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SpaceX - official thread (1 Viewer)

Joe T

Footballguy
Up and down and up againSpaceX’s latest launch could change the economics of going into orbit

Apr 19th 2014

EVERYTHING about space flight is superlative. Even relatively modest rockets are hundreds of feet high. The biggest (the Saturn V, which launched astronauts to the Moon) remains the most powerful vehicle ever built. But space flight is superlatively expensive, too. One reason is that, for all their technological sophistication, rockets are one-shot wonders. After they have fired their engines for a few minutes they are left to fall back to Earth, usually splashing ignominiously into the ocean.

Rocket scientists have therefore long dreamed of making something able to fly more than once. Such a reusable machine, they hope, would slash the cost of getting into space. The only one built so far, America’s space shuttle, proved a dangerous and costly disappointment, killing two of its crews and never coming close to the cost savings its designers had intended. But hope springs eternal, and several of America’s privately run “New Space” firms are planning to try again.

The furthest advanced is SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, an internet mogul. On April 18th it is due to launch one of its Falcon 9 rockets on a cargo-carrying trip to the International Space Station (ISS), something it has done twice before. This time, though, the main story is not the ISS mission, but the modifications the firm has made to the rocket itself.

The most notable are the four landing legs folded up along the side of its first stage. If everything goes to plan, once that stage has finished its job and detached itself from the rest of the rocket, it will fire its engines again. Instead of crashing into the sea, it will make a controlled descent, deploy its legs, slow almost to a stop off the coast of Cape Canaveral, and then drop itself delicately into the drink. Mr Musk gives himself a slightly-less-than-even chance of pulling this off.

Will you walk with me, Grasshopper?

If it does work, though, it will be the most dramatic demonstration yet of technology that the firm has been working on for several years. In 2012 SpaceX began flying an unwieldy-looking legged test rocket called Grasshopper. This was able to hover, manoeuvre around in mid-air, and land itself back on the pad that launched it.

Then, last September, it attempted to organise the controlled descent of a legless first stage. In what the firm’s engineers call a useful failure, the rocket’s engines restarted as planned, but as the stage descended it began spinning, flinging its remaining fuel against the walls of its tanks and starving its motors, causing it to crash.

This week’s test is intended to end up with the rocket in the ocean, chiefly for safety reasons in case something does go wrong. But SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to have the first stage fly all the way back to the pad it was launched from, and to land itself facing upwards. It will then be taken away, serviced, refilled with rocket fuel and readied to fly again. The firm wants, one day, to recover the Falcon’s second stage, too—though the greater altitude and speed the second stage reaches makes this a far tougher proposition.

Still, being the biggest, the first stage is the most expensive part, so retrieving it should make a huge difference to launch costs. SpaceX already offers some of the lowest prices in the business. Its launch costs of $56m are around half those of its competitors. Mr Musk has said in the past that a reusable rocket could cut those costs by at least half again.

If SpaceX can make its technology work, that will be the biggest advance in rocketry for decades. Whether it will translate into higher demand for space flight is less clear. Jeff Foust, who edits the Space Review, an industry newsletter, argues that even dramatically lower launch costs will do little to change the economics of the industry, at least for the governments and firms that make up almost all of its current customers. Launch costs, as Mr Foust points out, are but a small part of the total cost of developing, building and running a satellite network.

Mike Gold, an executive at Bigelow Aerospace, a firm that makes inflatable space stations—and which has an agreement with SpaceX to launch its products—thinks that most of the interest will come from people and organisations so far denied access to space. “Putting a big rocket like the Falcon in range of mid-size companies, research institutions and even wealthy private individuals, that’s a game-changer,” he says. “When the laser was first invented, no one had any idea what it might be used for. Today they’re everywhere. We’re still at that early stage with cheap rockets.”

Perhaps. But although SpaceX is a commercial firm, simple profitability is not its only goal. Mr Musk has been perfectly frank about his long-term aim: “to die on Mars, preferably not on impact.” After the Falcon 9, the firm plans a beefier version called the Falcon Heavy. That, in turn, would be a dress rehearsal for something called the Mars Colonial Transporter.

Mr Musk wants to build a machine that would let him offer prospective colonists a (one-way) trip to the Martian surface for about $500,000—or, as he puts it, roughly the cost of a nice house in California. Perfecting reusability is essential for achieving that dream.

