Space X First American Spaceflight in Years Launches Tomorrow

[38SPL HV]

Space X - someone forgot to remind the millennials that we already sent two men into space 55 years ago with the Gemini Program....but their comprehension and extent of history only dates back to when the first IPhone was introduced so I understand their excitement.

I remember just a couple of years ago when they were making a big deal about putting a landing module on Mars...many didn't know we did that already in the early 1970s.

...just reinventing the wheel with the elite spending some of their play money so they look "cool". Napoleon complexes...

 

[sceva]

I listened to John Glenn orbit the Earth over the PA system in elementary school. And remember Neal Armstrong on the moon in 1969. ( BOTH OHIO BOYS) We've come a long way

 

[kraynky]

If flatulence was a flavor...

I recall a tube of liquid goo that was marketed as "Like the Astronauts eat". I don't remember it being really bad, or really good, it was just Cool.

Prayers for a safe launch, journey and return.

 

[38SPL HV]

...what have they done since to compare with these great triumphs in space? Not much... I too will never forget the great space shots of old...from Mercury through Apollo...now that was progress!

 

[muddocktor]

I am so glad to see the US getting back into the "live crew launching" business again. And my daughter, who is 28, is also extremely interested in this too. It's a crying shame that we took 9 years to get back into manned spaceflight after the (premature) retiring of the Shuttle. And I think that it's also a crying shame that until the Falcon Heavy launched we didn't have a heavy lift vehicle to launch large payloads into Earth orbit when we still have the designs for the Saturn V and it's F1 engines. I know that they were expensive, but instead of all the launches of shuttles and other launch systems that needed to be done to build the space station, we could have done it with a dozen or less launches with the Saturn V. But it wasn't "modern enough" for all the NASA engineers I guess. The good old Saturn V could put a payload of over 300,000 lbs into LEO.

 

[bill2000]

...what have they done since to compare with these great triumphs in space? Not much... I too will never forget the great space shots of old...from Mercury through Apollo...now that was progress!

Been watching since the Mercury Project and I disagree about "not much". How about a station that's constantly manned or a rocket that lands autonomously and can be re-used? I'd say both are pretty spectacular. Having said that, nobody had bigger gonads than those Mercury guys.

 

[Sistema1927]

I sat glued to the TV, watching the early space shots and listening to Walter Cronkite, but I am somewhat amused at those who think that what is going on now is "no big deal".

Autonomous, reusable rocket boosters? American astronauts being transported on commercial rockets? Going back to the Moon within the next 4 years?

Yep, "no big deal" indeed.

 

[Jon651]

I am so glad to see the US getting back into the "live crew launching" business again. And my daughter, who is 28, is also extremely interested in this too. It's a crying shame that we took 9 years to get back into manned spaceflight after the (premature) retiring of the Shuttle. And I think that it's also a crying shame that until the Falcon Heavy launched we didn't have a heavy lift vehicle to launch large payloads into Earth orbit when we still have the designs for the Saturn V and it's F1 engines. I know that they were expensive, but instead of all the launches of shuttles and other launch systems that needed to be done to build the space station, we could have done it with a dozen or less launches with the Saturn V. But it wasn't "modern enough" for all the NASA engineers I guess. The good old Saturn V could put a payload of over 300,000 lbs into LEO.

I just watched a documentary about the Saturn V and the F1 rocket engine. Essentially, we couldn't build one today. Each one was virtually hand-built and both the tools and the skills are long gone - the investment to new-build a Saturn V (even with having the old designs, using modern tech, and having a complete example sitting as a tourist attraction) would be unjustifiable as compared to designing and building something new from the ground up (pardon the pun!). As an example, just the sheer number of construction, assembly and testing facilities that had to be built for the Saturn V back in the 60s all across the country was mind-boggling. There were dozens, and they are all either abandoned, torn down or repurposed today.

Aside from the Falcon Heavy, SpaceX is also planning on a fully reusable heavy-lift vehicle called the Starship. After that, there is one on the books called the Super Heavy that uses the Starship as the second stage.

 

[loknload]

Then and now! How times have changed!

 

[JayFramer]

They did it!!