Another successful Falcon 9 launch
The competition heats up: SpaceX has successfully completed its fifth Falcon 9 launch of the year, putting a Turkmenistan’s first communications satellite into orbit.
This was the 18th consecutive successful launch for the Falcon 9, and the 13th in a row for its upgraded design. Not bad for a company that did not even exist a little more than a decade ago.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The competition heats up: SpaceX has successfully completed its fifth Falcon 9 launch of the year, putting a Turkmenistan’s first communications satellite into orbit.
This was the 18th consecutive successful launch for the Falcon 9, and the 13th in a row for its upgraded design. Not bad for a company that did not even exist a little more than a decade ago.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
when does the booster come down? Will this be an attempt at a launchpad return?
The booster came down immediately, mere minutes after launch, crashing in the ocean. Because this mission was to put a heavier communications satellite in high geosynchronous orbit (24,000 miles high), not low Earth orbit, they needed all the first stage fuel for doing that. No attempt was made to land the first stage.
Their next first stage landing attempt is likely to be in June, during the next Dragon launch.
With every successful launch their dependability and reliability reputation grows. The engineering is solid, costs are low, and the new ideas are fun to watch, but their business will grow because they can be depended on to deliver payloads into space on schedule. This is how its done.
I was fortunate enough to witness this launch, coinciding with my visit to KSC that Monday. I’ve been wanting to see such a thing since I was a little kid, and that’s sure taken care of! The following video was taken by someone nearby – it actually captures the sound of the launch rather well (especially if you crank the volume, lol).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM7G0fxLlPU
You were very close. When I saw the next to last shuttle launch, we were much farther away.
Looking at a map, it turns out I was further away from the filmer than I thought, with a 5.5-mile view at the Saturn-V exhibit. Still pretty awesome.
There’s a lot of interesting things going on at KSC. One of the mobile launch pads has a tall Saturn-V-style tower mounted for the SLS (and perhaps other rockets?). Pad 39B is almost completely cleared of structures, with construction ongoing. Pad 39A still has its tower, with some shuttle-specific gear still visible, but now has a large horizontal hangar being built by SpaceX for the Falcon Heavy. It’s surprisingly close by to the pad, just outside its perimeter fence.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/musematt11/17215140730/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/musematt11/16782449193/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacexphotos/16872836499/