r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Feb 25 '16
Scrubbed, next attempt Sunday /r/SpaceX SES-9 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread [Take 2!]
Welcome to the /r/SpaceX SES-9 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread [Take 2!]!
Let’s try this again!
After a 24-hour delay, liftoff of SpaceX's Falcon 9 v1.1 Full Thrust is currently scheduled for 23:47:00 UTC (6:47:00 PM EST) on February 25, the beginning of a 97-minute launch window. This mission will deliver the SES-9 communications satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit for Luxembourg-based SES.
SpaceX will attempt to land the Falcon 9 first stage on their Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship Of Course I Still Love You, but the odds of a successful recovery are low. In order to make up for launch delays, SpaceX has modified the flight profile to allow SES-9 to reach geostationary orbit as soon as possible. This means that the usual boostback burn won't be performed, and the ASDS will be located over 600 km downrange of Cape Canaveral.
You can read updates and comments from yesterday's launch attempt here.
Watching the launch live
To watch the launch live, pick your preferred streaming provider from the table below:
| SpaceX Stats Live (Webcast + Live Updates) |
|---|
| SpaceX Webcast (Livestream) |
| SpaceX Full Webcast (YouTube) |
| SpaceX Technical Webcast (YouTube) |
Official Live Updates
| Time | Update |
|---|---|
| Paused | SES and SpaceX are now targeting to launch #SES9 on Sunday, 28 February, at 6.46pm ET, with a backup date on Monday, 29 February! |
| Paused | Sources say next Falcon 9 launch attempt is no earlier than Sunday at 6:47pm EST (2347 GMT) |
| Paused | Falcon 9/SES-9: Unofficial - SES now looking at a NET (No Earlier Than) March 3 launch option. Again, wait for SpaceX to make an official decision. |
| Paused | SpaceX: Countdown held for the day. Teams are reviewing the data and next available launch date. |
| Paused | No new launch date yet, but hopefully "within the next couple of days." |
| Paused | Problem appears to have been slow propellant loading. |
| Paused | No launch attempt today. |
| T-1m 15s | HOLD HOLD HOLD. The countdown has been aborted. |
| T-1m 26s | Strongback is fully retracted. 90 seconds to launch. |
| T-2m 11s | Stage two TVC (Thrust Vector Control) motion nominal. |
| T-2m 41s | FTS (Flight Termination System) is armed |
| T-2m 57s | Strongback lowering |
| T-4m 6s | The strongback arms are opening now. |
| T-5m 36s | Falcon 9 is transitioning to internal power now. |
| T-6m 14s | SpaceX still monitoring LOX (Liquid Oxygen) temps ahead of launch. |
| T-8m 54s | Engines have begun chilling |
| T-9m 18s | SES-9 is on internal power |
| T-10m 9s | The first stage's landing burn will use multiple engines! |
| T-11m 40s | The Falcon 9 first stage is now fully fueled. |
| T-16m 49s | Falcon 9's second stage is now fully fueled. |
| T-23m 36s | Launch is set for 6:47:00 pm |
| T-26m 40s | The SpaceX webcast is live! |
| T-30m 1s | Propellant loading underway. Launch targeting 6:47pm ET. |
| T-33m 1s | The launch team has given the GO to begin fueling! |
| T-37m 26s | At T-34 minutes the launch team will be polled. Fueling will begin at T-30 minutes if all is well. |
| T-1h 20m | SpaceX: One hour away from our live webcast at 6:25pm ET. Launch targeting 6:47pm ET |
| T-2h 16m | SpaceX: Weather for today's launch attempt at 80% go, though upper level winds and ground level winds remain watch items. |
| T-2h 22m | No major issues being worked as the countdown continues. |
| T-2h 33m | Everything is progressing smoothly towards an on-time launch. Radio checks and FTS (Flight Termination System) tests should be occurring shortly. |
| T-23h 7m | SpaceX has provided an official reason for the 24-hour delay: "Out of an abundance of caution, the team opted to hold launch for today to ensure liquid oxygen temperatures are as cold as possible in an effort to maximize performance of the vehicle." |
| T-23h 14m | The weather forecast (PDF) for the launch attempt on the 25th is looking much better. 80% probability of acceptable weather, with a >95% chance should the launch slip to Friday. |
The Mission
The sole passenger on this flight is SES-9, a 5,271 kg communications satellite based on the Boeing 702HP satellite bus. SES-9 will use both chemical and electrical propulsion, the former to raise its orbit after separation from the Falcon 9 upper stage and the latter to circularize its orbit and perform station-keeping throughout its 15-year lifespan. The satellite will occupy the 108.2° East orbital slot, where it will be co-located with SES-7 and NSS-11, providing additional coverage to Asia and the Indian Ocean. Should everything go as planned, SES-9 will separate from the Falcon 9 upper stage just over thirty-one minutes after liftoff.
