The CRS-4/SpX-4 - So Long, and Thanks for All the Cheese - Party Thread

[Chris Bergin]

When I set this site up, over nine years ago, we had a news site (with one story), a forum (with one thread/section for STS-114) and about five members in the first week. It was an experimental Shuttle-Specific site, launched for Return To Flight.

Now we've got a site where we had tons and tons of people running around the site in the middle of the night for a "regular COMSAT launch" (as Jim would say).

Last night I was watching a screen that shows demand on the servers so I knew when to go logged in members only. It shows people entering and moving around the site. It was like this, at 5am GMT on a Sunday morning:



Crazy! I never, ever envisioned this back in 2005.

I only set the site up to be a place for those more interested in the nuts and bolts of spacecraft and missions. Now we've got Party Threads just to keep the other numerous areas covering a specific mission clean.

I miss Shuttle, but I dare say - despite all the uncertainty surrounding NASA's plans - this is THE most exciting time for space flight since I started this place.

A lot of that, the vast majority, is thanks to a certain company called SpaceX. Ironically, it was a small unknown company started by the former owner of Paypal that was our first real non-shuttle coverage, so that's part of why we've always been fond of them.

So we need them to do well. We need them to be successful. We need our coverage to respect their ambitions. As such, these party threads may seem like a "LOLZ! Rockets with legs!" type of thread - and that is not our usual style - but it ensures the main threads are kept on track and not diluted by fan posts, which I would hate to remove. We are, after all, fans first and foremost.

The above message is for everyone, but also for those who don't like these Party Threads.

There's always a method to our madness here.

I'll shut up now.

[Tuts36]

Humans are social creatures, even if some of us like to pretend we aren't, and human interaction is more than just an exchange of facts.  So I for one enjoy the party threads, puns and all!

Can't say enough how much I've enjoyed this community since I stumbled on it.  It's now part of my morning must-reads.

[somepitch]

Great post Chris - I'm not sure that even you realize how much impact the site has in growing the average person's interest in spaceflight.  I started off as a Tesla fan, found NSF from a google search when I heard Elon also had a rocket company, and have been addicted to the quality of the content ever since... The care you and the mods (and the members between the odd squabble!) put into keeping the discussion top quality blows other sites out of the water - not only other space sites but other industry sites I've been to!

Now to CRS-4 - can't wait for the train to keep rolling along..love the thread name too! 

[meekGee]

Dude!  Seriously - best opening post, and best party thread title ever.     Cheers!

[Tuts36]

Oh yes, thumbs up on this thread title, who gets the credit for that one?

[Stellvia]

Oh yes, thumbs up on this thread title, who gets the credit for that one?

The Pan-Dimensional MegaBeings made me do it

[moralec]

Bravo Chris!!!

[AncientU]

That SpaceX is even disrupting the culture of the spaceflight community is telling.
Thanks for the great opening post and NSF site entirety, Chris -- and patient, patient mods, too!!!
Grab a towel; let's go...

[thebluemarble]

I registered today, but I've been visiting this board since 2006, so pretty much since the begining I've never really had an opportunity to thank you guys for your work over all these years.

As @somepitch has already mentioned, it really meant A LOT for many of us. When I visited this site for the first time, Discovery was being prepared to launch on STS-121. I remember the delays and the growing excitement... I was 13 at the time and my English was far from being perfect. This site has not only helped me to develop my interest in spaceflight, but also to improve my language skills Which is quite funny - most of the people watch TV series in a foreign language or something similar... whereas I used to watch NASA TV coverages and read NSF. I learned English from George Diller, lolz This is just how the adolescence of a spaceflight fan should look like

Thank you, Chris. I am sure the community will continue to flourish

[WindyCity]

I'm not an engineer, but I've been a fan of human spaceflight since I was a boy during the early days of Project Mercury. I watched all the launches on live black-and-white television. The decades since Apollo have been an ordeal of frustration and disappointment for me, despite the many extraordinary scientific achievements in space exploration using probes and robotic technology. The ISS has been an expensive underachiever, and the Shuttle failed to live up to the promise of reusability and low-cost access to space. In forty years, humankind hasn't gone anywhere beyond LEO! That's not what I and many people in my generation imagined would happen. Now comes SpaceX, and the dream has come alive again. I am absolutely addicted to this site. It's a privilege for a non-technical person such as myself to listen in to what informed technologists and space industry insiders are thinking and talking about, especially as pertains to the brilliant plans of Elon Musk and his team of creative designers, engineers, technicians, and administrators. I just hope I'm around to see the BFR blast off, carrying the first crew on the MCT to the Red Planet.  What a day that will be! Ad Astra!

[Lar]

This is way too solemn for a party thread.... 

BUT I can see why people are on about how awesome Chris is... that was indeed the best opening post for a party thread yet, and we all share Chris's joy at how things are unfolding, I think... even Jim!

