Launch and landing videos, with binaural audio, recorded from the roof of the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Short version:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/ImoQqNyRL8Y[/youtube]

Extended version:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/x7uQ8OWiheM[/youtube]

I don't think Elon gets enough credit for being a genius at marketing. Similar to Steve Jobs, he just seems to understand how to get peoples hearts to beat a little faster.

The Tesla is an amazing car, but so is the GM Bolt. The GM Bolt doesn't have Ludicrous mode though. I have had more conversations about that than any other feature on a Tesla.

It is so cool to see someone leveraging marketing think to push forward some pretty awesome engineering objectives.

I am not sure if going to Mars will save humanity from itself, but it sure as heck will inspire people on earth to keep pushing ahead and doing cool stuff.

Thanks for posting the sound Doug. Listen with earphones!!
My son and I were 25 miles SW at 16,500
Seeing the two boosters come back for landing was just as thrilling as the launch
The pictures we took from the airplane....eegghh

Yes, I think they are the real tires, as are the fabrics and trims of the interior (exterior now?).


This may come as surprising, and it was to me when I was looking at a LEO satellite project in my business (power supply for ion thrusters).

The temps are actually pretty close to "normal". You get a lot of heat from the sun, but you radiate a lot of it back into space. You are in a vacuum, so heat loss by conduction or convection is gone, it is all radiation in or out.

That's the reason Starman is slowly rotating. If you have a side that faces the sun, it will bake, maybe above 120C, the side away will deep freeze, -170C, by spinning slowly, you even out the temperature and keep everything pretty close to normal human temperature, say around 30C average. It is a slow rotisserie in outer space.

Mike C.

They were never going "to" Mars, they were going to an elliptical solar orbit that crossed Earth and Mars orbits.

I don't think NASA or other space agencies would want a piece of "useless" space junk hurtling near Mars or crashing on it.

It wasn't clear to me the extra orbit size was intentional or a mistake. Either way, it is impressive.

Mike C.

This might be my new screensaver for a while...

Yes, I think they are the real tires, as are the fabrics and trims of the interior (exterior now?).

Awesome amateur video tracking liftoff to landing:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/59pY74ZhQ50[/youtube]

At time of side booster separation, speed was 6900 kmh (4,290 mph), altitude was 61 km (200,000 ft). I don't know how far it was downrange, but probably around 100 km. In 6.5 minutes later, the boosters are landing back at the launch site. That is an amazing change in speed, direction, and location in a very short period of time.

It was also an amazing feat to video this entire sequence.

Mike C.

That is just great. Wow!

I was 500 below you, Brad, and within a mile or two. Ours was a fabulous perch but not the best camera platform. I sent these images to our MIA Center controller, too.
Humbly submitted... as “the best I could do...”.

Being a aerospace engineer and having worked on first Delta IV as an engineer at Boeing and then on Atlas when Lockheed and Boeing merged their EELV programs, I’m generally immune from the hype.

I’ve never drunk the space-x cool aid becaus much of what they spin is hype and incompatible with either how things work in the space launch business or naive.

But, having said that, they are doing a few things that are moving things in the right direction - despite the skepticism of a lot of us insiders. In other words, they changing the business and I think that’s good.
One, they are trending toward more scheduling power in the hands of the launch provider rather than the customer (that’s good). Two, they are a viable global competitor for commercial launches (something the big aerospace contractors can’t/won’t compete in). Three, they’re drawing attention to the space launch business which has been boring to the public for decades. Four, they’re trying new things even though they might not pencil out economically (generates excitement, gets people and customers thinking, and might be brilliant in the longer run).

And I’ll be the first to admit, seeing those strap-on boosters come back and land was the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long long time.

Well Done

Didn’t seem like hype to me watching that technology happen.

I also think when new disruptive technologies shake up the old paradigm it bugs some people who were deeply involved in how things worked.

I’m just glad it is happening.

See there’s the difference TJ. Someone working professionally in an industry understands when “technology happens” in their industry while laymen often don’t.

Perhaps you missed my compliments though. You quoted them. I hope you read them.

fixed that for you

fixed that for you