Did anybody watch the SpaceX launch today?

Truly a magnificent feat of engineering, science and sheer fucking brilliance on behalf of all those involved.
 
wow all over in 9 minutes,couldnt get my head around the re entry, i thought objects had to re enter at around 35 degress or they end up as ash but this thing virtually came straight back down

They do a burn first to slow it down. Other ships enter at a particular angle because that is what they were designed to cope with. The shuttle was designed to enter at a specific trajectory and speed because that is what it's tiles could cope with. The steeper you go down the hotter it will be but also if you go slower then the frictional heat is less. The shuttle couldn't do this because once back in the atmosphere it needed to fly like a plane and plane shapes are not good for a steep reentry.

Landing capsules are designed to enter at a steeper trajectory but they are designed like a teardrop to absorb it.

These rockets are no different, they are able to do a burn to slow the rocket down and that reduces frictional heat so they can virtually drop down and they use the rocket to slow it's ascent for landing. It still gets ridiculously hot but because they aren't going as fast so it isn't a big deal.
 
It is absolutely incredible how they've managed to accomplish this yet I do wonder how much money is saved doing it this way to get a charred but reusable launch rocket back when I would've thought the way to go would be invest in a similar concept to the space shuttle but that could maybe take off like a plane as well as land like one.
You could have a fleet of them, some for delivering satellites, some for study or travel to moons/planets.
A bit like Thunderbirds.
 
It is absolutely incredible how they've managed to accomplish this yet I do wonder how much money is saved doing it this way to get a charred but reusable launch rocket back when I would've thought the way to go would be invest in a similar concept to the space shuttle but that could maybe take off like a plane as well as land like one.
You could have a fleet of them, some for delivering satellites, some for study or travel to moons/planets.
A bit like Thunderbirds.

Entirely dependant on the article you read but from what I've seen, to build the rocket cost $60m or so, but to referbish one costs $500K to $1m.

the aim is a $6/7m launch cost when they get into full swing. Fuel costs being about $200k per launch.

To put that in context the space shuttle was about $450m per launch.
 
Yeah i saw it, i must say re-entry is a masterclass of mathematics, there are no margins for error here and i admire greatly the science involved.
 
Worked on Ariane launches for a few years and find that video simply phenomenal. The very thought of subjecting the main engines to such temperatures on reentry and them still being re-useable is hard to comprehend. A truly magnificent achievement! (Must have been loads of Brits on the design team lol!)
 

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