What "weed need" is a space mission!

[VictordeHolland]

After watching SpaceX's succes on Kerbtube, Bill Kerman had the bright idea to emulate their recent feat of landing the first stage booster. Jeb Kerman was furious when he learned that the mission would be unmanned and demanded that Bill changed his design. Bill explained the mission was to resupply the KSS (Kerbal Space Station) and there would be no room for Kerbonauts on this flight. Bob Kerman was delighted when he learned there would be room on the capsule for scientific experiments and went to work immediately.

More pics (and higher resolution) in my imgur album:
http://imgur.com/a/AOXzE

Game: Kerbal Space Program, a space flight simulation game developed by Squad (a independent studio) www.kerbalspaceprogram.com
If you are interested in rockets/space, you should definitely check it out. The game is actively developed and there are many add-ons,mods and part packs.
Add-ons/mods used:
SpaceY (for parts)
Kerbal Engineer Redux (to see delta-V stats)
MechJeb (extra flight control and suicide burn)
FMRS (to control return of stage 1)

[only_human]

Apparently it rained fairly hard yesterday at Port Canaveral:
TL;DR: 3 minutes of our buddy getting soaked:
https://youtu.be/MxmU7MWJYWk

Apr 14, 2016Spring rains are back. The CRS8 booster looked just a bit cleaner.

h/t: The SpaceX Fan Club (on Google+)

[chalsall]

So, the last of the four landing legs have been removed from the recovered Falcon 9...

http://www.portcanaveralwebcam.com/

I really need to get out more....

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by chalsall

So, the last of the four landing legs have been removed from the recovered Falcon 9...

If they start doing more landings, etc. Space-X should build a dedicated crane for this. (Provided they lease that dock exclusively.) A tower and boom crane that pivots in place or a container crane that has been retrofitted to handle the F9. Both of those would be a safer option than the crane that they are using.

[chalsall]

She's sideways, about the be lowered onto the trailer!

[chalsall]

OK, I have never understood politics...

But what this article is reporting seems to make absolutely no sense to me:

WASHINGTON – The House Armed Services Committee is set to take up an authorization bill this week that would insist the Pentagon invest in a new main stage engine — not an upper stage engine, strap-on motors or launch vehicles as the Air Force has planned — as the cornerstone of its effort to wean itself from the Russian RD-180 rocket engine.

The proposed restrictions essentially would forbid the Air Force from funding several recently announced co-investment deals with Orbital ATK, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance beyond this year. The Air Force doled out $317 million worth of contracts to help fund Orbital ATK’s development of a new solid-fueled launcher, SpaceX’s development a new upper-stage engine, and ULA’s development of Vulcan, a potentially reusable successor to the RD-180 powered Atlas 5 rocket.

The Air Force’s only other partnership is with Aerojet Rocketdyne, which stands to receive up to $536 million to develop AR-1, a kerosene-fuled[sic] engine that the Sacramento, California-company is pitching as an RD-180 replacement that would also be suitable for Vulcan if ULA drops plans to use Blue Origin’s methane-fueled BE-4 engine instead.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but would this not lead to United Launch Alliance (a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing) and Aerojet Rocketdyne (the "old boys") being the primary beneficiaries over the newer (and should be noted, US of A indigenous) entrants?

Not that I suspect this will really matter all that much to the new entrants in the long term. More likely this is simply a matter of the old boys being caught off guard, and not knowing what to do so they leverage political favours so survive a little longer...

Thoughts?

[only_human]

Originally Posted by chalsall

OK, I have never understood politics...

But what this article is reporting seems to make absolutely no sense to me:

Please correct me if I am wrong, but would this not lead to United Launch Alliance (a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing) and Aerojet Rocketdyne (the "old boys") being the primary beneficiaries over the newer (and should be noted, US of A indigenous) entrants?

Not that I suspect this will really matter all that much to the new entrants in the long term. More likely this is simply a matter of the old boys being caught off guard, and not knowing what to do so they leverage political favours so survive a little longer...

Thoughts?

I think you hit the nail on the head.

Aggressive business sites are waking up to investment opportunities in the new guard of space enterprises even to the point of getting ready to jump the gun for companies that aren't even publicly traded yet as in this article today on Seeking Alpha:
Will Space X Be Your Next Ten Bagger?

Summary

• I am constantly on the lookout for ten baggers, stocks that have the potential to rise tenfold over the long term.
• I’ve found another live one for you.
• Elon Musk’s Space X is so forcefully pushing forward rocket technology that he is setting up one of the great investment opportunities of the century.

[chalsall]

NASA cuts funds for Mars landing technology work

WASHINGTON — NASA is cutting funding for a Mars landing technology demonstration project by about 85 percent in response to budget reductions to its space technology program and the need to set aside funding within that program for a satellite servicing effort.
...
Other big programs, like a contract awarded April 19 to Aerojet Rocketdyne for solar electric propulsion work valued at $67 million, will further constrain NASA’s space technology efforts if its budget remains at the Senate’s level. “It will mean a bigger impact this coming year than what we just went through,” Reuter said

Hmmm...

[Mark Rose]

Originally Posted by chalsall

NASA cuts funds for Mars landing technology work



Hmmm...

I'm not so worried: http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/...-the-falcon-9/

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Mark Rose

I'm not so worried

Just to be clear, I'm also not worried. I'm amused.

[Dubslow]

Elon Musk had a field day on twitter today. Among other things, he confirmed that Red Dragon will be capable of sample return, and that the first launch of the Falcon Heavy will attempt to recover all three boosters. I use http://reddit.com/r/spacex to stay up to date, I don't really feel like linking ten different twitter posts.

Edit: One link that's also pretty useful https://twitter.com/elonmusk/with_replies