SpaceX Falcon 1 FRF!(?)

Elon Musk says SpaceX will do what sounds like a flight readiness
firing of the rebuilt Falcon 1 *on the day before launch*.

"http://space.com/missionlaunches/060207_spacex_falcon1_delay.html"

I'm shaking my head from side to side right now in disbelief or
astonishment - I'm not sure which.

- Ed Kyle

Rand Simberg wrote:
On 8 Feb 2006 18:11:11 -0800, in a place far, far away, "Ed Kyle"
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:


Elon Musk says SpaceX will do what sounds like a flight readiness
firing of the rebuilt Falcon 1 *on the day before launch*.

"http://space.com/missionlaunches/060207_spacex_falcon1_delay.html"

I'm shaking my head from side to side right now in disbelief or
astonishment - I'm not sure which.


This isn't news--he's been saying it for days.

The fact that he can do it the day before launch says to me that he's
got a very responsive system. What's your problem?

A rare delurk for me- flight readiness firings are no big deal, we had
them in the checklist for the EZ-Rocket. Such runups are the moral
equivalent of the magneto checks done on piston engine aircraft. We
always did at least one roughly two-second burn on each engine before
*every* flight of the EZ-Rocket, and we plan to do the same for the
X-Racers during development. If the racers taxi out from the pit area
to the runway, that will serve the same purpose...

See the "EZ-Rocket prep and flight" at 00:32
http://www.xcor.com/video-ezrocket.html
http://www.xcor.com/video/spaceaccess-ezrocket.mpg

Flight readiness firings are very very useful- but we call them "runups"
because we're not pretentious about it

Doug Jones
XCOR Rocket Plumber

"Ed Kyle" writes:

Elon Musk says SpaceX will do what sounds like a flight readiness
firing of the rebuilt Falcon 1 *on the day before launch*.

"http://space.com/missionlaunches/060207_spacex_falcon1_delay.html"

I'm shaking my head from side to side right now in disbelief or
astonishment - I'm not sure which.

Your! astonishment! indicates! you think this is a bad, or at least
a bizarre, idea. Why so? With airplanes, it's certainly common to
do a taxi test, where you do everything but take off, and do so quite
close to first flight.

If your engine start involves lots of pyro or other events involving
factory refurbishment, then it makes sense to do your FRF well in
advance. But if the engine does not mind, then why not? Do you
think they are likely to damage the rocket?

Lou Scheffer

Rand Simberg wrote:
On 8 Feb 2006 18:11:11 -0800, in a place far, far away, "Ed Kyle"
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:

Elon Musk says SpaceX will do what sounds like a flight readiness
firing of the rebuilt Falcon 1 *on the day before launch*.

"http://space.com/missionlaunches/060207_spacex_falcon1_delay.html"

I'm shaking my head from side to side right now in disbelief or
astonishment - I'm not sure which.

This isn't news--he's been saying it for days.

The fact that he can do it the day before launch says to me that he's
got a very responsive system. What's your problem?

If the system is so responsive, why didn't they test fire the first
Falcon out on the brand new pad at Kwajalein before attempting
two failed countdowns, one of which inflicted severe damage to
the first vehicle's first stage? Now that they've decided to do a
"run up", why rush to launch the next day? Will they really be
able to digest the test results that quickly?

What SpaceX is doing in the Marshall Islands seems almost
haphazard to me. Before demonstrating responsiveness, why
don't they execute a more precise flight test program to show
that thier machine actually works?

- Ed Kyle

On 8 Feb 2006 18:11:11 -0800, in a place far, far away, "Ed Kyle"
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:

Elon Musk says SpaceX will do what sounds like a flight readiness
firing of the rebuilt Falcon 1 *on the day before launch*.

"http://space.com/missionlaunches/060207_spacex_falcon1_delay.html"

I'm shaking my head from side to side right now in disbelief or
astonishment - I'm not sure which.

This isn't news--he's been saying it for days.

The fact that he can do it the day before launch says to me that he's
got a very responsive system. What's your problem?

Ed Kyle wrote:

If the system is so responsive, why didn't they test fire the first
Falcon out on the brand new pad at Kwajalein before attempting
two failed countdowns, one of which inflicted severe damage to
the first vehicle's first stage? Now that they've decided to do a
"run up", why rush to launch the next day? Will they really be
able to digest the test results that quickly?

I imaginre they're using a fairly powerful computer to analyse the
result - say 1 MIP?

Given a few hours this computer could do a lot of analysis.

I am a bit worried because they have a very minimal pad without a flame
trench, so they might damage some pad equipment.

On 8 Feb 2006 18:11:11 -0800,"Ed Kyle" wrote:


Elon Musk says SpaceX will do what sounds like a flight readiness
firing of the rebuilt Falcon 1 *on the day before launch*.

"http://space.com/missionlaunches/060207_spacex_falcon1_delay.html"

I'm shaking my head from side to side right now in disbelief or
astonishment - I'm not sure which.

In other words, you'll be favorably impressed if it works.

In article . com,
"Alex Terrell" wrote:

Ed Kyle wrote:

If the system is so responsive, why didn't they test fire the first
Falcon out on the brand new pad at Kwajalein before attempting
two failed countdowns, one of which inflicted severe damage to
the first vehicle's first stage? Now that they've decided to do a
"run up", why rush to launch the next day? Will they really be
able to digest the test results that quickly?

I imaginre they're using a fairly powerful computer to analyse the
result - say 1 MIP?

Given a few hours this computer could do a lot of analysis.

Human minds are required for interpreting the results. Mindless
number-crunching is but a tool.

Ed's point is valid. SpaceX are looking uncomfortably like Armadillo
Aerospace writ large.

Ed Kyle wrote:
Will they really be able to digest the test results that quickly?

Why not?