If you build it, will they come?

Hard-headed commentators may roll their eyes at such ambition. And history suggests reusability is difficult to do properly. The shuttle itself, for instance, was intended to fly every week. In the end, it made only 135 trips over the course of 30 years. There is a credible case that it proved more expensive, in the long run, than old-fashioned throwaway rockets would have done. Yet SpaceX has already shaken up an industry once mired in stifling conservatism. A successful fully reusable rocket would just be the latest example in a long tradition of it confounding its critics.
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21600968-spacexs-latest-launch-could-change-economics-going-orbit-up-and-down

How is SpaceX able to launch rockets so much more cheaply than ever before? This company started less than 10 years ago and yet they are able to re-invent how to launch rockets into space and do it better and cheaper?

 
Up and down and up againSpaceX’s latest launch could change the economics of going into orbit

Apr 19th 2014

EVERYTHING about space flight is superlative. Even relatively modest rockets are hundreds of feet high. The biggest (the Saturn V, which launched astronauts to the Moon) remains the most powerful vehicle ever built. But space flight is superlatively expensive, too. One reason is that, for all their technological sophistication, rockets are one-shot wonders. After they have fired their engines for a few minutes they are left to fall back to Earth, usually splashing ignominiously into the ocean.

Rocket scientists have therefore long dreamed of making something able to fly more than once. Such a reusable machine, they hope, would slash the cost of getting into space. The only one built so far, America’s space shuttle, proved a dangerous and costly disappointment, killing two of its crews and never coming close to the cost savings its designers had intended. But hope springs eternal, and several of America’s privately run “New Space” firms are planning to try again.

The furthest advanced is SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, an internet mogul. On April 18th it is due to launch one of its Falcon 9 rockets on a cargo-carrying trip to the International Space Station (ISS), something it has done twice before. This time, though, the main story is not the ISS mission, but the modifications the firm has made to the rocket itself.

The most notable are the four landing legs folded up along the side of its first stage. If everything goes to plan, once that stage has finished its job and detached itself from the rest of the rocket, it will fire its engines again. Instead of crashing into the sea, it will make a controlled descent, deploy its legs, slow almost to a stop off the coast of Cape Canaveral, and then drop itself delicately into the drink. Mr Musk gives himself a slightly-less-than-even chance of pulling this off.

Will you walk with me, Grasshopper?

If it does work, though, it will be the most dramatic demonstration yet of technology that the firm has been working on for several years. In 2012 SpaceX began flying an unwieldy-looking legged test rocket called Grasshopper. This was able to hover, manoeuvre around in mid-air, and land itself back on the pad that launched it.

Then, last September, it attempted to organise the controlled descent of a legless first stage. In what the firm’s engineers call a useful failure, the rocket’s engines restarted as planned, but as the stage descended it began spinning, flinging its remaining fuel against the walls of its tanks and starving its motors, causing it to crash.

This week’s test is intended to end up with the rocket in the ocean, chiefly for safety reasons in case something does go wrong. But SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to have the first stage fly all the way back to the pad it was launched from, and to land itself facing upwards. It will then be taken away, serviced, refilled with rocket fuel and readied to fly again. The firm wants, one day, to recover the Falcon’s second stage, too—though the greater altitude and speed the second stage reaches makes this a far tougher proposition.

Still, being the biggest, the first stage is the most expensive part, so retrieving it should make a huge difference to launch costs. SpaceX already offers some of the lowest prices in the business. Its launch costs of $56m are around half those of its competitors. Mr Musk has said in the past that a reusable rocket could cut those costs by at least half again.

If SpaceX can make its technology work, that will be the biggest advance in rocketry for decades. Whether it will translate into higher demand for space flight is less clear. Jeff Foust, who edits the Space Review, an industry newsletter, argues that even dramatically lower launch costs will do little to change the economics of the industry, at least for the governments and firms that make up almost all of its current customers. Launch costs, as Mr Foust points out, are but a small part of the total cost of developing, building and running a satellite network.

