Live! Falcon Heavy, world's most powerful rocket, maiden flight

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Yes I know it's cool and it's the biggest rocket ever. And it will carry more than anybody else.
It's the Bugatti of space rockets as opposed to the Micra that NASA has.

Musk describes it thus: Imagine you have a plane, when it gets to your destination you bail out with a parachute and the plane crashes. That's what's happened with rockets. Until now.

 

[nuffsaid]

I don't think you understand what a test is.

I work in testing.

 

[Sprocket.]

Perhaps they should have put a xmillion dollar satellite on it and hope it didn’t explode on the pad. Then there would have been a proper outcry from the world media.

 

[Mumbles274]

This wasn't about putting a rocket into space or a car into orbit. This was a proof of concept test.

At the moment companies who need to put up satellites have a few (but not many) choices. All are hugely expensive and time consuming. Rockets are fired into space and discarded. This particular rocket can carry double the payload of its nearest rival at one third of the cost and return most of the big bits safely to Earth. This is an enormous technological achievement.

Regarding the car. They also needed to show that this particular system could lift something into space and put it into orbit. The car is about double the size and weight of the average commercial satellite. Satellites and scientific instruments, "useful stuff" that could have been put on board cost millions. This was a maiden test flight and they were half expecting it to explode on the launch pad. Nobody in their right mind would put anything that expensive onboard. The car was simply the proof of concept. Given that Musk has spent/raised hundreds of millions on this I think he can be allowed his little bit of "whimsy" as you put it.

Oh, and this ...

Worth posting again for how epic it is!

 

[Spymaster]

I keep watching this, it just doesn't look real. Struggling to get my noggin round what I am seeing.

It's absolutely incredible. When you consider what's gone into doing that; what's been learned, developed, made, achieved, and understood, in the process, it puts the 'the car's a waste' argument into perspective.

 

[nuffsaid]

Yeah, he should have sent men to the moon to play golf instead.

Oh I agree, that was daft.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

My god there's some idiots moaning over this.

 

[Lord Camomile]

I'm fully on board with comments in the Guardian.

A more worthy payload?
Musk is not without his critics. Many wondered what the point of the expensive stunt was. Should the most powerful rocket of our age not have carried a more useful, worthy payload?

Space oddity: how Elon Musk and SpaceX sent a car towards Mars

Great science and an odd stunt.

Begs the question - what would be a more worthy payload (which, naturally, also begs the question - what constitutes "worthy"?)? As has been pointed out on this thread before, the whole point for this launch is you don't want to put something of genuine worth on the rocket because it is a test. It might blow up. And at that point, you've just blown up something worthy, instead of something trivial.

So, what would satisfy the criteria of being a more worthy payload than the car, but not worthy enough that it would be problematic if it were blown up?

As it goes, they've taken something with no meaning (a test payload) and given it a modicum of charm and human interest. If it makes you feel any better you can just think of it as a car-shaped lump of metal, so then it's no worse than any other test payloads. I don't know what shape the lump of metal they usually send up is.

 

[Baronage-Phase]

Musk describes it thus: Imagine you have a plane, when it gets to you destination you bail out with a parachute and the plane crashes. That's what's happened with rockets. Until now.

I know.
Seeing the side rockets land is very cool. THAT is the real innovation here

 

[nuffsaid]

Begs the question - what would be a more worthy payload (which, naturally, also begs the question - what constitutes "worthy"?)? As has been pointed out on this thread before, the whole point for this launch is you don't want to put something of genuine worth on the rocket because it is a test. It might blow up. And at that point, you've just blown up something worthy, instead of something trivial.

So, what would satisfy the criteria of being a more worthy payload than the car, but not worthy enough that it would be problematic if it were blown up?

As it goes, they've taken something with no meaning (a test payload) and given it a modicum of charm and human interest. If it makes you feel any better you can just think of it as a car-shaped lump of metal, so then it's no worse than any other test payloads. I don't know what shape the lump of metal they usually send up is.

Even Sputnik went 'beep' and we could all hear it.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Round the world this morning there are thousands of kids who now want to become rocket engineers. Because that launch was cool. That's just one of the many reasons why it was such a stroke of genius to send the car up.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

It's absolutely incredible. When you consider what's gone into doing that; what's been learned, developed, made, achieved, and understood, in the process, it puts the 'the car's a waste' argument into perspective.

Those two bad boys landing at the same time, I think that may be one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Fuck hoverboards, we're way beyond that now.

A few years ago watched the penultimate shuttle launch, was the first time I had seen it with cameras all over the shuttle itself so we got pics like we did yesterday. I was agog at seeing live pictures from a space ship as it went in to space, beamed back down to my TV. BB1 took it all in her stride as if that were normal, which for her it was. Just imagine what shit will be like when she's 45!

Exciting and inspiring. He may have a silly name, but I love this so much

 

[Lord Camomile]

Even Sputnik went 'beep' and we could all hear it.

....?

So if they'd put a little transmitter going "beep" in the car, that would be scientific enough?

To be honest, I do quite like the idea of having something that people can interact with in some way, rather than just being a cool visual (which is not to undermine the fact it is a cool visual). However, I honestly don't know how time/resource-consuming it would have been to do something like that in this case.

