It was indeed a thing to behold, even via video (as opposed to in person). For some reason my brain didn't quite register the scale of the rocket as it was sitting on the pad. Maybe because it's...
It was indeed a thing to behold, even via video (as opposed to in person). For some reason my brain didn't quite register the scale of the rocket as it was sitting on the pad. Maybe because it's kind of plain, there's almost no external greebles or logos or markings that I could see.
But then the engines fired, and the exhaust shot out of the bottom and sides and formed this absolutely enormous cloud. Something clicked then. Some instinctual knowledge in my brain of how fast air/dust/smoke can move in atmosphere kicked in and then I better comprehended the size of the thing I was looking at. And then a moment later watching as all of that smoke and debris was scattering to all sides of the launch pad, and the rocket still hadn't started moving.
Then it started doing it's flip maneuver and .... kept flipping. And my first thought was "oh ya, I've had that happen with Kerbal rockets, that thing is very fucked".
That headline is certainly one way to turn a success, and a civilizational feat, into a failure. There a million and one ways they could have written it more honestly.
That headline is certainly one way to turn a success, and a civilizational feat, into a failure. There a million and one ways they could have written it more honestly.
The communication surrounding the rocket test has been really interesting to me, you can clearly see how knowledgeable someone is about rockets, as well as which side of the whole Musk issue they...
The communication surrounding the rocket test has been really interesting to me, you can clearly see how knowledgeable someone is about rockets, as well as which side of the whole Musk issue they stand on, very quickly by just hearing their opinion on the test. I think it's a good example of how much Elon has poisoned public discourse around himself.
If you view it purely from the perspective of SpaceX without Musk being a factor, this is a hugely successful test. But with the way he has been carrying himself lately, because Elon insisted that any launch which leaves the pad would be considered a 'success', people don't want to believe him, they want it to have been a failure because they dislike him personally (not that I can blame them).
But anyone who has been following the rocket development for a while can see that this is fairly standard procedure at SpaceX, and that for once he probably wasn't lying, the goal for this test was to simply get off the pad. You can hear it in the cheers of the engineers in the background of the videos, they were just happy to see the thing fly. I'm excited to see if they can go significantly further in the next test, and I kind of expect that they will. Whatever your opinion on Elon, the people at SpaceX are doing some truly groundbreaking work. We should celebrate them.
SpaceX’s giant new rocket blasted off on its first test flight Thursday but exploded minutes after rising from the launch pad and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
It was indeed a thing to behold, even via video (as opposed to in person). For some reason my brain didn't quite register the scale of the rocket as it was sitting on the pad. Maybe because it's kind of plain, there's almost no external greebles or logos or markings that I could see.
But then the engines fired, and the exhaust shot out of the bottom and sides and formed this absolutely enormous cloud. Something clicked then. Some instinctual knowledge in my brain of how fast air/dust/smoke can move in atmosphere kicked in and then I better comprehended the size of the thing I was looking at. And then a moment later watching as all of that smoke and debris was scattering to all sides of the launch pad, and the rocket still hadn't started moving.
Then it started doing it's flip maneuver and .... kept flipping. And my first thought was "oh ya, I've had that happen with Kerbal rockets, that thing is very fucked".
That headline is certainly one way to turn a success, and a civilizational feat, into a failure. There a million and one ways they could have written it more honestly.
The communication surrounding the rocket test has been really interesting to me, you can clearly see how knowledgeable someone is about rockets, as well as which side of the whole Musk issue they stand on, very quickly by just hearing their opinion on the test. I think it's a good example of how much Elon has poisoned public discourse around himself.
If you view it purely from the perspective of SpaceX without Musk being a factor, this is a hugely successful test. But with the way he has been carrying himself lately, because Elon insisted that any launch which leaves the pad would be considered a 'success', people don't want to believe him, they want it to have been a failure because they dislike him personally (not that I can blame them).
But anyone who has been following the rocket development for a while can see that this is fairly standard procedure at SpaceX, and that for once he probably wasn't lying, the goal for this test was to simply get off the pad. You can hear it in the cheers of the engineers in the background of the videos, they were just happy to see the thing fly. I'm excited to see if they can go significantly further in the next test, and I kind of expect that they will. Whatever your opinion on Elon, the people at SpaceX are doing some truly groundbreaking work. We should celebrate them.