Replicated deep space signals

motoxracer723
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12/11/2017 6:15pm
Headed out tomorrow to see the SpaceX launch and (hopefully) landing from KSC. Pictures/video when I return. Anyone else been to one of these and have some rules of thumb??
G-man
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12/11/2017 9:08pm
Very cool.
See if you can find an old astronaut to rub elbows with give him some beer and see if he'll open up about the UFOs he saw. Woohoo
MotoMo165
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12/11/2017 10:31pm
NASA unveiling some sort of discovery Thursday from their AI telescope

The Shop

XXVoid MainXX
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12/12/2017 7:11am Edited Date/Time 12/12/2017 7:13am
Headed out tomorrow to see the SpaceX launch and (hopefully) landing from KSC. Pictures/video when I return. Anyone else been to one of these and have...
Headed out tomorrow to see the SpaceX launch and (hopefully) landing from KSC. Pictures/video when I return. Anyone else been to one of these and have some rules of thumb??
Looks like it's been moved back until tomorrow morning. Sad Hope you get to stay and watch it. I took the family to a shuttle launch back in '01. It was incredible. My buddy was stationed there and we got pretty close. Would love to get up close to a SpaceX launch and land. Looks like they are taking off from the newly refurbished pad (LC40?) and coming back to land in LZ1. Hope you get some good pictures. I'll be watching the live stream!
motoxracer723
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12/12/2017 8:25am
Looks like it's been moved back until tomorrow morning. :( Hope you get to stay and watch it. I took the family to a shuttle launch...
Looks like it's been moved back until tomorrow morning. Sad Hope you get to stay and watch it. I took the family to a shuttle launch back in '01. It was incredible. My buddy was stationed there and we got pretty close. Would love to get up close to a SpaceX launch and land. Looks like they are taking off from the newly refurbished pad (LC40?) and coming back to land in LZ1. Hope you get some good pictures. I'll be watching the live stream!
We got to Titusville when I had the bright idea to check their twitter feed. Too late to turn back now, we're going to make accommodations to stay overnight and hope it goes off tomorrow.

Did you try to watch from the KSC launch complex or did you go off site? They're saying we should be able to see both the launch and the landing from the viewing area that they bus you to.

No telephoto, so the best we can do is take some 'far away and zoom in' types of shots. We'll see. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.
Shawn142
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12/13/2017 6:58am
We got to Titusville when I had the bright idea to check their twitter feed. Too late to turn back now, we're going to make accommodations...
We got to Titusville when I had the bright idea to check their twitter feed. Too late to turn back now, we're going to make accommodations to stay overnight and hope it goes off tomorrow.

Did you try to watch from the KSC launch complex or did you go off site? They're saying we should be able to see both the launch and the landing from the viewing area that they bus you to.

No telephoto, so the best we can do is take some 'far away and zoom in' types of shots. We'll see. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.
Sorry about the luck, it got pushed again. There are always teething problems when bringing a new pad online especially since the system SpaceX uses is so complicated. And after the explosion last fall pad 40 is more or less brand new. It'll probably be pushed back a few more times. When we brought pad 40 online at the end of 2015 for the Orbcomm launch which was also the first booster to return to land, it took us 4 scrubs including a scary one where the engines actually started up before finally getting it right. Pad 39A was more of the same.

I would skip the KSC deal since they are going to bus you to the Saturn V complex which has a blocked view of pad 40 and the landing complex. My personal favorite spot to watch from when the base is mostly closed down (which always happens on a return to land flight) is the hill at South Gate off 401 or Exploration Tower a bit further south of the power. They both give you an elevated view that gives you full viability of the launch and landing pads. The hill is free, the Tower charges a couple bucks a head.



