The Astronomy Thread

Is that rocket launch still going to happen now, might be a good idea to get it away before Kennedy space centre gets looted.

Ugh this rain, go away dammit. I don't want another delay

Awesome, history made! After they examine the 1st stage, I wonder if they will reuse it or keep it as a "museum" piece.

I watched this with my 5 year old son, so cool.

Can anybody find a recording of the launch? Everything is set to live. I missed the live and just wanted to rewatch the liftoff.

Never mind. Its up on Spacex's website now.

That was amazing.

Sadre Spinegnawer said:

If someone ever asks me, "What is so great about billionaire lunatics?" this vid is such an easy answer.

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It's easy to forget now that the booster landings have become routine, but this is one of the greatest engineering feats of the last century. My cousin works at SpaceX doing flight aerodynamics simulation, so re-entry and landing were his main job for years. We were having dinner one night and I made a passing comment about how "That looks hard" and he went into detail on how insane and cutting-edge it really is. His analogy was, "Imagine trying to balance a pencil on the tip of your finger. Vertically. In a hurricane. While it's exploding."

The other interesting thing is that basically the entire organization is all-in on getting to Mars. Landing, manned flight, etc. really are seen strictly as waypoints on a larger mission.

Oblio said:

So awesome! I watched with my wife and kids.

I have followed this on the most casual of levels and yet I found myself tearing up a bit. Thoughts of 1986 Challenger Explosion a day from childhood that I will never forget. I was thinking of Challenger and found myself so relieved and thankful that my kids got see a successful launch that it made me tear up. Considering the current state of our country this could not have come at a better time. Like the broadcast said when we come together we are capable of beautiful things. I don't even believe in God, but I don't think there is a better way to say it...God Bless America.

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I'm not superstitious at all but I always end up crossing my fingers at rocket launches. Watched the Challenger Disaster live and although I was just a teen I can remember it very vividly. I love rockets, my Dad built me a model Saturn V when I was around 6-7 and it was the most amazing thing ever for me at that age.

Captain Suave said:

The other interesting thing is that basically the entire organization is all-in on getting to Mars. Landing, manned flight, etc. really are seen strictly as waypoints on a larger mission.

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I believe it. Mars has always been Musk's end game. I mean hell, if you look at all his companies (Tesla, Boring, SpaceX), they are all companies /w applications that apply to an off-world colony. The whole Starship project seems like the biggest roadblock at this point...he's really fixed on an integrated platform that can be launched, landed, refueled on Mars, then relaunched and relanded at Earth. Which makes sense, because that will be the most cost effective way forward if you can get it to work. I somehow don't think failure is being seen as an option at this point, although there seems to be massive technical hurdles they need to address.