Elon's Latest Take (FWIW)

"... There seems to be a lot of confusion in the media about what
constitutes a success. The critical distinction is that a test flight
has many gradations of success, whereas an operational satellite
mission does not. Although we did our best at SpaceX to be clear about
last week's launch, including naming it DemoFlight 2 and *explicitly
not carrying a satellite*, a surprising number of people still
evaluated the test launch as though it were an operational
mission...."

Emphasis mine.

http://spacex.com/updates.php

Rand Simberg wrote:

"... There seems to be a lot of confusion in the media about what
constitutes a success. The critical distinction is that a test flight
has many gradations of success, whereas an operational satellite
mission does not. Although we did our best at SpaceX to be clear about
last week's launch, including naming it DemoFlight 2 and *explicitly
not carrying a satellite*, a surprising number of people still
evaluated the test launch as though it were an operational
mission...."


Yeah, I agree with his statement. But, his wording for the Name of the
flight could have been a little more clear, Development Flight 2. But, then
again DemoFlight just shows his optimistic view point.

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
"... There seems to be a lot of confusion in the media about what
constitutes a success. The critical distinction is that a test flight
has many gradations of success, whereas an operational satellite
mission does not. Although we did our best at SpaceX to be clear about
last week's launch, including naming it DemoFlight 2 and *explicitly
not carrying a satellite*, a surprising number of people still
evaluated the test launch as though it were an operational
mission...."

Emphasis mine.

http://spacex.com/updates.php

It will be interesting to see if they make the next flight DemoFlight 3 and
not carry a satellite on that flight as well. It would seem to be the
prudent thing to do considering that no demo flight to date has made it to
orbit.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

They've said there will be no demoflight-3, they will proceed directly to a
launch attempt for a customer...



"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
"... There seems to be a lot of confusion in the media about what
constitutes a success. The critical distinction is that a test flight
has many gradations of success, whereas an operational satellite
mission does not. Although we did our best at SpaceX to be clear about
last week's launch, including naming it DemoFlight 2 and *explicitly
not carrying a satellite*, a surprising number of people still
evaluated the test launch as though it were an operational
mission...."

Emphasis mine.

http://spacex.com/updates.php

It will be interesting to see if they make the next flight DemoFlight 3
and not carry a satellite on that flight as well. It would seem to be the
prudent thing to do considering that no demo flight to date has made it to
orbit.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

Any estimates of how far downrange it impacted?



"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
"... There seems to be a lot of confusion in the media about what
constitutes a success. The critical distinction is that a test flight
has many gradations of success, whereas an operational satellite
mission does not. Although we did our best at SpaceX to be clear about
last week's launch, including naming it DemoFlight 2 and *explicitly
not carrying a satellite*, a surprising number of people still
evaluated the test launch as though it were an operational
mission...."

Emphasis mine.

http://spacex.com/updates.php

Rand Simberg wrote:
"... There seems to be a lot of confusion in the media about what
constitutes a success. The critical distinction is that a test flight
has many gradations of success, whereas an operational satellite
mission does not. Although we did our best at SpaceX to be clear about
last week's launch, including naming it DemoFlight 2 and *explicitly
not carrying a satellite*, a surprising number of people still
evaluated the test launch as though it were an operational
mission...."

More to the point, the purpose of a development flight is to accomplish
(a usually long set of) test objectives. It's highly desirable to
accomplish 100% of them, obviously, but achieving 95% of them is far
from being a failure.

--
Dave Michelson

Rand Simberg wrote:
"... There seems to be a lot of confusion in the media about what
constitutes a success. The critical distinction is that a test flight
has many gradations of success, whereas an operational satellite
mission does not. Although we did our best at SpaceX to be clear about
last week's launch, including naming it DemoFlight 2 and *explicitly
not carrying a satellite*, a surprising number of people still
evaluated the test launch as though it were an operational
mission...."

It sounds like Elon has earned an ICH T-shirt.

--
Dave Michelson

Jeff Findley wrote:

"... There seems to be a lot of confusion in the media about what
constitutes a success. The critical distinction is that a test flight
has many gradations of success, whereas an operational satellite
mission does not. Although we did our best at SpaceX to be clear about
last week's launch, including naming it DemoFlight 2 and *explicitly
not carrying a satellite*, a surprising number of people still
evaluated the test launch as though it were an operational
mission...."

Emphasis mine.

http://spacex.com/updates.php

It will be interesting to see if they make the next flight DemoFlight 3 and
not carry a satellite on that flight as well. It would seem to be the
prudent thing to do considering that no demo flight to date has made it to
orbit.

Why are you so out of it all the time, don't you read the news or do any
research on your own at all?

--
Get A Free Orbiter Space Flight Simulator :
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html

Jeff Findley wrote:

It will be interesting to see if they make the next flight DemoFlight 3
and not carry a satellite on that flight as well. *It would seem to be the
prudent thing to do considering that no demo flight to date has made it to
orbit.


Or, carry his own payload, something like a boiler plate Dragon, a Mercury
sized one person capsule to test out Dragon parts. I'd start with the abort
system, because it would have been exercised twice by now. Parachute
recovery system, twice by now. Heatshield, once by now. No attitude
thrusters, life support, ... required yet for a stable Dragon (simulated
RCS failure after deorbit burn), Falcon could do the deorbit, if they get
successfully to Orbit.

Jeff Findley wrote:
It will be interesting to see if they make the next flight DemoFlight 3 and
not carry a satellite on that flight as well. It would seem to be the
prudent thing to do considering that no demo flight to date has made it to

Why fly another demo flight if you can get a customer to put a satellite on
it?

If the launch is free, there's almost certainly a college or amateur radio
sattellite that will take the risk.