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SpaceX Rocket Stuns Californians As It Carries 10 Satellites Into Space (theguardian.com)
A reused SpaceX rocket carried 10 satellites into orbit from California on Friday, leaving behind a trail of mystery and wonder as it soared into space. Elon Musk jokingly tweeted a video of the rocket with the caption, "Nuclear alien UFO from North Korea." The Guardian reports: The Falcon 9 booster lifted off from coastal Vandenberg air force base, carrying the latest batch of satellites for Iridium Communications. The launch in the setting sun created a shining, billowing streak that was widely seen throughout southern California and as far away as Phoenix, Arizona. Calls came in to TV stations as far afield as San Diego, more than 200 miles south of the launch site, as people puzzled about what caused the strange sight. Cars stopped on freeways in Los Angeles so drivers and passengers could take pictures and video. The Los Angeles fire department issued an advisory that the "mysterious light in the sky" was from the rocket launch. The same rocket carried Iridium satellites into orbit in June. That time, the first stage landed on a floating platform in the Pacific ocean. This time, the rocket was allowed to plunge into the sea. It was the 18th and final launch of 2017 for SpaceX, which has contracted to replace Iridium's system with 75 updated satellites. SpaceX has made four launches and expects to make several more to complete the job by mid-2018. The satellites also carry payloads for global aircraft tracking and a ship-tracking service. Did any Slashdotters manage to view the spectacle?
Yes, Iridium certainly was still going a few years ago when I wrote some code to do FTP over it. (for data from unattended ice measuring equipment in Antarctica, the only way they could do it)
Under that assumption the Apollo program also 100% success, as Apollo 1 was also just in testing mode. SpaceX lost payload. Therefore, this counts as loss.
If 2016 is recently, then yes they had a pre-launch explosion during fueling recently. But accidents in 2016 do not affect the 2017 success rate.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
It launched south, went over Antarctica and back up along the east coast of Africa and through the middle east. I believe SpaceX only uses California for polar orbits, Florida for normal orbits.
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Not in 2017. The accident was a ground equipment failure on a test stand during a test of a single engine that didn't even involve a complete rocket stage, let alone any payload.
Nobody is "stunned" here. Are you desperately trying to get attention?
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.