
SpaceX can't test fire its Falcon Heavy rocket due to the government shutdown - frede
https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2018/01/21/spacex-unable-test-fire-falcon-heavy-rocket-ksc-due-government-shutdown/1052438001/
======
mikejb
This is easily blamed on the shutdown, but it isn't that simple: Falcon Heavy
static fire has been postponed numerous times. On Tuesday (Jan 16th), it was
cancelled once again, but with no new target test date. That indicates that
SpaceX is still working on the rocket/pad.

I didn't find information on when they'd be ready again, but blaming a delay
on Falcon Heavy's static fire test on the Government Shutdown is only half the
truth.

~~~
ygra
They _did_ go through with a Wet Dress Rehearsal on Saturday, though, which
already validates many things just prior to engine ignition. So if they were
confident to continue with a static fire on Monday and there were no other
issues known I'd say it's fair to blame it on the shutdown. Of course, more
issues could arise during the test, but we won't know now.

~~~
moonka
Shutdown started at Midnight Friday though didn't it?

~~~
freeflight
Officially yes, but I can imagine there being some bureaucratic delay until
it's in full effect/everybody got the news. Not a lot of time between midnight
Friday and Saturday.

In German radio news, the US correspondent explained that the weekend should
still be fine, with full effects of the shutdown beginning around Monday with
the new week.

~~~
mikeash
That’s oversimplified. Some agencies continue to operate for a bit because
they have enough money stashed to do so. For example, the Smithsonian stayed
open over the weekend and is apparently open today as well. The EPA will stay
open for another week because they apparently have a nice chunk of cash
somewhere. The postal service will operate indefinitely because they earn
their own money.

For everybody else, a shutdown means you stop working right away. For most
people that means the first day they’re affected is Monday because most of
them have the weekend off, but people who would work on the weekend have
already been affected. There’s no room for a bureaucratic delay or people
failing to get the news. I’m pretty sure it’s illegal for non-essential people
to work during the shutdown unless their job is somehow still funded. Anyone
who went to bed early on Friday and went to work on Saturday without checking
the news would be told to go home.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> For everybody else, a shutdown means you stop working right away.

This is not correct; for many a shutdown means you keep working entirely as
normal on the understanding that when things are resolved, you'll get paid
retroactively.

~~~
mikeash
You’re right, I forgot to mention that people deemed “essential” in any agency
keep on working anyway.

------
Animats
Space-X was supposed to be building their own launch facility in Brownsville,
TX, and it was supposed to be open now, but it's still just a vacant lot. They
brought in some tracking antennas and some dirt fill; that's it.[1]

[1] [http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/spacex-
progress-...](http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/spacex-progress-
ongoing-at-boca-chica-site-second-antenna-
added/article_c8f0717c-bde3-11e7-a016-9792b5eb6dd4.html)

~~~
schiffern
>They brought in... some dirt fill; that's it.

They're doing soil surcharging, so that's intentional. Don't want the castle
sinking into the swamp (it's on 300+ feet of silt[1]).

The steps for soil surcharging are:

1\. Pile extra dirt on top of your fill.

2\. Wait a sufficient amount of time (usually months/years; it's important to
wait long enough[2]) as the dirt compresses and squeezes out water.

3\. Remove the extra dirt (also important[2]), and build your heavy structure
on top. Now the pre-loaded ground underneath won't settle, because it already
did that.

[1] [https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/countdown-to-
liftoff/](https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/countdown-to-liftoff/)

[2] [http://www.straits-
engineers.com/publications_pdf/publicatio...](http://www.straits-
engineers.com/publications_pdf/publication_20.pdf)

edit: pictures of the site
[https://imgur.com/a/0OXkB](https://imgur.com/a/0OXkB)

~~~
stcredzero
_Don 't want the castle sinking into the swamp (it's on 300+ feet of
silt[1])._

"When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build
a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank
into the swamp. So I built a second one. And that one sank into the swamp. So
I built a third. That burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp.
But the fourth one stayed up. And that’s what you’re going to get, Son, the
strongest castle in all of England."

------
isostatic
However Rocket Lab's launch of their new Electron rocket, from New Zealand,
has made it to orbit successfully.

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2018/01/21/space-
star...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2018/01/21/space-startup-
rocket-lab-successfully-made-it-to-orbit/)