Mike Gold, an executive at Bigelow Aerospace, a firm that makes inflatable space stations—and which has an agreement with SpaceX to launch its products—thinks that most of the interest will come from people and organisations so far denied access to space. “Putting a big rocket like the Falcon in range of mid-size companies, research institutions and even wealthy private individuals, that’s a game-changer,” he says. “When the laser was first invented, no one had any idea what it might be used for. Today they’re everywhere. We’re still at that early stage with cheap rockets.”

Perhaps. But although SpaceX is a commercial firm, simple profitability is not its only goal. Mr Musk has been perfectly frank about his long-term aim: “to die on Mars, preferably not on impact.” After the Falcon 9, the firm plans a beefier version called the Falcon Heavy. That, in turn, would be a dress rehearsal for something called the Mars Colonial Transporter.

Mr Musk wants to build a machine that would let him offer prospective colonists a (one-way) trip to the Martian surface for about $500,000—or, as he puts it, roughly the cost of a nice house in California. Perfecting reusability is essential for achieving that dream.

If you build it, will they come?

Hard-headed commentators may roll their eyes at such ambition. And history suggests reusability is difficult to do properly. The shuttle itself, for instance, was intended to fly every week. In the end, it made only 135 trips over the course of 30 years. There is a credible case that it proved more expensive, in the long run, than old-fashioned throwaway rockets would have done. Yet SpaceX has already shaken up an industry once mired in stifling conservatism. A successful fully reusable rocket would just be the latest example in a long tradition of it confounding its critics.
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21600968-spacexs-latest-launch-could-change-economics-going-orbit-up-and-down

How is SpaceX able to launch rockets so much more cheaply than ever before? This company started less than 10 years ago and yet they are able to re-invent how to launch rockets into space and do it better and cheaper?
I know people that work at SpaceX. Elon hires some of the brightest young engineers right out of college, convinces them that they are going to change the world, and they gladly work 80 hour weeks to do it. The government of today can't do that. The government of the 60's was able to.

 
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Have a huge man crush on Musk (my wife always pokes fun at me when he's on tv)....one of, if not the most brilliant minds on the planet that takes risks others won't dream of. The Einstein of our generation and there doesn't seem to be anything he can't do.

As a young kid he comes here from South Africa and in the early 90's builds a mapping program and makes a few million, then moves onto Paypal...then he becomes the first private company to launch a rocket into space (prior to that it was only gov'ts)...if running the biggest rocket company isn't enough he builds a successful solar car company and the car gets the best safety and performance records in the history of testing...I believe he also owns Solar City which is a solar company and I think he's also looking to create the largest battery plant on the planet that will outproduce all other battery manufacturers in the world combined. I don't know when the guy sleeps.....

 
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Have a huge man crush on Musk (my wife always pokes fun at me when he's on tv)....one of, if not the most brilliant minds on the planet that takes risks others won't dream of. The Einstein of our generation and there doesn't seem to be anything he can't do.

As a young kid he comes here from South Africa and in the early 90's builds a mapping program and makes a few million, then moves onto Paypal...then he becomes the first private company to launch a rocket into space (prior to that it was only gov'ts)...if running the biggest rocket company isn't enough he builds a successful solar car company and the car gets the best safety and performance records in the history of testing...I believe he also owns Solar City which is a solar company and I think he's also looking to create the largest battery plant on the planet that will outproduce all other battery manufacturers in the world combined. I don't know when the guy sleeps.....
Ditto. dude is awesome in my book

 
The musk story is awesome and inspiring. At one point both Current companies were so leveraged that he was borrowing money to pay his bills despite having zillions in assets. They also had to smuggle a Smart car in from Mexico for the Chrysler demo which they didn't even know would work until they turned the key...with the Chrysler execs in the room. On and on. Love this guy.

 
The musk story is awesome and inspiring. At one point both Current companies were so leveraged that he was borrowing money to pay his bills despite having zillions in assets. They also had to smuggle a Smart car in from Mexico for the Chrysler demo which they didn't even know would work until they turned the key...with the Chrysler execs in the room. On and on. Love this guy.
If you dig Musk, here's a ton of reading that you'll probably enjoy.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html

 
The musk story is awesome and inspiring. At one point both Current companies were so leveraged that he was borrowing money to pay his bills despite having zillions in assets. They also had to smuggle a Smart car in from Mexico for the Chrysler demo which they didn't even know would work until they turned the key...with the Chrysler execs in the room. On and on. Love this guy.
If you dig Musk, here's a ton of reading that you'll probably enjoy.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html
I was about to post that! I now have a man-crush on Musk and the guy who writes "Wait, but Why?"

