Earth Landing (but not Moon)
Apr. 11th, 2019 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerI knew the second launch of a Falcon Heavy rocket was coming up, following the news well enough to be aware it had been pushed back a few days. As the scheduled launch time today approached, though, I was a little surprised to see a report the Israeli moon-landing probe that had reached lunar orbit a little while ago had crashed trying to touch down, and I suppose I have to admit to a thought or two of “superstitious resonances.”
When I turned into the live stream of the rocket launch, though (with the usual enthusiastic crowd somewhere in the background), everything did work, including the central booster managing to land on the barge out in the Atlantic after the side boosters had made their loops back to Florida (still a little hard for me to believe after it having happened before). Putting a communications satellite in orbit is less showy and more familiar than firing a sports car into a solar orbit reaching up to the asteroid belt, but more practical as well.
When I turned into the live stream of the rocket launch, though (with the usual enthusiastic crowd somewhere in the background), everything did work, including the central booster managing to land on the barge out in the Atlantic after the side boosters had made their loops back to Florida (still a little hard for me to believe after it having happened before). Putting a communications satellite in orbit is less showy and more familiar than firing a sports car into a solar orbit reaching up to the asteroid belt, but more practical as well.