Pretty rocket (F9) pictures

[Dr Mordrid]

These have little to do with the actual launch of F9 and more to do with some great wallpaper & slideshow candidates

[Nowhere]

...and phallic imagery

[Dr Mordrid]

I think that comment says more about your thought pocesses than the images

[Mehen]

Meaning.... he's human?

[Fat Tone]

We all get excited about space, but not THAT excited

[Claymonkey]

Those are awesome images. My first thought was... "I'd love to make one of those my background image... but yeah.... that would just lead to jokes knowing the people I work with."

[Dr Mordrid]

Awesome?

Yeah, but imagine a Falcon 9 Heavy on the pad with 27 Merlin engines lighting at once

Basically it's 3 Falcon 9 first stages tied together. Second stage at first will be
the same kerosene vacuum Merlin as a single Falcon 9, but Musk has also been
talking about building a cryogenic (LH2/O2) second stage for even heavier lifts.
Maybe even a third stage.

I'd crawl on my hands and knees to see this one go up...

[Nowhere]

I think that comment says more about your thought pocesses than the images

Though aren't you the one hunting those pics and beeing unable to resist the urge of sharing with us?

(that said...yeah, so it would seem; might have something to do with setting up atm a visit to old sort-of friend/possibly a lover, apparently )

[Claymonkey]

Having grown up an Air Force brat I grew up at air shows. There is nothing like being 10 years old and getting to sit in a F-16 cockpit and have the pilot point stuff out to you as he stands on the ladder. People who haven't been to an air show don't always get how awe inspiring they are. Take the wonder of watching a jet from the local airport fly overhead, add in the joy of watching a fourth of july fireworks display. Now multiply that by ten and you start to get it, but until you see it you won't. You can't understand surfing by reading a book and expect to get on a board and just go. You will fall off.

So needless to say I agree with Doc that seeing some of this stuff launch would be worth the effort

[Dr Mordrid]

I was there for Apollo 14 and for several shuttle launches close up, a side benefit of having a relative in NASA. There is simply no way to even begin describing what a rush it is to watch/feel a launch, especially a Saturn V where you first see the shock wave rolling towards you then you feel it inside your entire body. Jezzzzzz......
.

[cjolley]

Having grown up an Air Force brat I grew up at air shows. There is nothing like being 10 years old and getting to sit in a F-16 cockpit and have the pilot point stuff out to you as he stands on the ladder...

Try being an 8 year old AF brat and getting to poke around in a B36.

[Dr Mordrid]

Not an AF brat, but when I was a kid my farmer dad worked the winter on the railroad (Detroit, Toledo & Ironton). More than once his engineer buddies took me on the Flat Rock Michigan to Toledo Ohio freight run and back getting fuel for the Ford steel mill.

I'd spend the whole time sitting next to the entineer in that huge coal-fired steam engine, blowing the whistle, helping load coal into the boiler and just having a grand old time. I'd come home black as coal myself but grinning ear to ear.

Hard to beat boyhood memories like we have, 'eh?

[cjolley]

Try being an 8 year old AF brat and have the guards run over to stop you from picking up the Red Telephone.

My dad was a computer programmer for SAC in Omaha during the height of the cold war.
Security was MUCH laxer then.

[Claymonkey]

Well this explains a lot doesn't it? Its hard to not get excited as a kid if your Dad is and shares those experiences with you. It tends to stick with you.

If it wasn't for my flat feet, poor eyesight and artistic leanings I probably would have continued the family tradition of going into the AF. It helped both my dad and grandfather pull themselves by the bootstraps. Both went in as enlisted men, both left as officers.

Grandpa was a Pearl Harbor that answered the call when the Army branched out the Air Force and trained up from a lumberjack with an 8th grade education to a bomber pilot flying B-17's 29's and 36's and becoming a trainer and test pilot.

My Dad started as a medic who asked to be put anywhere but the maternity ward (which is where they put him), becoming and EMT. Got his degree in Biology on the path to being a doctor, deciding after getting his Bachelor's he'd rather be able to provide for his growing family than go to medical school went back in the service. He served as an officer in the Disaster Prepardness unit and dealt with everything from floods in southern california, to plane crashes (Flugtagg '88) to training troops heading to Desert Storm on how to use their gas masks. They cut every captain on his base back in the 90's and finished up his 20 in the Army Guard.... which led to him at 50 spending a year in Iraq.... after he had retired. Once and officer always an officer.

Getting back on topic I've gotten to crawl through more aircraft than I can even remember at this point and it was ALWAYS interesting.