Author Topic: SCRUB: SpaceX - Falcon I (Mk.II) NET March 19 (Read 192743 times)

DaveS · « **Reply #240 on:** 03/16/2007 10:13 pm »

Less than 3 days to go.

Jamie Young · « **Reply #241 on:** 03/16/2007 10:51 pm »

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Danderman - 16/3/2007 4:03 PM

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DaveS - 16/3/2007 1:43 PM
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jcanal12 - 16/3/2007 8:43 PM HobbySpace.com confirms the static fire
Yes. You can find the news here: http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php

Let's hope that Charles Lurio is not merely repeating news he read here, or we will have a self-licking ice cream cone.

This site does tend to suffer from others watching in and then re-reporting it.

braddock · « **Reply #242 on:** 03/17/2007 02:08 pm »

There is an update on the SpaceX site (back?) dated yesterday.
http://www.spacex.com/updates.php

For some reason there was no e-mail notification.

Includes video of the static fire. Says they are on track for a launch, possibly Monday.

I'll ask about streaming video coverage. Last attempt they said they would provide it.

wannamoonbase · « **Reply #243 on:** 03/17/2007 02:40 pm »

Cool good update. Looking forward to the launch and Falcon 9 update.

Best Wishes SpaceX.

eeergo · « **Reply #244 on:** 03/17/2007 03:34 pm »

It's nice to know they are going to launch (hopefully) two other Falcon 1s no matter what happens with this one (well, at least if it doesn't suffer a catastrophic design-based failure, I assume)

HIP2BSQRE · « **Reply #245 on:** 03/17/2007 05:08 pm »

Updates
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DemoFlight 2 Update
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Posted March 16, 2007

At present, it appears that we are on track for a launch next week, possibly as soon as Monday. We had a very successful static fire yesterday that proceeded smoothly with no aborts.

Our initial review of the data showed that the rocket functioned almost perfectly. The only remaining concern is that the GPS portion of the guidance system showed an anomaly about 15 minutes *after* the static fire. Falcon 1 is designed to achieve its target orbit purely on inertial navigation, so the GPS, while helpful for improving orbit inseration accuracy, is not flight critical.

We are carefully analyzing the GPS and, more importantly, are making sure that the GPS problem does not hint at some larger issue. I will send out an update on Sunday confirming what day we will have our first countdown attempt. In the meantime, here are two videos of the static fire, one from a medium distance camera and one from a high speed close up camera. There will be a total of 12 cameras looking at the rocket on launch day, including two thermal imaging and two vehicle cams, so no shortage visual data.

I know it has been a year since our last launch and some people are wondering if launch 3 will also be a year away if something goes wrong this time. The answer is definitely no. The reason it took us a year is that the vehicle on the pad and the ground support equipment have hundreds of robustness upgrades -- this is really Falcon 1 version 2.

There is nothing significant that we can think of to improve the vehicles under construction for the Dept of Defense and Malaysian satellite launches later this year. Therefore, no matter what happens, I do not expect there to be a significant delay in their approximate end of summer and mid fall launch dates.

On a separate note, we have made tremendous progress with the Falcon 9 development and I'm way overdue in posting a big update on progress. Should have that out sometime next month. Between ramping up for NASA COTS and the F1 launch, time has been a little tight around here

--Elon--

grakenverb · « **Reply #246 on:** 03/17/2007 05:46 pm »

May the Luck o' the Irish be with SpaceX next week!

Avron · « **Reply #247 on:** 03/17/2007 10:02 pm »

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grakenverb - 17/3/2007 2:46 PM
May the Luck o' the Irish be with SpaceX next week!

Elon and team...

looking forward to a great launch next week...

Lets all keep our eyes open for the update tomorrow, for the launch date..

voorspoed!

halkey · « **Reply #248 on:** 03/18/2007 07:43 am »

I wish I could unravel those knots in my stomach waiting for the Falcon's next launch. I remember Musk building some insanely huge test stand in Texas and that he had plans for building F-1 class engines (hopefully I'm not mixing him up with someone else, but I know someone built some friggin big test stands.) I wonder if he's secretly developing such engines *crosses fingers*.

