Congrats SpaceX! They are the real deal!

vivenneanthony

Hey,

I hope others watch this and share it... The Christmas gift is towards the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G8GJQumBFs

Congrats to the SpaceX team!

Aala

daveyny

That's Pretty Feakin' Amazing!

Unknown

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jonsills

And all eleven satellites are in nominal orbits, as well.

psycoticvulcan

Watched it live with my family. Pretty awesome to behold. I hope it leads them (and us, by extension) to great things in the future.

gulberat

So awesome!! I haven't been so excited for something space-related since the space shuttle program got axed without a NASA replacement (grrrrrrr).

Looks like privatized space travel IS the way forward!

smirk

> @gulberat said:
> So awesome!! I haven't been so excited for something space-related since the space shuttle program got axed without a NASA replacement (grrrrrrr).
>
> Looks like privatized space travel IS the way forward!

Private space programs are 35 years overdue.
The cancellation of the Space Shuttle program w/o replacement was purely political, but private industry has been much too lazy about stepping up to the plate.

gulberat

To be fair, there has been at least one company doing privatized satellite launches since the 90's (Orbital Sciences, now Orbital ATK), but is more of a defense contractor and isn't as flashy as SpaceX since they launch off of an aircraft with smaller payloads.

But I will say this: if anyone manages to fully take over for NASA's mission, even including exploration of other planets in our solar system, right now it looks like it's going to be SpaceX.

theillusivenman

smirk#9758 wrote: »

> @gulberat said:
> So awesome!! I haven't been so excited for something space-related since the space shuttle program got axed without a NASA replacement (grrrrrrr).
>
> Looks like privatized space travel IS the way forward!

Private space programs are 35 years overdue.
The cancellation of the Space Shuttle program w/o replacement was purely political, but private industry has been much too lazy about stepping up to the plate.

I don't think it was laziness, just astronomical (bad pun I know) costs with the high money-back failure rate. I completely agree private space programs are long overdue, though. NASA's missions costed a lot, when funding was cut, alot of people thought it's the end of the space travel, though there are bunch of capable american, european, indian and chinese programs to take off where NASA left.

I'm looking forward to the private space programs, specifically tourism-oriented, people would be surprised how far it can be achieved when backed up by powerful rich people investing. I'm looking forward going to space one day, and sleepin in a hotel on Mars, been dreaming about it for a long time! Heard great stuff about Virgin Galactic in this regard, but this is slightly off topic, though.

markhawkman

Hehe... I think NASA had a core problem in that it didn't care enough about costs. the ship that caught on fire and burned before liftoff.... it had a gigantic snarl of wires for a cockpit. Well that wasn't JUST an issue of cost, but they had this general sense of "results now, figure out how to do it better later".... It started because NASA was given short deadlines for political reasons in the early days and they kept doing things that way.

gulberat

I also think a loss of public and political willpower occurred after the Columbia tragedy--very sad, as one would expect that was the last thing the astronauts aboard would have wanted. Fixing what went wrong--absolutely. Giving up--no way.

I hope more people see the footage of what SpaceX is doing, because we need something like this to put excitement for space back in people's minds. But I also hope that when there are losses...and I am going to be frank--even if SpaceX does all they can, there WILL be fatalities when they seriously start manned missions, just as has already happened to Virgin Galactic...that we do not throw up our hands and decide that we should just give up. (Or God forbid, people start throwing around unnecessary lawsuits, etc.)

I have to say, if I were somehow on a manned space mission, I'd have a pre-recorded message made for release in the event of my death specifically asking that people not give up if I got killed. But that's just me and admittedly I likely don't have the right stuff for space.

oldravenman3025

gulberat wrote: »

I also think a loss of public and political willpower occurred after the Columbia tragedy--very sad, as one would expect that was the last thing the astronauts aboard would have wanted. Fixing what went wrong--absolutely. Giving up--no way.

I hope more people see the footage of what SpaceX is doing, because we need something like this to put excitement for space back in people's minds. But I also hope that when there are losses...and I am going to be frank--even if SpaceX does all they can, there WILL be fatalities when they seriously start manned missions, just as has already happened to Virgin Galactic...that we do not throw up our hands and decide that we should just give up. (Or God forbid, people start throwing around unnecessary lawsuits, etc.)

I have to say, if I were somehow on a manned space mission, I'd have a pre-recorded message made for release in the event of my death specifically asking that people not give up if I got killed. But that's just me and admittedly I likely don't have the right stuff for space.

Government space programs are not going to lead the way to the future. The problems and cuts of the last few years, including the recent troubled and endangered InSight program, have convinced me of that. International cooperation between space agencies, notwithstanding.

Private ventures are the future. However, it will be be slow going. As you pointed out, liability will be a concern in today's sue-happy environment. And of course, the government is going to want to have their tentacles into it via revenue and regulations.