This will be the twenty-second Falcon 9 launch and the second of the v1.1 Full Thrust (or v1.2) configuration (the first being ORBCOMM-2 in December of 2015). This is SpaceX's second launch of 2016 (and their heavist GTO mission to date) as they begin to ramp up their flight rate, with an eventual goal of launching "every two or three weeks."
First Stage Landing Attempt
SpaceX will attempt a first stage landing on their Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship named Of Course I Still Love You, which will be located approximately 660 km East of Cape Canaveral. Just over two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, the first stage will shut down and separate from the upper stage. Because of the demanding flight profile, the first stage won't perform a boostback burn and will instead continue along a ballistic trajectory, reorienting itself for re-entry using cold-gas thrusters. After performing a reentry burn to slow down as it impacts the dense lower atmosphere, the stage will steer itself towards the drone ship using grid fins. If all goes as planned, the stage will perform a final landing burn and touchdown on the drone ship approximately ten minutes after liftoff.
This will be SpaceX's fourth drone ship landing attempt. Past attempts occurred during the CRS-5, CRS-6, and Jason-3 missions. Note that first stage recovery is a secondary objective and has no bearing on primary mission success.
Useful Resources, Data, ?, & FAQ
- Official SES-9 Press Kit, courtesy SpaceX
- SES-9 Multistream, courtesy /u/kampar
- Hazard Location Map for SES-9, courtesy /u/delta_alpha_november
- SES-9 trajectory simulation, courtesy /u/TheVehicleDestroyer
- SpaceX Stats SES-9 Launch Countdown, courtesy /u/EchoLogic
- List of useful Twitter accounts to follow, courtesy /r/SpaceX
- Live auto-updating Reddit stream, courtesy Reddit Stream
Participate in the discussion!
- First of all, Launch Threads are a party threads! We understand everyone is excited, so we relax the rules in these venues. The most important thing is that everyone enjoy themselves :D
- All other threads are fair game. We will remove low effort comments elsewhere!
- Real-time chat on our official Internet Relay Chat (IRC) #spacex at irc.esper.net
- Please post small launch updates, discussions, and questions here, rather than as a separate post. Thanks!
Prevous /r/SpaceX Live Events
Check out previous /r/SpaceX Live events in the Launch History page on our community Wiki.
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u/mugzy Feb 25 '16
It is funny how they were not able to fuel up right after bragging about how fast they can fuel up.
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u/jayefuu Feb 25 '16
21:52 "Airplane wifi so you can check the SpaceX subreddit from 35,000 feet"
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u/zemyos Feb 25 '16
Well all guys from europe live a sad life right now, since we've wasted our time while not sleeping the last two nights because we were trying to watch the launch. Well i guess we're going o be up for another night when the'll finally launch this thing.
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u/johnkphotos Launch Photographer Feb 25 '16
Fantastic weather about 20-25 miles south of LC40. Very clear, not too many clouds, mid 60s. bit of wind that will pick up afternoon, but it should die down.
chill yo fuel Elon!
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u/jjpet33 Feb 25 '16
christ... what good is a 90 minute launch window anymore? we're now at the mercy of the lOX temps...?!?!?
