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Old January 7th 10, 05:31 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.history
Damon Hill[_3_]
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Posts: 162
Default Falcon 9 second stage tested

Pat Flannery wrote in
dakotatelephone:

Successfully: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1001/05falcon9/
It's now on its way to the Cape after a full flight duration burn test.
SpaceX seems to be shooting for a March lift-off.
The Dragon test spacecraft will be inserted into a 155 mile high orbit
if all goes well. I'm really hoping that they stick a camera on the
Dragon capsule so it can transmit some images back from orbit.


I'm really hoping they'll stick cameras on the upper stage with a
view of the engine nozzle, so we'll have fewer things to guess at
what went wrong.

Not normally a betting man, but I'm giving 50-50 odds of the first
launch getting into orbit. Better than Falcon 1 because they're
flying a lot of better-tested hardware this time around. I don't expect
any problems from the first stage.

--Damon