SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 - Thaicom 6 - DISCUSSION THREAD

[Garrett]

yeah, looked like a new A/C duct setup.
And it looked like they were folded in such a way that they would unfold the way they did. That must of took quite a bit of practice, and must be a bit of a pain to write down the folding instructions 

[Lars_J]

Re.: A/C hoses - Yeah I had an OMG moment myself but they untangled themselves and it's possible that they were meant to unfurl that way. Never forget that Elon's hired lots of professionals (including a few long-time forum members) so you've got to assume they know what they're doing!

I was more freaked out by the swaying of the rocket!  But I realize that it is expected.

It looked windier than during the SES-8 launch, although I don't recall such a close view of the retraction on that webcast.

[Helodriver]

There was much more water cascading over the pad holddowns many minutes before launch. I don't remember seeing so much before. A new protocol for protecting the launch pad hardware or a valve leak?

[Bugfix]

yeah, looked like a new A/C duct setup.
And it looked like they were folded in such a way that they would unfold the way they did. That must of took quite a bit of practice, and must be a bit of a pain to write down the folding instructions 

Must be like the way you teach children to tie their shoelaces. I also expected the hoses to end up in a knot...

[Lars_J]

There was much more water cascading over the pad holddowns many minutes before launch. I don't remember seeing so much before. A new protocol for protecting the launch pad hardware or a valve leak?

Looked the same on SES-8, but I could be wrong.

[butters]

There was much more water cascading over the pad holddowns many minutes before launch. I don't remember seeing so much before. A new protocol for protecting the launch pad hardware or a valve leak?

Just the GOX venting through the prevalves during engine chilldown, condensing water out of the atmosphere. The appearance depends on ambient humidity.

[riney]

(moved from update thread) A friend of mine and I both commented that the hold-down after ignition seemed longer than usual. Anybody else see this?

[Prober]

There was much more water cascading over the pad holddowns many minutes before launch. I don't remember seeing so much before. A new protocol for protecting the launch pad hardware or a valve leak?

Looked like more water and less LOX chill.

[Lars_J]

(moved from update thread) A friend of mine and I both commented that the hold-down after ignition seemed longer than usual. Anybody else see this?

I think there was a lag between the sound and video. The engines did not ignite until after T-0 on the video, when they are supposed to ignite at T-3sec. So there was a ~3 second video lag.

[Mader Levap]

There was much more water cascading over the pad holddowns many minutes before launch. I don't remember seeing so much before. A new protocol for protecting the launch pad hardware or a valve leak?

In case of leak we would have scrub.

(moved from update thread) A friend of mine and I both commented that the hold-down after ignition seemed longer than usual. Anybody else see this?

It is possible that webcase slowed it. Many people commented about previous webcasts that you should refresh it a few minutes before launch, otherwise you will get delays.

[Helodriver]

There was much more water cascading over the pad holddowns many minutes before launch. I don't remember seeing so much before. A new protocol for protecting the launch pad hardware or a valve leak?

Just the GOX venting through the prevalves during engine chilldown, condensing water out of the atmosphere. The appearance depends on ambient humidity.

Pretty sure it wasn't GOX condensate, it was more like splashing liquid water, gallons of it. If it was GOX it was wetting the pad in a way I'd never seen before on any launch of other vehicles.

[DavidH]

(moved from update thread) A friend of mine and I both commented that the hold-down after ignition seemed longer than usual. Anybody else see this?

On my feed the verbal countdown was out of sync with the video such that ignition didn't happen until around T-1 or less. It may be that what you saw was just a simple bit of synchronization.

[Lar]

(moved from update thread) A friend of mine and I both commented that the hold-down after ignition seemed longer than usual. Anybody else see this?

(my reply there got (properly) nuked I think...)

I was watching with a co-worker and I noticed the same thing, and was just saying "that's an abort, the rocket didn't leave..." when it left, bound uphill.

Now, it's possible that it's nerves, or perception management issues, or whatever, but I wasn't going by the audio track.

[Ben the Space Brit]

Well, S/C sep probably should have happened by now. SpaceX really needs to learn that, for the serious Rocket Geek, coverage does not end at SECO1.

[NovaSilisko]

Silence is always a little bit worrying... Didn't they say immediately that SECO2 and S/C sep had taken place, last time?

[starsilk]

Silence is always a little bit worrying... Didn't they say immediately that SECO2 and S/C sep had taken place, last time?

they were a bit late and needed prodding last time.. but definitely worrying. fingers crossed.

[Ben the Space Brit]

Still total communications silence on both Twitter and Facebook.

[macpacheco]

Silence is always a little bit worrying... Didn't they say immediately that SECO2 and S/C sep had taken place, last time?

But the twitter feed has only the lift off comment, and we know things went perfectly right up to coasting.
My money's on SpaceX will wait until Orbital / Thaicom confirms they have first signals from the payload before saying anything. Should be just a few more minutes.

[The_Ronin]

Any reports of post separation first stage maneuvering like there was for SES-8?

[Mader Levap]

Any reports of post separation first stage maneuvering like there was for SES-8?

Too early for that. This kind of info surfaces days after launch.