Space....

Just curious if anybody else has been following the recent Space race?

Just read the book on Elon Musk and what is being done with SpaceX and effectively bringing building rockets from the 60's using modern technology. The recent videos of them blowing up rockets trying to land them again is getting some press. Apparently Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin just launched and landed the same rocket twice. This all goes into saving money and making launching into space cheaper.

In a couple years the SLS program will really get kicking into gear and we will be launching people beyond Earth's orbit for the first time in roughly 50 years. We will live long enough to see people on Mars? We may see people mining asteroids someday...

In a couple years we'll have the James Webb telescope which will be Hubble on steroids...

I follow SpaceX as my nephew works there. I was happy to see the latest launch a few days ago. I've been inside that place and man...pure awesome, if you could work for a company that would be one of my top places.. The employee cafeteria serves steak, I mean real nice type of steak you could get at Apple bees or something and its all free! They have an original Iron Man suit used in the movie when they filmed there on display and signed by the cast, but they wont let you take pictures of it.

I follow SpaceX as my nephew works there. I was happy to see the latest launch a few days ago. I've been inside that place and man...pure awesome, if you could work for a company that would be one of my top places.. The employee cafeteria serves steak, I mean real nice type of steak you could get at Apple bees or something and its all free! They have an original Iron Man suit used in the movie when they filmed there on display and signed by the cast, but they wont let you take pictures of it.

Originally Posted by B8TINGU

What does your nephew do there? I hear you need to work long hours.

Just curious if anybody else has been following the recent Space race?

Just read the book on Elon Musk and what is being done with SpaceX and effectively bringing building rockets from the 60's using modern technology. The recent videos of them blowing up rockets trying to land them again is getting some press. Apparently Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin just launched and landed the same rocket twice. This all goes into saving money and making launching into space cheaper.

In a couple years the SLS program will really get kicking into gear and we will be launching people beyond Earth's orbit for the first time in roughly 50 years. We will live long enough to see people on Mars? We may see people mining asteroids someday...

In a couple years we'll have the James Webb telescope which will be Hubble on steroids...

Originally Posted by Fshguy

All interesting stuff, I just don't follow it as much as I should.

I love to follow news about the future and developing technologies, and space travel is always one of the most interesting subjects. I'm hoping the private sector can pick up where national governments left off so we can make some significant strides again.

What does your nephew do there? I hear you need to work long hours.

Originally Posted by Fshguy

He's a data analysts but I'm no sure of what his hours are. I asked him this morning and haven't heard back. Lol.. Maybe that's a hint..

The company I work for makes parts that are on all of the above. Blue Origin is one of my accounts, someone else has SpaceX.

12 years ago this week the Exploration Rover Opportunity landed on Mars. Time flies by...

What does your nephew do there? I hear you need to work long hours.

Originally Posted by Fshguy

Spoke to him last night, he works 10hr shifts but he does confirm that his is one of the shorter shifts.

Spoke to him last night, he works 10hr shifts but he does confirm that his is one of the shorter shifts.

Originally Posted by B8TINGU

How many days a week is that.... Probably depends on what aspects he's analyzing and if it's on schedule or not... Still a pretty cool company.

Potential launch of a SpaceX from Cape Canaveral. Just launch a satellite, but they are going to try to land on a ship in the Atlantic....

Elon Musk is expecting a full RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) event with the landing since this is a bigger launch...

I tried to catch another launch from my work, but at 140 miles away, I missed it cause I was looking the wrong spot. I still saw the contrail...

Waiting for the bigger rockets like the SLS(Space Launch System) and the SpaceX Falcon 9 heavy, which is basically a normal rocket(9 is for 9 engines), but strapping 3 of these together for 27 engines... More coming this year..

SpaceX is now doing a better job of not crash bombing rockets... Another successful landing after a much bigger running start:

And we are not alone!!! We are finding even more planets circling other stars. Much less our own(Did you hear about Planet 9?!)

Generally speaking we can only detect planets that cross in front of its star, so there are probably plenty more we can't see because of their orbit...
http://www.space.com/32850-nasa-kepl...n-planets.html

Last landing, view from the rocket through space...

Last landing, view from the rocket through space...

Originally Posted by Fshguy

Wow, that was pretty incredible!