~~~
spike021
Not sure how that launch is relevant, here.

~~~
Taniwha
They don't need a govt funded/owned/run launch space to launch, they built
their own

~~~
muthdra
Their government doesn't have a launch pad.

~~~
vpribish
to try circling this back to relevancy: NZ is a fantastically business-
friendly country where the shenanigans we (US) have to put up with just don't
seem to occur (I had a business there for a while, so this isn't just their
tourist propaganda talking).

also - I swear I heard a sheep on the launch video for electron.

------
TheAceOfHearts
I find this article very frustrating. What do they even mean by "key members
of the civilian workforce"? I wish they'd include examples of what kind of
people aren't working. Since I have absolutely no connection to this industry,
I have no way of understanding the impact of a government shutdown on the
space industry. Why is it considered reasonable or unreasonable that they halt
certain space-related activities due to a government shutdown?

~~~
nosequel
If no on is getting paid, they aren't going into work, simple as that. This
can be anyone. Fire personnel, security, gate guards, flight-line / launch pad
techs & engineers, anyone. Most civilian companies barely function if the
office manager is out of the building. The launch pad is private property with
a ton of personnel, they can't just launch without the workers.

~~~
Jtsummers
It's a mixed bag. Some jobs are deemed essential or exempted and so those
individuals have to work. But not all are. Most of NASA, for instance, is
shutdown as their work isn't considered critical or exempted.

Exempted: Usually a result of the way it's funded. Some government work is
funded by the budget, directly. Others essentially pay for themselves (the
government workers acting in essence as contractors or a business, they
receive payments from others besides the Congress to do work). Most of those
have funding that would last 2-6 weeks. They get to stay open.

None of these people were going to get paid during the shutdown, but they were
still expected to work. Their paychecks after the shutdown would pay them.
Essentially they're guaranteed the pay, but the pay date would slip.

Although now it's a moot point as it looks like the shutdown is ending.

------
nomercy400
So, is SpaceX now eligible for contract-breach money from the government for
this delay? I assume SpaceX 'rents' the facility at KSP from the government.
If that facility shuts down, then the government isn't upholding their part of
the deal with SpaceX.

Say, as a company I had a deal where I rent an office, and the owner of the
office decides for 2+ days I have no access to my office, because one-sided
reasons, I can claim lost revenue from the owner, right?

~~~
dEnigma
From the context it is clear that you meant "KSC" instead of "KSP", but I
think the typo is quite interesting.

For those unaware: KSP = Kerbal Space Program, a video game about space
exploration

~~~
jadell
Additionally, "KSC" is the abbreviation of the space center in the game video
KSP.

~~~
bostonpete
...and the Kenya Space Corporation in Artemis.

------
breatheoften
Watched the video on the page demoing the falcon heavy concept. The real
pictures don’t have the water tower at the launch site like the concept video.
Is there some reason the water tower was in the demo design but not the real
thing ... — maybe the water tower is mobile and only in place during an actual
launch? Or is this closer to a case where somebody thought the water tower
would look cool so they put it in the demo video ...?

~~~
ygra
That's a CGI mockup created when SpaceX' modifications to 39A weren't even
complete. The FSS also looks markedly different.

However, the water tower is there, as you can see here:
[https://twitter.com/wsm1/status/953099809803485184](https://twitter.com/wsm1/status/953099809803485184).

------
imron
When eventually launched, both boosters _and_ the first stage are designed to
return to earth, landing upright for reuse.

That this seems entirely feasible is a testament to how far SpaceX has moved
the industry forward (and signifies that they are going to have a huge lead
over any competitors).

