UKH

Fabulous news!

But can you dock with the ISS?

Here's SpaceX's simulator...

https://iss-sim.spacex.com

Fantastic isn’t it!  Wintertree, Jr was chuffed to stay up late to watch the launch.

As exciting as the private sector part is, I’m more excited by Heinlein’s dream of genuinely reusable VTVL rocketry not just coming to pass but carrying people.  I was lucky enough last year to go to the pub with the retired USAF general who oversaw the DC-X program; the Americans were so close to this 30 years ago.  

The private sector have always been central to NASA's activities. This just takes it a bit further.

Loved the drone ship name, rip Iain Banks.

I've been trying the docking simulated on and off for a few days now and never managed to do it. I get really close then it all goes wrong.

Dave

'In space no-one can hear you scream'

Observer, watching from the ISS dome:

'Get that f*ucking moron away from the controls!'

Thanks for that! Quite addictive. 

It looks fairly straight forward but I think there's alot more to it than first appearances. The craft has to be orientated right in 3 dimensions (pitch, yaw and roll), coming in on the correct "line(?)" and at an appropriate speed. In short, being an astronaut looks to be a giant pain in the arse. The simulator gave me motion sickness too, as an aside.

I also wonder about how appropriate touchscreen technology is for piloting a spacecraft? Switches and dials can't crash.

Here's why the video link frustratingly cuts out every time just before the rocket lands on the drone ship:

youtube.com/watch?v=hH75bVG7HBo&

Do they need the second ship? Of course they do!!

I was wondering about just hitting the right part of the touch screen with all the vibration going on. I gather a rocket ride is far from smooth. It's bad enough just changing channels on a car radio with a  touch screen on a jiggly road.