SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1/Thaicom-6 Pad Thai Party Thread

[peter-b]

As I said on my Twitter - first attempt lift-off means it's beer time!

[Borklund]

Woohoo! Very nominal launch, congratulations SpaceX!

[robertross]

Congrats SpaceX!!

[Space OurSoul]

it's beer time

Maybe Trent will share that crate of BEvERage that's coming his way.

[Helodriver]

They're making it look easy, which it never is. Congrats to the team.

[QuantumG]

Well, that was easy. Sooooo... Lurker Steve, 'bout that beer.

[NovaSilisko]

Gif of second stage burning... loved the view on the way up

[Mader Levap]

Too early for congratulations. Wait for successful second burn and spacecraft separation.

[Lar]

Well, that was easy. Sooooo... Lurker Steve, 'bout that beer.

They made it look VERY easy.

Ya it's not done, we need another burn and SC sep, but I think QG wins the bet. How exciting that it was so close

[Ben the Space Brit]

Well, they're in initial parking orbit. If I understand right, S/C sep should be before 22:40UT.

[Lars_J]

Gif of second stage burning... loved the view on the way up

Nice! Can you make a gif of the MVac nozzle cooling after shutdown? That looked quite neat, and first time we have seen an IR view of it.

[NovaSilisko]

Gif of second stage burning... loved the view on the way up

Nice! Can you make a gif of the MVac nozzle cooling after shutdown? That looked quite neat, and first time we have seen an IR view of it.

I don't see the webcast saved anywhere now that it's over unfortunately... if someone can point me to it I can though.

[sanman]

Pardon my ignorance - but why does the satellite have to separate so long after the SECO? What's it doing in the meantime, after getting into the parking orbit?

[Prober]

Hearing of a successful launch Putin spilled his tea 

[NovaSilisko]

Pardon my ignorance - but why does the satellite have to separate so long after the SECO? What's it doing in the meantime, after getting into the parking orbit?

It's staying attached while the second stage is coasting to the proper point to perform its GTO burn. Presumably over the equator? It would have to be, for a GEO launch.

[Lars_J]

Pardon my ignorance - but why does the satellite have to separate so long after the SECO? What's it doing in the meantime, after getting into the parking orbit?

This was only the first second stage burn. Separating the satellite before the end of the 2nd burn would be ill-advised.

[Ben the Space Brit]

Pardon my ignorance - but why does the satellite have to separate so long after the SECO? What's it doing in the meantime, after getting into the parking orbit?

There is a second upper stage burn (due to start at 22:33UT) that will push the apogee up into the range of 40,000km. The spacecraft is only separated after that is complete.

Ignition point of the second U/S burn is calculated so that, when the spacecraft finally reaches GEO, it is over a particular point of the Earth.

[e of pi]

Pardon my ignorance - but why does the satellite have to separate so long after the SECO? What's it doing in the meantime, after getting into the parking orbit?

It's waiting for the second burn that will push it into the final GTO. Currently, the orbit is about 400 x 150 km if I recall the webcast correctly. They need to raise that apogee a lot to put the sat into the delivery orbit. If the sat seperated now, it would stay in LEO while the second stage went to GTO without it. 

[Lars_J]

Pardon my ignorance - but why does the satellite have to separate so long after the SECO? What's it doing in the meantime, after getting into the parking orbit?

It's staying attached while the second stage is coasting to the proper point to perform its GTO burn. Presumably over the equator? It would have to be, for a GEO launch.

Yep, the ~1 minute combined apogee raising & inclination change burn will occur as it is passing over the equator.

[punder]

Since this is the party thread, I need to ask an important question that shouldn't have asked on the updates thread... whatever happened to the original Sci-Fi Rocket Chick?