Erik of Hazelfield Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 Informative link. That looks like one complicated mission for sure! Any idea on their plan for stage recovery for that one? Everything, nothing or something in between? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 1 hour ago, SpaceChampion said: Currently scheduled for June 13th. A launch for the Air Force with over 30 rideshare satellites for military and science purposes. The primary mission however is as a further certification flight so the Air Force can approve FH for its use on regular contracts. One of the payloads is for the Planetary Society, finally launching another of their solar sail projects -- LightSail 2. Very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted March 29, 2018 Author Share Posted March 29, 2018 2 hours ago, Erik of Hazelfield said: Informative link. That looks like one complicated mission for sure! Any idea on their plan for stage recovery for that one? Everything, nothing or something in between? I've read nothing on that so far, but it's not going to be with their final version of F9 boosters (block 5), but probably Block 3 or 4 versions, so it doesn't matter financially to recover them -- they'd be discarded anyway eventually. However, it is a test mission so I assume they will be attempting landing of all 3 boosters as a demonstration. The center booster is custom designed for FH though, so it's probably something they do want to land on the drone ship for recovery and analysis, and to prove they can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 Iridium-5 webcast: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 No joy on the fairing recovery attempt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chatywin et al. Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Is it true that Musk is having serious money issues, and if so, will it affect SpaceX? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 22 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said: Is it true that Musk is having serious money issues, and if so, will it affect SpaceX? Where are you hearing that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 17 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said: Is it true that Musk is having serious money issues, and if so, will it affect SpaceX? No. SpaceX seems very healthy financially. They're always getting new contracts and have quite a backlog of launches to fulfill totalling some $10 billion last time I checked. Plus the FCC just approved the license for SpaceX to build it's Starlink internet constellation, so that's going to be a big winfall. They always have investors eager to give them more money, but Musk is not eager to dilute his control of the company. He can get more money from them if he wants. Musk recently bought up a bunch of Tesla's outstanding shares, increasing his ownership. Tesla has been spending a lot of money to build it's factory, deploy its Supercharger network, and manufacturer its batteries, solar roofs and cars. Suppliers have said they've received the word to increase parts deliveries, so Model 3 production is likely increasing rapidly. I think their might be a lot of short-sellers out there writing articles to depress the stock price so they can make money. There is a lot of anti-Musk politically motivated rumours too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Northman Reborn Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 8 hours ago, Tywin et al. said: Is it true that Musk is having serious money issues, and if so, will it affect SpaceX? The issue here is the general investment community's fixation on Tesla. This is understandable given that it is a public company while SpaceX is privately owned. Tesla has some weak fundamentals, and many argue that its shares are significantly overpriced. In essence, Tesla's recent high share price was based on expected future profits, with these expectations largely based on Musk's rock star reputation as a miracle worker. So almost all the negative articles on Musk's financial empire, focus on Tesla's woes, given its much higher profile than SpaceX. What some of these pundits apparently don't realize, is that Tesla is actually a side show for Musk, with SpaceX being his real passion. Musk has openly admitted that all of his ventures are attempts to accumulate capital for his ultimate goal of establishing a self sustaining colony on Mars. As it stands, SpaceX is doing very well. It is about to eat the entire launch market, with its next generation technology which makes virtually every other launch provider obsolete, except where they enjoy artificial protection from national governments, which sadly applies to a bunch of their competitors. But purely on price, SpaceX should own virtually 100% of the launch market. And this will only become more obvious as their technology improves and especially when BFR enters the market. Anyway, so to summarize (because there is so much more I can say on this), yes, Tesla is facing some troubles. Probably not insurmountable, but certainly some short term challenges. I basically view Tesla as an unnecessary distraction of Elon's time, and would not be opposed to him selling his $10 billion or so of shares in Tesla and investing that money directly into SpaceX. But Tesla would then probably tank, as it relies heavily on him for its very existence. And if his new compensation plan at Tesla works out, his $10 billion Tesla shares could be worth $200 billion in 10 years time, making him the richest man in the world. Which would boost his Mars goals even more. For now, SpaceX is soaring, while Tesla is floundering a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 At approximately 8:45 PM EDT I saw what looked like a bright flash of light it appeared to be mid way between Orion’s belt and the lower left hand star at the corner of the constellation Orion. It was an incandescent yellow color and flared brightly for about a second then faded out. I saw nothing else and there was not streak like with a shooting star. I’m in Columbia SC. Anyone have any idea what I might have seen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leofric Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said: At approximately 8:45 PM EDT I saw what looked like a bright flash of light it appeared to be mid way between Orion’s belt and the lower left hand star at the corner of the constellation Orion. It was an incandescent yellow color and flared brightly for about a second then faded out. I saw nothing else and there was not streak like with a shooting star. I’m in Columbia SC. Anyone have any idea what I might have seen? Not sure if you were in the path but the Chinese space station was supposed to come down today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 8 minutes ago, Leofric said: Not sure if you were in the path but the Chinese space station was supposed to come down today. I just saw that. The thing is I didn’t see a streak of light but a burst of light... like an explosion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghjhero Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 9 minutes ago, Leofric said: Not sure if you were in the path but the Chinese space station was supposed to come down today. I heard it came down over the South Pacific. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Which Tyler Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 4 hours ago, Ghjhero said: I heard it came down over the South Pacific. You heard right http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43614408 4 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said: I just saw that. The thing is I didn’t see a streak of light but a burst of light... like an explosion. Watch out for 7' tall, walking plants with venemous stingers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 2 hours ago, Which Tyler said: You heard right http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43614408 Watch out for 7' tall, walking plants with venemous stingers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted April 2, 2018 Author Share Posted April 2, 2018 I searched for flash of light reports and found at least five different areas where last night there appear to be meteors: Ontario Canada, somewhere in Washington state, South Florida, Phoenix Arizona, and San Jose California. No clear path between those, but could be a meteor that broke into pieces and came down at different times. Today is the expected launch of the CRS-14 mission to ISS, at 20:30:41 UTC / 16:30:41 EDT.1 Turns out the fairing that crashed into the ocean (instead of being caught in the net of the boat Mr. Stevens) survived anyway. At least one half did. The other half probably is in pieces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik of Hazelfield Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 So I take it this is the half of the fairing that they didn’t try to salvage? But it’s ruined anyway due to the salt water? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted April 2, 2018 Author Share Posted April 2, 2018 44 minutes ago, Erik of Hazelfield said: So I take it this is the half of the fairing that they didn’t try to salvage? But it’s ruined anyway due to the salt water? No, they did try to catch it with the boat-net contraption, but the parafoil twisted on itself and it hit the ocean hard, but it did survive. I presume it is ruined anyway due to the salt water acting on the carbon fibre, but they could use it again in the drop tests they are planning using a helicopter to perfect deployment of the parafoil. I'm going to bet the next time they do this on an actual launch they'll have it more or less sorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Thanks everybody who attempted an answer. It was very odd to see. I was walking with my daughter and she missed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted April 2, 2018 Author Share Posted April 2, 2018 CRS-14 launch webcast: Starting about 20:30:41 UTC / 16:30:41 EDT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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