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[orange]

6 Oct - Red Bull Stratos project aims to break multiple records! Felix Baumgartner (Austrian) will jump from 120,000 feet / 36,576 meters up.

7 Oct - SpaceX is scheduled to launch the first commercially acquired cargo mission to the ISS.  By most accounts the rehearsal went well last week.

[orange]

Webcast of Launch

[Ken]

Webcast of Launch

Thanks for the link.  I got home and clicked with about 2 minutes to go. 

At about +1:30, the mic at the pad started picking up a really deep rumble as the ship started to turn.  The woofer on my desktop made some things in the room rattle.  Almost felt like being there

Altogether beautiful launch.  Those Merlin engines sure look awesome all going at once.  The use of several onboard cameras really added some neat shots to this.  Especially the Stage 1 jettison and firing of the Stage 2 engine.

[orange]

We will see if we get the same Solar Array deployment coverage as we did on COTS-2+.

[Ken]

Here's hoping.  +9:45, ship is in orbit.  Good job SpaceX.

Edit: Yep, there's your panel deployment shot.

[Desiderya]

I miss all the good stuff D:
Hopefully I'll read a thread like this in time the next time. Thanks for making these.

[Ken]

Replay of the launch: http://youtu.be/hpBE4RYbEOk?hd=1&t=35m2s

This is a really awesome set of videos thanks to the onboard cams.  Note that the left and right images are not perfectly synced in time.

Interesting fact about this launch:  One of the Merlin engines went down at around +1:22, but the Falcon 9 is designed to fly with an engine unexpectedly out.  They just burn the remaining eight a little longer to achieve the same trajectory.  This was the first time the "engine out" feature has been used in flight.  You can see the engine fail at 36:52 in the video.  Ship just keeps on going like a honey badger.

Jettison of Stage 1 and firing of Stage 2 engine starts at around +3:30: http://youtu.be/hpBE4RYbEOk?hd=1&t=38m57s 

What's awesome about the footage here is that from Stage 2 you can see Stage 1 falling away from the ship slowly, but then rushing away very quickly as the second stage engine fires and -- spaceporn -- starts to glow (in the right image).  Meanwhile, the cam on Stage 1 is looking up at the ship as it fires the second stage engine and arcs away out of sight.

Edit: TIL SpaceX's president is a woman. http://youtu.be/1_75oKdu_tE

[Jev North]

Redundancy is win for the win.

Also <3 yellow-hot bell nozzle. Didn't come but it was pretty close.

[orange]

The engine out will likely cause some swirl at NASA, the Air Force, etc.  It will be interesting what the turn around time is on the Root Cause and Correction Action analysis for the engine going out.  At first glance it isn't a systematic problem, the other 9 Merlin Engines worked fine.

SpaceX keeps doing a better job each launch of sharing their launches.  I have heard from a reliable source that the cameras are going to be HD a few launches down the road (when they move from Falcon 9 v1 to v1.1).

The video of stage separation, Dragon (payload) separation, and panel deployment are all awesome things to see live because they represent important visual milestones for the mission.  In my perfect world, all missions would have cameras at various stages in order to visually record how events occurred.

[Jev North]

The engine failure looked quite dramatic - chunks of crap flying off and whatnot - but I gather even a controlled engine shutoff would've led to the bell collapsing under those conditions?

[orange]

The engine failure looked quite dramatic - chunks of crap flying off and whatnot - but I gather even a controlled engine shutoff would've led to the bell collapsing under those conditions?

Sudden loss of pressure (pressure exerted by exhaust) within the bell might cause collapse, if the pressure in the bell rapidly dropped below external pressure.  I don't know if it collapses if the pressures equalized rapidly, but maybe.

Edit: Phil Platt's article on the shutdown.

[Desiderya]

Replay of the launch: http://youtu.be/hpBE4RYbEOk?hd=1&t=35m2s

This is a really awesome set of videos thanks to the onboard cams.  Note that the left and right images are not perfectly synced in time.

Interesting fact about this launch:  One of the Merlin engines went down at around +1:22, but the Falcon 9 is designed to fly with an engine unexpectedly out.  They just burn the remaining eight a little longer to achieve the same trajectory.  This was the first time the "engine out" feature has been used in flight.  You can see the engine fail at 36:52 in the video.  Ship just keeps on going like a honey badger.

Jettison of Stage 1 and firing of Stage 2 engine starts at around +3:30: http://youtu.be/hpBE4RYbEOk?hd=1&t=38m57s 

What's awesome about the footage here is that from Stage 2 you can see Stage 1 falling away from the ship slowly, but then rushing away very quickly as the second stage engine fires and -- spaceporn -- starts to glow (in the right image).  Meanwhile, the cam on Stage 1 is looking up at the ship as it fires the second stage engine and arcs away out of sight.

Edit: TIL SpaceX's president is a woman. http://youtu.be/1_75oKdu_tE

Danke, danke, danke! 

[Ken]

Statement from SpaceX on the engine failure:

Approximately one minute and 19 seconds into last night’s launch, the Falcon 9 rocket detected an anomaly on one first stage engine. Initial data suggests that one of the rocket’s nine Merlin engines, Engine 1, lost pressure suddenly and an engine shutdown command was issued immediately. We know the engine did not explode, because we continued to receive data from it. Our review indicates that the fairing that protects the engine from aerodynamic loads ruptured due to the engine pressure release, and that none of Falcon 9’s other eight engines were impacted by this event.

    As designed, the flight computer then recomputed a new ascent profile in real time to ensure Dragon’s entry into orbit for subsequent rendezvous and berthing with the ISS. This was achieved, and there was no effect on Dragon or the cargo resupply mission.

    Falcon 9 did exactly what it was designed to do. Like the Saturn V, which experienced engine loss on two flights, Falcon 9 is designed to handle an engine out situation and still complete its mission.

[orange]

I should have shared last night the opportunity for the rest of the world (it was early early morning here) to watch the final approach and capture of Dragon.

Dragon CRS-1 successfully berthed to ISS.  Next big events will be hatch opening.  This will be followed by unloading and loading.  Towards the end of the month, Dragon will return to Earth carrying cargo - the first spacecraft to return significant cargo back to Earth since the Shuttle retired (Soyuz returns 3 people and small items).

[Esna Pitoojee]

Here's the live feed for Felix Baumgartner's jump, if anyone is interested. he's currently about 1/3 to to 1/2 of the way up.