LIVE: Falcon 9 Flight 1 Maiden Flight - June 4, 2010

[Nick L.]

Anyone hear on the scanner feed that they're dealing with "the real insanity"?

SpaceX announcer confirms the strongback movement is part of the testing on the issue.

[jcopella]

Anyone hear on the scanner feed that they're dealing with "the real insanity"?

I'm assuming that's the name of the sport fishing boat with the engine trouble trying to get clear to Ft. Pierce.

"Reel [sic] Insanity"

Common name for a fishing boat.

[HIPAR]

strong back moving back to rocket:

Seeing if they can resolve the interference (my phrase) with the strongback movement.

Troubleshooting by moving the signal obstruction?  If the signal is restored, they have major problems today.

---  CHAS

---  CHAS

[blueguitarbob]

Anyone hear on the scanner feed that they're dealing with "the real insanity"?

The Reel Insanity sport fishing boat (get it?) is the boat with engine trouble that is trying to traverse the zone to reach Fort Pierce to the south. They don't have clearance, but are not responding to radio calls.

[amon]

Anyone catch what they just said about the strongback movement? My stream glitched just as he started talking.

[ugordan]

If the signal is restored, they have major problems today.

Why? It means the tower is the culprit and upon tower clearance it should clear up. At least that would be my rationale.

[Mapperuo]

Anyone hear on the scanner feed that they're dealing with "the real insanity"?

The Reel Insanity sport fishing boat (get it?) is the boat with engine trouble that is trying to traverse the zone to reach Fort Pierce to the south. They don't have clearance, but are not responding to radio calls.

Hope they get fined then.

[Kim Keller]

From what I heard there was a great deal of time spent over the last two months getting the FTS system certified. That and the Delta launch were the big hold backs on this launch.

While this problem involves the FTS, it is not at fault in this case. The system is functioning properly, but one of the antenna/receiver pairs is apparently having trouble "seeing" the range's command carrier signal.

[Ronsmytheiii]

overview of LC41

[Nick L.]

Anyone catch what they just said about the strongback movement? My stream glitched just as he started talking.

Strongback movement is part of the investigation of the issue.


Thanks for the clarification on the Reel Insanity.

[Ronsmytheiii]

Still working FTS nothing has been resolved, strong back moving away

[thuvt]

I have high hope for the Falcon 9 LV, keep my fingers crossed... good luck!

[Nick L.]

Strongback moving again.

[Chandonn]

My quick glance at KCS radar (via Intellicast) looks like the showers are nearly gone in the area!

[Kim Keller]

If it's a signal obscuration problem, how do you fix that?  Seems you need either move the obstacle out of the way or change the transmitter/receiver antenna geometry.

One would think line of sight for various radio links would be a major consideration when the pad layout was designed.

---  CHAS

This actually cropped up during the Taurus T-8/OCO countdown. One of the FTS receivers was showing an odd fluctuating AGC voltage, which turned out to be caused by the geographic location of one of the range transmitters. Once off the pad the signal steadied up just fine.

[vt_hokie]

This actually cropped up during the Taurus T-8/OCO countdown. One of the FTS receivers was showing an odd fluctuating AGC voltage, which turned out to be caused by the geographic location of one of the range transmitters. Once off the pad the signal steadied up just fine.

Is this something that is not tested in the launch configuration until the actual countdown?

[Nick L.]

[blueguitarbob]

The Reel Insanity crisis has been averted. He's holding position. Apparently as a result of a "colorful" radio conversation with the Coast Guard.

[HIPAR]

If the signal is restored, they have major problems today.

Why? It means the tower is the culprit and upon tower clearance it should clear up. At least that would be my rationale.

Well that's true if they get permission to launch with that kind of problem.  Everybody made a 'big deal' about the FTS being as perfect as possible.

---  CHAS

[butters]

If they restored signal strength with the tower in the vertical, I wonder how they would decide whether the retracted tower is an interference that might go away after liftoff or that the vertical tower acts as signal-boosting antenna that was masking an inherent lack of signal strength during previous testing.