First Falcon 9 Poised for Launch

On Jun 4, 11:55*am, Jeff Findley wrote:

Congrats Space-X!

Indeed! Mucho conga rats!

/dps

On 6/4/2010 11:04 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:

They are now showing live video!
They are holding at T minus fifteen minutes:
http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php
...and have been holding for one hour and thirteen minutes.
Skies are overcast, though no rain appears to be falling.
Falcon 9 appears to be fully tanked up and is venting LOX vapor from
both stages.

They are having trouble with the self-destruct system telemetry:
http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/001/status.html

Pat

In sci.space.history Damon Hill wrote:
Didn't notice it at first, but looking at the replay of liftoff,
there was an instantaneous roll at the moment of liftoff, quite
pronounced. Like guidance was so anxious to get into azimuth that
it couldn't wait to clear the pad. Might have led to a Bad Day
right at the start.

Heh - looking at a youtube video I see what you are talking about - 45
degrees or so?

rick jones
--
oxymoron n, commuter in a gas-guzzling luxury SUV with an American flag
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...

Pat Flannery wrote in
dakotatelephone:

On 6/4/2010 10:56 AM, Anthony Frost wrote:


LIFTOFF!

And in orbit!

The first stage is carrying recovery parachutes; it will be interesting
to see if they got those to work. They never did work on the Falcon-1
launches.


Didn't notice it at first, but looking at the replay of liftoff, there was
an instantaneous roll at the moment of liftoff, quite pronounced. Like
guidance was so anxious to get into azimuth that it couldn't wait to
clear the pad. Might have led to a Bad Day right at the start.

--Damon

On 6/4/2010 11:25 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:

They are having trouble with the self-destruct system telemetry:
http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/001/status.html

T minus 13 minutes and counting.

On 6/4/2010 12:17 PM, Pat Flannery wrote:
On 6/4/2010 11:25 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:

They are having trouble with the self-destruct system telemetry:
http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/001/status.html

T minus 13 minutes and counting.

SHUTDOWN! Launch aborted during ignition process.

Pat

In message tatelephone
Pat Flannery wrote:

On 6/4/2010 10:56 AM, Anthony Frost wrote:


LIFTOFF!

And in orbit!

The first stage is carrying recovery parachutes; it will be interesting
to see if they got those to work. They never did work on the Falcon-1
launches.

Ah yes. On the last couple of F1 launches the launch control check lists
mentioned recovery ship on station, but the audio this time was so poor
I didn't spot anything.

Anthony

Rick Jones wrote in
:

In sci.space.history Damon Hill wrote:
Didn't notice it at first, but looking at the replay of liftoff,
there was an instantaneous roll at the moment of liftoff, quite
pronounced. Like guidance was so anxious to get into azimuth that
it couldn't wait to clear the pad. Might have led to a Bad Day
right at the start.

Heh - looking at a youtube video I see what you are talking about - 45
degrees or so?

Practically a snap roll, eh? The oxygen umbilical really whipped
around, too. I hope we'll have good close-up footage of the pad
showing the holddown disconnects and separation.

Nonetheless, second stage and Dragon are reported to have hit the
desired orbital parameters very closely.

I'd be feeling pretty good if I were Elon Musk, or any SpaceX
employee.

They'll only top this on the second launch if they get the Dragon
close enough for capture and docking at ISS. Talk about being on a
fast track...

--Damon

Damon Hill wrote:
Rick Jones wrote in
:

In sci.space.history Damon Hill wrote:
Didn't notice it at first, but looking at the replay of liftoff,
there was an instantaneous roll at the moment of liftoff, quite
pronounced. Like guidance was so anxious to get into azimuth that
it couldn't wait to clear the pad. Might have led to a Bad Day
right at the start.
Heh - looking at a youtube video I see what you are talking about - 45
degrees or so?

Practically a snap roll, eh? The oxygen umbilical really whipped
around, too. I hope we'll have good close-up footage of the pad
showing the holddown disconnects and separation.

First of all congrats to SpaceX, great job.

As for half-assed guesses as to that launch roll, I'll go with the
theory it was to hide the SpaceX logo from the camera in case of crash
and burn at the pad.... :-D

I'm sure the *real* explanation will be more interesting....

Dave

On 6/4/2010 9:37 AM, Jeff Findley wrote:

T-minus 2 minutes

Abort at ignition. Vehicle is still sitting on the pad.

They may still try another launch attempt today. They have till 3 PM
Eastern time.

Pat