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Elon Musk Releases Supercut of SpaceX Rocket Explosions (hardocp.com)

Eloking shares a report from HardOCP: Elon Musk is demonstrating how one should not land an orbital rocket booster: the video, currently trending on YouTube, is essentially a blooper reel of SpaceX rocket tests that went explosive. While the company has more or less perfected launching Falcon 9 rockets, it is still working hard on recovering as much of the multi-million-dollar system as possible.

61 comments

  1. Onward and Upward, SpaceX! by Machupo · · Score: 2

    Gotta love free PR, especially when it is styled as a "look how far we've come" / "look at how much we have figured out" celebration.

    Looking forward to FH later this year and the start of some proper accumulation of mass in usable orbits!

    --
    *insert pithy sig here*
  2. "unscheduled rapid disassembly" by execthis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "unscheduled rapid disassembly" love it.

    seeing the final two successful landings is really poignant after seeing all the failures.

    go team SpaceX!

    1. Re:"unscheduled rapid disassembly" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's actually "rapid unscheduled disassembly" (RUD), which is a fairly old joke in the rocket industry.

  3. oh yeah? by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    It's still more successful and impressive overall than North Korea's pathetic launch success rate.

    1. Re:oh yeah? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop it. Now they're going to watch more Death Note, write USA in their own notebook, then promise righteous judgment. Frankly, it's embarrassing!

    2. Re:oh yeah? by michelcolman · · Score: 1

      They may use this video to show their people how bad Americans are at making rockets, followed by videos of their own launches played in reverse.

  4. Liberty Bell March by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    Is the Liberty Bell March used in comedy video because it was used by Monty Python's Flying Circus, or is there just something intrinsically funny about that piece of music? Or does it just have the right timing for comedy?

    1. Re:Liberty Bell March by robbak · · Score: 4, Informative

      All three, really. Great timing and unusual sounds to match with events, changes in feel to match to seams, and it was never a serious piece of music. And Monty Python references always make people smile.

      --
      Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
    2. Re:Liberty Bell March by Megane · · Score: 1

      Just to check, I muted the audio and tried watching it while playing Yakkety Sax (the other famous comedy music) in my head. It was just too fast for the video. I tried speeding up the video to 2x but it didn't help much.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  5. It's about lowering expectations by saibot834 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My take on the blooper reel, as funny as it is, is that it's supposed to lower expectations for Falcon Heavy. Falcon Heavy was originally supposed to launch in 2013, but the date has been pushed back multiple times in the recent years. Part of the reason is that it never was the top priority -- the Falcon 9 upgrades meant that more payloads could be launched using a single booster instead of three. And SpaceX has to keep NASA happy and fulfill their Commercial Resupply Missions to the ISS & the upcoming Dragon flights (first manned flights).

    But part of the reason why Falcon Heavy was delayed so much is because it is hugely complex. You can just stick two boosters to the side of a core booster and keep it together with some struts, like in Kerbal Space Program. The structural loads are all different and must be accounted for.

    So, I think the timing of the video so close to the scheduled launch of Falcon Heavy in November of this year is supposed to carefully counter the high expectations that the public has, given SpaceX's recent successes. Rocket science is hard, and failures are to be expected. But if you work on the problem for long enough, you eventually get it right. That's the message of the video.

    1. Re:It's about lowering expectations by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      What? "Moar boosters" isn't the solution to everything?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:It's about lowering expectations by michelcolman · · Score: 1

      Not without moar struts

    3. Re:It's about lowering expectations by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Just mod the physics and you should be fine. Why isn't Elon doing that? It's way easier than rebuilding the whole rocket.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:It's about lowering expectations by RoverDaddy · · Score: 1
      --
      RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
    5. Re:It's about lowering expectations by mangastudent · · Score: 1

      Verbally he's been saying SpaceX expects two things out of this launch: to collect a lot of data, and to put on a good show for the spectators.

    6. Re:It's about lowering expectations by mellon · · Score: 1

      That's true, and it's totally okay. The video was a blast. I laughed, I cried. The lesson in this is that being willing to fail is how you succeed.

    7. Re:It's about lowering expectations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's so sad that we're so risk-averse as a culture. Nothing worth doing is easy, and with engineering there's no substitute for real-world tests.

      Musk is ambitious, perhaps overly so, but he's getting stuff done. He's pretty the only person really pushing innovation in space in the west; politicians aren't interested; national space agencies don't have the funding and the big aerospace companies are quite happy with their giant profit margins for routine launches. If we're ever going to get off this rock, we need to get over our fear of failure.

    8. Re:It's about lowering expectations by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      So it's definitely going to blow up? Cool...

    9. Re:It's about lowering expectations by war4peace · · Score: 1

      Rocket science is hard

      ...but not exactly brain surgery, is it?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    10. Re:It's about lowering expectations by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      Randian theoretics are not the reason why progress in manned space missions requires privatization. It's because private enterprise can tolerate failure. It's inevitable that crews will be lost out there, but government cannot tolerate this without years of soul-searching, political assignment of blame, and the incessant input from Luddite yammerheads.