I am a latecomer to this site compared to some but I think I found a home. Shuttle made me happy, it was so neat (and so beautfully doomed to never be an economic success) but SpaceX makes me giggle with joy and dance with excitement.

Can someone tell me what the actual characters on that screen shot mean? They look cool and all but ??

I think it's open season on frommage related puns. I expect we've already squeezed out a few but don't worry, there's Stiltons left.

[somepitch]

I think Chris was making a funny... looks like a screen shot from The Matrix

[AndyX]

Yeah, Chris was being funny. He said "it was like this" as in the masses of letters that scroll down as in the Matrix movie.

And we're set for it all again with the next launch that may even be this month.

Not sure how we're going to do this when they are launch every week, never mind every month!

[butters]

Cheese will have to wait. Elon is on a ramen pilgrimage.

[jamesh9000]

Ok, here's probably a good place to put this. A lot of people have trouble understanding why there are so many SpaceX "cheerleaders" and accuse us of having our head in the clouds, and all that. Well, here's why...

I was born in the tail end of 1980. My dad (born in 51) loved space travel and had grown up with Apollo and all that, and had a lot books from that time. When I first began becoming aware of what was going on in the world it was just post Challenger Disaster, so the disappointments were really starting to set in. When I read dad's books about space flight in the 60's there was a clear coherent narrative running through them. So if you wanted to talk about say, Gemini 9, you can't really talk about it in isolation, rather its a chapter of a narrative, and what comes before and after it are important and significant. So the story of space flight really was a story, and it was that story I grew up with. Unfortunately it wasn't a sustainable story, but the writers at the time didn't know that, so they continued the story. Dad's books would end with resplendent pictures of humans exploring Mars through the 80's. And of course I was living in the 80's, and it didn't look anything like this.

So I followed space flight, and like the rest of you I loved watching the pictures come in from Voyager, Cassini etc, but they were all one offs. Cassini didn't send Huygens down to scout for base locations, it just sent some pictures and that was it. Every time something exciting happens in space its a one off. I'm grateful for it, but its a single event. There's no story.

The rise of Spacex means, for the first time in my life there appears to be a new narrative, and this one looks, at least, to be sustainable. For the first time we can see how one launch will inform the later one. Falcon 9 leads to Falcon 9-R and Falcon Heavy, which lead to BFR and beyond. And with every launch, this amazing new narrative writes a new page. This is why I, and thousands of others watch every moment of a 'boring' comsat launch, because its not about the launch, its about every launch down the track as well. Of course they're going to miss deadlines, it's space, space is hard. Of course schedules are going to slip, it's space, space is hard.

But this time it seems different, and we all get it. I may not ever get to go to Mars, but I'm going to enjoy experiencing that first landing on my Oculus Rift VI or whatever.

[Elvis in Space]

I'm not an engineer, but I've been a fan of human spaceflight since I was a boy during the early days of Project Mercury. I watched all the launches on live black-and-white television. The decades since Apollo have been an ordeal of frustration and disappointment for me, despite the many extraordinary scientific achievements in space exploration using probes and robotic technology. The ISS has been an expensive underachiever, and the Shuttle failed to live up to the promise of reusability and low-cost access to space. In forty years, humankind hasn't gone anywhere beyond LEO! That's not what I and many people in my generation imagined would happen. Now comes SpaceX, and the dream has come alive again. I am absolutely addicted to this site. It's a privilege for a non-technical person such as myself to listen in to what informed technologists and space industry insiders are thinking and talking about, especially as pertains to the brilliant plans of Elon Musk and his team of creative designers, engineers, technicians, and administrators. I just hope I'm around to see the BFR blast off, carrying the first crew on the MCT to the Red Planet.  What a day that will be! Ad Astra!

Just about exactly what he said. 

[Nomadd]

 I try not to say anything good about anybody because I'm..well, kind of a jerk. But I'm pretty sure that in 20 years when people talk about space getting interesting again, one of the names on the popular list will be Elon Musk. And one of the names on the serious list will be Chris Bergen. Making this place for people who are serious about all things above the atmosphere is no small feat and appreciated more than I can say.

[John.bender]

Great post James. I like your 2001 reference to Hal 9000. I am your Dad's age (56) but share your views. I am not an engineer. Just one who loves all things space related but did not have the inspiration I had in the 60's and 70's until Space X came along. This site also came along then and I am very disappointed I did not find it then. The two years I have been on have been much more entertaining than I ever thought and really got to give Chris my appreciation for having NSF. The people on this site are a real benefit as they have been in the industry or are now. I really look forward to following space X here in the future.

[Antares]

It's threads like this where the only-like-posts-every-120-seconds restriction annoys the Shinjuku noodles out of me.

[kch]

It's threads like this where the only-like-posts-every-120-seconds restriction annoys the Shinjuku noodles out of me.

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