
Spacex Launch Webcast: Formosat-5 Mission - cjnicholls
http://www.spacex.com/webcast
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petetnt
Spacex launched a satellite to the space and returned back to earth safely
faster than our JenkinsCI builds most of our apps.

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inetknght
I'd blame your source code more than Jenkins. Our jenkins instance runs our CI
in a couple of minutes.

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InclinedPlane
Not everyone is working on projects that are little more than CRUD webapps.
I've worked on code that took hours to compile even on beefy machines.

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btilly
I've worked on code that took that long to compile, and the cause of the
problem was usually bad recursive makefiles doing work over and over again.

At the other extreme I've also worked at Google and have seen insanely complex
C++ code bases compile in 30 seconds flat.

Multiple hour build times usually show that nobody smart enough had the
interest and authority to solve the problem properly. It doesn't generally
mean that your project is awesome. It certainly isn't something that I would
brag about.

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InclinedPlane
OK, that's great for google, but "complex" doesn't necessarily mean much. Do
you think the linux kernel devs are slouches? The gcc devs? Both of those
projects take hours to compile on reasonable hardware, and that's not for lack
of trying.

Also, sometimes it's not about code, it's about digital assets, which is going
to be IO bound. I've worked on projects that took a full working day to do a
clean compile and others where it was necessary to do binary integrations
instead of code because the overall build time would otherwise be measured in
days or weeks.

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cjnicholls
Successful landing on Please read the instructions. 15 consecutive landings

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roesel
And as always, the live video feed of the landing was clunky :). They should
nail one with a steady stream.

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jff
Every time I've watched a landing, the video feed is janky. One might
speculate that they don't want to live-stream an embarrassing failure but that
seems a bit odd when it would be more embarrassing to have an explosion during
launch, losing the payload.

Edit: vvvv that sounds quite reasonable, you'd think they'd do something like
throw a buoy 100m away to house the actual satellite link and just do wifi
from the barge to the buoy.

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ceejayoz
No need for speculation - the feed never cuts out on the return-to-launch-site
landings. It's only wonky on the ship landings.

Bouys bounce around a lot - the drone ships have special station-keeping
thrusters to stay in place.

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bdonlan
The rocket engines also put out a ton of ionized particles that can interfere
with the satellite signal.

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detritus
Boring.

.

Which is why it's beautiful, despite the less than brilliant connection :)

Like passenger planes leaving airports, I'll never not find this amazing.

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imaginenore
They were supposed to attempt to land/rescue some other part of the rocket
this time. There was nothing about it in the webcast.

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rory096
That'd be the fairing, the 'nosecone' that covers the payload during launch.
It wasn't shown in the webcast because it has a low probability of success
(they've made several attempts so far with varying degrees of accuracy and
damage) and because there's no live feed from the fairing as it descends.

The aim is to get it to land in a predetermined spot in the ocean with
steerable parafoils, then eventually to stick a 'bouncy castle' at that spot
to soften the landing.

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hinkley
Didn't one of the mars rovers bring its own bouncy castle? Hollywood has since
used that in several movies.

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rory096
Yep — Pathfinder and the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit & Opportunity) both
used airbags. NASA has since switched to the 'sky crane' method for Curiosity
and the fortcoming Mars 2020 rover, lowering higher-mass payloads to the
ground without contaminating the surface with rocket exhaust (as with Phoenix
and the Vikings).

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vermontdevil
12th launch of this year. 50% increase from their prior best year.

They can make it to 20.

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SlipperySeaCow
Still mindblowing after 15 successful landings

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tdalaa
This is just so amazing. Just looks so effortless. Completely magical what
they have accomplished in so little time. Thank you, Elon, for being so
incredibly brave and persistent in your mission(s).

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mabbo
Did it sound to anyone else like they were shooting from inside the SpaceX
cafeteria?

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bbatsell
They do. The partial second floor overlooking mission control is the SpaceX
cafeteria.

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jacquesm
I've seen each and every one of these and it never tires.

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johnvega
Same here. Still watch recorded in cases I missed live webcast although much
less exciting. I hope ride up there within the next 20 years, hopefully
sooner.

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shmerl
When is their low orbit ISP coming?

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gt565k
Stuck the landing right in the center.. the accuracy is just amazing

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gozur88
I'm more impressed they're able to do it with a rocket that can't hover.