 
The musk story is awesome and inspiring. At one point both Current companies were so leveraged that he was borrowing money to pay his bills despite having zillions in assets. They also had to smuggle a Smart car in from Mexico for the Chrysler demo which they didn't even know would work until they turned the key...with the Chrysler execs in the room. On and on. Love this guy.
If you dig Musk, here's a ton of reading that you'll probably enjoy.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html
I was about to post that! I now have a man-crush on Musk and the guy who writes "Wait, but Why?"
It really is a fantastic site. That dude dives head first into each topic and writes a mini book on each. He doesn't post new stuff real often, but when he does it's a must-read.

 
The musk story is awesome and inspiring. At one point both Current companies were so leveraged that he was borrowing money to pay his bills despite having zillions in assets. They also had to smuggle a Smart car in from Mexico for the Chrysler demo which they didn't even know would work until they turned the key...with the Chrysler execs in the room. On and on. Love this guy.
If you dig Musk, here's a ton of reading that you'll probably enjoy.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html
I was about to post that! I now have a man-crush on Musk and the guy who writes "Wait, but Why?"
:thumbup: That site is what lead me down the road to reading about Musk, SpaceX, Tesla and all the awesome "long-term thinking" things they want to do. Modern day Edison, Jobs, Ford, and Carnegie all wrapped in one.

 
The musk story is awesome and inspiring. At one point both Current companies were so leveraged that he was borrowing money to pay his bills despite having zillions in assets. They also had to smuggle a Smart car in from Mexico for the Chrysler demo which they didn't even know would work until they turned the key...with the Chrysler execs in the room. On and on. Love this guy.
If you dig Musk, here's a ton of reading that you'll probably enjoy.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html
I was about to post that! I now have a man-crush on Musk and the guy who writes "Wait, but Why?"
:thumbup: That site is what lead me down the road to reading about Musk, SpaceX, Tesla and all the awesome "long-term thinking" things they want to do. Modern day Edison, Jobs, Ford, and Carnegie all wrapped in one.
The musk story is awesome and inspiring. At one point both Current companies were so leveraged that he was borrowing money to pay his bills despite having zillions in assets. They also had to smuggle a Smart car in from Mexico for the Chrysler demo which they didn't even know would work until they turned the key...with the Chrysler execs in the room. On and on. Love this guy.
If you dig Musk, here's a ton of reading that you'll probably enjoy.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html
I was about to post that! I now have a man-crush on Musk and the guy who writes "Wait, but Why?"
Same here. I've been recommending the site to everyone I know and talk about Musk with anyone who will listen. Amazing stuff.

Reading about him and his work made me ashamed I didn't know about him. Now everything I see covered on news sites seems laughably trivial in comparison.

 
The musk story is awesome and inspiring. At one point both Current companies were so leveraged that he was borrowing money to pay his bills despite having zillions in assets. They also had to smuggle a Smart car in from Mexico for the Chrysler demo which they didn't even know would work until they turned the key...with the Chrysler execs in the room. On and on. Love this guy.
If you dig Musk, here's a ton of reading that you'll probably enjoy.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html
I was about to post that! I now have a man-crush on Musk and the guy who writes "Wait, but Why?"
:thumbup: That site is what lead me down the road to reading about Musk, SpaceX, Tesla and all the awesome "long-term thinking" things they want to do. Modern day Edison, Jobs, Ford, and Carnegie all wrapped in one.
The musk story is awesome and inspiring. At one point both Current companies were so leveraged that he was borrowing money to pay his bills despite having zillions in assets. They also had to smuggle a Smart car in from Mexico for the Chrysler demo which they didn't even know would work until they turned the key...with the Chrysler execs in the room. On and on. Love this guy.
If you dig Musk, here's a ton of reading that you'll probably enjoy.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html
I was about to post that! I now have a man-crush on Musk and the guy who writes "Wait, but Why?"
Same here. I've been recommending the site to everyone I know and talk about Musk with anyone who will listen. Amazing stuff.

