A Space & astronomy forum. SpaceBanter.com

Go Back   Home » SpaceBanter.com forum » Space Science » History
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Falcon 1: Third Time Was ALMOST the Charm



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old March 21st 07, 02:19 AM posted to sci.space.history
Herb Schaltegger
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 315
Default Falcon 1: Third Time Was ALMOST the Charm

Watching the webcast right before telemetry was lost, it looked like the
vehicle was going into a spiral - the guidance was chasing the trajectory and
the oscillations were getting larger and larger.

Too bad - first stage, staging and fairing sep looked clean. The webcast was
pretty good too.

--
You can run on for a long time,
Sooner or later, God'll cut you down.
~Johnny Cash

  #2  
Old March 21st 07, 03:24 AM posted to sci.space.history
Damon Hill[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 566
Default Falcon 1: Third Time Was ALMOST the Charm

Herb Schaltegger wrote in
.com:

Watching the webcast right before telemetry was lost, it looked like
the vehicle was going into a spiral - the guidance was chasing the
trajectory and the oscillations were getting larger and larger.

Too bad - first stage, staging and fairing sep looked clean. The
webcast was pretty good too.


The pretty pictures will tell almost as much as the telemetry.
I'd say it was unique that an orbital launch vehicle had an
ignition abort and was launched in spite of that only an hour
later. A full success would have been great, but SpaceX otherwise
had a pretty good day. Hopefully their next launch will come
in reasonably short order.

--Damon

  #3  
Old March 21st 07, 03:41 AM posted to sci.space.history
Bad Idea
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3
Default Falcon 1: Third Time Was ALMOST the Charm


Damon Hill wrote:
Herb Schaltegger wrote:


A full success would have been great, but SpaceX otherwise
had a pretty good day.



Company founder Elon Musk told reporters the Falcon I successfully
reached space, "and retired almost all the risk associated with the
rocket."


Right. The investors are lining-up right now and soon, we'll all be
living on Uranus.

  #4  
Old March 21st 07, 03:57 PM posted to sci.space.history
Jeff Findley
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,012
Default Falcon 1: Third Time Was ALMOST the Charm


"Bad Idea" wrote in message
ups.com...

Damon Hill wrote:
Company founder Elon Musk told reporters the Falcon I successfully
reached space, "and retired almost all the risk associated with the
rocket."

Right. The investors are lining-up right now and soon, we'll all be
living on Uranus.


I find his statement credible. True there is a 2nd stage problem to be
resolved, but this was the first flight test of the second stage. The first
stage failure of the fist flight test meant that the 2nd stage simply wasn't
tested.

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)


  #5  
Old March 21st 07, 04:11 PM posted to sci.space.history
Jim Davis
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 420
Default Falcon 1: Third Time Was ALMOST the Charm

Jeff Findley wrote:

Company founder Elon Musk told reporters the Falcon I
successfully reached space, "and retired almost all the risk
associated with the rocket."

Right. The investors are lining-up right now and soon, we'll
all be living on Uranus.


I find his statement credible. True there is a 2nd stage
problem to be resolved, but this was the first flight test of
the second stage. The first stage failure of the fist flight
test meant that the 2nd stage simply wasn't tested.


I suspect that if this was a NASA or Boeing or Lockheed-Martin test
any claim by one of their representatives that they had "retired
almost all the risk associated with the rocket" would be greeted by
snorts of derision around here and in the alt.space community in
general.

That being said I hope Musk and company are as pleased as they
claim to be about yesterday's test. Clearly progress was made.

Jim Davis


  #6  
Old March 21st 07, 05:59 PM posted to sci.space.history
Herb Schaltegger
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 315
Default Falcon 1: Third Time Was ALMOST the Charm

On Wed, 21 Mar 2007 10:11:02 -0500, Jim Davis wrote
(in article 6):

Jeff Findley wrote:

Company founder Elon Musk told reporters the Falcon I
successfully reached space, "and retired almost all the risk
associated with the rocket."

Right. The investors are lining-up right now and soon, we'll
all be living on Uranus.


