Brotoro

While I was off wandering along Cocoa Beach, they lifted the booster off of the drone ship and swung it over to shore. No leg folding or removal first. I guess they'll do that later. The previous pictures were taken from the parking lots of some bars/restaurants on the south side of the barge canal. We drove around to see what kind of shots could be had from the north side of the canal... we could get up to some fences and shoot through them.

We wandered off to do stuff for a while, then came back to check on progress. The crane cap is on top, and the octagrabber robot and base wrap have been removed (so now I can see the engine nozzles). I'm not sure what they do next... fold up the legs? I guess I'll come back later...

Very nice. Overcast and cool today, but the view through binoculars is excellent.

I came to Florida for a convention, so I got to see The SpaceX DM-1 liftoff. I originally planned my travel to include some extra days to increase my chances of getting to see a liftoff...and I see now from a Port Canaveral webcam that the booster has come back into port... so I'll head on over to see it.

I saw this today in IMAX... Excellent! Well, certainly any space-nerd is going to love it... I don't know how well normal humans will like it. It was well worth seeing in IMAX format. The strangest thought I had while watching it was, “FINALLY some movie maker got all the paint patterns and rocket surface details correct in their footage of the rocket on the pad and lifting off!” They did stick in the footage of staging separations from the earlier Saturn test flights...but everything else could have been from Apollo 11 (well...it's hard to tell if random shots of crowds on the beaches, etc., watching the launch were all from Apollo 11).

Looks like two chutes to stabilize the craft and pull off the apex cover. Then two drogues (not supersonic). Then three pilot chutes pull out the three main parachutes.

We got to see the flight just fine through second stage ignition...then it went in and out from behind clouds during second stage burn. But we did get to see the entry burn of stage one. Rumbling came about 70 seconds after liftoff.

And I happen to be in Florida 14.6 miles south of Launch Complex 39A. Huzzah!

Liftoff! MECO Grid fins were glowing at deployment...just reflected light from the upper stage, I assume. fairing deployed. Stage 1 entry burn. Oooo...nice light show. Stage 1 landed! Stage 2 in coast phase.

Live! Booster will have a tougher than usual reentry, apparently.

Music!

Well, the shape and design of the Vostok rocket and spacecraft weren't revealed until the 1967 Paris Air Show.

But the only time such ejection pods were used in a real emergency was during the crash of an XB-70... and one capsule failed to eject (the pilot died) and the other capsule crushed the arm of the other pilot when the capsule slammed shut, and he landed with severe injuries.

Nicely done.

Needs a big hammer.

Did he make the airframe of stainless steel so that he can install a flux capacitor?

Yeah... I was shocked when a guy running a company first told me that he was suing his competitors...not because he had a chance of winning, but just to put that economic burden onto the competitor.

Big draggy 'wings'?

Overreacted? No, I think you read something that was NOT said. I would recommend going back and re-reading his post.

I'm confused by what has your knickers in a twist. The only reference to "idiots" that I see that Tater made was referring to anyone who would build nuclear space systems withouts the necessary safeguards as idiots. Unless you are one of the Chinese designers he was potentially casting aspersions upon, I'm not sure why you are upset.

Looks like they never cleaned that lens.

Pffft. No booster landing, so I care not.

"Welcome to space"? How high did SpaceshipTwo manage to go?

The Falcon often sits and burns around the bottom after landing. I assume that was the same gasses...but they bubbled up out of the water all at once and ignited. Huh...no... it definitely appears to have squirted out.

The booster performed its safing procedure after landing. Nice.