LIVE UPDATES, SpaceX Falcon 1, Launch Feb 8

[possum]

publiusr - 10/2/2006  5:27 PM

Ha! Ha! LOL. I'm starting to wonder if they even HAVE a rocket.

Imagine waking up to a Drudge Report that the Falcon rocket was a big drainage pipe filled with some dry ice buckets inside it to get a nice bit of frost and vapor for all the idiot reporters to see smoking off it. Put a flame thrower at the bottom and there you have it. Then show some static test shots from the 1960s that nobody remembers.

When its time to launch "We have a problem--by the way, here is the latest lawsuit--where I'm **really** going to get my money."

What a great sit-com moment.

These people have their sh** together and are nothing to laugh at.  I work for NASA and I remember all the failed attempts before Columbia finally flew the first time.  The first couple of years of Shuttle flights were plaqued by engine shutdowns, technical delays, etc.  We were stupid enough to put people on the first flight and then criticized Russia for flying the Buran unmanned on its first flight (while we were shut down for Challenger).  SpaceX will be the ones laughing in a couple of years when they have the world lining up to launch on their rockets at 1/4 the cost of the competition and 1/10th the price per pound of the Shuttle.  They are doing things right from my viewpoint.  Things are going rather smoothly considering the short period of time in which they have fielded this rocket.  Their problems have been minor compared to some other programs.

[braddock]

Great to hear that they had a successful firing!

It seems strange that they have another LOX shortage, since they didn't actually use any of it except for boil-off.  I'm pretty sure they were muttering "never again" last time.  But then I guess they had the rocket fueled on the pad in 80 degree weather for quite a few hours while they troubleshot.  I didn't notice the cryo blanket that they had planned in any of the shots; I wonder if they nixed that idea.

Too bad they have so many scheduling issues at the range.  That must be frustrating.  I wonder how constrained they are from working on their island during other operations on the range.

[braddock]

Update from Musk:

We were very happy to be able to execute a flight countdown all the way
to lighting the engine.  Although there wasn't a launch this time, we
made a lot of progress refining the rocket and launch pad -- all work
that needed to be done anyway.  I will post a longer update on our site
next week, after we have enough time to finish forensics of recent
events and formulate next steps.

---Elon Musk

Video of the static fire:
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/F1StaticFireClip.wmv

[Crunch]

It’s nice too see that the engine test went well (without sudden unexpected disassembly) and that the hold down worked.

How is the LOX issue? I know it’s unofficial but will SpaceX have the Ability to generate the LOX it needs on the island?

Any idea how engine preformed? Good, Bad, Ugly? I’m especially curious about the ablative nozzle.

I really hope these guys succeed.

[braddock]

Crunch - 10/2/2006  10:44 PM
How is the LOX issue? I know it’s unofficial but will SpaceX have the Ability to generate the LOX it needs on the island?

They have their own LOX generator on the island.  One of the contributing factors back in November was that the generator broke down.  The generator is at least big enough to compensate for boil-off to keep the tanks topped off after the full LOX shipment comes in; I don't think that the LOX generator is large enough to actually replenish the entire supply, since SpaceX has been shipping containers of LOX to the island.

Note that they _DID_ have enough LOX to launch on Friday, as far as we know.  It was only because they canceled the launch and decided to go for broke with another dress rehearsal that they depleated the supply, but it didn't matter at that point.  

For all we know, Elon could have pressed the button at T=0 yesterday, and SpaceX would have gotten to orbit.  They are just being cautious.

Any idea how engine preformed? Good, Bad, Ugly? I’m especially curious about the ablative nozzle.

It was only a 1-second firing, not a true test of the engine; they are unlikely to learn anything new.  SpaceX has done scores of longer test-stand firings at this point, check out this video for an awesome full three-minute duty cycle burn from a year ago: http://www.spacex.com/nl/vts1-135%20composite.mpg

SpaceX has only publically mentioned a single ablative failure during testing, but Elon kicks himself so hard every time the issue comes up in public that it seems quite possible that they are taking a gamble with it.

[Avron]

braddock - 10/2/2006  10:02 PM

Update from Musk:

We were very happy to be able to execute a flight countdown all the way
to lighting the engine.  Although there wasn't a launch this time, we
made a lot of progress refining the rocket and launch pad -- all work
that needed to be done anyway.  I will post a longer update on our site
next week, after we have enough time to finish forensics of recent
events and formulate next steps.

---Elon Musk

Video of the static fire:
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/F1StaticFireClip.wmv

Elon and team congrats, next time, its party time...

Good luck..

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4689/1902/1600/CRW_5320lr.jpg

[James Lowe1]

Shame this was the one time they had it bolted down, but they're getting closer to making this all worthwhile.

[braddock]

In other SpaceX news, we are awaiting a court's decision on a motion to dismiss the SpaceX vs. Boeing and Lockheed anti-trust case that was heard today.

Update thread for the court case:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1559&posts=4#M20358

[David AF]

Any sign of an estimated launch date for Falcon 1?

[publiusr]

It will be under the headlines "Blizzard strikes Hades--Film at eleven."

If it does launch--I will take back my words.

[Jamie Young]

It's been a week or so. No sign of a new launch date?

[braddock]

No sign of a launch date yet, SpaceX has been very quiet.

It took them under three weeks to resupply their LOX back in December, and Musk said two to four weeks as a rough guess when he postponed.  But I doubt that even SpaceX knows the answer yet.

[publiusr]

braddock - 13/2/2006  8:55 PM

In other SpaceX news, we are awaiting a court's decision on a motion to dismiss the SpaceX vs. Boeing and Lockheed anti-trust case that was heard today.

Update thread for the court case:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1559&posts=4#M20358

Heard anything else?

[braddock]

publiusr - 24/2/2006  5:32 PM
Heard anything else?

Nothing else about the launch, but we did get a note from SpaceX saying that they will indeed reopen the lawsuit with an amended claims filing.

See the new lawsuit thread at: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1612&posts=12#M21664
And of course the article last week on the claims dismissal at: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?id=4306

And as of today, there was renewed activity on the case docket putting the case back in a pre-hearing "discovery" phase, and the official case status was changed from "closed" to "closed, discovery".

See L2: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1611&posts=21#M22134