Reading about him and his work made me ashamed I didn't know about him. Now everything I see covered on news sites seems laughably trivial in comparison.
Well, he's not a Kardashian or a Jenner.

 
Okay, so a bunch of us are really into Elon Musk. What do we call ourselves? Muskians? Muskovites? Muskmen?

 
Abraham said:
The musk story is awesome and inspiring. At one point both Current companies were so leveraged that he was borrowing money to pay his bills despite having zillions in assets. They also had to smuggle a Smart car in from Mexico for the Chrysler demo which they didn't even know would work until they turned the key...with the Chrysler execs in the room. On and on. Love this guy.
Borrowing money against your assets for normal expenses is pretty common amongst wealthy people. Lowers the tax bill quite a bit.

 
Here's a tidbit for you fanboys: When you are on the main office floor of the SpaceX headquarters and go into the men's room, the first urinal is actually a bucket (hooked to plumbing for flushing, etc). The reason for this bucket is that when Musk started SpaceX, he was told that, "starting a rocket ship company would leave him without a bucket to piss in".

 
Here's a tidbit for you fanboys: When you are on the main office floor of the SpaceX headquarters and go into the men's room, the first urinal is actually a bucket (hooked to plumbing for flushing, etc). The reason for this bucket is that when Musk started SpaceX, he was told that, "starting a rocket ship company would leave him without a bucket to piss in".
Did you piss in the bucket?

 
Here's a tidbit for you fanboys: When you are on the main office floor of the SpaceX headquarters and go into the men's room, the first urinal is actually a bucket (hooked to plumbing for flushing, etc). The reason for this bucket is that when Musk started SpaceX, he was told that, "starting a rocket ship company would leave him without a bucket to piss in".
Did you piss in the bucket?
I did

 
These rockets going into space, dropping off satellites, and returning to land on the ground and barges is freaking amazing.  Starting to look like some real science fiction ####.

 
Explosion rocks SpaceX launch site in Florida during test

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An explosion rocked a SpaceX launch site Thursday during a routine rocket test.

SpaceX was conducting a test firing of its unmanned rocket when the blast occurred shortly after 9 a.m., according to NASA. The test was in advance of a planned Saturday launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is next to NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Buildings several miles away shook from the blast, and multiple explosions continued for several minutes. Dark smoke filled the overcast sky. A half-hour later, a black cloud hung low across the eastern horizon.

Additional details were not immediately available. There was no immediate word on any injuries; the launch pad usually is cleared before a test firing of a SpaceX Falcon rocket.

SpaceX spokesman, John Taylor, said he could not comment as he worked to gather information.

NASA — SpaceX's major customer — said the explosion occurred at Launch Complex 40 at the Air Force station, and Kennedy emergency staff was on standby. At the same time, personnel were monitoring the air for any toxic fumes.

The rocket was supposed to hoist an Israeli communications satellite this weekend.

The initial blast sounded like lightning, but was followed by the sounds of more explosions. SpaceX is one of two companies shipping supplies to the space station for NASA. It's also working on a crew capsule to ferry station U.S. astronauts; that first flight was supposed to come as early as next year.

Two NASA astronauts were conducting a spacewalk 250 miles up, outside the International Space Station, when the explosion occurred. Mission Control did not immediately advise them of the accident.

The explosion is a setback for SpaceX. The California-based company, led by billionaire Elon Musk, had been ramping up with frequent launches to make up for a backlog created by a launch accident in June 2015. SpaceX was leasing the pad from the Air Force for its Falcon launches.

The company is also redoing a former shuttle pad at Kennedy for future manned flights for NASA.

 
Explosion rocks SpaceX launch site in Florida during test

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An explosion rocked a SpaceX launch site Thursday during a routine rocket test.

SpaceX was conducting a test firing of its unmanned rocket when the blast occurred shortly after 9 a.m., according to NASA. The test was in advance of a planned Saturday launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is next to NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Buildings several miles away shook from the blast, and multiple explosions continued for several minutes. Dark smoke filled the overcast sky. A half-hour later, a black cloud hung low across the eastern horizon.

Additional details were not immediately available. There was no immediate word on any injuries; the launch pad usually is cleared before a test firing of a SpaceX Falcon rocket.

SpaceX spokesman, John Taylor, said he could not comment as he worked to gather information.

