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SpaceX Gets the Green Light To Resume Rocket Launches (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the green-light dept.

Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket company has been cleared to resume flying following a launch pad explosion four months ago, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday. From a report on Fortune: The decision clears SpaceX to attempt to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 10 Iridium Communications satellites as early as Monday, a day later than originally planned. SpaceX, owned by Tesla Motors Chief Executive Officer Musk, on Friday declined to comment about what caused the delay. Liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is targeted for around 10:26 a.m. PST/1:26 p.m. EST. The FAA, which oversees commercial U.S. space launches, oversaw SpaceX's investigation into why a Falcon 9 rocket burst into flames on a launch pad in Florida as it was being fueled for a routine, prelaunch test on Sept. 1. The accident destroyed the $62 million booster and a $200 million Israeli communications satellite that had been partly leased by Facebook to expand Internet access in Africa.

44 comments

  1. Capitalist potemkin village by For+a+Free+Internet · · Score: -1, Troll

    Parasite on the workers Musk plays with his toys at our expense while millions go homeless and starve, freeze to death in winter.

    It's time for COMMUNISM NOW!

    --
    UNITE with the Campaign for a Free Internet because today, our future begins with tomorrow!
    1. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      WAKE-UP boy-o
      The largest Communist nation on Earth is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on cutting edge technology

      Maybe they know best how to address the problems of the proletariat

    2. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by erapert · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Judging by how poorly communist countries have done and are currently doing I think I'll take my chances with our current "capitalist" setup. (And we're not a good model of capitalism at all).

    3. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by erapert · · Score: 4, Informative

      Soviet Famine killed millions
      Chinese famine killed millions
      Venezuela's communist system is failing them now just like the USSR's system went belly up.
      Communist Vietnam has almost no human rights

      I could go on, but I think this is sufficient to disprove your bullshit.

    4. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Oh, by "poorly" you mean how the USSR beat you into space with Sputnik, Gagarin, and Tereshkova? Poorly like that?

      And if they're currently doing poorly, doesn't that show there are no benefits and spinoffs from "exploring" space?

    5. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by erapert · · Score: 1

      The USA put men on the moon multiple times, sent probes on escape velocity from the solar system, and now has probes and rovers around and on Mars.
      Where are the soviets now?

    6. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The USA put men on the moon multiple times, sent probes on escape velocity from the solar system,

      In the 70s

      and now has probes and rovers around and on Mars.

      Stuff that the soviets did first in the 60s/70s, including harsher planets like venus

      Who's currently transporting people to the ISS?

    7. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, the current Russians are the ones putting the US in orbit... As the US cannot do it at all.

    8. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Didn't Putin give you guys a vacation after Trump won?

    9. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 2

      In Soviet Russia, government makes jokes about you!

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    10. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The country whose Finance Minister wanted Atlas Shrugged to be mandatory reading in the schools. Not the USSR.

    11. Re: Capitalist potemkin village by WindBourne · · Score: 1, Interesting

      There is no communist nation. There is a totalitarian nation with a mixed command/capitalist economy. But nothing that Marx would call communist.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    12. Re: Capitalist potemkin village by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      In what way is man that is providing 10s of 1000 of decent to high paying jobs, a parasite?

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    13. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Didn't Putin give you guys a vacation after Trump won?

      I take it you admit to losing the argument about main point of this thread when you resort to that.

    14. Re: Capitalist potemkin village by cheesybagel · · Score: 0

      If you are talking about China it's the closest thing around to the old Soviet style communist dictatorships that's still available, albeit with a mixed economy.

    15. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Sure. But it's not like the political systems that preceded communism in Russia or China were that much better. Famines are unfortunately a regular occurrence in the history of both those countries.

    16. Re: Capitalist potemkin village by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jupiter? Saturn? Pluto?
      nice selective memory.

    17. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure. But it's not like the political systems that preceded communism in Russia or China were that much better. Famines are unfortunately a regular occurrence in the history of both those countries.

      The preceding famines were nowhere near close to the magnitude of the communist ones, nor were there purely man-made.

    18. Re: Capitalist potemkin village by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Well if you guys would rather stick to the 'No True Scotsman's Fallacy' I guess that's fine too...

    19. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sputnik 1 vs Explorer 1 demonstrated that USSR was 4 months ahead in space race before the US in 1957/8.
      Gagarin vs Glenn demonstrated that USSR was about 1 year ahead before the US in 1962.
      Apollo 11 vs nothing demonstrate that right now US is about 50 YEARS ahead of the USSR/Russia, AND COUNTING. Guess communism ain't so hot after all, is it?

    20. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who's currently transporting people to the ISS?

      The reason is the same as the reason you're wearing a T-shirt with a "made in China" tag. It's shit but it's cheap. Having cheapest workforce around is nothing really to brag about.

      But i guess you paid russian trolls have to make the most out of it, before Sputnik, the Pride of the Empire :DDDDDD gets replaced by a product of a small private company :DDDDDDDD

    21. Re: Capitalist potemkin village by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      the soviets were also not communist.
      They were a pure command economy tied to a totalitarian leadership.

