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

[Hanol]

I just hope they will post the video of press conference some place soon.  You know, Musk is really hard to follow as he switch from subject to subject real fast.  Depite all his acievements, he's not a great speaker.

[Sparky]

Judging by Musk's statements about the secret cargo, (and making the Monty Python comment) who wants to bet that the cargo was a sheep of some sort?

If I'm right, I'd guess it would be something like a toy sheep, a picture of a sheep, or maybe a nice piece of mutton. I think if Musk had really wanted to show off, he might have launched a live one to show everyone that there was physically no reason a human passenger aboard.

If you're right, we'll be congratulating them for a successful first orbital free flight of their new "spacesheep" with a hearty "wool done!"  We'll probably also want to wish them "Fleece Navidad" ...

That's probably why he said he wanted to wait until the next news cycle to announce what it was, to avoid the headline puns.

[robertross]

Watching Musk's interview now, and he makes the point that his business is not about profitability. He says that is also something he has mentioned to shareholders who have invested in his business, just so they're aware.

That speaks volumes to me.

(of course Kevin O'Leary, for those who follow in Canada, would bash that).

Money isn't everything, Kevin.
Musk, and SpaceX is building a capability.

[nooneofconsequence]

My bid - "rabbit". "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

[nooneofconsequence]

Watching Musk's interview now, and he makes the point that his business is not about profitability. He says that is also something he has mentioned to shareholders who have invested in his business, just so they're aware.

That speaks volumes to me.

(of course Kevin O'Leary, for those who follow in Canada, would bash that).

Money isn't everything, Kevin.
Musk, and SpaceX is building a capability.

Sometimes its about "bragging rights" in Silicon Valley.

[rdale]

I just hope they will post the video of press conference some place soon.

It was posted hours ago.

http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6328:spacex-falcon-9-cots-1-post-demonstration-launch-news-conference-&catid=1:latest

[notsorandom]

Sorry if this has already been covered, its a long thread. Has there been any word on how the successful the first stage recovery was yet?

[mmeijeri]

They didn't recover the stage, but they got a bit further than last time and put in a black box which I believe they have recovered / still intend to recover. There was talk of telemetry and radar contact with one "Talon pod", which is presumably the black box.

[Hanol]

Firrst stage sunk.  But they received some telemetry and first stage had some kind of the black box.

[stockman]

Here is a vid of the launch someone posted

It looked to me as the second stage lit up, there was a tiny leak, as the on board view shows.

Does someone have this Spacex feed video uploaded on NSF somewhere?? (not youtube - I want to be able to download it if possible)

thanks

[MP99]

Space, Monty Python, (and looking forward to Human flights) - gotta be a can of spam:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Cooper#Spam_in_a_can

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_%28Monty_Python%29

cheers, Martin

[Chris Bergin]

Maybe we can all give it a rest with the Monty Python stuff now. It's starting to detract from an important day and I can only imagine what some first time visitors will be thinking if they jump in at the end of the thread.

So, now for something completely different.....

[go4mars]

Elon: ...around 4.5g's.  About what you would see at an amusement park.  I would like to go to the amusement park where I can experience 4.5gs.

 In Paula Berinstein's book, "Making Space Happen", on page 85 she mentions 2 rollercoasters that sustain 6.5 gees on the public for a while... The "Drier Looping" in Germany, and the "Moonsault Scramble" in Japan.

[go4mars]

Is Elon English?

South African. American citizen, though.

Was a farm-hand up here in Canada for a while too.

[Hanol]

In Paula Berinstein's book, "Making Space Happen", on page 85 she mentions 2 rollercoasters that sustain 6.5 gees on the public for a while... The "Drier Looping" in Germany, and the "Moonsault Scramble" in Japan.

Sustain and SUSTAINED are different things.  For a short, very short period of time people can tolerate 6G or more.  However there are documeted cases when pilots blocked out at sustained acceleration slightly exceeding 3G.  Just do your research.

One major factor is the position of the body in relation to the gravity/acceleration force vector.

[edkyle99]

Regarding the Dragon mass, the second stage second burn moved the stage from a roughly 300 km orbit to an assumed 300x11,000 km orbit, which would require 1,561 meters/sec delta-v.  With no payload, and assuming a second stage dry mass of 3.3 tonnes, something like 2 tonnes or more (2 to 2.5 tonnes) of propellant would have been needed for the second burn.  As a first estimate, this extra propellant can be assumed to have been carried in lieu of maximum LEO payload.  In other words, Dragon C1 had to have weighed at most 2.5 tonnes less than the reported 9.8 tonne Falcon 9 capacity.  The company would likely have added some extra margin by carrying less than maximum payload.  I would guess 1-2 tonnes at least.  Those assumptions get us down to 5 to 6.5 tonnes for Dragon C1, including the trunk that stayed attached to the second stage.

 - Ed Kyle

[mikes]

According to the EXIF data, that was shot with a full-frame camera with an 800mm lens.  That's quite a bit of telephoto power so, unless you're used to it, it's not going to make it easy to judge distance.  Further, the shot is cropped and we don't know by how much.

I also looked at EXIF.  I have a similar camera and 600mm lens.  And I shoot a lot on the open water in the Ocean.  All I can say it was less then a mile.  Probably much less.  If it was significatly cropped, you would see much worse resolution.  Also EXIF would show image processsing program.

Assuming the image is cropped (rather than scaled), an 800mm lens on a Canon 5D Mark II (as listed in the EXIF) subtends 1.653 arcseconds per pixel
http://www.howardedin.com/articles/fov.html

The Dragon in the image is about 16 pixels across, so 26 arcseconds for the 3.6m wide capsule.

S=O/H,  H=O/S, distance = 3.6m/sin(26/3600) = 29km

Intuitively that seems too far to me. Please could someone check my maths?

[Ben the Space Brit]

@ Ed Kyle,

Remember that Dragon C1 was flying without a trunk and solar arrays, so that would have made it under-mass.  The upper stage's performance would have to also be calculated as to whether the cubesats were still attached when it performed its second burn.

[ugordan]

@ Ed Kyle,

Remember that Dragon C1 was flying without a trunk and solar arrays, so that would have made it under-mass. 

It was flying with a trunk. It just didn't separate with the Dragon, but stayed bolted to the 2nd stage.

[sdsds]

Thought some of Elon's answers were nothing short of amazing, even if he was a bit "headblown"

FWIW I totally concur with your assessment.  Being headblown made him fumble for words and ramble on a bit, but it also made everything he said seem like it was coming straight from the heart without any marketing spin.

I thought the response in which he talked about being both CEO and chief designer was particularly noteworthy.  He said that because as chief designer he knew the nozzle shortening would work, that as CEO he could accept the decision to proceed with it.  There's an awful lot implied by that statement.

He's certainly an impressive leader.

Speaking of which, Shotwell seemed on the top of her game for both pre-launch and post-launch press conferences.  Crisp, professional, relaxed, and totally on top of the situation!