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posted by Fnord666 on Friday February 02 2018, @06:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the renew-reuse-recycle dept.

On Wednesday evening, a couple of hours after the Falcon 9 rocket had successfully deployed a satellite into geostationary transfer orbit, SpaceX founder Elon Musk shared a rather amazing photo on Twitter. "This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn't hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived," he wrote. "We will try to tow it back to shore." In other words, a rocket that SpaceX had thought would be lost after it made an experimental, high-thrust landing somehow survived after hitting the ocean.

This was amazing for a couple of reasons. First of all, when the first stage of a rocket hits water after a launch, it typically explodes. (This can be seen in some of the early water landing attempts shown in a blooper reel released by the company). A rocket should not survive impact because it will rupture the relatively thin aluminum-lithium alloy tanks that separate fuel and oxidizer. These tanks are built to withstand the axial force of a vertical launch, but not a crash into the ocean.

[...] It is not clear how SpaceX will attempt to tow the rocket to shore. The company's Atlantic Ocean-based drone ship, "Of Course I Still Love You," will be in service during the next week to catch the central core of the Falcon Heavy launch, tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, February 6. Perhaps the company will take a page from the playbook of NASA, which recovered the space shuttle's larger solid-rocket boosters, with tugboats.


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by MostCynical on Friday February 02 2018, @07:12AM (3 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Friday February 02 2018, @07:12AM (#631911) Journal

    Elon keeps disappointing people when things don't go boom.
    He's a failure, I tell you!

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday February 02 2018, @07:45AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 02 2018, @07:45AM (#631915) Journal

      A pity he exausted the Boring Company's flamethrower stock, he could put some into maintaining his reputation intact in this case.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday February 02 2018, @02:03PM (1 child)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday February 02 2018, @02:03PM (#631995) Journal

      He's said that the Falcon Heavy maiden launch has a 50% chance of failure. If it does fail, it should create about a 3x bigger explosion.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Friday February 02 2018, @04:40PM

        by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 02 2018, @04:40PM (#632044) Journal

        February 6 is the target launch date for Falcon Heavy's first flight.

        The center core will be new, the outside two cores are flight proven. If fully successful it will launch Elon's shiny red Tesla into Heliocentric orbit and recover all three cores. If unsuccessful it will be a lovely fireworks show.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @04:58PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @04:58PM (#632053)

    not sure i like the PR being posted as news

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday February 02 2018, @06:42PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Friday February 02 2018, @06:42PM (#632093)

      It's not PR per se.
      It was supposed to go Boom, because it won't get reused, so it should have ended at the bottom of the ocean.
      Turns out that their experimental 3-engine burn was timed/mistimed such that it did not go Boom as expected, and it is buoyant, so now they have to waste money dealing with it (bad littering PR it they just tell the Navy to use it for target practice).

      Elon and Co, know for a sense of humor and knowing what entertains the public, likely thought it would be fun to point out the quite unusual feat of accidentally properly landing on the ocean. Considering the fireworks likely to happen next week, it's not a badly timed reminder that things don't always go as planned.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @06:41PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @06:41PM (#632092)

    I don't think Elon Musk is a real person. It is just a hologram that was created as the face of the organization. The individuals behind Elon Musk's organization make the decisions. They might be jewish and if they wanted the rocket, it will be retrieved.

    Just like when they wanted the Nazi (OMG!!!!!) submarines (even though they had been scuttled by the crews) were retrieved and the technology stolen and exploited.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @08:46PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 02 2018, @08:46PM (#632153)

      Summ.ly of your post:

      I don't think

  • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday February 02 2018, @11:13PM (1 child)

    by darkfeline (1030) on Friday February 02 2018, @11:13PM (#632237) Homepage

    SpaceX has gotten too good at making reusable rockets.

    In 2030 they'll invent a mass production process for antimatter simply to dispose of their growing number of rockets.

    --
    Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @01:14AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @01:14AM (#632739)

      It won't even work, they'll just accidentally discover antimatter propulsion.

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