Anyone going to watch the launch tomorrow? Okay, how about today?

Ditto for me! For a newcomer to homebrew CNC like myself it was very interesting to learn how V1 came about and evolved. Just from time spent in the forums, seeing the attention to detail being given to the Primo before release, as well as going through an MPCNC build it became obvious to me that Ryan is the polar opposite of the far too many businesses of today that operate with a ‘send us your $$$ then go away’ attitude. It was good to put a face to the force behind it all.

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I didn’t know about you grilling Ron about the machine, or at least I didn’t remember it, and I was there! Though I found you guys a little later in the day. That’s funny.

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I just watched the Makers Minute this morning and really enjoyed it.

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New space x launch scheduled around 3:20pm est today.

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Last I heard weather forecast was a 40% chance of launching today.

We’ll have it on the TV again today. My son loved watching the last one, and hasn’t stopped talking about it, even though they didn’t watch. The more scrubs, the more interest.

We’ve watched the satellite launches before, and he’s been interested. But the extra excitement comes from the extra attention they give these launches.

I’m no expert, but I think the available launch “windows” are highly constrained by the requirement to meet the ISS orbit.

I was watching NASA’s stream, which seemed pretty good to me. A brief check of the SpaceX stream left me thinking they were showing the same video as NASA.

Launching over a hurricane is also generally a bad idea.

Pffft, don’t launch over it…thread the needle. Real rocketeers would punch right through the eye!

Thundercats are goooo!

Light 'em up and GO like stank!

Docking in about an hour. Let’s hope the weather holds :slight_smile:

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I found the actual boarding of the ISS amusing…Bob and Doug looked pretty casual in khakis and polos, while the ISS crew is wearing flight suits… 8^)

This launch had me holding my breath. I got used to watching the shuttle seemingly leap off the pad and this seemed a little more like the Apollo days. I remember the early days of our space program when it wasn’t all that unusual to see a (fortunately unmanned) rocket tail-slide back thru its own flames, it was a relief to see the Falcon start accelerating at a healthy rate. Seems right on the numbers up to now, hoping that continues thru splashdown.

As amazing and impressive as the moon landings and shuttle launches were, I’ve must admit to becoming a bit of a Elon Musk/SpaceX/Tesla fanboy over the past few months. I don’t share Elon’s vision for mankind and the need to be multi-planetary for our survival but, dang!.. I can sure appreciate and admire his passion/moxie, engineering prowess/genius, thick skin, and willingness to take the risks necessary to try to make his vision a reality.

Of particular interest to me is the fact that he’s doing a lot of this out in the open, in little more than a “garage” setting… literally out in the middle of a field in Boca Chica, Texas. I tune in most days to watch live streams of the “goings on” there… and it is incredible the work being done, both with facilities construction and fabrication of actual operational rocket prototypes, all taking place at the same time and in the same place. It’s fascinating to see… on the surface “chaotic” but obviously a very large team of people, all doing their part.

Just yesterday, in view of the whole world, there was yet another successful Falcon 9 Starlink launch – 60 more satellites, to add to the ~700 they’ve already put up there – and (still unbelievable to me) the recovery of the booster on the autonomous drone ship, “Of course, I still love you.” Scarcely three or four hours later in Texas, the “SN6 150 meter hop” took place, another apparent success… of a crude-looking – but flying! – grain silo thing. Surely they could do better if they’d bolt one of those nose cones on the thing… and maybe paint a racing stripe or two down its length :wink:

It’s got to be embarrassing for the “big boys” to see this little upstart SpaceX, scarcely more than a decade old and starting from scratch, showing them what’s possible… with successful launch upon successful launch following all their early, spectacular, failures. They’ve gotten their hands dirty and not given up… building up a pipeline of prototypes, testing, learning from both their mistakes and successes, and then adjusting procedures, methods, equipment for yet another round of tests. And the progress has been both rapid and spectacular… making the competition appear to be standing still by comparison. Kinda reminds me of V1Engineering… except for the open door and live streams :wink:

I’m having great fun watching this David vs Goliath match play out. I’m reminded of Linux, in the 1990-1991 time-frame… it had burst on the scene and was starting to gain a bit of traction. I was a pretty avid Linux advocate then (hence my screen name, “dkj4linux”) and it was maddening and gut-wrenching to see the lengths to which the entrenched “big boy” monopoly went to try to suppress/kill Linux, just because it threatened their “status quo”. I find it strangely odd/satisfying that – NOW – that same monopoly has actually given in and embraced Linux. It gives credence to those famous words, paraphrased…

First, they ignore you…
Then, they laugh at you…
Then, they fight you…
Then, you win.

