OMG it's the SpaceX Party Thread!

[FinalFrontier]

Well, from one former Shuttle hugger, thank you SpaceX for giving me back some of the magic.

I never doubted you, but today I was awed by you. Your professionalism, dedication and passion rivals that of the old Shuttle teams.

This could be the start of something big.

Felt the same way today pete thanks for putting it into words 

[Beemer]

An idea for toasting Dragon tonight if you're not a champagne drinker:
http://www.food.com/recipe/white-dragon-254950

Nope. I'll stick with the bubbly stuff

[Silmfeanor]

I didn't see this posted anywhere, so...

Thanks - this video is worth analyzing - perhaps not in the party thread.
Shows some various tidbits of information. They use VLC as streaming program on their big screen.
Shows a software representation of the CCP used on the ISS.
Around 1 minute in the video, you can see naming conventions for the thrusters in the dragon, for example D4T1 trough D4T4 for 4 thrusters in a cluster.

[rickl]

I just spent a few minutes looking through the major American news sites.  I only looked at their front pages that display when I go to their sites, without scrolling or searching.

NBC News:  nothing
ABC News:  text link towards the bottom
CBS News:  nothing
CNN:  text link on left sidebar
Fox News:  nothing
Drudge Report:  photo in right column, pretty noticeable
New York Times:  nothing
Washington Post:  nothing
Los Angeles Times:  text link towards the bottom
Wall Street Journal:  Now that's more like it.  A prominent photo of Dragon front and center.

I'm afraid everybody who cares about it is here.   

[sanman]

Thanks - this video is worth analyzing - perhaps not in the party thread.
Shows some various tidbits of information. They use VLC as streaming program on their big screen.
Shows a software representation of the CCP used on the ISS.
Around 1 minute in the video, you can see naming conventions for the thrusters in the dragon, for example D4T1 trough D4T4 for 4 thrusters in a cluster.

Haha, yeah, I noticed they were using VLC player too   

So, freeware is acceptable for space-based mission-critical software, huh?

Looking forward to seeing a SpaceX-branded flavor of Linux 
How about MySQL too?

[Rahkashi]

Thanks - this video is worth analyzing - perhaps not in the party thread.
Shows some various tidbits of information. They use VLC as streaming program on their big screen.
Shows a software representation of the CCP used on the ISS.
Around 1 minute in the video, you can see naming conventions for the thrusters in the dragon, for example D4T1 trough D4T4 for 4 thrusters in a cluster.

Haha, yeah, I noticed they were using VLC player too   

So, freeware is acceptable for space-based mission-critical software, huh?

Looking forward to seeing a SpaceX-branded flavor of Linux 
How about MySQL too?

LinuX

[Lurker Steve]

Thanks - this video is worth analyzing - perhaps not in the party thread.
Shows some various tidbits of information. They use VLC as streaming program on their big screen.
Shows a software representation of the CCP used on the ISS.
Around 1 minute in the video, you can see naming conventions for the thrusters in the dragon, for example D4T1 trough D4T4 for 4 thrusters in a cluster.

Haha, yeah, I noticed they were using VLC player too   

So, freeware is acceptable for space-based mission-critical software, huh?

Looking forward to seeing a SpaceX-branded flavor of Linux 
How about MySQL too?

MySQL is not freeware.

A company the size of SpaceX better be sending Oracle some serious cash for their MySQL licenses. (If they actually used MySQL).

[Rahkashi]

Why would they bother using MySQL? Wouldn't they want to go with something more professional like SQL Server?

[FinalFrontier]

I just spent a few minutes looking through the major American news sites.  I only looked at their front pages that display when I go to their sites, without scrolling or searching.

NBC News:  nothing
ABC News:  text link towards the bottom
CBS News:  nothing
CNN:  text link on left sidebar
Fox News:  nothing
Drudge Report:  photo in right column, pretty noticeable
New York Times:  nothing
Washington Post:  nothing
Los Angeles Times:  text link towards the bottom
Wall Street Journal:  Now that's more like it.  A prominent photo of Dragon front and center.

I'm afraid everybody who cares about it is here.   

Fox has it. Scroll down on home page. Their top 20 or so news stories of the day are listed at the bottom this is number 5.

As far as I know two out of three major networks had a big piece on it on the evening news, and the local affiliates here in Texas all carried their own piece on it as well.


