LIVE: SpaceX Falcon 9 Static Fire - April 30, 2012

[Chris Bergin]

SpaceX PAO:
So far things look good.  Engines fired for 2 seconds, as scheduled.  Engineers will now review data as we continue preparations for the upcoming launch.


--
Remember, they have to review this before May 7 is on.

[mmeijeri]

Yes, but doesn't mean the smoke is green. IIRC, the smoke was bluish-white.

Ah, of course, the colour of the flame has nothing to do with the colour of the smoke.

[Davinator]

Thanks for the excellent coverage all with the feel of an international static fire party!! That's right, we do static fire parties here!

[Chris Bergin]

I should have posted a redirect for the continuing update, that reverted back to the Launch Update thread here:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28586.msg892408#msg892408

Apologies to those on notification watch for certain threads.

[ugordan]

This ISS update video shows another view of the static fire, from a distance. Seems to have been ripped off from Ustream judging by the framerate.

[Garrett]

This ISS update video shows another view of the static fire, from a distance. Seems to have been ripped off from Ustream judging by the framerate.

Frame rate looks fine to me. The long camera-to-rocket distance coupled with rising hot air is distorting the image.

[ugordan]

Frame rate is at most half of normal, 30 fps for NTSC video. Trust me.

[oiorionsbelt]

After the static fire would they offload the hypergols or leave them in the Dragon?

[Jim]

After the static fire would they offload the hypergols or leave them in the Dragon?

The hypergols weren't loaded just for the static fire, they put on board for the flight.

[corrodedNut]

After the static fire would they offload the hypergols or leave them in the Dragon?

The hypergols weren't loaded just for the static fire, they put on board for the flight.

Is there a time limit on how long Dragon can stay loaded?

[robertross]

After the static fire would they offload the hypergols or leave them in the Dragon?

The hypergols weren't loaded just for the static fire, they put on board for the flight.

Is there a time limit on how long Dragon can stay loaded?

There would have to be, due to the (usually) corrosive nature of these types of propellants.

[MP99]

After the static fire would they offload the hypergols or leave them in the Dragon?

The hypergols weren't loaded just for the static fire, they put on board for the flight.

Is there a time limit on how long Dragon can stay loaded?

There would have to be, due to the (usually) corrosive nature of these types of propellants.

The DragonLab datasheet lists "Mission Duration: 1 week to 2 years", so doesn't that imply that the systems are designed for long-term storage of hypergols? (Though, I could understand if that wasn't fully developed for these early flights).

Edit: is there anything different about lifetime in orbit compared to lifetime on the ground?

cheers, Martin

[corrodedNut]

Is there a time limit on how long Dragon can stay loaded?

There would have to be, due to the (usually) corrosive nature of these types of propellants.

The DragonLab datasheet lists "Mission Duration: 1 week to 2 years", so doesn't that imply that the systems are designed for long-term storage of hypergols? (Though, I could understand if that wasn't fully developed for these early flights).

cheers, Martin

I thought the same thing, but was wondering if there were some safety/workplace rules that would necessitate defueling Dragon at some point.

[corrodedNut]

@SpaceX
Picture of Monday’s successful full rocket engine fire at our Cape Canaveral launch site. http://pic.twitter.com/SizjlGJM

[oiorionsbelt]

Thanks for the picture corrodedNut.

I'm curious why the ladder on the strong back is located where it is.
There seems no need to go higher yet a need to go from the bottom of the ladder to the top. 

[oiorionsbelt]

and the umbilicals into the trunk are for?

[corrodedNut]

Thanks for the picture corrodedNut.

I'm curious why the ladder on the strong back is located where it is.
There seems no need to go higher yet a need to go from the bottom of the ladder to the top. 

I think the bottom of the ladder is as high as the cherry picker can go.

[dragon44]

and the umbilicals into the trunk are for?

Power, network and air conditioning I would bet.

[Garrett]

Frame rate is at most half of normal, 30 fps for NTSC video. Trust me.

For me it says that the video is encoded at 25 fps and I can set it to HD (1280x720). However, there's also a "stage frame rate" which is the frame rate of the player (Flash Player in this case). In my case it says "10 stage fps". So it seems that the slow frame rate stems from the player. I downloaded the video as an MP4 file and I get the 25 fps rate.

I hope we're still talking about the same video ("[SpaceX] Static Fire Update from ISS Mission Control")

[ugordan]

So it seems that the slow frame rate stems from the player. I downloaded the video as an MP4 file and I get the 25 fps rate.

I hope we're still talking about the same video ("[SpaceX] Static Fire Update from ISS Mission Control")

Sigh. The fact there are N frames per second encoded in the video does not mean there are N unique frames. For example, I can easily generate a 30 fps video which duplicates every frame and thus has an effective frame rate of only 15 fps.

I don't have to look past the actual video to see it's not full motion and if you were shown the original footage side by side, you'd notice it too. NASA's Ustream channel does not webcast at full framerate, whereas the old NASA Windows Media streams did. They made a step back in my opinion.