~~~
ghostcluster
It's not exactly a new idea. The boosters on the Russian Shuttle equivalent
were designed to glide back for reusability in the 70s and 80s, but it's
amazing the lack of momentum pushing these ideas forward languished in the
space tech arena until SpaceX showed up.

~~~
bufferoverflow
No, they weren't designed that way. That literally never happened.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_\(spacecraft\))

And if you're talking about just an idea, sci-fi writers were way ahead of
USSR.

~~~
dag11
I think this is what the parent comment is referring to:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikal_(rocket_booster)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikal_\(rocket_booster\))

~~~
bufferoverflow
Never took off. Never went to the prototype stage even. All they made was a
mock-up.

Plus he's talking about 70's and 80's, whereas that mock-up was made in 2001.

~~~
ghostcluster
The point is that the idea itself isn't new, but space tech has been stagnant
for decades before a company like SpaceX appeared on the scene

~~~
bufferoverflow
No, the original comment claimed that the USSR boosters we're designed to
glide and land, which they never were.

And rockets landing and taking off many times is a very old idea, also not
invented in USSR in the 70's.

~~~
pandaman
According to the Russian Wiki article, Energiya's first stage was designed to
be reusable by the way of parachutes, solid fuel engines and supports,
however, the system was not implemented during its two launches and the
parachute containers were loaded with other equipment. Wiki gives this as
reference:
[http://www.buran.ru/htm/09-3.htm](http://www.buran.ru/htm/09-3.htm)

------
rsbartram
Is SpaceX using a recycled rocket like they have in the past?

[https://latechnews.org/spacex-launches-
bulgariasat-1-recycle...](https://latechnews.org/spacex-launches-
bulgariasat-1-recycled-rocket/)

~~~
ziedaniel1
The center core is new, but the side boosters are both recycled. See
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches#Future_launches)

------
freecodyx
stupid website, autoplaying video

~~~
billysielu
Yep I'm more upset about this than the actual news.

------
dayaz36
When was the launch supposed to take place?

~~~
olex
Static fire was planned for today. Date for an actual launch hasn't been set
yet, because a successful static fire (or several) has to take place before
that. SpaceX is taking their time to extensively ground test this one, because
the Falcon Heavy has never flown before, and is a significantly more complex
rocket than the proven Falcon 9 (27 engines need to ignite at launch vs. 9,
plus the booster attachments have never been tested before).

------
bambax
As a foreigner the whole government shutdown is a thing of wonder: how does it
work exactly? For instance, is there no police anymore?

How does Congress stay in session during a shutdown? Where does electricity in
federal buildings come from if the Federal govt can't pay for it?

~~~
lambda
One thing to understand about the US is that it is actually a federation of
states. Much of the day-to-day work happens at the state or local level, not
at the federal level. Police, fire departments, emergency first responders
mostly employed at that level, and when the federal government is involved, a
lot of it is in doing some coordination between states, setting standards,
funding for various programs, and so on. Even things like building interstate
highways, which are funded by the federal government, are generally done by
allocation to the state governments to actually construct them.

However, the military is entirely part of the federal government, as are many
other organizations. In the case of not having a budget, the government is
required to shut down all functions that are not essential for safety and
security. So things like the military, the TSA, and so on can continue to
function, but office workers doing jobs like allocating the funding for
highway construction are furloughed, put on temporary unpaid leave from their
jobs.

This is, of course, terrible for the efficient functioning of government; when
the impasse is over, they will have to come back to their jobs and try to
catch up. Oh, and in the time leading up to the shutdown, many of them would
have been busy preparing for the shutdown, documenting which functions would
be considered essential and thus able to continue during the shutdown; because
the deadline was no surprise, and there had been many temporary funding bills
leading up to this point, there was always a pretty high chance that this
shutdown would happen.

Of course, this inefficiency plays well into the politics of one of the
parties, who hold a religious belief that private enterprise is always more
efficient than government, and so playing games like this that increase its
inefficiency help to sell their case and get government functions sold off to
private enterprise, who just so happen, in so many cases, to be some of the
largest donors to campaigns of this particular party.

~~~
jmadsen
"Of course, this inefficiency plays well into the politics of one of the
parties, who hold a religious belief that private enterprise is always more
efficient than government"

Which is beyond ironic to anyone who's worked in the corporate world, but I
guess that's for another thread.

This idea they have that private enterprise naturally evolves toward the most
efficient system is laughable.

