The rocket is to transport 2 astronauts to ISS. This is the first manned SpaceX rocket.
Here's the NASA live stream on the NASA site.
And here it is on YT
The rocket is to transport 2 astronauts to ISS. This is the first manned SpaceX rocket.
Here's the NASA live stream on the NASA site.
And here it is on YT
But we went outside 10 minutes later and had a great view of the space station right above.
Think it flies right over us at 11.15 ?
Its almost like an Apple event with Steve. But why not just land on the earth?
Don’t need heavy landing gear or structural bracing to support the booster.
When it is on the pad prior to launch the rocket is pressurised and can support its own weight, after the flight the pressure is gone and it would collapse.
A lot of early rockets simply bent if the internal pressure failed.
Simple, it would fall over.
As a matter of interest the early German rockets had the problem of collapsing before the tanks were pressurised and it took a while to figure out what was happening. But it took a while and if you look at The North Korean rockets, they were seen as a joke until analysts saw that they had started to wrap them with bracing wire. That is when the west began to take North Korea missile capabilities seriously.
The US space programme Gemini manned rockets were like this.
It was more of a problem when the same rocket, the Titan II, was used as an ICBM rather than carrying a human payload as a leak of propellant was more likely over an extended time and it could cause the rocket to collapse.
More of a problem because of the nuclear war head and the fact that routine maintenance was required.
Why cant it just land on the earth!?
The weight of all the landing gear. If you noticed the booster had for simple fives struts and it was the “chopsticks” themselves that had the suspension.
It is a brilliant design.
Could you rephrase that please?
Not just that. The rocket’s skin is thin to save weight. Rather like it being the air in a car tyre which keeps the shape, and not the tyre rubber, the rocket fuel within the stage keeps it’s shape - whilst it’s on the ground and gravity does it’s stuff.
Take away the fuel and the rocket stage will crumple.
And it would fall over.
Not if it had legs like the smaller rocket stages.
But it doesn’t. Gravity sucks.
Jeez, how did that get so garbled?