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Today

Too bad. NASA tv did well, but there was a loss of signal seconds before stage 1 touched down.
I've seen 100s of aircraft land on ships (including mine, which weren't carriers) and I wish I'd seen that landing. That unmanned booster stage hitting the spot that closely on a moving unmanned ship would have been impressive. The result was very impressive too.
 
As interesting will be the BFR returning to the recovery ship in the Atlantic for a vertical landing. Great stuff.

Errata. The BFR is 3 Falcon 9’s strapped together for one vehicle. Looked to see if the one today was new or a reused first stage. Couldn’t find anything.
 
I remember seeing an Apollo capsule at the Smithsonian. I wouldn’t have trusted that thing to get me across town. My phone has vastly greater computer power. Amazing.

Think about the story of the three AA women in Hidden Figures compared to the computing power of this launch.
 
Do you know what the expected lifespan is for those things? Even with perfect recovery, I'd imagine they get beat up after a while.

They refurbish it each time. I heard Musk expects parts to last at least 10 launches, others up to 100. I am very skeptical of those numbers, remembering back to the idea that the shuttle was a space truck.

They say the refurbish cost is 60% of the overall cost, that tells me expected wear is more than the press releases. I hope they can hit that target safely.
 
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Just got off a family movie Zoom night with my adult kids and my ex. We watched The Martian. Great movie, great book, great timing, great fun. Also, I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey last night. Looking forward to seeing the space station link up tomorrow.
 
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Just got off a family movie Zoom night with my adult kids and my ex. We watched The Martian. Great movie, great book, great timing, great fun. Also, I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey last night. Looking forward to seeing the space station link up tomorrow.

I have never been able to get into 2001. It is a movie that so many of my friends love, I feel I need to like it. I just cannot.

We went out and watched the ISS fly over tonight. In theory Dragon was visible but we did not see it.
 
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I have never been able to get into 2001. It is a movie that so many of my friends love, I feel I need to like it. I just cannot.

We went out and watched the ISS fly over tonight. In theory Dragon was visible but we did not see it.
Kubrick makes movies that dazzle me, but they seem cold and distant. Dr. Strangelove is phenomenal, but it isn’t a film you cozy up to.

in fairness to your view about 2001, its sense of the future doesn’t wear very well now that we’re living in it. But it still looks amazing.
 
Kubrick makes movies that dazzle me, but they seem cold and distant. Dr. Strangelove is phenomenal, but it isn’t a film you cozy up to.

in fairness to your view about 2001, its sense of the future doesn’t wear very well now that we’re living in it. But it still looks amazing.

My favorite Kubrick is Paths of Glory. I had not thought of it before, but you are right, it too is cold.
 
Kubrick makes movies that dazzle me, but they seem cold and distant. Dr. Strangelove is phenomenal, but it isn’t a film you cozy up to.

in fairness to your view about 2001, its sense of the future doesn’t wear very well now that we’re living in it. But it still looks amazing.
rock your my liberal hero on here, please explain to me your perspective on what's going on, and how it helps us
 
My favorite Kubrick is Paths of Glory. I had not thought of it before, but you are right, it too is cold.
I’ll have to re-watch Paths of Glory. But even in The Shining — which the combination of Kubrick and Steven King makes all of Colorado seem scary — it’s an icy film with an icy end.
 
Not on point, but having apparently watched all of television by now, I gave ESPN $4.99 so I could binge through all of its 30 for 30 documentaries, which are generally great. Yesterday I watched Reggie versus the Knicks, which was a fabulous trip down memory lane. Today I watched “Year of the Scabs,” which recounts the NFL’s strike season in 1987. Great stuff.

I have liked every 30 for 30 documentary I’ve seen, and they are a balm for a guy starved for sports.
 
Incredible and incredibly more efficient than how we used to do these launches. A controlled landing should cost less. I saw estimates that a NASA launch used to cost around $152 million while the SpaceX launches are coming in around $57 million. Decreasing the costs and the easy recoverability of the rockets should make space more accessible.
We are going to need to send that extra money to Minneapolis and other cities.
 
One positive. Thank you, Elon Musk.

Today, America finally rejoins the list of nations capable of lifting a human off the planet and into orbit. It is about time.

And, according to someone here's theory, when that happens at 4:33 EDT we can tell Russia to go to hell.

Godspeed to the crew, congratulations to the engineers. We should never have stopped going to orbit.
 
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It's really incredible technology. Watching them land is just unbelievable.

Incredible and incredibly more efficient than how we used to do these launches. A controlled landing should cost less. I saw estimates that a NASA launch used to cost around $152 million while the SpaceX launches are coming in around $57 million. Decreasing the costs and the easy recoverability of the rockets should make space more accessible.
 
I definitely would have had a panic attack in that thing.

I remember seeing an Apollo capsule at the Smithsonian. I wouldn’t have trusted that thing to get me across town. My phone has vastly greater computer power. Amazing.
 
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Docked! Incredible. Back in business as they say.

I was amazed they could dock early, it was about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I had just turned it on and they were just 2 minutes before docking. I would have thought this something timed to the split second.
 
I was amazed they could dock early, it was about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I had just turned it on and they were just 2 minutes before docking. I would have thought this something timed to the split second.
The timing of the burns to put them into position for the docking maneuver are precisely timed, but once they are there, in a stable orbit alongside the ISS, they could in theory actually start the maneuver whenever.
 
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