Author Topic: LIVE: SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon COTS Demo (C2+) LAUNCH and FD1 UPDATES (Read 195209 times)

Chris Bergin · « **on:** 05/21/2012 09:16 pm »

LIVE LAUNCH DAY ATTEMPT 2 THREAD FOR SPACEX FALCON 9/DRAGON LAUNCH TO THE ISS.

Full coverage from around 2:30 AM Eastern
T-0 (Instant Window) at 3:44 AM EASTERN

SPACEX WEBCAST (Thanks to SpaceX/Ben for the coding). THIS IS A STATIC IMAGE UNTIL THE WEBCAST BEGINS, AFTER WHICH IT WILL STREAM EMBEDDED. Static page hasn't updated yet, SpaceX have to do that.

NSF Resources:

REALIGNED LAUNCH DAY ARTICLE - by William Graham:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacex-falcon-9-send-dragon-to-iss/

SCRUBBED ATTEMPT 1 UPDATES:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28918.0

SpaceX Forum Section:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=45.0 - please use this for general questions, non updates.

SpaceX News Articles from 2006 (Including numerous exclusive Elon interviews):
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=21862.0

SpaceX News Articles (Recent):
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/spacex/

Recent COTS C2+ Specific articles:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/Dragon/

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L2 Members:

L2 SpaceX Section:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=tags&tags=SpaceX

L2 SpaceX Dragon C2/C3 Mission Special (NEW - Exclusively acquired pre-launch and Mission Coverage, Presentations, Graphics, Videos, Updates, NASA/Space industry member comments):
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=54.0

To Join L2: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/

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This a LIVE UPDATE THREAD. All posts need to be as such. Other posts will be removed.

GO SPACEX. GO FALCON 9. GO DRAGON.

corrodedNut · « **Reply #1 on:** 05/21/2012 09:22 pm »

Crane has been lowered completely. Whatever they were doing, looks like they're done.

Rocket Science · « **Reply #2 on:** 05/21/2012 09:41 pm »

Set you recorders...

•NASA TV: SpaceX/Dragon Launch Coverage
02:30 AM - 05:15 AM
•SpaceX/Dragon Post-Launch News Conference
05:15 AM - 06:00 AM

Alpha Control · « **Reply #3 on:** 05/21/2012 09:42 pm »

As launch attempt 2 is now at 3:44am EDT (vs. 4:55am Sat. morning), that means a successful launch will be quite a bit further away from the terminator than just 3 days ago. Does anyone have an elapsed time of when F9 will pass into daylight?

David

corrodedNut · « **Reply #4 on:** 05/21/2012 09:57 pm »

Quote from: Alpha Control on 05/21/2012 09:42 pm

As launch attempt 2 is now at 3:44am EDT (vs. 4:55am Sat. morning), that means a successful launch will be quite a bit further away from the terminator than just 3 days ago. Does anyone have an elapsed time of when F9 will pass into daylight?

David

This track is a rough approximation of the one shown on the webcast during the previous attempt. As you can see the terminator is just crossing Nova Scotia/Maine at liftoff.

JimO · « **Reply #5 on:** 05/21/2012 10:01 pm »

Quote from: Alpha Control on 05/21/2012 09:42 pm

Does anyone have an elapsed time of when F9 will pass into daylight?

You can determine this at this excellent site,
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html
which tells us that Dragon will lag the ISS by 13 minutes at the end of Rev-1,
but it doesn't tell us where Falcon-2 stage2 will be, or the jettisoned solar array panel covers sparkling tumblers, probably], or any other detritus from the orbital insertion. and SpaceX spox are trying to find for me WHEN the stage2 prop venting will be occurring. Will share when [if] they answer.

We in Houston will see Dragon and debris exit shadow low in our NE, but well within observation range given a clear sky.

Alpha Control · « **Reply #6 on:** 05/21/2012 10:12 pm »

Thanks guys. Appreciate the info!

rdale · « **Reply #7 on:** 05/21/2012 10:39 pm »

Skies are absolutely clear over KSC and I can't see how it would change that much during the night... Staying with my 2% chance of launch weather violation (I've learned it is illegal for a weatherman to say 0

)

Orbiter · « **Reply #8 on:** 05/21/2012 10:45 pm »

Picture of Falcon 9 sitting on SLC-40 on a very warm May day. Now just under 9 hours until predicted T-0.

Norm Hartnett · « **Reply #9 on:** 05/22/2012 12:30 am »

Bill Harwood's COTS Demo 2 flight timeline updated

http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/spacenews/files/spacex_cots2_timeline.html

ChrisC · « **Reply #10 on:** 05/22/2012 01:18 am »

Quote from: Norm Hartnett on 05/22/2012 12:30 am

Bill Harwood's COTS Demo 2 flight timeline updated

Note: this is the same as what he posted on Saturday after the scrub, with two small exceptions:
- minor semantics like "resume approach" instead of "depart stationkeeping"
- at the very end, times for the second capture opportunity one orbit later

Everything else is the same. Just FYI in case you'd already printed out the Saturday version. It's basically the same, save for the extra capture window one orbit later.

Also, FYI, the "HA1" / "CE1" / etc. jargon is well illustrated in a document on L2

FinalFrontier · « **Reply #11 on:** 05/22/2012 01:28 am »

Tracking no issues at this time. Weather looks good. Around about T-7 hrs, 10 min. to go.

Barring any additional technical issues we should be good to go.

Comga · « **Reply #12 on:** 05/22/2012 02:54 am »

The Spaceflightnow countdown timeline says that the Falcon 9 should have been powered up two hours ago and LOX loading should commence in 50 minutes followed by RPI in about an hour. Any confirmations?

FinalFrontier · « **Reply #13 on:** 05/22/2012 04:30 am »

Quote from: Comga on 05/22/2012 02:54 am

The Spaceflightnow countdown timeline says that the Falcon 9 should have been powered up two hours ago and LOX loading should commence in 50 minutes followed by RPI in about an hour. Any confirmations?

Not a clue. Wanted to also say that I need to get some sleep tonight so sadly I will not be able to follow the launch with you guys. Will read this thread tomorrow to see what I missed.

No idea if propellant loading started or not, is there a live stream up currently that would show venting?

Edit: SFN stream is up, sorry for not checking. Venting can be seen so yes that has started.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #14 on:** 05/22/2012 04:42 am »

Per L2. Fueling all going well. At flight levels.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #15 on:** 05/22/2012 05:10 am »

I see about 50 people jumped on to post the Spacex webcast has started. It hasn't.

A clue is the 3am Eastern start time for the SpaceX webcast. It's 1am Eastern right now.

This thread is for the second attempt, not "let's watch the first scrub again"

Lots of people have this thread on e-mail notification, so you can imagine they would appreciate everyone sticks with the plan for this thread.

Zed_Noir · « **Reply #16 on:** 05/22/2012 05:29 am »

SpaceX webcast is got music. Countdown of 1h 31m to go before webcast is starting.

Chris-A · « **Reply #17 on:** 05/22/2012 05:43 am »

I seem to have the webcast working here.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #18 on:** 05/22/2012 05:44 am »

T-2 hours, mark.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #19 on:** 05/22/2012 06:15 am »

JSC:
The strongback for Falcon 9 has been lowered and the rocket is in the launch position