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

[Zoe]

We've had shuttles having an emergency MECO in the last second of a count-down, so this is hardly something unique to SpaceX.

You won't get a recycle and launch on the same day though.

[rdale]

Trying to recycle but no new T0 yet.

[ChefPat]

ABORT ABORT ABORT!


(good luck with the recycle!)

I don't care how many people report that image, it's brilliant

Hey!!! That's my Avatar.

[bad_astra]

I don't think there is such a thing as a drama-free SpaceX launch.

[Mike_1179]

But if you recall, there were several Falcon 1 aborts at ignition due to fuel temperatures out of spec.  They removed the fuel and then re-loaded it (to allow it to warm) then launched within the same window.

SpaceX (apparently) prides themselves on rapid turn arounds if a launch is aborted because their LCC were too tight.

[simonth]

We've had shuttles having an emergency MECO in the last second of a count-down, so this is hardly something unique to SpaceX.

You won't get a recycle and launch on the same day though.

SpaceX won't try it either on the maiden flight, just my guess now. We are also coming close to the window end.

[Ronsmytheiii]

no cloud build up near pad, go to go for weather

[sandrot]

Reminds me of something happened to Falcon 1

We've had shuttles having an emergency MECO in the last second of a count-down, so this is hardly something unique to SpaceX.

And didn't it happen just last week with the Delta? Starting to get annoyed with the bad cloud people put over SpaceX.

Uhm, reading too much in between the lines?

[Rhyshaelkan]

SpaceX is trying to be the future. Naturally there will be drama.

I would rather see them take it slowly and safely.

[iamlucky13]

I would be hapy with a scrub & a try for tommorrow. I really don't want to see this burn on the pad.

Clock doesn't seem to have recycled yet. I assume they won't recycle today until they've figured out what system triggered the abort and have at least a rough idea why and whether it might recur.

The green flashes were likely from the TEA-TEB ignition source, similar to what we saw during the abort during the first hot-fire

Thanks...I was pretty sure it was a TEA-TEB system, but I didn't want to stick my foot in my mouth. It looked very much like the hot fire abort.

I think I saw two distinct flashes. Can anyone confirm they start the engines in staggered fashion, not all at once?

[ugordan]

Can anyone confirm they start the engines in staggered fashion, not all at once?

Simultaneously.

[BarryKirk]

Better several scrubs and get it right than to launch and have a RUD event

[Rhyshaelkan]

They covered the last few seconds on CNN. So any that loose their stream can try there.

[Flometrics]

Can the igniters fire a second time?

The igniters are a pyrophoric liquid slug ahead of the fuel (ignites on contact with air or LOX) good for one try only.
SSME had a shutdown at tminus one due to a turbopump sensor that showed a false positive failure condition.
Spacex has 9 engines, all must be within a number of specifications, pressure temperature etc.

Steve
Flometrics

[KSC Engineer]

Reminds me of something happened to Falcon 1

We've had shuttles having an emergency MECO in the last second of a count-down, so this is hardly something unique to SpaceX.

And didn't it happen just last week with the Delta? Starting to get annoyed with the bad cloud people put over SpaceX.

Uhm, reading too much in between the lines?

Good point.  People forget that this is a very early test program.  SpaceX is doing as good as most during this early testing phase especially given their budget.

[Norm Hartnett]

I would be hapy with a scrub & a try for tommorrow. I really don't want to see this burn on the pad.

Yes...take 24 hours and go again is what I would do if you can isolate the problem.

They have, what, 75 minutes? Time enough for a couple of more cycles if the Falcon 1 launches are any criteria.

Tweak the abort parameters and try again. (more drama to come)

[Dappa]

Thanks...I was pretty sure it was a TEA-TEB system, but I didn't want to stick my foot in my mouth. It looked very much like the hot fire abort.

I think I saw two distinct flashes. Can anyone confirm they start the engines in staggered fashion, not all at once?

But remember the cloud of black smoke that came with it, and the vehicle venting?
I didn't see that this time (I also missed the flash). I very much doubt the vehicle ignited.

[DaveS]

If window closes at 1800UTC I don't see they'll make it today...

It closes 1900UTC. Four window remember?

[cixelsyD]

Webcast shows clock set back to 15:00

[JimO]

I was on console for the first STS-1 launch countdown on April 10, 1981. We got to L - 28 seconds when there was a computer glitch -- much to many people's relief, since it was a hectic, sloppy count. With that practice run, we counted down two days later all the way to zero, smoothly -- and the rest is history. Auto-cutoff of a countdown is better than pushing past an anomaly to launch -- false-positives are just embarrassing, false-negatives are fatal.