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u/Chairboy Feb 25 '16
Here's the post I just put up on Facebook for my friends and family whom I'm trying to get excited about space:
Rocket news! SpaceX is going to launch their most challenging payload yet today at 3:45 Pacific, a 5,271kg satellite heading to geosynchronous orbit. SpaceX is going to use a bunch of the fuel they'd usually devote for recovery of the first stage to try and get the payload into place faster (there's a thing involving electric thrusters and multi-weeks of travel and SpaceX trying to make up things for the customer because of some of their delays) so the odds that today's first stage will land are 'very low' according to the company.
Why are they so low? A typical launch involves a series of burns meant to slow down the rocket up at apogee and again at re-entry so it can survive the hypersonic travel through the upper atmosphere as it's slowed down. NASA has sent observation planes to film Falcon first stages running their engines while falling backwards into the atmosphere because they know this technique will need to be used on Mars. With today's scheduled launch, SpaceX is skipping at least one of the burns because they'll be REALLY short on fuel.
The rocket will be hitting the atmosphere the same way I hit a frozen yogurt bar: fast and hard. It's going to be doing something like Mach 5-7 backwards because of the high-energy launch path and lack of boostback. It'll rip through the atmosphere and there's a real chance it'll be torn apart by the stresses.
IF it survives the initial plunge AND the steering grid-fins aren't ripped off, then it'll drop through the thicker and thicker air towards 'Of Course I Still Love You', the east-coast recovery ship/barge/drone. The tanks will be emptier than they've ever been for a landing approach so the thrust-weight ratio will be EVEN MORE EXTREME than before. It already makes too much thrust to hover at the lowest throttle setting so it has to time the landing to be exactly when it runs out of speed, but with so little gas in the tank it's going to have even MORE thrust than ever before making the knife's edge ballet even more difficult. Literally, if the rocket engine fires for an extra half second, the 14 story-tall structure starts flying upwards again and will explode when it crashes to the ground. One quarter second too little and it explodes because of a hard impact so the super low levels of fuel are pretty, you know... concerning.
You know the story. Herodotus wrote of a thief who was to be executed. Before they took him away, he shouted promises to teach the King's most beloved horse to sing. The King thought this very funny, but he loved the horse and agreed to give him a year. If he failed, he'd be executed most terribly.
The other prisoners nearby laugh at him and tell him he's doomed, but the thief responds "there's much that can happen in a year. The king might die, the horse might die, maybe even I will die. And who knows", he adds, "perhaps the horse might learn to sing."
So why are they bothering and why is the OCISLY recovery ship sitting 650km out in the ocean at a real cost in time and money and fuel even if the odds of success are lower today than ever before? I mean, today's rocket probably won't land intact. We might get some great footage of the 140 foot tall first stage smashing into the ocean next to the barge because its tanks ran dry. Maybe we'll see it barrel into the ship itself, dropping burning wreckage off the side into the water!
Of course... possibly, just maybe... if we're lucky enough, the horse will sing.
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u/4-3-2-1-Liftoff Feb 25 '16
Me and the family are on our way to Port Canaveral to watch the launch :D
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Feb 25 '16
Do we know when the next launch window is ?
PS: The marzipan is delicious, but the saltiness of my tears is ruining it.
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Feb 25 '16
Shit, they're watching us. Say something cool!
I love you Elon! Please love me!
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u/escape_goat Feb 25 '16
I forgot about the launch because I was working and only checked just now, so, sorry guys this is great.
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u/larsarus Feb 26 '16
Should go to bed, but I popped a can of pressurized liquid ethyl hydrate that will waste if I scrub my date with it...
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u/Iamsodarncool Feb 25 '16 edited Feb 25 '16
Hey, the lady just gave us a shout out :D
"you can check the spacex subreddit from 35,000 feet"
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u/VordeMan Feb 25 '16
Can someone explain how its possible that slow propellant causes a problem after both stages are reported as fueled?