Fortunately, Linux had Linus Torvalds – a benevolent dictator – who had a vision and thrived on the challenge of bringing it to fruition. I suspect Elon Musk is cut from the same cloth and, hopefully, the continued successes of both SpaceX and Tesla will create enough embarrassment and public outcry that the “status quo” will be forced to change for the better. I don’t know either of these men personally but, as a retired engineer, I can really appreciate their mindset and talent to push the technology and pursue a dream… and, in the process, challenge an “establishment” that needs to be challenged.

I may be all wet but most all of this seems “win-win” to me. Is there something I’m not seeing?

Thoughts?

– David

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If you are, you’re not the only one. It’s easy to become jaded and think Ho Hum, just another rocket shot but when you consider every factor that must hit its target to be as successful as this past mission, the accomplishment is mind boggling. I look forward to SpaceX putting man back on the moon because it’s there and they can. :+1:

I’m curious, while I see many different links to SpaceX activities is there one in particular that monitors day by day activities?

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If you’ll search Youtube for “spacex boca chica” you should see many links… with several being live streams. I particularly like the ones from “NASASpaceflight”… which pretty much keeps an eye on the day-to-day changes in the facilities and rocket prototype-building activities. I find it fascinating to watch… and am continually amazed that so much of this remains in constant public view.

There are other good ones as well… and worth checking out.

– David

Thanks for that! I grew up reading Popular Science that my Dad subscribed to for many years. I’m still a bit disappointed I don’t have the jet-powered helicopter in the garage I thought I’d surely have by now. If only I could get Elon interested …

I have a coworker that used to work there. They operate very differently than lockheed (where I’ve worked).

The flight engineers sit in the corner offices and work on theory and come up with specifications for every subsystem and sometimes parts. A lot of these requirements come from NASA.

The test engineers design rigs and tests fo check if something meets the spec.

The other engineers, like mechanical, electrical, or software design something that passes the test and nothing more. If they pass the test, but could add another feature or beat it by 10% more, they still stop. Their goal isn’t perfection, it is simply to pass the test.

Then they build and test it. If it passes the test, that’s it.

They often work 7 days per week and have all three meals there. They don’t get paid overtime. They really have to love what they do.

It really speaks to the actual product. In these “high safety” environments, the product often isn’t the rocket, it is the truckload of paperwork that says the rocket will do what it says it will. It seems to me like they flipped the script and focus on the paperwork. It turns out to be a lot cheaper that way, but one of the reasons for their success is definitely their workaholic culture. It reminds me of the stories you heard about EA from the early 2000s.

It would be very hard to replicate that in an industry that didn’t have rigid requirements, and didn’t have as much glamor. Something like cordless drill design wouldn’t work that way. You wouldn’t get people to work so hard to make a drill. You wouldn’t expect them to stop once you’ve reached something that could drill a hole and had X battery life. You need shape and color to sell the product.

I would argue autonomous cars shouldn’t work that way either. Because there isn’t a good way to define the requirements. We will see if tesla proves that wrong. They started with a Mobile Eye solution, but have brought it in house.

Personally, I don’t want to work like that. Firstly, because I like to spend tine away from work and I actually only work part time because I want that kind of balance. But secondly, I enjoy work where I can be creative in how I solve a problem. I like to have an open problem space and select the tools I want to do a job. That’s why I have targeted small businesses (<50 people). I get to work on different things all the time and I get rewarded for the risks of working in a small company. The downside is they keep getting bought by larger companies (that’s often the goal).

That turned into a diatribe about my career goals, and it is based on my limited perspective from an X employee. So it’s probably not fair.

I do watch their launches. The autonomous landings are amazing. I especially like the fairing landings with the autonomous flying via parachute. The starlink thing simultaneously seems like a genius plan, and world domination.

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