    11. Re:It's about lowering expectations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not being risk-averse would also mean the illegal immigrants would be deported to where they came from or at least being locked up in things like concentration camps. This would also mean that people who are considered mental ill would be locked up in a mental healthcare building. It goes hand in hand. Either you are a left wing country that tried to appease everyone or either you are a country that likes to fix things that are wrong but also doesn't care for taking risk when new things need to be developed since there is no union that protects the test subjects.

  6. If you're to fail.... by Eloking · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you're to fail, fail hard and with style!

    --
    Elok
  7. PETK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No Kerbals were harmed in the making of this video.

  8. Who doesn't like playing with rockets? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    He does it with real ones, we do it with KSP... the videos are oddly similar.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  9. Re:Elon by haruchai · · Score: 1

    Did u ever know a guy named "Elon" that was't gay?

    That name has "hair stylist" written all over it.

    He fucks a lot of women for someone you're intimating is gay.
    But even so, a lot of guys have to suck his cock - those who want to be him, those who work for him, those who said he'd never succeed & those who want him to create jobs in their states.

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  10. Never sure whether Elon Musk is a decent bloke ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Elon Musk does amazing engineering on a massive scale and is witty and sometime self-deprecating about it to boot, as his production of this video shows.

    But I read a couple of bios and it sounds like he's a nasty, nasty boss.

    So I'm conflicted.

    Is their any evidence that he really is actually a decent bloke, and the "nasty boss" reports are sour grapes by ex-employers and journalists making up news ?

    Cos then I could indulge in pure, jealous hatred.

  11. Propaganda or Love by speedplane · · Score: 0
    • I know this is paid-for PR
    • I know SpaceX technologies were spearheaded by others before it
    • I know SpaceX is a beneficiary of NASA largess and taxpayer funding
    • I know SpaceX is not close to achieving its mission of colonizing planets
    • I know Elon inflates many of his claims
    • I know his company's stock is probably overvalued

    But damn, I love Elon and SpaceX.

    --
    Fast Federal Court and I.T.C. updates
  12. Not rocket tests - landing tests by Gavagai80 · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are failed landing attempts, not rocket tests. There's a big difference. All of the primary missions of these flights succeeded.

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    This space intentionally left blank
    1. Re:Not rocket tests - landing tests by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      There are failed landing attempts, not rocket tests. There's a big difference. All of the primary missions of these flights succeeded.

      Test-landing a rocket is a rocket test.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Not rocket tests - landing tests by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      One interesting omission is the pad refueling incident with the earth shattering kaboom. Now, it wasn't supposed to even make a spark at that point but it was a failure.

      But you have to give SpaceX some credit. I've not seen an official NASA, Russian or NK 'blooper' reel done in house. Somebody has a sense of humor and proportion.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    3. Re:Not rocket tests - landing tests by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I did an internship at JPL in the 90s and have family that currently work there.

      If someone internally at NASA made a blooper reel like this that would be the end of their career.

    4. Re:Not rocket tests - landing tests by AlanObject · · Score: 2

      There are failed landing attempts, not rocket tests. There's a big difference. All of the primary missions of these flights succeeded.

      Came here to point this out.

      I know some NASA sub-contractor types who are rabidly contemptuous of SpaceX, saying things like "he doesn't even have the mission success rate of North Korea!"

      Oh really? True SpaceX has probably blown up a bigger percentage of its rockets than anyone, but I wasn't aware that anyone had a reusable self-landing booster.

    5. Re:Not rocket tests - landing tests by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Technically, one of the clips was the Grasshopper, which had a sensor failure during ascent and self-destructed for safety reasons. That one was a rocket (and landing) test, although I guess you could say that it fulfilled its primary mission by teaching them what not to do next time.

    6. Re: Not rocket tests - landing tests by oobayly · · Score: 1

      I thought that too, but then the difference is that it's easy to be light hearted about losing boosters that would have been lost anyway, whereas being light hearted about destroying customer's payloads doesn't come across so well.

    7. Re:Not rocket tests - landing tests by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If NASA had not put almost everything into the wasteful, manned Space Shuttle and could therefore have produced vidoes like this without showing people dying, then the American Space Industry would be 20 year more advanced than it is now.

    8. Re:Not rocket tests - landing tests by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What bullshit is this?

      SpaceX has lost one rocket during launch and one in a pad accident. Success rate is around 93% which is normal for a launcher. The failure rate is not "bigger percentage than anyone" - it is actually quite low, especially for a new rocket family.

      The number of boosters that blow up after delivering primary mission for every other provider is 100%. For SpaceX it is rapidly getting to be less than 50%. They have so far recovered 16 first stage boosters from 41 Falcon 9 launches without blowing them up.

    9. Re:Not rocket tests - landing tests by WallyL · · Score: 1

      NASA was taxpayer-funded. The tax payers would have not tolerated videos of the sort. However, the general public likes the self-deprecation of showing failures (without the loss of human life) with a plan to grow beyond them and not give up.

  13. "Trending" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not important - but quite interesting - to note that "trending" on youtube is roughly equivalent to being on the New York Time's "Best Seller" list for books.
    It's almost entirely curated.

