Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Vikarion]

When will it be down?

[Morwen Lagann]

A few minutes after Dex posted, iirc.

[orange]

Yes, it has successfully returned to Earth and NASA will probably be receiving the time critical cargo today.

[Mizhara]

This whole adventure was so awesome to follow. I'm tempted to look these guys up and beg for a job. Anything. This is something I just want to be a part of and yet have no skills I can contribute with.

[orange]

This whole adventure was so awesome to follow. I'm tempted to look these guys up and beg for a job. Anything. This is something I just want to be a part of and yet have no skills I can contribute with.

No harm in looking, it can sometimes be surprising what skills they are looking for.

They do however have some legal requirements about who they are allowed to employ (for most jobs) and they are largely located in southern California and central Texas.

Even if you don't (or can't) work for someone like SpaceX (there are other companies pursuing similar goals), you can contribute to the adventure by becoming knowledgeable yourself and educating others.  This is huge!  As an example, Mizhara (Bloodbird, and other Norwegians) could look into what Norsk Romsenter is doing and letting your friends know.  Like anything, having educated advocates is a huge part of getting wide reaching popular support.

[Ken]

TIL that among SpaceX's in-house developed rocket engines, they named two of them Merlin and Kestrel.  Coincidence?  Methinks not.

[Saede Riordan]

I'm a bit suspicious, as it were, of "religious experiences", or other forms of "transcendence". But I can't help but feel, whenever I see a satellite lift off, or a manned mission, that this is what humanity should be doing, this is what our potential is. Not merely to fly and be free from the wars and conflicts of earth, but to quite literally leave the cradle, the first baby steps of a future not bound to a very unstable planet on which we live, as it were, on the edge of a knife.

I don't think that there is any "for worse" in this. For all our faults, all our foibles, this is something that we should and could unite around. It's the very best of what we are: the curiosity, the inventiveness, the desire to explore and the willingness to risk all in pursuit of knowledge. This is the highest of our being made manifest in physical actions, liberated from superstition and ignorance, chaos and fear. Imperfect, as all such things are, but also more perfect than that which has come before.

I will say it, as it must be said: Dex, you are part of the vast machinery, the people behind the lights, who make these triumphs possible, and as such, I think we owe you and all the others like you, a debt of gratitude.

I wish to give many many 'likes' and 'thumbs up' to this post.

[orange]

TIL that among SpaceX's in-house developed rocket engines, they named two of them Merlin and Kestrel.  Coincidence?  Methinks not.

The engines were probably named in 2005 time frame, I suspect by Elon himself.  I think he probably kept a theme going based on the naming of the rocket series after a SciFi Falcon, famous for making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.   

While Elon does still play video games, I suspect he focuses on games he can pick up/put down when he takes a few hours to unwind.  The man's schedule is nuts - Mon, Tues at Tesla in Palo Alto, Weds, Thrus at SpaceX in Hawthorne, and then Fri is split between the two companies in Hawthorne.