motoxracer723
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12/13/2017 10:15am
I read the additional scrub note laying in the hotel room last night and decided to pull the plug. We're staying at ww ranch in Jacksonville till Jan 1 so I can make the trip in 2.5hrs if it's free of traffic.
Unfortunately I've got to fly to Houston for business tomorrow morning then to NYC for a wedding this weekend. Won't be back until Monday. Fingers and toes crossed the 15th gets scrubbed too so I can be around for a late December flight.
I'm disappointed but I'd rather see a successful launch than them push one through and have a problem.
Hoping the falcon heavy inaugural launch actually happens in January as I'll be in fl till then. That'd be a sight.
Shawn142
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12/13/2017 10:29am
I read the additional scrub note laying in the hotel room last night and decided to pull the plug. We're staying at ww ranch in Jacksonville...
I read the additional scrub note laying in the hotel room last night and decided to pull the plug. We're staying at ww ranch in Jacksonville till Jan 1 so I can make the trip in 2.5hrs if it's free of traffic.
Unfortunately I've got to fly to Houston for business tomorrow morning then to NYC for a wedding this weekend. Won't be back until Monday. Fingers and toes crossed the 15th gets scrubbed too so I can be around for a late December flight.
I'm disappointed but I'd rather see a successful launch than them push one through and have a problem.
Hoping the falcon heavy inaugural launch actually happens in January as I'll be in fl till then. That'd be a sight.
I wouldn't hold my breath on the Falcon Heavy launch. 39A isn't free to finish upgrades until the Zuma payload clears in early January. I use to work for their ground support equipment fab group and still talk to some of the guys on the ground who are working issues with both pads. There will be considerable prep and integration hurdles with Heavy that will just take time. Then a prolonged series of tests before final launch prep. SpaceX has always been very generous with giving out dates they can't really hit. I would expect Feb or March realistically.
XXVoid MainXX
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12/13/2017 5:16pm
Well, we've already been waiting 5 years since it was first supposed to go so what's another couple of months? Smile
Shawn142
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12/13/2017 5:44pm Edited Date/Time 12/13/2017 5:46pm
The funny thing about that is the real development for the Heavy has only come together since intro of the Full Thrust version of the rocket in early 2016. It was largely abandoned before that. It was originally slated to launch from Vandenberg AFB in California because that flame duct could handle the load. But the first launch frame we built was seriously under designed and torqued badly from just the Falcon 9 testing and launch we did. So the idea was scrapped privately and not really considered until the lease of 39A at KSC. That pad was built from the ground up for the Heavy, and only after leasing of that pad did the rocket really get back underway in design and development.

The entire thing is such a pain in the ass you'll probably only see half a dozen Heavies ever fly. It's just too much of a total redesign and is mostly built by hand, the center core had to be seriously beefed up and made differently from any other Falcon 9.
XXVoid MainXX
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12/13/2017 7:12pm Edited Date/Time 12/13/2017 7:12pm
I almost wonder why they just don't move on to the BFR. I think they hope to gain more knowledge with the FH to use as a stepping stone to the BFR. But, the BFR is a single booster like the F9 so I'm not sure what they would gain.
Shawn142
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12/14/2017 5:17am
The BFR is just a bridge too far at the moment. As confident as Elon sounds about it in public the thing has already become an engineering and logistical nightmare. The rocket has to do 3 things that are still science fiction. After launch of the upper stage it will need to exhaust all fuel to reach a stable orbit. So the booster stage has to come down with enough precision to not only land back on the pad, but also within the confines of the hold down clamps. Currently that's impossible, the hold downs are precision set with laser trackers to a tolerance within .060 of an inch. It calls for a total redesign, but even still that's like hitting a bullseye within a bullseye. Then that stage must be immediately refueled with a tanker upper stage and relaunched. To completely refill the orbital vehicle this could take up to 4 separate tanker launches. Then you get into the real tricky part, on-orbit refueling ship to ship. All of these things are possible and SpaceX has certainly started in that direction, but the BFR is an end game to something they've really only just begun. Landing precision has been within roughly 3 meters, which is great but not enough. Refurb of a core stage to be considered safe for reflight is still a 3 to 4 month process.

There's even trouble before the process of building and final design get started. After doing transport studies they now realize it can't be built in the main Hawthorne plant. A new production facility will have to be built next to the water so stages can be shipped by barge, probably in San Pedro where they already have dock space for incoming boosters. That's a long winded way of saying this thing will not be on a launch pad in 2022 waiting to be sent to Mars. This is probably going to be a decade + of testing and fine tuning.
XXVoid MainXX
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12/14/2017 7:01am
Totally agree, however before I saw the boosters landing I would have thought that was impossible. It's really fun to sit on the sidelines and watch this stuff happen.
Shawn142
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12/14/2017 7:45am
I agree, nothing Elon is planning is impossible. It's just engineering problems which can be solved with enough brain power. I enjoyed my time working at SpaceX but it was just too much. Working and sweating your ass off in the elements of costal Florida for 80 hours a week just sucked after a while. I would leave before my kids woke up and get home after they went to bed, and spent maybe an hour with my wife before going to bed. In the end the money just wasn't a big enough offset to the stress and schedule. I have since moved over to Boeing to work with the SLS and Starliner which is indoors and much more laid back. Of course the first SLS launch isn't for another 2 years.
XXVoid MainXX
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12/14/2017 8:51am
And that date will probably be pretty much accurate. Smile Boeing has been doing very well in the stock market lately. Smile
XXVoid MainXX
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12/15/2017 7:48am
Man, you missed a good show. Great video on this one!