~~~
icelancer
>>Which is beyond ironic to anyone who's worked in the corporate world, but I
guess that's for another thread.

>>This idea they have that private enterprise naturally evolves toward the
most efficient system is laughable.

Work in private industry AND government and you might find the comparison a
bit more apt, not that I'm a Republican.

~~~
Chriky
I've worked in both, I find bureaucracy is roughly proportional to the
seriousness of the work. Serious work - Law, Healthcare, Finance etc are very
bureaucratic regardless of whether it's the private or public sector.

Public sector can sometimes seem worse because there's less money sloshing
round and people demand it isn't wasted, which effects a lot of bean counting.

~~~
bonesss
There's also something to the notion that we _want_ our regulatory bodies and
government agencies to be slightly 'conservative', to avoid waste and avoid
short-term folly. Our public institutions should live for generations, and
have transparency and ethical demands placed upon them by the citizenry.

We _could_ collectively decide to eliminate a lot of red tape in government,
no problem. It's just the effect of unchecked, unsupervised, unaccountable
governments that make us want that red tape in the first place. Todays
Justification Paperwork is yesterdays front-page scandal...

------
DaniFong
We're just gonna have to use the drone ship.

~~~
ygra
They will anyway; the center core separates later and won't do a boostback to
land. And there are only two landing zones at the Cape as well.

But that's irrelevant to the launch; they cannot _launch_ from the ASDS.

~~~
DaniFong
do you have friends inside at the launch team? would help to share some of the
conversation here, given what we're planning

~~~
ygra
I don't know anyone at SpaceX, but that info is fairly well-known and public.

------
pwaai
I'm thinking losing a billion dollar spy satellite might play a factor here.
Also the timing of the US government shutdown couldn't have been more
damaging.

~~~
vpribish
nonsense. There is no evidence whatsoever that spacex's launch of Zuma was
anything but a success. Also, in what way is this the most damaging possible
timing?

~~~
pwaai
then what the hell is this?

[https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/the-zuma-
satellite-l...](https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/the-zuma-satellite-
launched-by-spacex-may-be-lost-sources-tell-ars/)

are you saying they conspired to announce a false failure to hide the spy
satellite?

~~~
greglindahl
You're welcome to push whatever conspiracy theory you like, but Occam's Razor
is currently voting for the satellite failing to separate from the second
stage.

------
tw1010
Government shutdown fatigue

------
mholt
Warning: Video with sound autoplays when opening the page (in Chrome on macOS)

~~~
tiagoma
1\. Go to “chrome://flags” in the URL bar and hit Return/Enter

2\. In the search box at the top, type in “autoplay”

3\. Look for “Autoplay policy” and pull down the submenu, then choose
“Document user activation is required”

4\. Relaunch Chrome for the setting to take effect

It does work all that well, but it is something...

~~~
diggan
For Firefox:

1\. Go to "about:config" in the URL bar and hit Return/Enter

2\. In the search box at the top, type in “autoplay”

You'll find two variables to modify. `media.autoplay.enabled` and
`media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground`. They do exactly what they say they
do. Turn them off/on as you wish by double-clicking, changing true to false
and vice-versa.

------
rsbartram
Is SpaceX using recycled rockets?

They have in the past.

[https://latechnews.org/spacex-launches-
bulgariasat-1-recycle...](https://latechnews.org/spacex-launches-
bulgariasat-1-recycled-rocket/)

Government is normally getting in the way or at least slowing down the process
of innovation. Hopefully that doesn't happen here at to much a cost to SpaceX
and the U.S. tax payers.

~~~
Turing_Machine
Not for this one. This is the first launch of the Falcon Heavy vehicle.

~~~
mentando
Correct me, if I am wrong, but I thought the outer two cores are recycled
ones?

~~~
azernik
They are indeed.

