After three failed launches, the company founded by Elon Musk...

That can't be his name! That's like "Max Power".

Private industry: piggybacking off the research money spent by the Federal government since 1776.

The earlier discussion from before and during the launch can be found here (^).

I think if you click on featured video, they have the on-board footage of the launch.

Right? Can someone who watched it live confirm?

mattb0611: I think if you click on featured video, they have the on-board footage of the launch.

I don't see a link for Featured Video anywhere to confirm.

SpaceX Falcon 1 successfully reaches orbit orbital altitude.

Orbit comes later.

mattb0611: I think if you click on featured video, they have the on-board footage of the launch.

Right? Can someone who watched it live confirm?

I just checked their featured video and it's still the one from early August that failed in the 2nd stage. They should have the full video of this launch up in a day or two.

I'm currently searching the tubes for another source... someone has to have had their tuner on that one.

SchlingFocker: Private industry: piggybacking off the research money spent by the Federal government since 1776.

ummmm
but 100% of government research is in the public domain
it is our gift to everyone
why do you hate america??

what they have REALLY shown, is that the government is alwasy the WORST way to do something

a private company was able to do something which NASA said would take forever, or trillions of dollars, or or or or ...

/nvm

mattb0611: I think if you click on featured video

Sorry, I meant featured video on the Space-X site. I'm pretty sure that they don't have video up yet, which is a shame.

SchlingFocker: Private industry: piggybacking off the research money spent by the Federal government since 1776.

"Internalize profit, externalize risk."

If it were not for federally funded research, there would be little-to-no scientific or engineering progress. This was not always true -- perhaps some here can remember Bell Labs, whose researchers actually engaged in pure, non-bottom-line, blue-sky research. (Literally, in the case of Penzias and Wilson who discovered the cosmic background radiation that is the remnant of the Big Bang.)

But there are few corporations that are willing to do this anymore. Farking bean counters. And it is getting harder to fund long-term research in academia, too. Three-to-five year grant cycles are just not long enough to show results for many new lines of study, so new investigators can't follow risky leads. Farking bean counters.

And launched from a tropical island, full of naked women, just like Zefran Cochrane wanted!

ZAZ: Orbit comes later.

No, They did make orbit.

From their website:
T+0:08:21 Falcon 1 reached orbital velocity, 5200 m/s

Nominal Second stage cut off (SECO) - Falcon 1 has made history as the first privately developed liquid fueled launch vehicle to achieve earth orbit!!!!!!

/Emphasis theirs.

namatad:
but 100% of government research is in the public domain

Is this true? I wonder if I could get the blueprints for the SaturnV from an FOIA request? Now THAT's a farking rocket.

namatad: what they have REALLY shown, is that the government is alwasy the WORST way to do something

No. Entrenched bureaucracies are the worst way to do something. And this is true in business. Possibly more so. Government is actually the best way to do forward-looking research. Of course, what we're talking about here is more development than research.

A small company has more flexibility. Especially if they can cherry pick their big brains from places that have already spent the big bucks to train 'em up. Again, usually federally subsidized Ph.D.s.

WOOHOO!

SchlingFocker: Private industry: piggybacking off the research money spent by the Federal government since 1776.

Hey, good for them. I'm glad to see it.

What I won't be glad to see will be, six months or less after the first successful launch with commercial payload, right-wingers jumping up and down about how "public funding of science has never done anything for us" and pointing to the private space programs. Much like they currently do with the Internet.

Link to the video of the launch:
Falcon 1 Flight 4 (^)

namatad

what they have REALLY shown, is that the government is alwasy the WORST way to do something

You don't read much history, do you? I suppose we should have farmed out WWII to private industry? I can just see us checking out the bids before each battle, looking for the lowest.

Is that the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs?

BZWingZero: Link to the video of the launch:
Falcon 1 Flight 4 (^)

It's legit, thanks!

Go tubes!

Very cool and a big thumbs up for the people involved.

I still like NASA being around. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted an American flag way up there, and Mike Collins got to watch from the nosebleeds. I even got to watch Apollo 14's lift-off. "We the people" did some pretty amazing stuff.