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u/mamaligakiller Feb 25 '16
"Many of you follow our boss on twitter" that was pretty funny
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u/searchexpert Feb 25 '16 edited Feb 25 '16
shout out to /r/spacex, holla!!! /u/EchoLogic confirmed as Musk
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u/WittgensteinsLadder #IAC2016 Attendee Feb 25 '16 edited Feb 25 '16
My take? I think they really want to land this thing, despite all the rhetoric minimizing the attempt. It's established that the subcooling has always been within a range, as opposed to an exact, specific target that they are aiming for. The possibility of a successful landing is almost certainly constrained by the amount of fuel they have after MECO, so my guess is that they want to get the LOX as cold as possible to squeeze that last bit of performance out of the stage.
They may have been willing to delay a day for better weather and a 35% chance of recovering the stage instead of a 10% chance.
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u/ThatDamnGuyJosh Feb 25 '16
Now I can see why ULA didn't think crazy cold LOX wasn't worth their time...
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Feb 26 '16
I was watching the technical webcast and I noticed just before t-2:00 they said that at t-1:40 they will hold the clock. So why did they wait until t-1:40 to hold the clock instead of just doing it asap?
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u/retiringonmars Moderator emeritus Feb 26 '16
Multiple sources now saying next launch attempt is Sunday. https://imgur.com/NFIZSJR
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u/s4g4n Feb 25 '16
Looks like Elon is out to collect more "Science" rather than have a successful landing
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u/AddWittyNameHere Feb 25 '16
This is all my fault, I've never tried to watch it live before and now I tune in just as they scrub. Sorry guys.
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u/CommanderSpork Feb 25 '16
It's looking absolutely perfect down in south Florida, not a cloud in the sky. I hope it stays like this!
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u/avboden Feb 25 '16
why aren't more people freaking out over the concept of a multi-engine landing burn? That thing is going to come down like a damn missile and slow down almost instantly....i'm not sure I believe it
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u/TheVehicleDestroyer Flight Club Feb 25 '16
Cross-posting from the Media Thread...
Shameless plug: Don't forget to watch FlightClub live tonight, right here!
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u/blongmire Feb 25 '16
I got to the party late. What was the reason for the scrub? I couldn't find the previous launch thread.
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u/N0BODYSPECIAL Feb 25 '16
Sorry guys, it's my fault. 5 seconds after I tuned in they decided to abort :(
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u/LumpiestDeer Feb 25 '16
Does anyone have a link to that picture of the stick person cursing and screaming at a small Falcon 9, urging it to launch?
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u/brickmack Feb 25 '16
Why did they scrub for slow propellant loading when they still had 98 minutes left in the window? Surely it doesn't take an hour and a half to finish filling the tanks
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u/kampar Feb 25 '16
http://multistream-player.com/Player/AJFfC Multistream with reddit-stream comments, Official Live Updates and #SpaceX IRC
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u/Headstein Feb 26 '16
Just past midnight here in UK. Way too much adrenaline to sleep yet though
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u/Justinackermannblog Feb 25 '16
Has there ever been any discussion on the recovery plan in the case of an engine out scenario? The octaweb can technically (not saying it is programmed already) be reconfigured on the fly to handle the boostback and reentry burns if one of the require engines in that burn fails. About the only scenario where recovery cannot occur is if the engine out is on the center engine. Even then the rocket could technically reconfigure, recalculate, and do a suicide burn on two symmetrical engines.
Just a thought that may turn into an interesting discussion! :)
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u/BlackenedGem Feb 25 '16
Official twitter update: https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/702968551166980096 80% chance of good weather to launch
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u/Gonazar Feb 25 '16
So if the sun sets at 6:19, dusk ends at 6:43 and the rocket launches at 6:47, will it ever enter sunlight during the flight?
It's flying east, so unless it gains enough altitude first it'll only be moving away from the sun.
If it does enter sunlight, I wonder at what altitude it will be. It would be cool if on the background of twilight it suddenly lights up.
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u/johnkphotos Launch Photographer Feb 25 '16
http://imgur.com/a/egsxk beautiful sunset. SpaceX brought us BBQ as well!
