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

[Hauerg]

.....
I think it is hilarious that they cut the nozzle. I'm impressed that they only delayed launch by a day!

Yes, impressive "Home Improvement" - spirit. But if it would have gone wrong they would have earned an idiot-of-the-year price. Because "everybody knows" you cannot do this to a rocket engine, ON THE PAD.

They must have been extremely confident about this.

[Chris Bergin]

Sources note they are monitoring CBM temps - but that may indeed be a normal objective.

[Zoomer30]

Just saw that fireball at liftoff, missed it live since my vid glitched a bit there. A little left over RP1 in the line perhaps?

[jongoff]

Yes, impressive "Home Improvement" - spirit. But if it would have gone wrong they would have earned an inaccurate-of-the-year price. Because "everybody knows" you cannot do this to a rocket engine, ON THE PAD.

Heh.  Tell that to my former coworker Ben Brockert.  He field repaired an igniter, while sitting under a fully-pressurized rocket vehicle right before the final flight of the NGLLC....I was being safer--I was at least another foot back from the engine...  ;-)

That said, doing that kind of a repair on a rocket that big, on the pad is quite impressively balsy in its own right.

~Jon

[Kabloona]

Yes, impressive "Home Improvement" - spirit. But if it would have gone wrong they would have earned an inaccurate-of-the-year price. Because "everybody knows" you cannot do this to a rocket engine, ON THE PAD.

Heh.  Tell that to my former coworker Ben Brockert.  He field repaired an igniter, while sitting under a fully-pressurized rocket vehicle right before the final flight of the NGLLC....I was being safer--I was at least another foot back from the engine...  ;-)

That said, doing that kind of a repair on a rocket that big, on the pad is quite impressively balsy in its own right.

~Jon

Yeah, that piece of niobium deserves to be enshrined somewhere...

[jongoff]

Any word from "the usual suspects" in Congress?  :-)

~Jon

[MarsInMyLifetime]

Yes, impressive "Home Improvement" - spirit. But if it would have gone wrong they would have earned an inaccurate-of-the-year price. Because "everybody knows" you cannot do this to a rocket engine, ON THE PAD.

...
That said, doing that kind of a repair on a rocket that big, on the pad is quite impressively balsy in its own right.

~Jon

Yeah, that piece of niobium deserves to be enshrined somewhere...

Deserving of a Red Green parody someday!

[JimO]

SFN is saying SpaceX will manually order the Dragon's de-orbit burn at 1:15pm EST if they're nominal after 2 orbits.

That's probably just based on the timeline in the press kit:

deorbit ignition    MET  2:32
entry interface           2:58
splashdown                3:19

I'm still working on getting the entry ground track, and any visual opportunities of the fireball.

[edkyle99]

Sources note they are monitoring CBM temps - but that may indeed be a normal objective.

Thermals are a always a big area of concern on an inaugural flight of any spacecraft.

 - Ed Kyle

[Robotbeat]

Sources note they are monitoring CBM temps - but that may indeed be a normal objective.

Thermals are a always a big area of concern on an inaugural flight of any spacecraft.

 - Ed Kyle

Have they ever tested Dragon in a thermal vacuum chamber? (EDIT:Besides right now, of course! )

[Zoomer30]

First mention of the launch just now on CNN and they messed it up, calling it the "first launch of a commercial rocket from KSC"  Must have forgot that little show SpaceX put on in June.

CNN does hire trained reporters right?

[Halidon]

Interesting that in a week where a Russian launch failed from being over-fueled, a US launch succeeded despite it's upper stage nozzle needing to be trimmed down on the pad.

[Hunts Villain]

RIP the skills of Miles Obrien

[Zoomer30]

Looks like they will need to modify their launch pad for high volume use, cant be frying your LP every time.  That fire ball was something. Alomst looked like the 2nd stage checking out early (at least from one POV I saw)

[tobi453]

[Chris Bergin]

Looking very good so far. Sources note one of the Dracos has failed - within tolerance. Internally they are seeing video at SpaceX, shame they aren't streaming it.

[Zoomer30]

The whole nozzle thing was over played by the press, the way they tell it the guys were out there with a pair of wire cutters and a tape mesure to make sure it was round....probably a bit more precise than that.  And it was just the extension anyways, not really "needed"

[butters]

Looks like they will need to modify their launch pad for high volume use, cant be frying your LP every time.  That fire ball was something. Alomst looked like the 2nd stage checking out early (at least from one POV I saw)

I think this has been a bit overplayed. It wasn't as bad as the Delta IV T-0 fireballs we've seen in the past. It's definitely worth refining (as ULA seems to have done recently with Delta IV), but I doubt this caused enough damage to be the long pole in the pad flow.

[Zoomer30]

Doubt we will see much till splashdown, the big downside to commercial spaceflight is they wont tell you every nano second of everything that happens.  Cant be telling there (ahem) "competitors" what they are doing it.  Not that they have much competition.  No one else is even close to the start line and SpaceX is ready to break the tape.

[echalone]

I have analyzed the live-webcast video-captures and, considering the size of the fireball relative to the size of the rocket, came to an approximate fireball size of...
Width: ~ 7 m (23 ft) [Minimal: 6.5 m (21.3 ft) / Maximal: 9.5 m (31.2 ft)]
Height: ~ 12 m (39.4 ft) [Minimal: 9 m (29.5 ft) / Maximal: 13 m (42.7 ft)]