SpaceX Rocket Test Facility - McGregor Texas

[weswisehart]

A very long one went off last week.

[JimNtexas]

@weswisehart - Awesome. they've received a license to fly their vertical landing system there at McGregor. Keep watching the sky!

[Cloudy2Clear]

My grandmother worked at the McGregor "bomb plant" in WW2. I've lived in McGregor for 3 yrs & the 9 rocket test was amazingly loud. It truly was heard (& felt) for 50 miles around. Hundreds of 9-11 calls from Waco (@ 15 miles away). Check youtube vids of this. SPACE-X recently leased an additional 600 acres in McGregor. They are moving their California operations here soon. Adding another rail spur to the facility. May help the local economy.

Nice bike.

[JimNtexas]

@Cloudy2Clear - That's fascinating. I guess they need more room to build the 'Falcon Heavy', their version of the Saturn 5.

[heto8youol]

@Cloudy2Clear i dont know if you know, but they have a new rocket coming out thats going to be 3 falcon 9 first stages strapped together, that should be even louder but probably even more amazing

[Cloudy2Clear]

@heto8youol That WILL be amazing & loud too. Latest scuttlebut says SPACE-X adding 1,200 more jobs here at the 1st of 2012. McGregor gonna grow & get expensive...sigh...

Time to open up our Bar-B-Q place by the beer barn. Stop by & have some. Barbara Sue's Bar-B-Q & other good eats. Couldn't resist the plug ;-)

[heto8youol]

@Cloudy2Clear well tell you what, I am going to be a sophomore in college this year, i am going to try to get an internship with spacex for summer 2012. So if I do and if I am at the McGregor facility, I will stop by for some BBQ sometime.

[PiZzAbOy21888]

I used to work on those "bunkers". The area is now owned by Texas A&M University and is a 6,000+ acre agricultural research facility. They basically do research on cattle to see how big they can get them. We called those "bunkers", igloos and I used to build new roofs for them. They used to be used to house bombs in WWII and now they're used by A&M to house farming equipment, hay, cattle and other random stuff. I used to sit on the igloos and watch Spacex test these rockets and it was cool.

[JimNtexas]

@PiZzAbOy21888 - Thanks for the background information, that's very interesting.

[bswift5]

@PiZzAbOy21888 My granfather lived and worked there all his life. He was with phillips 66 and hercules and rocketdime.

[OblivionRatula]

Hahahahaha, 60's are cold? 50s-60s are just about my ideal riding temps! ;) Congrats on the FJR. Very nice ride.

[JimNtexas]

I know, I deserve mockery for even mentioning the temperture. But below 60F is getting cold for me.

I did some ridding during our mini-ice age earlier this month when it was in the low 40s, but I was really miserable without my heated vest.

[nightrider250R]

Whoo Navy. Interesting video like these types of videos. Cant wait too enlist and maybe do stuff like what you were explaining.

[JimNtexas]

Thanks nightrider. The military is not for everyone, but if you join and get a little lucky they will give you some nice toys to play with.

[nightrider250R]

HEHE. Yeah im most likely to be a cop but am shooting for pilot.

[JimNtexas]

Somebody's got to fly the F-22. Why not you?

[cokecan500]

Ah, 60-70 is the perfect temp... 50 is when I start putting on a second pair of jeans and a light jacket under my mesh one lol.

You've gotta get that audio problem sorted out, I wana good video of you riding and talking on that awesome new bike of yours :)

[JimNtexas]

Thanks Coke.

I like 70 - 96F myself. I think for the audio at a minimum I need a new full face helmet, my flip-up is really really noisy.

[cokecan500]

I guess I don't mind the cooler temps because I can layer my clothes, but when it gets hot, all I can do is sweat :/

You're not alone in your audio problems... I've got the regular full face helmet, and its really hard on my microphone at anything above like 40 :( I still can't fingure out what everyone else is doing to make it completely silent...

[RedanWhiteRebel]

Great video Jim ...bike looks great too.

[JimNtexas]

Thanks Red&White!

[JimNtexas]

I'm a big baby about cold weather, thanks for watching!

[HybridSprinter08]

650LBS?!?! thats alot. haha 250 POWER! That things fu at low speed. hopfully will upgrade soon. Looking at the Kawi 650R. so that'll be good.

[JimNtexas]

I came very close to getting a 650R or FZ6R, they are excellent all around bikes.

I still have my Ninja 250 and really miss it at times, especially for running down our twisty Lime Creek Road (Austin's version of the Tail of the Dragon) and short range riding in general. Someday I'll get the darn coolant leak fixed.

[KeukaRyder]

I had the dealer move the bars back too.

I got some risers from MCL.

Sixty and your chilly? tsk tsk

Perhaps percolate processing in that factory at 7:16

[JimNtexas]

I have the MCL risers in my farkel plan.

Yes, I know 60F seems like the surface of the sun to many of you, but for me it's nearing the Arctic Circle.

[Papa2two]

Great info Jim. Very intersting. My father used to work at Areojet General.

As I was growing up we would often hear the roar of them testing rocket engines.

Thanks for the trip there and I'm glad you are enjoyig you new bike.

rsmf...

[JimNtexas]

Thanks Papa2, I'd love to watch them test a rocket sometime.

[woodenchairs]

Id kill for 63 degrees! lol

Im also verrrrry jealous you're getting to ride 127 mile trips while i havent even started my bike for 2 months now ):

Glad to hear the updates on the bike as you go along too

[JimNtexas]

My wife calls the FJR 'FrankenBarbie' because there are so many way coooool farkels for it.

My goal is to farkel it up enough for some long trips starting in late April. The main priorities are a riser block, throttle lock, and top box.

Thanks for the kind words.

[e30Birdy]

Interesting video Jim... and i understand your chilliness cause your are use to the Heat of texas so 60 is probably pretty chilly for ya

[JimNtexas]

It was hotter than 'all git-out' this summer, and we had a whole week of hard freezes this month. You just never know what's coming next around here.

[e30Birdy]

Try germany my friend it can be snowing today and 110° tomorrow where i live =)

But yeah my mom fought against us getting stationed in Hood back in the day cause you cant go outside most of the time in the summer without dieing =)

[JimNtexas]

Tell me about it, I was stationed there for almost 2 years. The Fort Hood is WAY hotter than Austin in the summer, and Austin gets pretty hot!

In 2005 I came down with heat exhaustion in nearby Crawford during a protest against Cindy Shehand on a 108F day. No fun at all.

[e30Birdy]

Ouch i believe it but i would enjoy hot better then what we have here... its freezing cold, rains all the time and last years riding season was really short cause all the crud weather so i am praying for a better year this year

[Kodiak31415]

So if that was right next to a rocket test center was it a strategic weapons facility?  That may explain why they blurred it out.

[JimNtexas]

The bunker field is huge, they stored a lot of something here. And as they point out in the SpaceX video I link to in an annotation, the military started testing rocket motors here in the 1940s.