man, I'd love to live in LA (if I was rich)

What exactly would "pollute" even mean in space? It's not like the car is toxic to any life form there.

>LAUNCH IS NO GO
>I REPEAT
>LAUNCH IS NO GO
>Please stand by

Musk is going to use it to destroy any future asteroid that threatens Earth. It needs to be far enough away so it can get a big enough running start to do some serious damage when it hits an incoming asteroid.

kek

Go blow up the moon then, I don`t care.

Once all the asteroids been killed off what then, blow up the moon too.

Fuck it! Let's just nuke the fucking Moon!
youtube.com/watch?v=nYm1XcRJ74k&t=404s

Might as well, America has been wanting to do that since the 50s. There is like 400 thousand tons of NASA rubbish and cars up there too. Lets pollute and nuke every fucking damn thing in space. It`s the American way.

In reality though, if you detonated a nuke on the Moon nothing really interesting would happen. There'd be a bright flash, then all that will be left is a radioactive crater. That's it. I don't really know what Cold War-era American scientists were expecting to accomplish.

Bets on abort?

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Oh shit, I didn't know it was in two days. Let's hope nothing dies

It'll be a miracle if it launches on time.

Scare the Russians and study the composition of the lunar soil.
No joke. That was their actual goal.

We all know why.

>To defeat the godless commies!!!

Are you implying that's a bad idea?

>"Are you implying that's a bad idea?"

What is, threatening to nuke the Moon to deter Soviet nuclear activity in orbit?

I mean using nukes as a deterrent isn't uncommon, that's practically North Korea's nuclear program in a nutshell.

meanwhile in Iceland

Translation please?

it covers Elon's early life, his rise to wealth, The Boring Company's plans, FH launch, and general Muskisms. Just an overall overview of where Elon is taking humanity, really.

I'm honestly skeptical about Musk's claims of getting to Mars by... 2024, was it? It is currently technologically infeasible for a successful human expedition to Mars. And I don't care if Musk's rockets are successful, there are still a shit ton of hurdles we have to pass in order to get a man on Mars without him/her dying. I think Musk has made great contributions to the space industry, but man on Mars in 7 years? No.

2025 was the date. 2,887 days to go! I think he'll do it; just look at the increase in launch cadence YoY. For a flyby, at least. Landings will happen 2030.

I don't think it's enough time to arrange and greenlight a Mars mission

But holy FUCK a rocket that can carry 150 tons to orbit for under $10 million changes everything, forever. Mega orbital space colonies, assholes vacationing on the moon, so many possibilities are unlocked. The only downside is unless Blue Origin comes up with something amazing really fast, SpaceX is going to have a monopoly because every other rocket on earth is gonna look totally useless.

Will we finally become the.. SPACE RACE???

not entirely useless. Lots of countries will still want to launch their own spy stuff on non foreign rockets.

GIVE ME MUSK MEMES

Elon Musk playing the maracas at a company fiesta. (Colorized 2002)

OK CAPT'N

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Musk:
>"Thanks @Jesus. Can you kindly bring the booster back to dry land."

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Rare clip of demonically possessed women playing with Maracas. (Colorized 1967)

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this

really do wonder how many flights FH will make before it (and literally every single other launch vehicle) is BTFO by BFR. Especially considering that BFR test articles should be completed by early 2019.

> BFR test articles should be completed by early 2019.

You want a sneak peak for the performance of the BFR? Well then I suggest you look up this bad boy.

>le large number of engines = unreliable meme
shoo shoo bezorgz

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Admit it, the BFR is going to be a dud. It's too fucking big and impractical.

Why exeacly everybody loves SpaceX so much? You know you have been tricked into shilling for free, right?

>Why exeacly everybody loves SpaceX so much?

Because unlike NASA, SpaceX is actually doing something.

compared to NASA, SpaceX is progressing at breakneck speed.

because they are reusing rockets, planning to build gigantic rockets, and have the ultimate goal of a multiplanetary civilization.

source

>I have no actual idea what NASA did in last years but i will actualy pretend i do
Also NASA only problem is lack of funding, since americans prefer to invade 3rd world counties instead doing something actualy good for humanity
Like cancelling huge projects and delaying others. Just like NASA.
Nasa also reused their spaceship and it ended up that it's actualy not a good idea. NASA ahave been and keeps building big rockets and Space X already cancelled ITS.
>and have the ultimate goal of a multiplanetary civilization
And what makes you believe SpaceX will actualy do that?

[SpaceX is] planning to build gigantic rockets.

And NASA hasn't.

>You know you have been tricked into shilling for free, right?
A "shill" was someone who cheered for something unpopular in hopes of hyping people. People who cheered for something great were not being shills they were simply enjoying the thing. It's like you're so deep into internet memes that you are completely detached from real life. What kind of normal person will not cheer for one guy who is doing by himself what is usually only possible for huge governments?

>Nasa also reused their spaceship and it ended up that it's actualy not a good idea.
The space shuttle was only partially reusable, the SRBs had to be heavily refurbished because of all the saltwater they were immersed in. The shuttle itself had to have thousands of its thermal tiles replaced after each flight as well as remove each engine are refurbish them.

not to mention the $1b price per launch if you added everything together. FH is what, 90mil? Pretty good reduction in $/kg to orbit.

thats untrue, it was more like 450 million. but yeah it was too much.

>What kind of normal person will not cheer for one guy who is doing by himself what is usually only possible for huge governments?
It's called corporation. It's actualy nothing new.
>A "shill" was someone who cheered for something unpopular in hopes of hyping people
On Veeky Forums this term means that you advertise something on the internet all the time.
>comapring spaceship that is actualy a spaceplane with most advanced hydrolox engines ever made, capable of taking 12 people on board to space for quite long time to a medium size rocket using kerolox engines hat the only unique feature is that i can land it's first stage.

