[ExI] 60% go for launch

[spike at rainier66.com]

> On Behalf Of Giulio Prisco via extropy-chat
Cc: Giulio Prisco <giulio at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ExI] 60% go for launch

 

 

>>…If the weather holds, Space-X will make history today: the first private company to launch proles into orbit.  Current forecast, 60% chance for a go.  Launch scheduled for 16:33 EDT.  Good luck, Elon!

 

 

>…Kudos to Elon for getting this far. I'll be glued to the screen…  Giulio

 

 

Giulio, there’s another reason I am really cheering for SpaceX.  In the rocket world, we have long known it is expensive as all get out have one-use rockets.  If they are solids, you might have the option of dropping them into the sea and recovering, then refurbishing, but that isn’t a great option, and doesn’t work with liquid stages, which are huge investment in each.

 

In the controls world, we realized back in the 80s that a fly-back first stage landing on its own feet had become technologically feasible, but NASA being the ever-cautious government body, never chose that option.  That feet-first landing business was ever so much more dignified than having to be fished out of the sea.  From a controls perspective, oh my what a marvelous feat it is.  I went most of my adult life hoping someday we would see someone somewhere try it.

 

Well, here we go.

 

I have friends who still work out at the cape.  I talked to one yesterday, who is my age and lived right there the whole time, in the 60s.  He has seen it all, and definitely agrees: seeing two liquid boosters come down feet first and land next to each other is the coolest thing he ever saw.  As a controls engineer, I can never get enough of it.

 

spike

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20200527/963ce940/attachment.htm>