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

[yg1968]

Can we stop debating whether something was taken too seriously?  It's pointless.

I am still curious. Is this fireball problem easy to fix?

I am guessing that we will not know the answer to this question until we know exactly what happenned.

[butters]

Assuming that the combustible fluid was RP-1 leaking out of the upper stage fill/drain umbilical, it shouldn't be too difficult to fix this. RP-1 doesn't have to be continually replenished throughout the countdown. They could add a valve at the end of the fill/drain umbilical just upstream of the quick-disconnect that closes once the stage is fueled to flight level. Then they don't need to depend on the T-0 QD to seal off the umbilical at liftoff.

[joshcryer]

Seriously guys this is not a big deal, it flash burns before it touches anything, and, well, 1.1 million pounds of thrust I imagine is going to completely render useless whatever tiny flash burn you get from this.

[Hootz]

Just a SpaceX amazing people saying great launch and go Dragon!! And I prefer Jim hang around and make any comments he wishes. I always value his insight.

[Chris Bergin]

Whoa, we had ourselves a bit of a forest fire there for a second. Keep the noise down, it's been reasonably good on here so far, so let's avoid aruging. People can make points, but let's not dominate it as we're up to nearly 30 pages as these threads are reviewed for years to come. People want the milestones and the updates etc.

I must sound like a big bore, but I've just got to keep it civil and fluid on here.

[Lars_J]

Thanks for the video, joshcryer! That's a pretty good view of the 'anomaly'.

[dad2059]

Launch fireball or not, we are witnessing a Robert Heinlein sci-fi story becoming reality.

And that my friends, is history.

[DT1]

Launch fireball or not, we are witnessing a Robert Heinlein sci-fi story becoming reality.

And that my friends, is history.

Correct! This day reminds me - altough I was not born at that time - on the Apollo 4 mission. It's history in the making!

[Space Pete]

A video from KSC_MOCOP via Twitter: Space X Falcon 9 Launch (COTS 1).

[Robotbeat]

Nice little update about the video/telemetry/TDRS situation:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150339052290131&set=a.10150303260090131.563831.353851465130&comments
"Michael Maguire ‎(SpaceX Comms Engineer). Video has too much bandwidth to make it through TDRSS. Can't get a transmitter big enough (watts) to transmit through TDRSS without breaking radio regulations. So all video from Dragon comes through ground stations and they only have so much bandwidth and the BW is dedicated to telemetry with video played back later."
Jim was right. I was wrong (though I was only speculating).

[yg1968]

Thanks for the video, joshcryer! That's a pretty good view of the 'anomaly'.

You see it better on that video. The tower hose failed to detach from the rocket again. So it caught on fire.

[Diagoras]

From Facebook:

"Successful deployment of P-Pods. Stage 1 recovery—they have telemetry and radar on one of the Talon Pods—boat steaming that way..."

[JimO]

Prelim calculations by a colleague show the Dragon passing quite close south of Hawaii after entry interface -- but it'll be about two hours after sunrise there. Well, I'd go out, and look south, anyway. Anybody else who knows skywatchers and space nuts out there, wake them up.

[Avron]

Launch fireball or not, we are witnessing a Robert Heinlein sci-fi story becoming reality.

And that my friends, is history.

Correct! This day reminds me - altough I was not born at that time - on the Apollo 4 mission. It's history in the making!

Got to love it.. still waiting to get news of recovery and reentry..

[gospacex]

It ignited while F9 was barely ~10 meters above the pad. Here is the first video frame where hose (?) ignites

Correction: I looked more carefully and it looks like it happened while F9 was about 18 meters above the pad. The point of conflagration was about 15 meters above engines at that moment. I have no idea what that means - RP-1 showering down from a hose? Or RP-1 ignited by a spark?

This sure doesn't look nominal. Luckily, F9 dodged this bullet (again, in the first flight it had another close call - with the rotation).

Luck is definitely on their side so far. I am not complaining!!!

[ErikS]

the flash fire at the disco of the fuel line produced black smoke, it was a Hydrocarbon fire.  RP-1 in the line, I would bet an easy fix.

Remember how torched the pad got when AX launched.  The STS launches also mess a few things up (IIRC). 

I bet in the big picture that this is a no brainer for that crew.  All they need is a little duct tape and a dremel and they can fix anything.

Hats off to the SpaceX team. 

[butters]

Does anybody know about these Talon pods? Is it nominal to have radar lock on one of them, or does that suggest that the vehicle broke apart at least partially?

[Chris Bergin]

Someone report this post of mine if it's a duplicate:

SpaceX PAO:
More photos and video posted now

https://send.spacex.com/bds/Login.do?id=A043517252&p1=naj20dpsbfegcidgdlgffcj20

[Jim]

Seriously guys this is not a big deal, it flash burns before it touches anything, and, well, 1.1 million pounds of thrust I imagine is going to completely render useless whatever tiny flash burn you get from this.

It is not a flash burn.  there is still burning after the flash

[Halidon]

De-Orbit burn in 15-20 minutes according to SpaceX spokesperson