SpaceX COTS Demo 1 Updates

[butters]

Does anyone know what kind of coverage will be provided throughout the flight? The Aviation Week article said they were looking at reentry after four orbits. If thats the plan it would be nice to see live real time coverage of the various tests and then reentry. Certainly would made an interesting afternoon of watching.

I think that the best we could practically expect is a live blog from MCC-X with text updates of mission status. I doubt we'll get any live video downlink from Dragon on orbit. We'll probably get an edited "highlights" video posted after the fact, at least if Dragon is recovered intact.

[Comga]

".. up to four orbits" is more than has been discussed previously, AFAIK.  I remember two orbits and about 3 hours.  That puts California pretty much where the East coast was at launch. 

Knowing the launch azimuth, can anyone determine the lattitude of the flight path over the west coast for each of the orbits?  Which of these is reasonable?  Are there intersections where a shiip could sit and retrieve on more than one orbit?  They can't  have a ship at every location.

[iamlucky13]

not sure how new this is..
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/c3po/home/cots_project.html

It mentions media details and a prelaunch news conference scheduled for the day before.

Their twitter feed (also copied on their webcast page) also links to this with the text: "NASA announces plans for first Dragon test launch"

http://twitter.com/SpaceXer

It looks pretty solid that December 7 is the intended date.


Unrelated - It seems a private individual had already registered the handle "SpaceX" on twitter. From a quick search, it doesn't seem like there's any actualy connection between him and the company.

[butters]

Aviation Week has Dragon doing four orbits, which is news to me, while SFN is repeating the earlier estimate of one to three orbits. Which do we believe is correct?

SFN also mentions that in addition to the NASA prelaunch briefing on Monday, there will also be another briefing about one hour after landing. So at the very least we won't have to wait too long to hear the good news. I'm feeling optimistic.

[Lars_J]

Unrelated - It seems a private individual had already registered the handle "SpaceX" on twitter. From a quick search, it doesn't seem like there's any actualy connection between him and the company.

'SpaceXer' appears to be an official SpaceX twitter account.

[RocketEconomist327]

Static fire on Friday if everything goes right.

[simonbp]

Aviation Week has Dragon doing four orbits, which is news to me, while SFN is repeating the earlier estimate of one to three orbits. Which do we believe is correct?

"Up to four" may be what they mean, depending on various factors..

[iamlucky13]

Unrelated - It seems a private individual had already registered the handle "SpaceX" on twitter. From a quick search, it doesn't seem like there's any actualy connection between him and the company.

'SpaceXer' appears to be an official SpaceX twitter account.

Yep. It looks like someone else had already registered "SpaceX," so they had to settle for adding the '-er.'

Someone has from time to time posted webcam shots of the pad. Does anyone know to find those?

[ugordan]

Someone has from time to time posted webcam shots of the pad. Does anyone know to find those?

From here? http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/

[Comga]

Someone has from time to time posted webcam shots of the pad. Does anyone know to find those?

From here? http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/

That's where I look for live KSC video.  SLC 40 used to be on channels 12 & 13.  Right now 12 is doing a weather map and 13 has been dark for a while.

PS Weather.com forecast for Tuesday is 0% chance of precipitiation, with partial clouds and a high of 66 degrees F.

[ugordan]

http://twitter.com/SpaceXer/status/10095788914905088

"SpaceX will webcast our static fire Friday AM. Falcon 9 will stand at the pad & test 9 Merlin engines at full force. SpaceX.com"

[iamlucky13]

That's where I look for live KSC video.  SLC 40 used to be on channels 12 & 13.  Right now 12 is doing a weather map and 13 has been dark for a while.

PS Weather.com forecast for Tuesday is 0% chance of precipitiation, with partial clouds and a high of 66 degrees F.

Thank you. So they're not continuously streaming? Oh well, still potentially useful.

Weather forecast looks great. Now if we could just have a forecast of the number of boaters who ignore restrictions.

[corrodedNut]

Now that we're getting close to the action, and there seems to be a little confusion about how and where to observe upcoming events, I thought I'd make a general post about the various available resources. I know this will seem remedial to most of you, but there are always lurkers and newcomers who may not have picked these up yet.

SpaceX social media-

Recently added to the bottom of http://www.spacex.com/ are links to all the official SpaceX social media:

Twitter:       http://twitter.com/SpaceXer and http://twitter.com/SpaceXmissions (these two seem to replace all previous twitter accounts)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SpaceX (you don't need a Facebook account to view this page)
Youtube:    http://www.youtube.com/spacexchannel (mostly the same as the SpaceX video page, but better rez for streaming)

The SpaceX update page: http://www.spacex.com/updates.php has not changed since Oct 4, social media accounts for the bulk of direct, albeit cursory updates since then.

The SpaceX webcast page: http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php from which all previous "live" webcasts have streamed, has changed in format in the last few weeks. It was up for the previous WDR, and likely so for upcoming events as well.
 
The NASA/KSC camera and/or video pages are:

http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/elv/ Four streaming cameras, with Windows Media Player or Real Player links for full-screen watching. These may or may not be on or pointed at SpaceX's pad (SLC-40) during actual events. Includes a count-down clock and other data.
 
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/video45lh.html These are video capture/stills from cameras all around KSC, some of which may be pointed towards SLC-40. This link will take you straight to the Max refresh rate of every 45 sec, but you can adjust this by going to the bottom of the page. This page and the previous one are cross-linked.

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?action=wp&feedId=705 This is a live streaming scanner feed of KSC communications, you can listen to two channels in stereo, left side = KSC trunked system /right side = Shuttle Landing Facility Tower, NASA weather aircraft, and support aircraft. This feed was very active during Falcon9 Flight 1 launch, and may be for the upcoming hotfire and launch as well.

If you prefer your live video accompanied by asinine chatting, you can load the SFN mission status center: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/002/status.html the video source will probably be one of those above, but if for some reason all of these are embargoed or unavailable they might have a shaky long-distance camera aimed at the pad.
 
Saving the best for last, of course, are the LIVE events threads here at NSF.

Go Falcon, Go Dragon!

Edit: New additional twitter acct

[Antares]

FAA, why haven't you updated your web site?
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/launch_data/
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/launch_data/upcoming_launch/

[Steven Pietrobon]

Thanks very much corrodedNut! It will be 12:33 am here at the opening of the launch window, so hopefully there won't be too many delays. Looking forward to the NASA coverage as the hi-res stream from Space-X is too much for my ADSL modem.

[FinalFrontier]

ok! I didn't think we were this close to launch, and have been tied up with work. So, when is the static fire and when is the current launch attempt? I just have not been able to keep up with the news lately due to work.

[butters]

ok! I didn't think we were this close to launch, and have been tied up with work. So, when is the static fire and when is the current launch attempt? I just have not been able to keep up with the news lately due to work.

Static fire in just over six hours (Friday Dec 3 at 9:00AM EST). Webcast starts at 8:00AM EST.

Launch is scheduled for Tuesday Dec 7 at 9:03AM EST with the launch window extending to 12:22PM EST.

[Chandonn]

Update on Static Fire:

- Now scheduled for 12pm EST
- Webcast starts at 11am EST


http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=23454.msg665293;topicseen#new

[mr. mark]

Spacex has on it's header the first ever picture of the finished Dragon going to static fire. She's beautiful! Nice capsule.

[ugordan]

Rollout