 

[nuffsaid]

My god there's some idiots moaning over this.

Not the rockets, they were awesome, amazing watching that live yesterday, excellent job and puts NASA to shame - so well done, and hopefully we'll see more launches in future for worthwhile scientific advancement as it should be cheaper now - no more cars though, hey?

 

[spitfire]

Round the world this morning there are thousands of kids who now want to become rocket engineers. Because that launch was cool. That's just one of the many reasons why it was such a stroke of genius to send the car up.

I actually looked at the careers section of Spacex late night. No vacancies for aging ravers with no formal qualifications but who can hang tellies on the wall without them falling off.

V. disappointed.

Maybe I can be the next test payload.

 

[DotCommunist]

He may have a silly name

its a comic book supervillains name. He's also got the 'I'm doing a very good impression of being a warm human being' that doesn't quite reach the eyes, much like lex luthor

 

[nuffsaid]

....?

So if they'd put a little transmitter going "beep" in the car, that would be scientific enough?

No, because it's been done. There's a universe out there and I'm sure some data collection of some sort wouldn't have gone amiss for some astronomers or cosmologists somewhere. Heck back in the 90s I could help SETI with my choice of screensaver.

 

[bimble]

A bit of googling suggests the usual test load on risky first launches has been something like a bucket of water or a ball of steel. Would that have made you feel better nuffsaid ?

 

[Baronage-Phase]

My god there's some idiots moaning over this.

Of course ...

I wonder what NASA are thinking..

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

its a comic book supervillains name. He's also got the 'I'm doing a very good impression of being a warm human being' that doesn't quite reach the eyes, much like lex luthor

Of course you don't get to be that rich without being a scumbag, that's a given.

 

[Baronage-Phase]

I actually looked at the careers section of Spacex late night. No vacancies for aging ravers with no formal qualifications but who can hang tellies on the wall without them falling off.

V. disappointed.

Maybe I can be the next test payload.

But you'd never return

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I actually looked at the careers section of Spacex late night. No vacancies for aging ravers with no formal qualifications but who can hang tellies on the wall without them falling off.

That's a shame, cos that's basically my CV too.

(Don't touch the tellies too hard though, please, I only ever get 2 of the 4 screws in properly...)

 

[Spymaster]

A bit of googling suggests the usual test load on risky first launches has been something like a bucket of water or a ball of steel. Would that have made you feel better nuffsaid ?

Apparently there's a meat pie up there too.

 

[spitfire]

But you'd never return

Them's the breaks.

 

[Lord Camomile]

No, because it's been done. There's a universe out there and I'm sure some data collection of some sort wouldn't have gone amiss for some astronomers or cosmologists somewhere. Heck back in the 90s I could help SETI with my choice of screensaver.

Ok, but given this:

A bit of googling suggests the usual test load on risky first launches has been something like a bucket of water or a ball of steel. Would that have made you feel better nuffsaid ?

..are you possibly setting your sights a bit high? Indeed, is the only reason you're talking about the test payload is because it wasn't a bucket of water or ball of steel? If it had been, would you still be questioning it.

I think I do understand the thinking to a certain extent - "if they bothered to change the payload, why not change it to something with more scientific value?" - but again I'm not sure if that's underestimating whether the benefit would have outweighed the cost - the time and resources spent on adding something with more scientific value versus the possibility of it all exploding*. I honestly don't know on that one.



*I mean, I guess that's technically what they're doing with the rocket itself, but that's rather the point of the exercise in the first place

 

[spitfire]

That's a shame, cos that's basically my CV too.

(Don't touch the tellies too hard though, please, I only ever get 2 of the 4 screws in properly...)

I do get paid for it so we generally get at least 3 in. But yeah, best not to hang off them too hard.

 

[Spymaster]

Those two bad boys landing at the same time, I think that may be one of the greatest things I have ever seen.

I expected one of them to smash (hopefully gently) into the ground nearby. Success to be measured by how close the biggest bit of debris was to the X.

When they both came down in unison and touched down like birds I was absolutely gobsmacked and thought it might all be a CGI spoof.

 

[nuffsaid]

A bit of googling suggests the usual test load on risky first launches has been something like a bucket of water or a ball of steel. Would that have made you feel better nuffsaid ?

Probably yes, because that would have been more....sciencey, and therefore consistent with the overall exercise.

 

[NoXion]

I expected one of them to smash (hopefully gently) into the ground nearby. Success to be measured by how close the biggest bit of debris was to the X.

When they both came down in unison and touched down like birds I was absolutely gobsmacked and thought it might all be a CGI spoof.

"It clearly is CGI, because the Great Satanic-NWO-Illuminati-Jewish-Freemason-gnomes are somehow both clever enough to run the entire world, yet somehow dumb enough to release obviously fake looking footage that any tinfoil-swaddled fuckstick can see right through"

Fucking conspiracy bell-ends, miserable fucking cunts the lot of them.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Probably yes, because that would have been more....sciencey, and therefore consistent with the overall exercise.

Going back to my earlier question, why would the shape of the metal make it more/less 'sciencey'? Is it that you think making it something identifiable, and maybe a bit whimsical, undermines the serious sciencieness of it? You think it distracts from the science and makes it more about the car than the science?