Well done SpaceX

[Nerull]

Musk has a lot going for him, the re-ignitable rockets and thrust control for example are ground breaking stuff - no one has pulled it off before and it has a significant potential.

JFC.

Here are two examples, since you refuse to believe that restart and throttling have been around for a while:

RL-10 - 1959 (Atlas V and Titan Centaur/Delta IV/Saturn I/DCX VTOL lander) - RL-10 can throttle from 104% thrust to 8% thrust - the best range of any engine, far better than SpaceX Merlin engines. Multiple restarts.

J-2S/J-2X 1964 and 2007. S and X variants both add throttle capability to existing J-2 engine used on Saturn V. Base J-2 had restart capability.

If you want just throttling, many more engines are capable of that. Here are a few just off the top of my head:

SSME/RS-25
RD-171
RD-180
RD-181
RS-68

Hypergolic or monopropellant engines have restart capability built in and are often throttleable as well, and there are too many of those to list. Those are already used for your pipe dream of satellites with manuvering systems, as well as some rocket upper stages, with notable examples such as the Apollo CSM engine, the Lunar Module Descent Engine, the Lunar Module Ascent Engine, the Space Shuttle Orbital Manuvering System engines - actually a new generation of the same engine used on the Apollo CSM - Russian transfer stages such as Fregat, and many more.

[dannyf]

It is hard to compare the first years of NASA with Musks first years because...

Not only that, Musk benefited a lot from the pioneers like NASA, not to mention the guys he picked up there.

Still, I think we should all wait and see how this re-usable thing turns out to be for Musk + company.

[CatalinaWOW]

It is hard to compare the first years of NASA with Musks first years because...

Not only that, Musk benefited a lot from the pioneers like NASA, not to mention the guys he picked up there.

Still, I think we should all wait and see how this re-usable thing turns out to be for Musk + company.

Yes, and NASA benefited a lot from Tsaikosvky and Goddard and Von Braun, and oh yeah, they got Von Braun from the Germans.  NASA was pioneering in their heyday, and Musk is pioneering now.  It is just different territory they are exploring.  Re-usability has been in the too hard column for NASA, as has low cost.  They have tried, failed, and quit trying.  We should all hope Musk is successful, but not bet our life savings on it.

[JoeN]

In case anyone cares.

[HP-ILnerd]

Comparing NASA and SpaceX is like comparing the US Air Force and Boeing.  NASA is the customer.  Even during Apollo, NASA didn't build their rockets.  The Apollo CSM was made by North American, the LM by Grumman, the Saturn V was built by Boeing, North American and Douglas.  Sure (as customer of a big National Project), they had a lot of input into specifications and testing, but they didn't actually build any of the vehicles.  Same with Shuttle.

Comparing apples to apples, SpaceX can be compared to ULA or Airbus, etc.

[timb]

Close...but no cigar

Topples over after "landing". Looks like a leg didn't latch properly. Damn close though.

From one of the comments:

mattietkCats always land on their feet. Why not add cats? Rocket will always land with cat right-side-up. Solved. Let me know if you need design help.

This guy might just be on to something... I think I just figured out how to make a rocket that flys perfectly straight and always lands upright!

So, we could replace the IMU with a cat and instead of heat tiles, we cover the outside of the rocket with buttered toast, butter side facing in. Since a rocket is a cylinder, the buttered side would always be facing another buttered side, thus forcing the rocket to stay upright. It would be kind of like magnetic levitation, only with butter, toast and cats. We'll call it...CatButtLev.

Now, I'm thinking the cylinder of buttered toast may cause the rocket to have a tendency to implode, but that's something we can work on.

I'm off to the Bakery Thrift shop to get some bread...


Sent from my Smartphone

[miguelvp]

There is a youtube video out there of the buttery toast and cat for endless energy.

I think someone already did post it in this forum in some other thread quite a while ago.

Edit: found the post:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/(video)-free-energy-over-unity-charging-circuit-the-scientific-method/msg743147/#msg743147
and the video: