SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 - CASSIOPE - September, 2013 - GENERAL DISCUSSION THREAD

[jongoff]

From twitter, Molly McCormick ‏@Molliway:

Holy moly, we have an appointment with Space in like, 2 weeks. No countdown clock upstairs, doesn't feel real.

 

And in a follow-up clarification, she mentioned they do have a countdown clock downstairs on the main floor, just not one upstairs where she works.

~Jon

[aero]

Do you suppose SpaceX has is running 2 or 3 shifts to meet their schedule at Vandenberg or are they carefully working well rested crews to launch when ready?

[docmordrid]

If MCCX is the mission control at Canaveral, will this one be designated MCVX?

[Nickolai]

If MCCX is the mission control at Canaveral, will this one be designated MCVX?

MCCX is in Hawthorne

[ugordan]

If MCCX is the mission control at Canaveral, will this one be designated MCVX?

MCC-X is Dragon mission control in Hawthorne. There's "only" a LCC at the Cape and now VAFB.

[Nickolai]

If MCCX is the mission control at Canaveral, will this one be designated MCVX?

MCC-X is Dragon mission control in Hawthorne. There's "only" a LCC at the Cape and now VAFB.

I think MCC-X is used for all missions. LCC will lose sight of the vehicle after it passes over the horizon, which is long before the flight is complete.

[Jim]

If MCCX is the mission control at Canaveral, will this one be designated MCVX?

MCC-X is Dragon mission control in Hawthorne. There's "only" a LCC at the Cape and now VAFB.

I think MCC-X is used for all missions. LCC will lose sight of the vehicle after it passes over the horizon, which is long before the flight is complete.

If I could just note a correction. LCC's don't lose telemetry when vehicles go over the horizon.  That is what down range stations, tracking sites and TDRSS are for.   

MCCX is for the Dragon and not for Falcon.  LCCs are for launch vehicles.   Launch vehicles are not controlled in flight but monitored.   The LCC at VAFB is in the RLCC bldg 8500, which was for the Shuttle but now is shared with all vehicles.  The LCC at the Cape is right outside the south gate.

[ChrisWilson68]

Everyone over at SpaceX, how about some in hangar pics for this flight? I wonder if the lack of pics has to do with USAF restrictions on base? Will SpaceX even have launch coverage for this flight?

The Air Force definitely doesn't have some sort of blanket ban on pictures taken on base at Vandenberg.  This spring they allowed part of the route of the Solvang Century bike ride to go through VAFB.  They only allowed U.S. citizens, checked IDs at the gate, and had personnel at every road intersection to make sure nobody wandered where they weren't supposed to go, but there was no restriction on picture taking along the (miles long) route of the ride through the base.  I got lots of great shots of many facilities on the base, though, sadly, the route didn't go near the SpaceX pad.

Also, we've seen lots of pictures from SpaceX from SLC-40 in Florida, both inside and outside the hangar, and that's also on an active Air Force base.  Since there doesn't seem to be a Vandenberg-specific policy against pictures, I don't see why they would be allowed to publish hangar shots from SLC-40 at CCAFS but not SLC-4 at VAFB.

[SpaceXFanboy]

Man so much is riding on this launch being a success. I mean if this launch has any failures whatsoever i.e an engine failure like before. Then there wouldn't be anymore launches this year which would put this years tally at a measly 2 launches. So here's to a good launch and hopefully many more to come.

SpaceX has got me so excited about space!!!!!

[mheney]

If I could just note a correction. ... <snip>

OK, who are you, and what did you do with the real Jim?

[ChrisWilson68]

If I could just note a correction. ... <snip>

OK, who are you, and what did you do with the real Jim?

I think you missed this bit:

« Last Edit: 08/25/2013 11:02 AM by Chris Bergin »

[Chris Bergin]

We desperately need party threads and such. I'll get on that tomorrow, which is when we'll probably know if this launch is going ahead or not - thus relevant for the full spread of threads (can't believe I'm saying that for a non-Dragon flight, but such is the interest).

[meekGee]

In all previous launches, I was always worried things will go wrong, but overall there wasn't anything specific that I saw wrong ahead of time.  (Though I'd have bet good money against 5/5...)

This time, I'm a lot more apprehensive.  Something about the lead-up feels out-of-tune.  Maybe it's the radio silence that's freaking me out.  I hope it's just a symptom of this being done differently - maybe someone else in charge of this launch or something.

Fingers crossed.

[QuantumG]

maybe someone else in charge of this launch or something.

Or just the different launch site?

[meekGee]

maybe someone else in charge of this launch or something.

Or just the different launch site?

Yeah, I'd love to think that, but really - it's not a military launch, they had pictures from the site before...  Regrettably I have to reject that excuse...

And believe me, I'm fishing for explanations...

[ChefPat]

OK, who are you, and what did you do with the real Jim?

You owe me a new keyboard as this one has red wine all over it now.

[Kabloona]

This time, I'm a lot more apprehensive.  Something about the lead-up feels out-of-tune.  Maybe it's the radio silence that's freaking me out.  I hope it's just a symptom of this being done differently - maybe someone else in charge of this launch or something.

Well, there's good reason to be apprehensive given the huge amount of work they're trying to pack into a short time. Given the stage qual issues, new pad, etc, October or November would have been a more comfortable launch date, but no doubt they're feeling the pressure from CRS-3 and a sizeable backlog.

So the out-of-tune feel could well be that this is the latest ever they've had flight hardware at the site with respect to launch date. And the more compressed the schedule, the more stressed the launch team is and the more likely it is that mistakes get made.

Hopefully we'll know more soon with WDR presumably imminent.

[Chris Bergin]

I can see this thread is impossible to control when people feel obligated to post their "thoughts of the day" all over it

Look, they are a commercial company who - like most - have absolutely no need - or wish - to stick webcams all over their processing facilities, or provide some daily update blog, warts and all.

I have absolutely no doubt there are people at these companies who - if they had it their way - would have radio silence until after spacecraft separation, before issuing a post-mission presser, before saying "thanks! Didn't we do well!"

This is not NASA. This is not Shuttle. And I think a lot of the charm of Shuttle has been lost, because if she had a problem you had a NASA TV presser and about 20 meaty documents on L2 (with permission I might add). You respected Shuttle and her engineers a lot because when they solved issues and flew that big lady, it was a victory.

However, I do know - cause I speak with them - people at SpaceX who understand, appreciate, and wish they could probably do a bit more for the people on this very site, as they totally know 99.9 percent of the people posting on and reading these SpaceX threads only want them to succeed.

They do know it's a fan base, as opposed to a bunch of "I could do it better" types (as much as we've got a few of those).

So all we can do is cover this the best we can, respectfully, and what will happen will happen. No amount of "I want daily updates and I want them yesterday" posts on a space site's forum is going to change that.

[meekGee]

Thanks Chris.  I posted my thought of the day since, well, there's nothing else to chew on.

SpaceX does not owe us anything.  What I was commenting was on the change in the tune.  They used to show a lot more leg.  Now they're walking around with full body armor.  So the change is note-worthy.

My *guess* is that they've exhausted their schedule margin, and so now everything has to run nominally.  They are also feeling confident that they've done their homework, or they'd have stood down by now.

Given that any small problem will make the margin go negative, they're hesitant to say anything until the major milestone (WDR) is crossed.

They've already said they plan WDR for this week. Since they haven't said anything else, then yes - WDR this week, launch next week.

They should, however, ignore the outside pressure.  In the long view, there's very little significance to launching on the 5th.

[MP99]

This time, I'm a lot more apprehensive.  Something about the lead-up feels out-of-tune.  Maybe it's the radio silence that's freaking me out.  I hope it's just a symptom of this being done differently - maybe someone else in charge of this launch or something.

Well, there's good reason to be apprehensive given the huge amount of work they're trying to pack into a short time. Given the stage qual issues, new pad, etc, October or November would have been a more comfortable launch date, but no doubt they're feeling the pressure from CRS-3 and a sizeable backlog.

So the out-of-tune feel could well be that this is the latest ever they've had flight hardware at the site with respect to launch date. And the more compressed the schedule, the more stressed the launch team is and the more likely it is that mistakes get made.

Hopefully we'll know more soon with WDR presumably imminent.

Note that v1.1 is designed to need less processing at the launch site than v1.0.

Yeah - new vehicle & new launch site, but they'll launch when they're ready.

Cheers, Martin