And not scrolling down doesn't count (because everyone scrolls)

[sanman]

Still, it's nice to see that they're using freeware to cut costs. If it works fine, then why not? Just as long as it doesn't crap out on you at the wrong moment. 

It just shows yet again how SpaceX are from a newer generation, willing to embrace these kinds of tools to get more for less.

I wonder what kind of qualifications most of these mission controllers have?

[rickl]

Fox has it. Scroll down on home page. Their top 20 or so news stories of the day are listed at the bottom this is number 5.

As far as I know two out of three major networks had a big piece on it on the evening news, and the local affiliates here in Texas all carried their own piece on it as well.

And not scrolling down doesn't count (because everyone scrolls)

I know; I just wanted to see what would hit me in the eye when I opened the page.

NBC News had an excellent story on TV tonight.  I don't normally watch TV news, but I was alerted by JimO's comment on the update thread and turned on the TV in the nick of time:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#47571949

[sojourner]

Still, it's nice to see that they're using freeware to cut costs. If it works fine, then why not? Just as long as it doesn't crap out on you at the wrong moment. 

It just shows yet again how SpaceX are from a newer generation, willing to embrace these kinds of tools to get more for less.

I wonder what kind of qualifications most of these mission controllers have?

Didn't someone say ISS uses Linux as well?

[Lurker Steve]

Why would they bother using MySQL? Wouldn't they want to go with something more professional like SQL Server?

I don't know if SpaceX uses MySQL, but it wouldn't be suprising to see that as a back end of some non-mission critical applications.

SpaceX is a Unix/Linux shop, so MS servers need not apply.

Mission Critical / Business Critical apps run on Oracle servers in most Unix / Linux shops.

[A_M_Swallow]

Well, less that 6 hours later and this isn't headline news on the BBC any more. Some nobody girl getting thrown in jail has so much more public interest. 

Not even top 10. BBC Space stories usually always get into the top 10. Don't get it, really I don't!

Won't stand a chance tomorrow either with the England game and Roy "I can't speak properly" Hodgson's first game in charge!

Today's article's on 72,000 anyway, and the related thread is on 120,000, so there's obviously interest.

During the live broadcast of the berthing this was the #1 story on the BBC's web site.

[StarGeezer]

Re NEWS coverage the 12:02 EDT berthing was covered at about 12:10 EDT by CBC - Canada's national news service - a fairly detailed 3 min segment - including CBC's science guy on historical importance of private industry and space future hopes.

Nice work SpaceX - NASA and NSF.com - lots of fans up here!!

Lots of deja-vu of space race events from 60's!!

[wolfpack]

Very well done, SpaceX!

Does anyone else think Don Pettit's voice sounds like Crispin Glover in Back To The Future? "Now, Biff..."   

[dragon44]

I don't know if SpaceX uses MySQL, but it wouldn't be suprising to see that as a back end of some non-mission critical applications.

SpaceX is a Unix/Linux shop, so MS servers need not apply.

Mission Critical / Business Critical apps run on Oracle servers in most Unix / Linux shops.

SpaceX uses a mix of Windows, Mac and Linux. Their latest job postings include:

EIS Software Engineer with Experience with the Microsoft web stack -- C#, ASP.Net, SQL and Windows Server

IT Systems Engineer with at least 7 years’ experience working with Microsoft Active Directory, Exchange Server 2010, Lync/Office Communicator, SharePoint 2007/2010

Also, different pictures of the LCC and MCC have been picked apart in these forums and show that the computers used there are running Window 7. Elon says Dragon runs C++ code on Linux.

[sanman]

Do you know what particular flavor of Linux the Dragon runs on?

[kevin-rf]

Wow, spend a couple days doing yardwork and the spacex threads are so long that I am just gonna have to give up following them ;;-)

Funny story, my wife is really annoyed at my cell phone buzzing with constant mission updates. Personally, I think she's trying to make sure there isn't another woman. Little does she know it's a Dragon :-)

[tigerade]

Funny story, my wife is really annoyed at my cell phone buzzing with constant mission updates. Personally, I think she's trying to make sure there isn't another woman. Little does she know it's a Dragon :-)

I'm certainly getting plenty of laughs from this thread.  Well worth the bandwidth.