I find his statement credible. True there is a 2nd stage
problem to be resolved, but this was the first flight test of
the second stage. The first stage failure of the fist flight
test meant that the 2nd stage simply wasn't tested.


I suspect that if this was a NASA or Boeing or Lockheed-Martin test
any claim by one of their representatives that they had "retired
almost all the risk associated with the rocket" would be greeted by
snorts of derision around here and in the alt.space community in
general.

That being said I hope Musk and company are as pleased as they
claim to be about yesterday's test. Clearly progress was made.

Jim Davis



I hope so too. One thing that occurred to me watching the videos again this
morning (they're available from the SpaceX site and on YouTube) is how much
oscillation was induced by staging. It was as if one of the pneumatic
pushers stuck or another pushed too hard. Clearly SOMETHING upset the
orientation of the vehicle pretty severely. Same thing (to a lesser degree)
with fairing separation. That seemed to get settled down pretty quickly
after second stage ignition, but the oscillations started up again (probably
unrelated) within a minute or so. You can watch the engine gimbaling further
and further in a circular motion as it chases the trajectory and fights
whatever the upset was.

Too bad it didn't make it to orbit but this was still progress.

Another slight aside - it was fun to watch the first stage engine plume
expand with lower pressure as altitude increased. I hope SpaceX has done a
LOT of CFD and wind tunnel testing to see how nine of those engines will
interact on Falcon 9.

--
You can run on for a long time,
Sooner or later, God'll cut you down.
~Johnny Cash

  #7  
Old March 21st 07, 08:56 PM posted to sci.space.history
robert casey
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 790
Default Falcon 1: Third Time Was ALMOST the Charm



I hope so too. One thing that occurred to me watching the videos again this
morning (they're available from the SpaceX site and on YouTube) is how much
oscillation was induced by staging. It was as if one of the pneumatic
pushers stuck or another pushed too hard. Clearly SOMETHING upset the
orientation of the vehicle pretty severely. Same thing (to a lesser degree)
with fairing separation. That seemed to get settled down pretty quickly
after second stage ignition, but the oscillations started up again (probably
unrelated) within a minute or so. You can watch the engine gimbaling further
and further in a circular motion as it chases the trajectory and fights
whatever the upset was.

Too bad it didn't make it to orbit but this was still progress.


Well, someone in this (or similar newsgroup) had said years ago that it
was high time for some space agency or company to start blowing rockets
up again. Like NASA did back in the late 1950's.... Looks like someone
is doing this now.
  #8  
Old March 22nd 07, 10:18 PM posted to sci.space.history
Scott Hedrick[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,159
Default Falcon 1: Third Time Was ALMOST the Charm


"robert casey" wrote in message
link.net...
Well, someone in this (or similar newsgroup) had said years ago that it
was high time for some space agency or company to start blowing rockets up
again. Like NASA did back in the late 1950's.... Looks like someone is
doing this now.


Unfortunately these days, if a government-funded *experimental* rocket blows
up, someone gets canned.


  #9  
Old March 23rd 07, 02:54 PM posted to sci.space.history
surfduke
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 312
Default Falcon 1: Third Time Was ALMOST the Charm

The latest is that the first stage bumped the second, @ sep.. Could
this be Pogo Showing up?

Carl

  #10  
Old March 23rd 07, 09:10 PM posted to sci.space.history
Damon Hill[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 566
Default Falcon 1: Third Time Was ALMOST the Charm

"surfduke" wrote in
oups.com:

The latest is that the first stage bumped the second, @ sep.. Could
this be Pogo Showing up?


No. Pogo stayed in the swamp with Albert and the rest of his friends.

--Damon

 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Falcon Sir Lauch-A-Lot? Pat Flannery Policy 70 March 29th 07 05:24 AM
Falcon delayed again Pat Flannery Policy 2 November 17th 05 04:08 PM
Falcon 9 questions Iain McClatchie Technology 3 September 15th 05 09:36 AM
Falcon 1 to Pad [email protected] Policy 14 October 23rd 04 02:10 AM
Falcon V sale Herm Policy 2 May 7th 04 11:50 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 01:14 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 SpaceBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.