Rocketry, Rockets & Rocket Launches

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Thinking forward here, but looking back to launch the thread.


The SatV has been the strongest thruster ever made. What's next to get us to Mars and beyond? I went to a lecture a few years ago where the Atlas booster was pimped for the next lunar ventures. What will get us out of the local orbits? Who has the hardware? When will we see it take off?

Anybody been to a rocket launch? I understand they are very emotional affairs. The gunpowder booming through the earth gets into your gut and shakes your foundations.

 

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Nipple erector.

 

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"I feel like I'm gonna cry"

 

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Was this an actual launch or a depiction? Looks like a cartoon.

 

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SpaceX has tested its engines on its FalconX Heavy carrier. Won't hold my breath for a launch test. It is SpaceX after all.

Falcon Heavy: Big SpaceX rocket lights 27 engines
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42692673

 

[skinny]

SpaceX has tested its engines on its FalconX Heavy carrier. Won't hold my breath for a launch test. It is SpaceX after all.

I take it all back. Way to go, SpaceX.

 

[EnolaGaia]

... Anybody been to a rocket launch? I understand they are very emotional affairs. The gunpowder booming through the earth gets into your gut and shakes your foundations. ...

I attended one of the early Shuttle launches back in the Eighties, witnessing the launch from one of the guest areas out on the Cape.

Have you ever pushed a stereo system hard, to the point the speakers give up at the high and low extremities and yield only ripping snarls where their reproduction capabilities fail?

Now imagine something sonically powerful enough to induce that same overdrive / hitting-the-limit effect on the air around you and your ears themselves.

That's what it's like. Very little 'shock', but a helluva lot of 'awe' ...

 

[EnolaGaia]

I take it all back. Way to go, SpaceX.

The part that I found most impressive was the successful return and landings of two core booster modules.

I still can't get over the images of rockets landing upright on solid ground - it's like the final realization of those 1950's sci-fi movies' vision of how rocket ships would operate.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/1...heavy-launch-success-roadster-orbit-elon-musk

 

[skinny]

I attended one of the early Shuttle launches back in the Eighties, witnessing the launch from one of the guest areas out on the Cape.

Have you ever pushed a stereo system hard, to the point the speakers give up at the high and low extremities and yield only ripping snarls where their reproduction capabilities fail?

Now imagine something sonically powerful enough to induce that same overdrive / hitting-the-limit effect on the air around you and your ears themselves.

That's what it's like. Very little 'shock', but a helluva lot of 'awe' ...

I can imagine it a bit. If I lived stateside I'd have been a Cape tragic, addicted.

The videos I posted above attest not to a consistent roar of smooth fuel combustion as depicted in hollywood fillums, but a relentless jackhammer pounding of multiple conglomerate explosions. The ultimate aural assault. What a ride. What a ride.

 

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Lighting the candle earlier today.

 

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Live podcast of Starman in the Tesla. Cameras are LIVE:

 

[Mythopoeika]

The part that I found most impressive was the successful return and landings of two core booster modules.

I still can't get over the images of rockets landing upright on solid ground - it's like the final realization of those 1950's sci-fi movies' vision of how rocket ships would operate.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/1...heavy-launch-success-roadster-orbit-elon-musk

It was so perfect, it was like CGI.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Here's another descriptive angle on a launch event ...

The sound is so powerful it violently stirs the air into a myriad of eddies. When the roar subsides you can still hear the whooshing / whistling susurrations around your head.

The only other phenomenon that's given me this whooshing eddies effect was sitting on the end of an airport runway and watching jetliners come in circa 30 feet overhead.

A big rocket launch rips the air at a distance of 1 - 1.5 miles like a flying jetliner does at circa 30 feet.

 

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Madly catching screenshots of this event. Will post images later. Have the 46" TV screen plugged in as my monitor and being awed. Mesmerising stuff.

 

[skinny]

Uploading screenshots. Bit of spamming but very nice views.

 

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Part 2

 

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Part 3

 

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Part 4

 

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Part 5

 

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Part 6

 

[Bigphoot2]

Here's another descriptive angle on a launch event ...

The sound is so powerful it violently stirs the air into a myriad of eddies. When the roar subsides you can still hear the whooshing / whistling susurrations around your head.

The only other phenomenon that's given me this whooshing eddies effect was sitting on the end of an airport runway and watching jetliners come in circa 30 feet overhead.

A big rocket launch rips the air at a distance of 1 - 1.5 miles like a flying jetliner does at circa 30 feet.

A friend who saw a shuttle launch from some distance away (basically a bright light on top of a plume of smoke) described to the sound to me "remember we were at the end of the runway when the Vulcan took off? Well it was way louder than that!"

 

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Astronaut, Cosmonaut in 'Good Health' After Surviving Soyuz Rocket Launch Failure
By Hanneke Weitering, Space.com Staff Writer | October 11, 2018 06:27pm ET

Went up, ... and came straight down again. Bugger.

https://www.space.com/42109-soyuz-launch-failure-astronaut-crew-good-health.html

 

[James_H]

The SatV has been the strongest thruster ever made. What's next to get us to Mars and beyond?

We may have shot ourselves in the foot somewhat by banning nukes in space, because they might be just the ticket to drive long-distance space engines.

 

[skinny]

Yep. Can't see it happening in our crude current era of rockhopping. Once the lateral thinkers get the uranium under command, we'll be away. The resources are there, but not yet a suitable channel.

 

[Xanatic*]

Part of the problem is getting the nuclear material into space in the first place. Imagine a rocket accidentally exploding on the way up, loaded with uranium. Not good news for the rest of us.

 

[Mythopoeika]

There just isn't enough nuclear material available for such a thing.

 

[skinny]

Astronaut, Cosmonaut in 'Good Health' After Surviving Soyuz Rocket Launch Failure
By Hanneke Weitering, Space.com Staff Writer | October 11, 2018 06:27pm ET

Went up, ... and came straight down again. Bugger.

https://www.space.com/42109-soyuz-launch-failure-astronaut-crew-good-health.html

 

[AlchoPwn]

There just isn't enough nuclear material available for such a thing.

Depending on the launch, that is technically incorrect. Remember that 100g of plutonium can kill one billion people.
http://www.ccnr.org/max_plute_aecb.html#1