http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/21/10640306/spacex-elon-musk-rocket-landing-success

(tl;dr = they made it so the first stage of a rocket to take a payload up to space came back and landed itself upright ... think about that, realize how remarkable that is, then watch it)

https://youtu.be/1B6oiLNyKKI

SpaceX successfully landed its Falcon 9 rocket after launching it to space

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully landed upright on solid ground at Cape Canaveral, Florida this evening, after traveling into space and back. It's the first time SpaceX has been able to gently touch down the Falcon 9 post-launch — something the company has been trying to do for the past year. It’s a big first step toward reusable rockets.

This launch was also the first time SpaceX has flown since June, after one of its Falcon 9 rockets exploded en route to the International Space Station. Now this return-to-flight mission has made history — no one else has ever landed a rocket that has gone as deep into space as the Falcon 9.

As big as this is for SpaceX, it's not the first time a vertical take-off rocket has landed upright after launching into space. In November, Jeff Bezos’ private spaceflight company Blue Origin announced that it had landed its rocket New Shepard post-launch. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is more complex than New Shepard: it’s designed to go higher in space, and much faster.

Both accomplishments suggest the shape of things to come, says Charles Miller, president of NexGenSpace, a spaceflight consulting firm. "I think it’s very clear the future is reusable space, and the rest of the world is playing catch up to the innovation that’s taking place in America’s space entrepreneurs," said Miller.

Right now, all rockets that travel into orbit are either destroyed or lost after taking off. It's something that drives up the cost of spaceflight; an entirely new rocket must be built for each launch. But if SpaceX can routinely reuse its rockets, the company saves the cost of manufacturing new vehicles for follow-up missions. That could make spaceflight a lot more affordable.

SpaceX has tried this landing twice before. In January and April, the company attempted to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 — a 14-story tall portion of the rocket body — on a floating platform out at sea. The rockets fell over and exploded both times.

Since those two attempts, SpaceX has modified some things. The most obvious change is that today’s landing was on solid ground, rather than at sea — a floating ship is a smaller and more unpredictable target. That’s not all, though. SpaceX introduced an updated version of the Falcon 9, informally named the Falcon 9 v1.1 Full Thrust. This version of the rocket has a modified structure and an updated engine, that's supposed to provide more thrust.

If SpaceX can routinely reuse rockets, that may force change in the whole private space industry. SpaceX CEO Musk noted that it costs $16 million to manufacture the Falcon 9, but only $200,000 to fuel. Eliminating a $16 million expense could drastically bring down launch costs.Competing launch providers may have to explore reusable rockets as well to compete with SpaceX on future contracts.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Musk gets bad press at times, but he seems like a genius to me.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Seems a fair assessment to me.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Yes, and it is actually deserved, unlike someone like Steve Jobs who was simply a great marketer with a pretty good aptitude for aesthetics.

Musk truly is a visionary that moves our society forward even if some of his ideas are destined to fail.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

If you need to kill any time at work this week... great read about Musk and his companies. I don't think visionary does him justice, he was on the ground floor of Paypal, Tesla, Spacex, and some other tech ventures. Starting any one of those would be a feat.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk ... t-man.html

Even those vacuum tube pods for high speed travel sound interesting. I am not smart enough in an engineering sense to fully appreciate his work, but he seems like one of those guys we should all champion because he advances our collective knowledge.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Absolutely, his BIO is a very interesting read. He is extremely technical too, he understands the designs the Teslas and Rockets inside and out. To the point he can sit in any engineering meeting and can challenge anyone.

I told my roomate if i could do anything in the world it would be to have a beer with elon musk

She rolled her eyes

Fuckin dumb bitch

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

So apparently being able to reuse this 'first stage' of the rocket rather than build a new one almost from scratch each time will save somewhere around 75% of the cost of launching things into space. This would be a Louis CK-approved event to apply the word 'amazing' to.

_________________
Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Elon Musk is not my least favorite member of America's ruling wealth class, but that doesn't mean I like him at all.

Elon Musk hordes some of the world's best engineers (before firing them randomly, what brilliance!) for his personal vanity projects that he runs for little other purpose than to keep stupid Americans worshipping his throne. Other than Paypal, basically a transaction tax for the early Internet age that was successful for happening at exactly the right time, all of his companies soak up government subsidiee and upper-middle class coin from the image obsessed. I don't shed any tears for the latter, just shows that a lot of money doesn't make someone above dropping $100k on a car that has a range (hasnt been an issue for almost 100 years now in automobiles) and no track record of long-term reliability.

He treats his employees like garbage. He is ultra insecure about his competition, constantly taking cheap shots at Apple and Google (who are currently mired in their own billionaire persona building money-wasting projects). Tesla and SpaceX are absolutely prime examples that the free market has no fucking idea how to do things for the betterment of humanity, wasting the talent of hundreds of smart engineers and billions of dollars on feel-good bullshit. It more resembles the Soviet Union than anything else.

However he's a perfect idol for the millions of Americans like Don Tiny who think because they browse Reddit they are more intelligent and "plugged in" than anyone else.

you eatin that?

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Because I'm impressed that they developed the first rocket to launch, deliver a payload, and then land itself upright I'm (to distill your angsty junior-high rant down to its essence) apparently some Elon Musk devotee?

I don't know shit about the guy ... wouldn't know him if he handed me ten bucks. He may well be a raging Caller Bob - wouldn't know, don't care. I never suggested I was "plugged in" to anything. You, however, are apparently working on his biography with your head up his ass that far what with your ability to rattle off your version of his resume on a whim.

Maybe you should just stick to your really super important Uber driving, preferably into an oak tree at 75mph.

_________________
Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I'm not totally versed in CSFMB terminology (why it's pizza_Place instead of just Pizza Place is lost on me), but it's my impression that the Shoutout section is for praising those who do things well. You went from having Musk named in the title of this thread (in the Shoutout forum), to agreeing that he's a genius, to finally getting your feelings hurt and saying "you don't know shit about him."

And don't go calling my rants junior high when you still have that nauseating sig quote attached to every one of your posts.