LIVE: SpaceX Falcon 9 (Flight 2) - COTS-1 - Launch Updates - December 8, 2010

[Robotbeat]

twitter:
"SpaceXMissions
A big thank you to NASA for their continued support! What an awesome partnership!
14 minutes ago via web"

[Kabloona]

Disregard the earlier comment, I was watching a replay and they mentioned jettisoning the stiffening ring.

They mentioned it, but I didn't see it. It looked like there was a flange, or lip, though, on the end of the nozzle, and that stayed on the entire time. At first I thought it was the stiffeners, but apparently not. Still trying to figure out where the stiffeners were.

I noted the lip too.  I was wondering if they would do something like this given I that I believe they cut a large amount of the nozzle off.

For my own curiosity I would like to hear how they attached that "lip" or what exactly they did to prep the nozzle.  Couldn't be a whole lot of room, relatively speaking, in the interstage area. 

Yes, that would be interesting to know. I guess we just learned a lot about super-thin niobium nozzle extensions...

[ugordan]

SFN: "1616 GMT (11:16 a.m. EST)
SpaceX spokesperson Kirstin Brost says the company has a lock with the spacecraft through NASA tracking and data relay satellites and the spacecraft is firing."

Any word on who it's firing at?

[joncz]

Disregard the earlier comment, I was watching a replay and they mentioned jettisoning the stiffening ring.

They mentioned it, but I didn't see it. It looked like there was a flange, or lip, though, on the end of the nozzle, and that stayed on the entire time. At first I thought it was the stiffeners, but apparently not. Still trying to figure out where the stiffeners were.

I think the readoff of stiffening ring was just rote.

[mnewcomb]

Anyone know where I can watch a replay? Only caught the last 2m of the flight.

Thanks.

[Longhorn John]

Forgot to note, this is like MECO after an orbiter's ride into orbit. Can post away now (only had housekeep during the updates or we get so many complaints etc).

Echo what Pete said. Will always be loyal to Shuttle, but that was very impressive and had the same nerves during ascent.

Yeah. Although you can't really compare F9/Dragon to Shuttle. Different leagues.

[butters]

I definitely saw the stiffening ring separate. It separated substantially later in the upper stage burn (maybe 1 minute or more) than on the previous flight, possibly because of the... unique nozzle configuration.

Liftoff roll looked as close to perfect as I could discern. And of course the upper stage trajectory was WAY more stable than any previous F1 or F9 flight. The only thing that didn't look immaculate was the T-0 umbilical release.

[echalone]

Any word on first stage recovery?

They seemed to have telemetry of the first stage for a very long time after seperation this time... looks good in my opinion. Of course that doesn't mean they still had contact after splashdown.

[Ben the Space Brit]

SFN: "1616 GMT (11:16 a.m. EST)
SpaceX spokesperson Kirstin Brost says the company has a lock with the spacecraft through NASA tracking and data relay satellites and the spacecraft is firing."

Presumably this is the Dragon orbital circularisation burn from the Dracos.  Once it's clear, I'm guessing the U/S will fire its main engine again to get into position for the secondary payload deployment.

[Alpha Control]

SFN: "1616 GMT (11:16 a.m. EST)
SpaceX spokesperson Kirstin Brost says the company has a lock with the spacecraft through NASA tracking and data relay satellites and the spacecraft is firing."

Any word on who it's firing at?

Spit my coffee out on that one!

[Chris Bergin]

Stop copying and pasting stuff from other sites. Big no no. Official sources only (or our sources).

[gospacex]

I wouldn't watch live webcasts of launches again - I don't want to have a heart attack. :]

P.S. I did see stiffening ring falling off.

[beancounter]

Looks like the only issue they still got problems with is the umbilical at launch.  Nearly had that heart attack - thought the vehicle was going up!!

[Hunts Villain]

Supposed to know within an hour or so on whether the 1st stage is recovered.  Firing is testing out the Dracos.

[echalone]

SFN: "1616 GMT (11:16 a.m. EST)
SpaceX spokesperson Kirstin Brost says the company has a lock with the spacecraft through NASA tracking and data relay satellites and the spacecraft is firing."

Any word on who it's firing at?

lol 

[xlr82v2]

Sorry...


SpaceX website says they didn't need the performance increase from the nozzle extension, so they trimmed it off to eliminate the cracks.


How's that?

[JimO]

Ted Molczan at SeeSat has posted provisional TLEs (orbital specs) for anyone wanting to check on visual sighting opportunities.

Here: http://satobs.org/seesat/Dec-2010/0074.html

If the second stage winds up higher, of course, new TLEs will be required.

I'm particularly interested in the ground tracks for the orbit 2 and orbit 3 entry corridors, it'll be dark, and the tracks ought to be near Hawaii -- or at least near air routes.

[Chris Bergin]

Forgot to note, this is like MECO after an orbiter's ride into orbit. Can post away now (only had housekeep during the updates or we get so many complaints etc).

Echo what Pete said. Will always be loyal to Shuttle, but that was very impressive and had the same nerves during ascent.

Yeah. Although you can't really compare F9/Dragon to Shuttle. Different leagues.

Absolutely. Wasn't comparing it to shuttle in that way. Orbiters are world famous and beloved vehicles carrying crew and an amount of upmass that would require a "gang" of Dragons (just had a funny mental image of a 'gang' of Dragons being bossed about by an orbiter). But thought it was notable there were the same nerves, as you don't really get that with a Proton launch (as much as one probably should per recently )

Need these new vehicles to work or the ISS will really struggle. That'd play a factor into it, along with knowing how much work NASA and contractors put into their vehicles, it's some achievement by a 'private' company to get metal uphill.

[craigcocca]

Ted Molczan at SeeSat has posted provisional TLEs (orbital specs) for anyone wanting to check on visual sighting opportunities.

Here: http://satobs.org/seesat/Dec-2010/0074.html

If the second stage winds up higher, of course, new TLEs will be required.

I'm particularly interested in the ground tracks for the orbit 2 and orbit 3 entry corridors, it'll be dark, and the tracks ought to be near Hawaii -- or at least near air routes.

And as I asked a few pages back, it would also be great if we can get some information on where the SpaceX recovery ships are operating from in Long Beach, on the off chance that we can head over and get some photos (from a distance of course) following recovery.

-Craig

[Steven Pietrobon]

Congratulations to SpaceX for the successful launch of Dragon into orbit! Its nearly 3 am here so will be off to be bed soon and hope to wake up to a successful recovery.

The NASA feed worked great for me at 320x240 resolution. I could get the SpaceX feed, but it stops and buffer every few seconds making it not very good to watch.