gabrielito
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12/16/2017 10:28am

Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-har…

WASHINGTON — In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find.

Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.

For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.

The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.
............
motoxracer723
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12/18/2017 8:54am
Shawn142 wrote:
Sorry about the luck, it got pushed again. There are always teething problems when bringing a new pad online especially since the system SpaceX uses is...
Sorry about the luck, it got pushed again. There are always teething problems when bringing a new pad online especially since the system SpaceX uses is so complicated. And after the explosion last fall pad 40 is more or less brand new. It'll probably be pushed back a few more times. When we brought pad 40 online at the end of 2015 for the Orbcomm launch which was also the first booster to return to land, it took us 4 scrubs including a scary one where the engines actually started up before finally getting it right. Pad 39A was more of the same.

I would skip the KSC deal since they are going to bus you to the Saturn V complex which has a blocked view of pad 40 and the landing complex. My personal favorite spot to watch from when the base is mostly closed down (which always happens on a return to land flight) is the hill at South Gate off 401 or Exploration Tower a bit further south of the power. They both give you an elevated view that gives you full viability of the launch and landing pads. The hill is free, the Tower charges a couple bucks a head.



Great info in here.

Yea unfortunately I was playing in the snow Friday instead of in the sun watching this thing takeoff/land. Shit happens. Hoping that the next Falcon 9 goes in early January though I don't know how realistic that is from what I've read. I'm not giving up on seeing one of these things though.
Shawn142
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12/19/2017 8:10am
gabrielito wrote:
[b]Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program[/b] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html?src=twr%3Fsmid%3Dfb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes WASHINGTON — In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on...

Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-har…

WASHINGTON — In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find.

Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.

For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.

The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.
............
I wonder what they got for their 22 million a year besides coffee machines and a lot of overtime.
motoxracer723
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12/20/2017 5:05am


Posted on Twitter - glad to see some progress



Now THAT'S an impressive rear end
XXVoid MainXX
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12/20/2017 6:48am
Very cool! Didn't see the roadster in there anywhere. Smile
G-man
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12/20/2017 7:37am
gabrielito wrote:
[b]Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program[/b] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html?src=twr%3Fsmid%3Dfb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes WASHINGTON — In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on...

Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-har…

WASHINGTON — In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find.

Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.

For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.

The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.
............
Yep and who knows what they know!!! Woohoo
G-man
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12/20/2017 7:38am
[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRezf3BU8AASJRT.jpg[/img] Posted on Twitter - glad to see some progress [img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRezf3DUEAAubA3.jpg[/img] Now THAT'S an impressive rear end


Posted on Twitter - glad to see some progress



Now THAT'S an impressive rear end
That's an awesome view!
Shawn142
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12/20/2017 7:52am
Very cool! Didn't see the roadster in there anywhere. Smile
Payload processing is a different building and often only moved into the hangar for mate a day or two before heading to the pad. Obviously most satellites are static and temp sensitive so they control those elements for as long as possible.
Shawn142
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12/20/2017 7:54am
G-man wrote:
Yep and who knows what they know!!! Woohoo
I gotta think if they knew or found anything the unit wouldn't have been decommissioned in 2012 and had a significantly bigger budget than 22 million. That sounds like a lot but for the cost overrun of any government program that's just enough to keep the lights on.
kzizok
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12/20/2017 8:13am
Shawn142 wrote:
I gotta think if they knew or found anything the unit wouldn't have been decommissioned in 2012 and had a significantly bigger budget than 22 million...
I gotta think if they knew or found anything the unit wouldn't have been decommissioned in 2012 and had a significantly bigger budget than 22 million. That sounds like a lot but for the cost overrun of any government program that's just enough to keep the lights on.
Yep

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