NASA — SpaceX's major customer — said the explosion occurred at Launch Complex 40 at the Air Force station, and Kennedy emergency staff was on standby. At the same time, personnel were monitoring the air for any toxic fumes.

The rocket was supposed to hoist an Israeli communications satellite this weekend.

The initial blast sounded like lightning, but was followed by the sounds of more explosions. SpaceX is one of two companies shipping supplies to the space station for NASA. It's also working on a crew capsule to ferry station U.S. astronauts; that first flight was supposed to come as early as next year.

Two NASA astronauts were conducting a spacewalk 250 miles up, outside the International Space Station, when the explosion occurred. Mission Control did not immediately advise them of the accident.

The explosion is a setback for SpaceX. The California-based company, led by billionaire Elon Musk, had been ramping up with frequent launches to make up for a backlog created by a launch accident in June 2015. SpaceX was leasing the pad from the Air Force for its Falcon launches.

The company is also redoing a former shuttle pad at Kennedy for future manned flights for NASA.






SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, meant to launch a satellite this weekend, exploded on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida this morning. The explosion occurred during the preparation for the static fire test of the rocket's engines, NASA told the Associated Press. The blast reportedly shook buildings "several miles away."

The company confirmed to The Verge the loss of the Falcon 9 an hour later: "SpaceX can confirm that in preparation for today's static fire, there was an anomaly on the pad resulting in the loss of the vehicle and its payload. Per standard procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries."

 
A SpaceX rocket exploded at its Cape Canaveral launch pad Thursday morning during a test firing, destroying the rocket and the satellite it was due to launch on Saturday.


SpaceX said there were no injuries as a result of the explosion, which it described as an "anomaly."

 
Related: SpaceX to launch recycled rocket for a discounted price

It happened at the Space Launch Complex 40, according to Stephanie Martin, with Kennedy Space Center Public Information. That launchpad is used by SpaceX to launch rockets that carry supplies to the International Space Station as well as satellites.


The SpaceX explosion from a distance.
Amos 6, the private satellite the rocket was due to carry into Earth's orbit Saturday, was slated to provide communication services including home internet for Africa, the Middle East, and Europe for a partnership between Facebook (FBTech30) and French satellite firm Eutelsat Communications. The satellite was owned by Israeli company Spacecom, which contracted with SpaceX to carry it into orbit. Facebook has not responded to requests for comment.





Launch Complex 40 is an Air Force facility which has been leased to SpaceX. The company has launched 25 rockets from the site since 2010. Its rockets have carried supplies to the International Space Station as well as satellites.







SpaceX is trying to change the economics of space flight by developing rockets that land upright after launch and can then be reused. It has yet to carry any people into space, though it has won a contract from NASA to carry American astronauts to the space station in the future.

Related: Musk - SpaceX could take humans to Mars by 2025

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who also is CEO of electric car maker Tesla (TSLA), has said he hopes the company will be able to take people to Mars in as soon as 2025.

But amid these ambitious plans, the company has also suffered setbacks. A rocket explode during a launch in June of 2015 on one of its ISS supply missions. It was later determined that a strut that held a helium tank in place had failed, causing the explosion.

It has also lost several rockets when it tried to land them upright on an ocean platform at the end of a flight.

 
The people waiting to be the first to launch on the Falcon 9 in the not too distant future must be thrilled with this and last years' explosion. Granted, nobody would have been harmed today. Growing pains, sure, but not good.

Didn't Musk say something recently about there being something new about this vehicle?

 
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SpaceX isn't perfect but they need to be.  This isn't rocket science...      oh wait.  

Nevermind
If they ever want to be considered for manned flight they need to be pretty close.  Right now their system isn't really close.

 
If they ever want to be considered for manned flight they need to be pretty close.  Right now their system isn't really close.
But they'll test the system with paying customers. What could possibly go wrong?

 
Reading a book on Musk right now.  Its absolutely amazing what they've been able to accomplish.  They totally transformed the way things were done.

 
Imagine if the way planes worked was that they took off, flew to their destination, but then instead of landing, all the passengers parachuted down to the ground and then the plane landed by smashing into the ocean and blowing up. So every plane flew exactly once, and to have a new flight happen, you’d have to build another plane.

A plane ticket would cost $1.5 million.
:lol:

 

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