    Regardless, taking the words "currently trending on YouTube" out of Eloking's paragraph entirely makes no difference to the rest of the text.

    I could provide evidence, but I bet the people who read this and "require" evidence are too stupid to be convinced by it anyway, so I won't bother.

  14. failure or not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anything that brings us closer to man's ultimate goal (Space sex) is a *WIN in my book. (They even had the audacity to name it so, make up all the excuses you want, junior "'X' is for the unknown", etc...)

  15. Skywriting by Pascoea · · Score: 1

    Have to say, my favorite part is what I assume are helium bottles skywriting after the to unsuccessful drone ship landings.

  16. Awesome! Now do it with Teslas! by bobbuck · · Score: 0
    Tesla Car Chase Ends In Flaming Car Wreck Explosion So Violent It Is Confused For Fireworks

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/...

    1. Re:Awesome! Now do it with Teslas! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow was that a biased article. Because a stolen Tesla broke apart and burst into flames after a 100 MPH collision Tesla should recall them? That's some pretty ridiculous "logic". The crash was pretty impressive though. The way the rear of the car, including the rear axle came right off, obviously flew through the air, then embedded itself into that corner on the building isn't something you see every day. What I can't quite tell from any of the pictures or the video is if the rear seats actually stayed with the main part of the vehicle. The roof seems intact all the way back to the rear window.

  17. Re: Musk is great at spinning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Betting against musk is a fools game... fool.

  18. Re: Never sure whether Elon Musk is a decent bloke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are articles about his management style. If you don't want long hours and impossible tasks he expects you to complete yesterday don't work for him. And for the love of god be prepared to answer his questions with real answers, don't use acronyms in written communications and don't expect him to fellate you when you are successful. He's a hardass.

  19. Good sense of humor at least by AlanObject · · Score: 1

    What I like about the reel is they took the trouble to print the root cause of each of the failures that were captured. It is really intimidating the number of things that can and have gone wrong with a machine like that.

    You have to wonder what potential failures they haven't caught yet. Sticky throttle valve? Failed landing strut? You would think those failures should never have happened in the first place.

    One question: is that landing barge manned? How would you like to have that job?

    1. Re:Good sense of humor at least by laurencetux · · Score: 1

      I think the landing barge is a drone (they might have an intern with a err "Manual Power Disconnect" device on board but i think his instructions are Swing and BAIL

    2. Re:Good sense of humor at least by michelcolman · · Score: 1

      They are drone ships, both of them. People still do have to come on board after the landing to secure the rocket so it can be brought back to port. That's not exactly a safe job either. But they're testing a robot to do that job.

  20. Re:Musk is great at spinning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe all of the cash down payments on preorders that people know they will have to wait years to get? You fucking idiot go choke down the schlongs of the big 3.

  21. Re:Never sure whether Elon Musk is a decent bloke by cheesybagel · · Score: 2

    Is it that surprising that he can be all of those things? No one's perfect.

  22. Re:Musk is great at spinning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Never heard the phrase "You have to spend money to make money"?

  23. Re: Never sure whether Elon Musk is a decent bloke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    He's considered a tough/demanding boss - and his companies make it clear upfront that they'll be demanding and the hours are rough. I think it's important to consider that he's doing legitimately important work -- There's reason to believe the world will be worse-off if his projects/companies fail. To put it in perspective - I'd forgive a hospital boss for expecting more from their doctors+nurses. It's more than just a job - and they don't want to hire anyone who can't see that. Elon shares they sentiment.

  24. Re:Musk is great at spinning by MattskEE · · Score: 1

    Well they are ramping up, which is hugely capital intensive. And so far demand for Tesla cars has been very high relative to the supply. So what's the problem?

    Tesla might still fail but they're just following the same plan they've had all along for growing the company and producing a more affordable (but good) electric car.

    That plan is why investors have put in the money necessary for Tesla to try this out which enables them to operate at a loss for several years.

  25. Re:Musk is great at spinning by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    And none of his fanbois actually look at the car market and ask, "But what make you think you are going to sell them?"

    Maybe because he already has 455000 pre-orders and we stopped asking pointless questions when we were 10.

  26. Re: Musk is great at spinning by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

    Betting against musk is a fools game... fool.

    So AI is never going to happen then? Good to know.

  27. Re: Musk is great at spinning by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

    It already has, but it's more hype than reality.

  28. Cool and humble by elgatozorbas · · Score: 1
    Is is really cool that they not only show their successes and can put things in perspective. It is rocket science, things are complex and do not always work out as planned. Especially the first time. And the second. And...

    It is also motivational for others to see that even highly specialized companies need some learning too. And succeed in the end.

  29. Re:Never sure whether Elon Musk is a decent bloke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, he can be someone whose companies do "amazing engineering on a massive scale" and "who is witty and sometime self-deprecating about it to boot".

    And he can also demand "long hours and impossible tasks he expects you to complete yesterday".

    And he can "be demanding and the hours are rough".

    But he cannot be the "nasty, nasty boss" the stories reveal and expect anyone to think he is a decent person.

    Not all tough bosses are the bastards Musk is alleged to be.