Jim · « **Reply #249 on:** 03/18/2007 12:41 pm »

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halkey - 17/3/2007 4:43 PM

I wish I could unravel those knots in my stomach waiting for the Falcon's next launch. I remember Musk building some insanely huge test stand in Texas and that he had plans for building F-1 class engines (hopefully I'm not mixing him up with someone else, but I know someone built some friggin big test stands.) I wonder if he's secretly developing such engines *crosses fingers*.

those were for Beal. Spacex is just using them for stage testing. No F-1 in work.

wannamoonbase · « **Reply #250 on:** 03/18/2007 02:26 pm »

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halkey - 18/3/2007 4:43 AM

I wish I could unravel those knots in my stomach waiting for the Falcon's next launch. I remember Musk building some insanely huge test stand in Texas and that he had plans for building F-1 class engines (hopefully I'm not mixing him up with someone else, but I know someone built some friggin big test stands.) I wonder if he's secretly developing such engines *crosses fingers*.

That would be a certain way to go broke no matter how much money you had. Developing any liquid rocket engine is expensive. Developing a 1.5 million pound thrust engine with an unknown market would be suicide. Cool but suicide.

As much as I think the 3x3 matrix of engines for the FAlcon 9 looks crazy and will be difficult to get working properly it is better to work with one engine that you know something about than a new one.

I thought the Falcon 5 was the right mix. Looked cool, but certainly not enough for Dragon.

We shall see.

Good luck SpaceX.

hektor · « **Reply #251 on:** 03/18/2007 02:50 pm »

You know the story, there are three ways to go broke :
- gambling is the fastest
- women is the most pleasant
- engineers is the surest

edkyle99 · « **Reply #252 on:** 03/18/2007 05:45 pm »

Spaceflightnow is reporting that this flight will go to a 425 mi x 9 deg orbit (no mention of whether this is nautical or statute miles - it's 787 km if the former, 684 km if the latter). Last year's launch was attempting to reach a 400 x 500 km x 39 deg orbit, so this one, for whatever reason, is targeting a due east launch azimuth and will not be flying over the U.S.. I suppose the orbit doesn't matter if the "payload' is a dummy.

- Ed Kyle

Stowbridge · « **Reply #253 on:** 03/18/2007 05:53 pm »

Well this one really needs to work out for SpaceX.

Orbiter Obvious · « **Reply #254 on:** 03/18/2007 06:39 pm »

It's going to be nuts on here tomorrow

eeergo · « **Reply #255 on:** 03/18/2007 08:24 pm »

The payload isn't so "dummy", the second stage carries two small experiments for NASA, although they remain bolted to the second stage structure, so they mustn't be very complex, so I suppose the orbit they follow isn't critical.

For some info about the payloads, LCT2 and AFSS: http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/demosat_falcon.htm

edkyle99 · « **Reply #256 on:** 03/18/2007 10:17 pm »

For what it's worth, it is already Monday March 19 in the Marshall Islands. Kwajalein is 17 hours ahead of Central Daylight Time (where I live) and 12 hours ahead of Universal Time. Right now (23:17 UTC) it is 11:17 AM Monday on Omelek. We are either 24 hours away from the projected opening of the launch window, or right on top of it and don't know it.

- Ed Kyle

edkyle99 · « **Reply #257 on:** 03/18/2007 10:21 pm »

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eeergo - 18/3/2007 4:24 PM

The payload isn't so "dummy", the second stage carries two small experiments for NASA, although they remain bolted to the second stage structure, so they mustn't be very complex, so I suppose the orbit they follow isn't critical.

For some info about the payloads, LCT2 and AFSS: http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/demosat_falcon.htm

Yes. It appears that AFSS will only be tested during the ascent phase, but LCT2 will communicate through TDRSS, perhaps for awhile. A low-inclination orbit might be better for low-power TDRSS communications.

- Ed Kyle

William Graham · « **Reply #258 on:** 03/18/2007 10:49 pm »

According to NASA's Mission Set Database (http://msdb.honeywell-tsi.com/launches.asp) the window is 23:00 UTC on 19/03 to 03:00 on 20/03.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #259 on:** 03/18/2007 11:19 pm »

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edkyle99 - 18/3/2007 11:17 PM

For what it's worth, it is already Monday March 19 in the Marshall Islands. Kwajalein is 17 hours ahead of Central Daylight Time (where I live) and 12 hours ahead of Universal Time. Right now (23:17 UTC) it is 11:17 AM Monday on Omelek. We are either 24 hours away from the projected opening of the launch window, or right on top of it and don't know it.

- Ed Kyle

We're pretty sure they refer to the day via California time, in regards to "Monday" being tomorrow.

As far as getting some info, it turns out the forum database as 12 people registered here with @spacex.com e-mail addresses, so I'm hoping some of them might help with 'latest' news and we're of course still waiting to see what the deal is with images, webcast etc.

I'm assuming they'll have a media call in, and I'll cover that via a bank loan for the phone bill