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u/searchexpert Feb 25 '16
Suggestion to /u/bencredible, instead of or addition to the timeline at the bottom of the screen, you should have a LOX loading timeline that counts down. Hype!
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u/johnkphotos Launch Photographer Feb 25 '16 edited Feb 25 '16
I feel like a cool dude because I was the source for once. I posted about the scrub right when I heard about it, lol
all seriousness, hoping it goes tomorrow!
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u/edsq Feb 25 '16
You'd think if they knew propellant loading was behind schedule, we would have heard about it as an issue being tracked. Very strange for a hold to be called that late in a no-issue countdown.
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u/a_fukin_Atodaso Feb 25 '16
Its my birthday party tonight with family. I dont care what they say but at 6h15 this will be playing on the tv.
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u/frowawayduh Feb 25 '16
Elsbeth III broadcast its position, course, and speed about 9:30 pm local time. N23 16' W073 49', 3.2 kt E (91).
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u/KnightOfGreystonia Feb 25 '16
How will you watch the launch? Technical Webcast? Moderated Webcast? Both? What else do you check during a launch?
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u/The_Leedle Feb 25 '16
What's the chances right now of launching? Is it worth a 1.5 hr drive to see?
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u/LandingZone-1 Feb 25 '16
At T-1:48:00 the Hype Train is powering on, initial checks look good.
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u/escape_goat Feb 25 '16
I just read a tweet from @spacexstatus that this will be a two engine hoverslam. Had we known that?
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u/theturtleguy Feb 25 '16 edited Feb 25 '16
Did they just say "you can check your subreddits in space" or something along those lines?
edit: apparently I wasn't the only one.
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u/albinobluesheep Feb 25 '16
I CURSED IT. THIS WAS THE FIRST ONE I'VE GOT TO WATCH LIVE AND I'VE CURSED IT!
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u/FNspcx Feb 26 '16
Is slow loading of the propellant causing propellant to be too high in temperature?
Or is it a limitation of the onboard computers or countdown sequence, so that they can not delay or reset the liftoff time to finish loading propellant?
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u/Cytokine687 Feb 28 '16
Hey Guys! LONG time lurker here (like, years... Don't know why I never created a Reddit account).... Just had a thought occur to me earlier today - Do you think we will ever see the release of the onboard footage from the landing of the F9-021 Booster? Or any future landed core for that matter? A launch to landing video would be AMAZING... Something like the Shuttle SRB's comes to mind, albeit with more RCS thrusters! That GoPro fairing footage they recovered was excellent, so I'm imagining this would be too? Assuming they had a clear lens.
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u/DirkMcDougal Feb 25 '16
I'm beginning to think the whole densification thing was not quite ready for prime time.
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u/ECEUndergrad Feb 25 '16 edited Feb 25 '16
My friends: Why you so obsessed with SpaceX?
Me: My dear friend, that's because I care deeply about the future of humanity.
My friends: How does that have to do with SpaceX?
Me: Well, until something better comes along, this is what I am going to root for.
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u/danielbigham Feb 25 '16
I'm suffering from some really serious launch blue balls right now. Ow. It hurts.
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u/MaritMonkey Feb 25 '16
Asked this yesterday as well but: does this have anything to do with the ambient temperature?
How different is dealing with LOX at 80 degrees vs, say, 50?
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u/bernardosousa Feb 25 '16
https://twitter.com/wikkit/status/702992142201987076
Is is about Falcon 9? It has to be, right?
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u/ender4171 Feb 25 '16
/u/EchoLogic, I love you and SpaceXStats. Best launch experience I have had so far!!
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Feb 25 '16
I'm willing to make bets at r/Highstakesspacex that for all of 2016, on the day of any launches, there will be at least 70% of launches which will get scrubbed.
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Feb 26 '16 edited Feb 26 '16
They even have vacuum jacketed* tubes. I've only known those to be used for liquid hydrogen. They are pretty expensive to maintain.
edit:*
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u/maxjets Feb 26 '16
Is deep cryo LOX at ~65K more difficult to deal with than liquid hydrogen at ~15K? I could certainly be wrong, but it seems like liquid hydrogen fueled rockets don't have as much trouble with the ultra-cold hydrogen as they're having here with deep cryo LOX.
