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NASA have found a new Earthlike planet, looks like the closest one to Earth so far. Live stream now:

 

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Anyone else saw the SpaceX launch? Very happy to see the launch was successful. Looked very impressive too. Some insane speed on those rockets. I guess it was the main rocket that reached 26 000 km/h. Both side rockets also appear to have landed successfully. The journey to Mars is slightly closer now.

Launch around 29:30

 

Edited by Tales

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It's really cool, it's always seemed possible that SpaceX would come good on the promises of Elon Musk but this is the most definitive proof that their ideas could really come to fruition. 

The media are reporting on it as 'the world's most powerful rocket' but I assume they mean at the moment and not ever - the Falcon Heavy is surely not as powerful as the Saturn V was. 

And it seems pretty crazy that Elon Musk has sent his old car to orbit Mars, total Bond villain insanity.

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5 hours ago, killthenet said:

It's really cool, it's always seemed possible that SpaceX would come good on the promises of Elon Musk but this is the most definitive proof that their ideas could really come to fruition. 

The media are reporting on it as 'the world's most powerful rocket' but I assume they mean at the moment and not ever - the Falcon Heavy is surely not as powerful as the Saturn V was. 

And it seems pretty crazy that Elon Musk has sent his old car to orbit Mars, total Bond villain insanity.

This is the guy who is selling a FlameThrower! he is the real life Hank Scorpio

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Something I didn't realise until my boss pointed it out: it's called the Falcon Heavy rocket because it's 'falcon' heavy.

Similarly, the next rocket they plan to use is called the BFR (Big Falcon Rocket).

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I think this is very exciting and will hopefully lead to much more space travel/exploration! :D

There was also a live feed from the Tesla floating in orbit, which lasted for 4 hours. Very surreal to see a car floating in space, with the earth reflected on the bonnet haha.

 

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Apparently there was a "UFO Train" visible last night.

 

And apparently it's going to be visible tonight as well. Google the UK times to be sure, but here in The Netherlands they'll be visible at 23:16 and 00:53 GMT, and the guy reporting it recommends to start watching 10 minutes early. They'll be going from west to east.

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3 hours ago, Sméagol said:

Apparently there was a "UFO Train" visible last night.

 

And apparently it's going to be visible tonight as well. Google the UK times to be sure, but here in The Netherlands they'll be visible at 23:16 and 00:53 GMT, and the guy reporting it recommends to start watching 10 minutes early. They'll be going from west to east.

I can't find anything reasonable on Google about something similar to that. 

What is it? 

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1 hour ago, MindFreak said:

I can't find anything reasonable on Google about something similar to that. 

What is it? 

They are 60 internet satellites launched by SpaceX for their Starlink programme. They basically want to launch a lot of satellites to provide broadband to people around the world (and eventually in space too I think):

https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites-launch-just-beginning.html

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Visit this site to check whether a Chinese rocket will crash on your house:

https://aerospace.org/reentries/cz-5b-rocket-body-id-48275

Absolutely baffling.

But if I understand things correctly, current predictions are that it wil crash near New Zealand? Somewhere tomorrow morning. Southern European countries  were also in the risk area, but not sure if that's outdated info.

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Not the easiest thing to understand. To me it looks like “we predict it will crash somewhere on this line” and the line just wraps around the whole earth a few times, pretty sure I could estimate that too. But year, I guess somewhere near New Zealand? Looks like it will be fairly close to me at some point so that’s.. cool?

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15 minutes ago, Will said:

Not the easiest thing to understand. To me it looks like “we predict it will crash somewhere on this line” and the line just wraps around the whole earth a few times, pretty sure I could estimate that too. But year, I guess somewhere near New Zealand? Looks like it will be fairly close to me at some point so that’s.. cool?

Take some pics of the giant fireball.

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Presumably they know what course it's on, but not what altitude, so they can work out the line it's going to take, but not how long before it falls.

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Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is taking him up 50 miles today in Unity at 14:00 BST, a feat that if attained will make him and those aboard recognised astronauts, and the company the first to complete a commercial spaceflight. This is after they moved their schedule up upon the announcement that Blue Origin were making their first commercial flight this month back in May. 

Meanwhile, next Tuesday on July 20th, Bezos, his brother, Wally Funk, and an unknown individual - who paid $28 million for the privilege - will be making their trip up some 62 miles to sail by the Kármán Line with Bezos' Blue Origin aboard New Shepard. This will be the first commercial spaceflight with a paying customer. 

Nice to see that billionaires' companies egos and need to flex extends to space:

The Wall Street Journal put up a good video on how the flights will differ: 

The future is now? 

Edited by Julius

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There was an interview on BBC Radio 4 yesterday with the exCEO of Virgin Galactic, and they asked him if this was all about the billionaires egos. He tried to claim that no, Musk, Bezos and Branson had all just seen the future where we are doing to need to move industrialisation to space to combat climate change, and this was the first step.

Sounds like bollocks to me. If that were the case, why do they have to go up there themselves?

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The fact that one of the ships is shaped like a giant knob says it all, doesn't it?

Anyway, still quite interesting to see what the private sector can accomplish. The Virgin flight was a success:

 

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Heads-up, it's meteor shower season again. Tomorrow night is the best night to view them apparently.

I was cycling in the dark an hour ago, and I think I saw one from the corner of my eye. Also saw some satellite. It wasn't the ISS, I've checked just now and the ISS pass over earlier in the evening.

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4 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

Anyone watching Shatner getting ready to go up today?

Nah, it's a lame PR stunt that's just about some rich white dude bragging about all the money he's made from exploiting people. 

 

It's an insult to the franchise that is the reason behind him being chosen. 

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