It's kind of sad, that unless you're well into your 40's by now, you never lived through any of America's greatest accomplishments. I'd like to think that my kids will grow up thinking of an American flag being present at some other great happenings, instead of some company's logo.

BZWingZero: ZAZ: Orbit comes later.

No, They did make orbit.

From their website:
T+0:08:21 Falcon 1 reached orbital velocity, 5200 m/s

Nominal Second stage cut off (SECO) - Falcon 1 has made history as the first privately developed liquid fueled launch vehicle to achieve earth orbit!!!!!!

/Emphasis theirs.

5200 m/s is not orbital velocity at 400 km, it's more like 7200 m/s

That's badass. :D

I'm totally excited about this. Totally. I'm doing a little dance right now. You know, in my chair. It's really more of just a wiggle. But it's a celebratory wiggle!

impaler: 5200 m/s is not orbital velocity at 400 km, it's more like 7200 m/s

For a circular orbit. SpaceX didn't go for a circular orbit. They were aiming for 205x425 mi.

TheOmni: I'm totally excited about this. Totally. I'm doing a little dance right now. You know, in my chair. It's really more of just a wiggle. But it's a celebratory wiggle!

Same here. The simply fact that anyone is putting any effort into scape exploration, not matter how humble the beginnings, excites the hell out of me.

FARK THAT! Put some rims on that shiat, a kickin ass paint job, bout 20 subwoofers and a few plasma screens. Space flight ain't tight unless you ballin!

Why the fark was it called SpaceX?


Christ it's like counterstrike all over again.

oldebayer: namatad

what they have REALLY shown, is that the government is alwasy the WORST way to do something

You don't read much history, do you? I suppose we should have farmed out WWII to private industry? I can just see us checking out the bids before each battle, looking for the lowest.

No shiat. If the Army Corp of Engineers had been able to do its thing in Iraq and not been hamstrung by Dumbsfeld and Chimpy McFlightsuit, we would be out of there by now. Private contracting is responsible for much of the failure in Iraq.

Timeless.

co-conspirator: SchlingFocker: Private industry: piggybacking off the research money spent by the Federal government since 1776.

"Internalize profit, externalize risk."

If it were not for federally funded research, there would be little-to-no scientific or engineering progress. This was not always true -- perhaps some here can remember Bell Labs, whose researchers actually engaged in pure, non-bottom-line, blue-sky research. (Literally, in the case of Penzias and Wilson who discovered the cosmic background radiation that is the remnant of the Big Bang.)

But there are few corporations that are willing to do this anymore. Farking bean counters. And it is getting harder to fund long-term research in academia, too. Three-to-five year grant cycles are just not long enough to show results for many new lines of study, so new investigators can't follow risky leads. Farking bean counters.

Bell Labs was only able to do as such because of the government-granted monopoly that AT&T had over the national telephone network. They never had to worry about revenue since AT&T could afford to plan 50 years out.

Etchy333: After three failed launches, the company founded by Elon Musk...

That can't be his name! That's like "Max Power".

He's a cool dude. He is also the guy behind the Tesla Roadster.

Keep in mind, that the majority of countries have never been able to achieve this. Makes it that much more amazing some .doc guy was able to do it with just a few years spent working on it.

BZWingZero: For a circular orbit. SpaceX didn't go for a circular orbit. They were aiming for 205x425 mi.

Which should still be > 7000 m/s at apogee.

I see this just after watching "In The Shadow of the Moon". Cried manly tears throughout. We have so much goddamn potential if only we would just get our act together.

Look at the world today, nothing but chaos, selfishness and greed, but for one moment, on the 21'st of July, 1969, We were all one.

We need another Moon Landing. We need to go to Mars, we need to explore other planets. It's not a matter of want, its a matter of need. While we stew here living paycheck to paycheck, wondering about trivial things when theres a whole universe out there to explore. Eventually mankind will destroy itself one way or another if we don't. It'll definetly not be easy.

Like Kennedy said : "There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not only because they are easy, but because they are hard..."