> [SpaceX is] reusing rockets

Again. And NASA hasn't?

And yes before you say it, I know.

RIP Space Shuttle
1981 - 2011

Murder by Greed and Political Corruption

RIP Apollo and Space Shuttle, I have outlived them all-Soyuz

gotta account for the shuttle *program in the calc as well.

shuttle was shit from the get-go. Useless airforce requirements for certain orbits, horrible abort capabilities, and just overall stupid design choices. Should have kept flying Saturn V.

take off your retarded nostalgia glasses and see the future for what it is, gramps. Heinlein was right: rockets should land ass-first like God intended.

>Since Americans prefer to invade 3rd world counties instead doing something actually good for humanity.

Hey not all Americans support the wars in the Middle East! Sorry that these dumbfucks voted in those people.

I second that opinion on space shuttle and I made that post regarding that comparing F9 and SS is wrong. Whole point is that comparing those two in terms of raw costs is retarded.

sort of hard to avoid cost comparisons nowadays tho. half of all space politics revolves around who gets paid to do what, how much a seat to orbit costs, which states get the jobs, etc

Yes, it's like comparing Electron to Delta IV f.e and saying that electron is better because it's cheaper. You are actualy comparing 2 different rockets with different capabilities and purposes.

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Ignition! is being reprinted! arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/02/the-funniest-most-accessible-book-on-rocket-science-is-being-reissued/

new weather forecast

When was the last time NASA launched a Saturn V buddy? How many decades ago?
Exactly.

>
What new war has Trump started exactly?

May 14th, 1973, with the Skylab I

youtube.com/watch?v=e2fesWyxiw4

I know you're trying to act all smug by flexing your google knowledge on us, but you're actually proving the other guy's point.

>I know you're trying to act all smug by flexing your google knowledge on us.

Shut the fuck up! I did that to share our collective passion for space, not for credibility.

>You're actually proving the other guy's point.

Who?

Who cares? It's been a free download on the internet for years. That's why so many people have read it.

saved

>solar activity: Low
That's why it's so damn cold up here presently.
t. Inuit that wants to go to Mars

How fucked is SLS?

FH nearly matches the payload capacity of it's block I config, and BFR will beat it's theoretical block II config.

it's tots fuked, m8. It'll fly, oh, probably twice.

the brainlets in congress are blinded by sunk cost fallacy and muh jobs.

Also, lmao to the fact that they want SpX to fly block 5 five times before sticking humans on top, but congress wanted to fly SLS manned for the FIRST FUCKING LAUNCH

lmao

SpaceX - 1
NASA - 0

>tfw you want it to succeed and blow up

sls wont be canned for at least a few more years, if ever. until we get something like BFR or whatever blue origin is cooking up, sls ain't entirely a waste.

Yea, I figure they'll at least keep SLS alive until they burn through their stockpile of old RS-25s.

>political cartoons

>RS-25s
reusable engines for a disposable rocket SAD

how much more would it take to man rate the rs68?

Elon Musk haters on suicide watch
Elon Musk dicksuckers happy with flamethrowers and hats
Based Elon

>sls ain't entirely a waste.
Of course its entirely a waste
Think of those tens of thousands of trained individuals working full time on the shitfest of a project that will never even FLY
The Orion capsule h as been going for over a decade now, nowhere near flying, and it'll probably NEVER ACTUALLY EVER BE USED..

Gotta wonder how much of these programs are solely gibs for incompetents too

here's a quick history lesson

>apollo program: employ 100,000 people or whatever
>afterwards, those people go to work on shuttle
>shuttle dies
>now congress needs to keep them employed
>oh hey, SLS

it's called Senate Launch System for a reason. It's a jobs program.

Even Musk expects it to blow up and get data to make it better and not blow up.

>"It's called Senate Launch System for a reason. It's a jobs program."

Here's a better idea.

>Scrap the SLS
>Focus more on making a good launch vehicle rather than creating an intentionally impractical vehicle for the sake of keeping jobs
>Instigate a Basic Income of $10,000 per months for all U.S citizens. This solves the worker problem.
>Either divide US Military/Defense budget in two; one half will be the official Military/Defense budget, the latter will be evenly divided to fund all domestic programs.
>Or take the full federal budget (about $4 trillion) and divide it evenly to fund all federal programs. (If my math is right each program should have at least 100 million - 10 billion.
>Imitate a mass withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen,etc. and a mass decrease in US bases worldwide

TL;DR You get free money, build up of infrastructure, renewal of domestic programs like healthcare, education, etc, and an end to all the wars.

I'd like to so you cucks argue against this.

hey buddy, I hate the SLS as much as anyone else. chill

No he doesn't. He's just managing expectations.

If he says, "We're very confident it will work." he'll look like an idiot if anything goes wrong. Furthermore, if it does work, people will think it wasn't anything very difficult or impressive.

If he is very confident, by emphasizing how technically challenging it is and how there's a serious risk of failure, he has some reputation insurance for if something goes wrong, and if it works perfectly on the first try, he has managed to cast it as a heroic achievement against all odds and proof of SpaceX's supreme technical competence. On top of that, he has provoked a lot of detractors to jump on his statement and confidently say that the launch will fail, which will discredit them when it works.

If he expected it to blow up, they wouldn't be flying it. They'd fix the reasons they expect it to blow up first. They're confident it'll work, though of course they can't be certain.