OK, you got me, I just assumed "affordable" is an implied part of
"useful" and didn't specify it.
$1.7 billion a flight is only "useful" under an extremely narrow set of
historically unique (and unlikely to be repeated) circumstances...
On 12/21/2015 7:34 PM, Tim Wilson wrote:
You missed the whole Space Shuttle thing, right? ;)
----- Original Message ----- From: "Henry Vanderbilt"
<hvanderbilt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2015 9:26 PM
Subject: [AR] Re: SpaceX F9 Launch/Update -- Live Link
Nothing wrong with being excited and showing it. I'm pretty pumped
myself... I'm coming up on thirty years pushing these ideas, though, so
I tend to remember to also answer the question "did what?" for anyone
who had other work to do and hadn't been paying as close attention this
evening.
Plenty of hard work yet to do there. But, dang! Between Blue Origin's
booster recovery a few weeks ago and this, it's pretty clear it's not
just luck, or a stunt - we really are finally well down the road to
learning how to reuse actual useful space-launch rockets.
Henry
On 12/21/2015 6:53 PM, Monroe L. King Jr. wrote:
So awesome! Please forgive my excitement in my last post. UNBELIEVABLE!
They really did it! I cried and I'm not ashamed about one bit.
GO SPACE-X! GO!
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [AR] Re: SpaceX F9 Launch/Update -- Live Link
From: Henry Vanderbilt <hvanderbilt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, December 21, 2015 6:41 pm
To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
It's a twofer - the second stage and payload is in orbit, and the first
stage is upright back on the landing pad with engine off.
On 12/21/2015 3:09 PM, Henry Vanderbilt wrote:
(twitter)
ORBCOMM
@ORBCOMM_Inc
"UPDATE: A 5 minute launch window opens at 8:29pm ET this evening for
the #OG2 Mission 2 launch..."
On 12/20/2015 7:37 PM, Henry Vanderbilt wrote:
New launch window is 8:33 pm ET Monday.
On 12/20/2015 3:15 PM, Henry Vanderbilt wrote:
And Elon Musk's twitter feed now shows this:
"Just reviewed mission params w SpaceX team. Monte Carlo runs show
tmrw
night has a 10% higher chance of a good landing. Punting 24 hrs."
Hmm. Winds? FWIW, the Canaveral weather includes a "beach hazard
bulletin" warning of rough surf and strong offshore winds this
evening.
On 12/20/2015 11:30 AM, (Redacted sender monsieurboo for DMARC)
wrote:
And the SpaceX link for live video of the action is quite simply
their
current home page:
http://www.spacex.com/
Cheers,
Mark L.
Subject: [AR] Re: F9 Launch/Update Thread
From: Henry Vanderbilt <hvanderbilt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:hvanderbilt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2015 09:51:19 -0700
SpaceX worked through the issues and got their static fire test done
late Friday. They currently hope to launch in a brief window at
8:29 pm
eastern Sunday. (Next window would be Tuesday.) Best wishes to their
operations crew for a successful flight in time for all to be
home for
Christmas.