A couple quotes from the astronauts themselves, excerpted from the documentary;

Jim Lovell : "We learned a lot about the Moon, but what we really learned was about the Earth. The fact that just from the distance of the Moon, you can put your thumb up, and you can hide the Earth behind your thumb. Everything that you have ever known, your loved ones, your business, the problems of the Earth itself, all behind your thumb. And how insignificant we really all are. But then how fortunate we are to have this body, and to be able to enjoy living here amongst the beauty of the Earth itself."

Alan Bean: "Since that time, I have not complained about the weather one single time. I'm glad there is weather. I've not complained about traffic, I'm glad there's people around. One of the things that I did when I got home, I went down to shopping centres, and I'd just go there, get an ice-cream cone or something, and just watch the people go by, and think boy we're lucky to be here, why do people complain about the Earth? We are living in the Garden of Eden."

Thats all.

BBRModitha: Why the fark was it called SpaceX?



He should have named it ButsX.

co-conspirator: SchlingFocker: Private industry: piggybacking off the research money spent by the Federal government since 1776.

"Internalize profit, externalize risk."

If it were not for federally funded research, there would be little-to-no scientific or engineering progress. This was not always true -- perhaps some here can remember Bell Labs, whose researchers actually engaged in pure, non-bottom-line, blue-sky research. (Literally, in the case of Penzias and Wilson who discovered the cosmic background radiation that is the remnant of the Big Bang.)

But there are few corporations that are willing to do this anymore. Farking bean counters. And it is getting harder to fund long-term research in academia, too. Three-to-five year grant cycles are just not long enough to show results for many new lines of study, so new investigators can't follow risky leads. Farking bean counters.

I'm thinking perhaps Google, Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Intel, GE, etc. do a decent amount of "blue-sky" research. Google and GE, at the least.

Video was really cool. Would have been better if Tony Kornheiser had been strapped to the rocket, but maybe that might have thrown the aerodynamics off.

Eddie Adams from Torrance: I wonder if I could get the blueprints for the SaturnV from an FOIA request? Now THAT's a farking rocket.

No (and I deeply wish I was kidding), not least because the full plans no longer exist.

/standing next to Saturn V, having just seen the Shuttle on the move, was the coolest moment of my life aged 9
//kinda still is

BBRModitha: Why the fark was it called SpaceX?


Christ it's like counterstrike all over again.

Short for "Space Exploration Technologies Corporation".

WW2 pretty much was privatized. The contracts were basically set up as 'cost + 10%', and a blank check was handed off to industry people, like Ford, General Motors, and plenty of others.

dan_in_oakland: Video was really cool. Would have been better if Tony Kornheiser had been strapped to the rocket, but maybe that might have thrown the aerodynamics off.

I don't know, he's got a pretty aerodynamic head. The only downside is if his mouth acts as a thruster, and the hot air counteracts the main engine's thrust, just barely denying the spacecraft orbital velocity.

In the last thread related to this subject, I promised the tri-hole virginity of my cousin who looks like a tall and blond version of Amanda Wenk. I was so confident that this rocket would fail. Now I have to tell her that I promised her tri-hole virginity to the internets.

So, where should I deliver her? Would you like her free-ranging or bound? If you like, I can tell her to dye her hair red, too.

Awesome. Now lets get started on that space elevator.

/First space elevator music will be Metallica up and down.
//Don Ho will throw a fit.

Awesome!

If you wanna get depressed, go to the forums on spaceflight.com. You can follow along on a daily basis as NASA screws up the Ares I booster. Basically, you can't launch people on an all solid fuel booster, because of massive thrust ocillation issues, and the pig headed NASA management simply won't admit it. They won't admit they made the wrong decision, and won't back away from it.

Dull Cow Eyes: BBRModitha: Why the fark was it called SpaceX?



He should have named it ButsX.

Well played, good sir. Well played.

Just watched the video. How very lovely and awesome.

way cool. congrats to all involved. it certainly is a great achievement. and who says the US is falling behind with the sciences? wait, what? Elon Musk is from South Africa? dammit. oh well, congrats to everyone anyway.

Freaking awesome. Much bigger deal than the x-prize, in my opinion. Congrats to the team for opening up space to private industry.