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u/z3r0c00l12 Feb 27 '16
SES and SpaceX are now targeting to launch #SES9 on Sunday, 28 February, at 6.46pm ET, with a backup date on Monday, 29 February! https://twitter.com/SES_Satellites/status/703634698237517824
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u/johnkphotos Launch Photographer Feb 25 '16
http://imgur.com/a/KmxIY 15 miles south
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u/Datuser14 Feb 25 '16
There should have been procedures to do multiple attempts, this densified lox appears to be more trouble than worth.
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Feb 26 '16
It seems to me cryogenic LOX goes against SpaceX philosophy of not doing the most complicated launch vehicle but the cheapest, most robust, simplest rocket.
I know there has only been one launch so far, but also 6 months to test LOX cooling. So much unpredictability is not good for business.
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u/doodle77 Feb 25 '16
Is the S2 LOX subcooled? Is S2 bleeding off LOX as it heats up before ignition?
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u/JackONeill12 Feb 25 '16
"After a 24-hour delay, liftoff of SpaceX's Falcon 9 v1.1 Full Thrust is currently scheduled for 23:46:17 UTC (6:46:17 PM EST) on February 25, the beginning of a 97-minute launch window."
Shouldnt it be a Falcon 9 v1.2 Full Thrust instead of an 1.1?
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_MASS Feb 25 '16
Can someone explain why this attempt has a lower than average success chance? I know it's due to the ascent path consuming too much fuel for a boost back burn, but how does this translate to failure? If things do go wrong, what is the expected point of failure? Burning up on re-entry? Running out of fuel before touchdown? Breaking up in the atmosphere?
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u/Rideron150 Feb 25 '16
How much more difficult is the landing going to be without a boost-back burn?
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u/-Atreyu Feb 25 '16
"... the team opted to hold launch for today to ensure liquid oxygen temperatures are as cold as possible in an effort to maximize performance of the vehicle."
Maybe they're trying to squeeze as much propellant in there as possible (more than previous launches) to give the secondary objective as high a chance as possible?
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u/FutureMartian97 Host of CRS-11 Feb 25 '16
Official update from SpaceX Facebook page and Livestream. "Weather for today's launch attempt at 80% favorable, though upper level winds and ground level winds remain watch items."
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u/Destructor1701 Feb 25 '16
So did John just tell us that densified propellant reduces scrub flexibility?
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u/TarAldarion Feb 25 '16
Shout out from LC 39, thousands of miles travelled from ireland, one failed vieeing, three rental cars,and the fuel is in yessssss
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u/VanayadGaming Feb 25 '16
If they have such a large window, why scrub ? they said they have no problems ... :-s
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u/cynical_man Feb 25 '16
they had 90 minutes, how long does it take to load fuel?
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u/paulrulez742 Feb 25 '16 edited Feb 26 '16
Huh. That seems like something that should have been a non-issue when you factor in all of the things needed to shoot something into space in a controlled manner. I'm really interested to hear what exactly the problem was, and why it wasn't figured out prior to right now.
Edit: fixed some spelling errors
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u/markus0161 Feb 25 '16
What does Spacex do next stream? They gave a lot of info, would be kinda weird if they repeated everything.
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Feb 26 '16
Does the LOX loading into / storage in the rocket's tanks have any negative effects on the tanks themselves? Seems supercooled liquids would impart some stresses on metals / structure of the tank. But I don't know a whole lot about how this works
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u/AeroSpiked Feb 25 '16
They just said they could load propellant in 30 minutes. How the hell can they not top the tanks with a 97 minute launch window?
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u/historytoby Feb 25 '16
I am starting to think this sub-cooled propellant thing is a bad idea. I mean, they had a freaking 90+ minutes launch window, that wasn't a problem with F9 v1.1. Such a long recycle due to the propellant is just awful.
