GarryP

SpaceX have managed to launch - land - refurbish - launch again - land again .... which is a major milestone since if they can do that, the cost comes down.

They are also supposed to be testing the Romba and fairings recovery on this mission - no word as yet as to if those worked.

GarryP

Video of the landing, which cut out on the day.

GarryP

Stargazing Live viewers find four-planet solar system via crowd-sourcing project - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

and at the same time on the other channel, viewers were watching other viewers, watching TV ...

Lucas_Dad

And thanks to my Filmon.TV account I got to watch Stargazing Live in the UK and here in Oz! Loved both series - especially the aboriginal stories of how they see the milky way.

Actually, possibly the best thing: I learned better what resonance was and its implications. Saw my son swinging on swing no. 1 of their 4-swing swing set - noticed the others of the same length swinging in unison - RESONANCE - I'm not sure the 5yo understood it, but at least I got to teach him a new word

Lucas_Dad

And as for Space Gandalf - I HAVE to get me on one of his stargazing tours!

GarryP

Someone uploaded the UK episodes to Youtube :

GarryP

Cassini dives between Saturn and it's rings at about 7pm local time tonight (9am UTC).


If it survives (not certain) it should reestablish radio contact tomorrow with new data - and then proceed to repeat this 21 more times between now and September, when if it still survives it will get flown into Saturn itself.

Lucas_Dad

The engineering & science behind all this is astonishing. I bet it'll survive just fine. This is based on no evidence or knowledge whatsoever!

GarryP

Got through OK, data starting to come back

Lucas_Dad

GarryP

SpaceX rocket goes woosh again in about 25 mins, only this is a spy sat so there will probably be less detail for this launch. First stage should return to the launch site.

GarryP

Scrubbed till tomorrow.

GarryP

Another day, another attempt :

GarryP

Worth watching this clip for a different perspective of what a stage 1 landing looks like.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTjVdLVB1bO/

GarryP

Another successful SpaceX launch, this one without a landing, coz it's a heavy satellite.


They seem to have their ~2 week cadence now, with the next launches on 1st, 15th, and 29th June. And when the other launchpads come online they should be able to push that even faster. You can see how their 4000 satellite, broadband everywhere, money earner could be made real.

If they, or someone else, can get such a system working, you are talking up to 1Gbps with ~30ms latency, to some user in the bush, compared to up to 25Mbps and 700ms latency for the NBN's Sky Mutter. In essence, it won't matter where you are, you should be able to get a better than NBN service level.