      NONE of those things are communists. In POF, I doubt that we will ever see a communist nation ever on this planet. Probably the closest things are the farms in Israel.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    22. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Neither were purely man-made. They were mostly due to poor (murderous) policies, in particular the Soviet one, but both had climate issues behind the agricultural production collapse as well.

    23. Re: Capitalist potemkin village by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      the soviets were also not communist.
      They were a pure command economy tied to a totalitarian leadership.

      NONE of those things are communists. In POF, I doubt that we will ever see a communist nation ever on this planet. Probably the closest things are the farms in Israel.

      We actually have seen it, just it doesn't last long at all. The USSR even began that way, but it declined so quickly that they had to replace the economic system with socialism.

      For an excellent case study on this, read about the Icarians. They had plenty of resources, including a few cities already built whose prior residents just left, (i.e. Navoo Illinois, when the Mormons who built it were forced to leave by the state government) and even got to pick and choose who joined the commune, selecting those with a higher work ethic and rejecting those who didn't. In fact most who came were wealthy and gave up all of their possessions to the community, doing the whole "to each, from each" thing. The problem is, the GDP gradually declined and what happened to them is the same thing that happened to every communist country that came after them; they had to gradually establish a command economy, and the more they did this the more tired of it that people became until enough of them left that the whole thing just fell apart.

      Russia tried to solve this by erecting a wall to keep people in and enacting "work truancy" laws (i.e. the police would make sure that you were at your designated place of work,) and that lasted them all of about 25 years, but they were still dirt poor the whole time. The Icarians weren't an official government though, and they had no ability to do this. They could have lasted longer if they did, but to what end? Communism is a really crappy idea no matter how you look at it.

    24. Re:Capitalist potemkin village by Cochonou · · Score: 1

      It's shit but it's cheap ? What the hell are you talking about ? There is a good reason neither Europe nor the United States has currently the capacity to send people on orbit - it's not an easy engineering problem.

  2. A Dumb Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    SpaceX Gets the Green Light To Resume Rocket Launches

    While rocket launching your resume is certainly faster than regular old mail, it's still slower than e-mailing it out there.

    1. Re: A Dumb Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      launching a resume by a rocket gets attention of recruiters. I bet it is a resume of a nig on a welfare, obama.

  3. OL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    >the accident destroyed the $62 million booster
    lol
    >and a $200 million Israeli
    Lol
    >Facebook to expand Internet access in Africa
    LOL
    >Tech Billionaires Are Asking Scientists For Help To Break Humans Out of Computer Simulation
    olololololololoooooo

    1. Re:OL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      lulz @ fuckerberg who lost his satellite

  4. You're Racist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    You're only claiming that homeless people exist because Obama is black.

    I do, however, expect about 1.5 billion to 2 billion Americans to lose their homes in the next few weeks.

  5. I predict... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    more anti-sniper coverage than a Presidential appearance at an NRA convention

    1. Re:I predict... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      more anti-sniper coverage than a Presidential appearance at an NRA convention

      They dont need anti-sniper coverage those people are just exercising their second amendment rights. If your body cant handle a hot dose of freedom you must be a communist or socialist.

    2. Re:I predict... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL, "hot dose of freedom"

      I have got to remember that one :)

  6. So they know what happened now? by bobbied · · Score: 2

    Seriously, does this mean they know what caused the thing to explode now?

    Anybody know what the reason was?

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    1. Re:So they know what happened now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, the helium and oxygen loading procedures caused the oxygen to turn to a solid. The solid oxygen got involved in the wrapping on the helium containers and caused it to burst

      or... ULA shot it

      your pick

    2. Re:So they know what happened now? by MrLogic17 · · Score: 5, Informative

      A nice summary of the issue (and work-around) from Scott Manley:

      https://plus.google.com/102502...

    3. Re:So they know what happened now? by Jfetjunky · · Score: 4, Informative

      You can also read SpaceX's status updates about it here: http://www.spacex.com/news/201...

    4. Re:So they know what happened now? by MrLogic17 · · Score: 2

      A TL;DR version: The outside carbon fiber overwrap for a tank is permeable for liquid oxygen. They tried filling in liquid helium so cold that the liquid oxygen froze. Just like water in pavement cracks freezing, bad things happened. Only, space rocket bad.

    5. Re:So they know what happened now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not liquid helium, "just" really cold gaseous helium.

    6. Re:So they know what happened now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Better let Musk know, he is apparently misinformed

        "It basically involves a combination of liquid helium, advanced carbon fiber composites and solid oxygen," Musk said. "Oxygen so cold that it actually enters solid phase."

    7. Re:So they know what happened now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anybody know what the reason was?

      Cutting corners.

    8. Re: So they know what happened now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that why they make the tanks spherical? Seems like a waste of space.

    9. Re: So they know what happened now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no. pressure; minimized/optimized volume & mass of the He tanks... look at satellite & rocket cutaway diagrams... lots of spherical tanks used.

  7. This is cool. by lemyhan · · Score: 1

    This is cool.