SpaceX launch abort

They actually got past T-0 this time. The camera (which has been having
a lot of trouble today -- not in the camera per se but somewhere in the
transmission) cut out briefly right after ignition, but there clearly
was a lot of flame and smoke coming out the back end of the rocket. But
at about T+4 or so, it shut down. It looks as though the rocket didn't
move at all. The support tower came back up, and they started their
checklist of safety procedures.

Now, about 15 minutes later, they're talking about possibly recycling to
T-10 minutes. Someone is very helpfully zooming in and panning around
with the camera. I can't see anything obviously amiss from this. (But
boy, they DO get some corrosion in that environment.)

I didn't catch any reason for the shut-down, or why they think they
might be able to recycle so quickly -- presumably someone there thinks
they know what's going on.

Major kudos to SpaceX for this transparency, BTW. And for handling
these problems with calm efficiency.

On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:20:56 -0600, Joe Strout wrote:


I didn't catch any reason for the shut-down, or why they think they
might be able to recycle so quickly -- presumably someone there thinks
they know what's going on.

Something about the hold-down arms. They're going to try again
tonight.

Brian

Major kudos to SpaceX for this transparency, BTW. And for handling
these problems with calm efficiency.

There is at least one person there who must have forgotten his mike
was on vox (?) and patched to the transmission net (?) as he said a
few choice words I doubt "they" would have liked to have leak-out onto
the net (However understandable it might have been for him to utter
them

rick jones
--
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these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...

In article ,
Brian Thorn wrote:

On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:20:56 -0600, Joe Strout wrote:

I didn't catch any reason for the shut-down, or why they think they
might be able to recycle so quickly -- presumably someone there thinks
they know what's going on.

Something about the hold-down arms. They're going to try again
tonight.

Ah, that would certainly explain the lack of movement.