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

[savuporo]

Im wondering if they will do a live feed of the first manned launch .. im not sure i woudl be able to watch live.

[kraisee]

For an event thread, we're talking about over double that of a shuttle launch.

 

Nice!

 

Ross.

[KSC Sage]

The view from KSC was great!  The sound was surprisingly loud.  It set off a number of car alarms. 

Congratulations SpaceX!

[strangequark]

What a day, and it means a lot to us to see such a large amount of congratulations from this site. I was disgusted to hear about the "FAIL!!"  comments on another site with spaceflight in the name, but I'm glad to see the members here are true followers and supporters of launch vehicles.

Don't let the loud, obnoxious few get you down. I watched the launch from directly across the river, with about 500 co-workers from the Shuttle and Constellation world. All of us were cheering for you.

[gladiator1332]

Chris -- How hard did your servers get hit today?   How did today compare to a Shuttle launch?

Ross.

So far today we're up to 2,730,148 page impressions! Site was being hit 500 times a second at times. All the servers held up throughout!

For an event thread, we're talking about over double that of a shuttle launch.

Just curious...but how does this event compare to the Ares I-X event...since that is the most recent maiden flight that I can remember.

[rsnellenberger]

Nice video, Ford.  Interesting to see the 2nd stage turbopump exhaust roll control nozzle kick over once (looked like 30 degrees, could have been more) and then not move again while the roll slowly built up.  Looked almost as though the nozzle returned slightly off-axis (enough to cause the roll) and then (for some reason) couldn't be used by the control system to eliminate the roll.  Pitch and yaw control looked great, though, so the control system was obviously still working...

And congratulations to SpaceX... many happy returns (to space).

[nooneofconsequence]

Just curious...but how does this event compare to the Ares I-X event...since that is the most recent maiden flight that I can remember.

No comparison. I'm a lot more confident that an F9 will launch a manned vehicle in 5 years then an Ares I could launch one in 10 years.

[ChuckC]

Just curious...but how does this event compare to the Ares I-X event...since that is the most recent maiden flight that I can remember.

Beats Ares 1-X by a long shot, that was a glorified model rocket, this was a full up test that went all the way to orbit.

[Chris Bergin]

Chris -- How hard did your servers get hit today?   How did today compare to a Shuttle launch?

Ross.

So far today we're up to 2,730,148 page impressions! Site was being hit 500 times a second at times. All the servers held up throughout!

For an event thread, we're talking about over double that of a shuttle launch.

Just curious...but how does this event compare to the Ares I-X event...since that is the most recent maiden flight that I can remember.

It's already about 10 percent up on Ares I-X when comparing this event thread with the I-X attempt 2 event thread.

[Lars_J]

According to a spaceflightnow.com update:

It's official. SpaceX founder Elon Musk says the Falcon 9 rocket achieved a nearly perfect orbit during today's dramatic blastoff.
GPS telemetry showed the rocket's second stage and dummy Dragon capsule hit "essentially a bullseye," according to Musk

The apogee, or high point, was about 1 percent higher than planned and the perigee, or low point, was 0.2 percent off the target. The second stage shutdown was nominal, Musk told Spaceflight Now.

The Falcon 9 was shooting for a circular orbit 250 kilometers, or 155 miles, high and an inclination of 34.5 degrees.

[kraisee]

Great news.   That's awesome performance.

Ross.

[jcm]

Congratulations to SpaceX on an apparently very successful launch. Still waiting for TLEs to appear on Space-Track, which will be the independent confirmation of success.
Lots of excitement here at SAO when SECO was declared. Hope we'll see some of our astronomy satellites going up on this vehicle some day.

Questions for the Hawthorne-based readers: - on the nominal Dragon launches, I think the aerodynamic nose cap separates from the capsule prior to orbit insertion... is that the case on the Qual vehicle? I am guessing not, and that the only sep event was the staging.
 - also, I hope SpaceX will comment on whether or not a second stage restart burn was made, and if so at what time it occurred.

[SpacexULA]

The pieces of information I can't wait to see.

-How will the performance numbers for Falcon 9 be effected by this launch?  Will they go up or down.

-Will there be any new contracts announced in the next few months.

-Will the 1st stage be recovered, if so how good of shape will it be in.

-How will this effect the Fy2011 debate, I honestly don't think it will change any minds.

[gladiator1332]

This may be a dumb question...but once we learn Dragon's orbit, will it be possible to view it flying overhead like the X-37?

[Robotbeat]

This may be a dumb question...but once we learn Dragon's orbit, will it be possible to view it flying overhead like the X-37?

Yup! It should stay up there for quite a while!

[Lars_J]

This may be a dumb question...but once we learn Dragon's orbit, will it be possible to view it flying overhead like the X-37?

It should be... The combined 2nd stage and Dragon test article should be just as big (or bigger) than the X-37.

[gladiator1332]

Nice image from Florida Today.com:

[mr. mark]

It's official. SpaceX founder Elon Musk says the Falcon 9 rocket achieved a nearly perfect orbit during today's dramatic blastoff.
GPS telemetry showed the rocket's second stage and dummy Dragon capsule hit "essentially a bullseye," according to Musk

The apogee, or high point, was about 1 percent higher than planned and the perigee, or low point, was 0.2 percent off the target. The second stage shutdown was nominal, Musk told Spaceflight Now.

The Falcon 9 was shooting for a circular orbit 250 kilometers, or 155 miles, high and an inclination of 34.5 degrees.
 
Just in from spaceflightnow and spacex

[Comga]

According to a spaceflightnow.com update:

(snip)
The apogee, or high point, was about 1 percent higher than planned and the perigee, or low point, was 0.2 percent off the target. The second stage shutdown was nominal, Musk told Spaceflight Now.

The Falcon 9 was shooting for a circular orbit 250 kilometers, or 155 miles, high and an inclination of 34.5 degrees.

1% and 0.2% of 250 km means +2.5 km and +/-0.5 km.  To those on here who know the numbers, how does this compare to other launch vehicles like Delta II, Atlas V, and Delta IV?  How much delta-V would it take to correct that?  (If I were home I could open an old textbook and do the calculation, but I am not.)

Edit: 34.5 deg inclination  Darn!  I am too far north to see it passing overhead.

[JimP]

Most impressive!  Looking forward to Flight #2! Well done SpaceX!