OMG it's the SpaceX Party Thread!

[Lars_J]

So C2 is now complete and we are in C3 Officially? That's a bit early, right?

If so, I'll drink to that! ( a diet coke because I'm at work )

It sounds too early... Didn't C2 involve navigating around ISS? It seems like there should be one more day at least of C2 objectives.

[hyper_snyper]

The objectives are detailed in the press kit.  C2 involves everything except berthing including ISS flyby maneuvers and re-entry/landing .  C3 is rendezvous and berthing and re-entry/landing.  It's what the missions where originally scheduled as.

[Robotbeat]

And if they ever get Raptor working (and yes, they do seem to still have people working on it), it should be competitive with the full range of Atlas V (not counting the Atlas V Heavy, which would be competing against Falcon Heavy anyway) to just about any trajectory.

I am not sure that Raptor is actually necessary in the event that SpaceX does develop that staged-combustion methox engine we have been speculating about.  True, the isp would not be as high as with a hydrolox engine, but the increased density and storability of methane over hydrogen means that the same-mass fully loaded upper stage plus payload provides almost as much delta v as a traditional hydrolox design -- or at least that is what I vaguely recall from the staged-combustion thread....

No, on just a stage wet-mass basis, it wouldn't provide nearly as much delta-v as Raptor. On a dry-mass basis, very likely it could get at least as much (but then you need a significantly more powerful first stage to get to the same staging point).

[ArbitraryConstant]

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/205101177875070976/photo/1

Amazing long exposure picture of the launch.

[Beemer]

2:30AM? I'll be retiring extra early tonight for sure! 

[Lars_J]

I'm a west coast night-owl, so a lot of events on this mission appears to happen just before or around midnight. Perfect for me.

[bunker9603]

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/205101177875070976/photo/1

Amazing long exposure picture of the launch.

That is a nice shot...it makes a great background on my computer monitor

[aero]

I have read a few news articles now that the posting here at NSF has quieted down. I am reading confused data regarding this question, not that it's any of my business.

billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk

Then I read this in another article: He sold Paypal for $1.5B, walked away with $170M, invested $100M in SpaceX, $50M in Tesla Motors, and $10M in another of his companies.

Does he have deep pockets (if needed) to carry SpaceX through troubled times or is SpaceX's future totally dependent on company performance?

[rickl]

I'm a west coast night-owl, so a lot of events on this mission appears to happen just before or around midnight. Perfect for me.

I'm on the East Coast, and these times are the worst possible for me.  I'm a night person, so staying up late isn't a problem.  The fly in the ointment is that I have to be at work in the morning, so I have to sleep sometime.  I should have taken vacation days this week.   

Since I'm a night person, I have great difficulty going to bed early.  I'm just not tired at 9-10:00.

Edit:  The thought just occurred to me that I can go in tomorrow and try to get Friday off.  Does anybody know when they'll get the go/no go for berthing?

[mr_magoo]

Then I read this in another article: He sold Paypal for $1.5B, walked away with $170M, invested $100M in SpaceX, $50M in Tesla Motors, and $10M in another of his companies.

Does he have deep pockets (if needed) to carry SpaceX through troubled times or is SpaceX's future totally dependent on company performance?

Forbes just had him worth $2 billion largely based,  iirc,  on Solar City stock.   Who knows how real or reliable that kind of wealth might be going forward but it's better than nothing.

[robertross]

I only hope the weather is clear in the early morning hours to see the Dragon & ISS in close ops up in the sky - it will be a near-perfect overhead transit.

(something I always seemed to miss with shuttle).

4:27am...it's going to be a LONG day tomorrow...

But this isn't just historic, I'm in the ISS camp of necessity: without CRS, ISS has a big problem.

So fingers crossed!

[rickl]

(something I always seemed to miss with shuttle)

Same here.  In all those years, I only managed to see ISS and Shuttle together in the sky once.  I don't remember which mission.

[robertross]

(something I always seemed to miss with shuttle)

Same here.  In all those years, I only managed to see ISS and Shuttle together in the sky once.  I don't remember which mission.

I've seen the shuttle leaving the station (2 or 3 times), but never approaching.

(I should have clarified)

[Rocket Science]

Wow, quite the weekend ahead for Space and Motor Heads…  Dragon at ISS, Monaco Grand Prix, Indy 500 and the NASCAR Coke 600.  I’m going to be busy… 

[Jason1701]

Wow, quite the weekend ahead for Space and Motor Heads…  Dragon at ISS, Monaco Grand Prix, Indy 500 and the NASCAR Coke 600.  I’m going to be busy… 

Will Elon be at Monaco?

[Rocket Science]

Wow, quite the weekend ahead for Space and Motor Heads…  Dragon at ISS, Monaco Grand Prix, Indy 500 and the NASCAR Coke 600.  I’m going to be busy… 

Will Elon be at Monaco?

Not this year… 

[Jackspace]

Thanks for the party, we all needed the boost, seriously, things were really getting depressing around here

[cro-magnon gramps]

Molly McCormick ‏@Molliway TWEETED

I kind of want to start calling robot-arm-assisted berthing to the ISS the "Canadian Handshake." #DragonLaunch

I TWEETED BACK

Cro-Magnon Gramps ‏@CroMagnonGramps

@Molliway I would like to call it the "Canadian Midwife", the Berthing of a New Era #DragonLaunch

Cheers 

   

[beancounter]

Wow, quite the weekend ahead for Space and Motor Heads…  Dragon at ISS, Monaco Grand Prix, Indy 500 and the NASCAR Coke 600.  I’m going to be busy… 

Will Elon be at Monaco?

Not this year… 

What!  No Telsa entry

[Bubbinski]

Man....I do need my beauty sleep    But I'm sorely tempted to stay up and see at least some of the Dragon rendezvous/fly under.  Hope they do an RPM! 

And I'm liking the flight day coverage threads, harking back to the shuttle days.  Perhaps that should be done for Curiosity when she arrives at Mars too.