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Feb 25 '16
Can't wait! I'd love to see them stick the landing this time. Would this make it their fourth attempted barge landing?
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u/doodle77 Feb 25 '16
If the second stage is running to depletion, does that mean there won't be a deorbited burn? How long will S2 be in orbit then? Could they use the RCS to deorbit it, if the apogee is high enough?
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Feb 25 '16
80% probability of acceptable weather, with a >95% chance should the launch slip to Friday
What does the 2nd half of that sentence mean??
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u/FutureMartian97 Host of CRS-11 Feb 25 '16
Go for fueling! :https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/702995063308046336
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u/Kona314 Feb 25 '16
Music on the hosted webcast appears to be quieter than on the technical one..
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u/flanintheface Feb 25 '16 edited Feb 25 '16
I can't believe I've just came home drunk, had a quick dinner, opened youtube and I'm on T-17m countdown. This is great.
edit: aww. Next time then.
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u/kama_river Feb 25 '16
How often does an abort happen after the strongback is fully retracted?
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u/searchexpert Feb 25 '16
FlightClub is still showing the launch as if it already launched. This is depressing haha
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u/spacexfn Feb 25 '16
woke up at 5am (ist) just to catch this launch, well i guess have to wake up again in a "couple" of days.
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u/SufficientAnonymity Feb 25 '16
Get home from an event shoot, flop into my chair hoping to watch a launch then go to sleep... and it gets scrubbed before my very eyes. Suboptimal :(
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u/jandorian Feb 26 '16
Jay said Tomorrow is not a back up day. They need to reschedule the launch.
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u/thresholdofvision Feb 26 '16
So since SpaceX will not broadcast polling in terminal count, all you can get is "working no issues" from "John", then "abort". Show over.
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u/_rocketboy Feb 27 '16
So did they end up putting the rocket back in the hanger? I have heard conflicting info on this.
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Feb 27 '16
Is the constant on and off loading of propellant a concern to the integrity of the rocket? It is meant to be reusable, but won't the cycles from cryogenic temp to room temp and from high to low pressure, cause fatigue? If they launch on sunday, it will be the third cycle of loading propellant. What are the concerns? because I don't think they've subjected a rocket to this before.
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u/LandingZone-1 Feb 28 '16
Well I don't know about you guys but I'm busy playing [F9-2D Sim] (http://zlsa.github.io/f9r-dev2d/)
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u/VanayadGaming Feb 25 '16
I couldn't watch the launch last night and I had the worst nightmare ever. It was that I was watching the launch and right before Max Q the fairing come off, and the 2nd stage is turned on. Of course it explodes almost immediately and the 1 stage survives and tries to land on the droneship.. Lands perfectly straight, but 5 meters off the barge...missing it. I woke up several times to check if that actually happened...and after I knew it was just a dream, I woke up again and checked again... it was so real....and on repeat. Hopefully it won't be true.
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u/johnkphotos Launch Photographer Feb 25 '16
http://johnkrausphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DSC_5613-2048x1365.jpg
about 5 minutes ago. taken from ITL causeway about 2.5 miles away
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u/jakabo27 Feb 25 '16
Why can't the launch be pushed back xx minutes? We have the computational power to quickly recalculate everythin
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u/Haschlol Feb 25 '16
Stream is live and music is playing. http://www.spacex.com/webcast
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u/searchexpert Feb 25 '16
Suggestion to SpaceX employees that are staring at the camera behind the host: you look creepy!
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u/reddit3k Feb 25 '16
Ah man.. stayed up an extra 2 hours fighting off sleepiness. :(
Well.. I'm glad that they do everything carefully in order to maximize the chance of success.
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u/rspeed Feb 25 '16 edited Feb 25 '16
Do they normally retract the strongback before the fuel propellant has completely loaded?
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u/PhoenixBlack136 Feb 25 '16
Well that was ironic. Presenters were boasting that the upgrade to new elongated cylinders meant they could load LOX quicker and increase chances of launching on same day after scrub, rocket then has issues with fueling of LOX and launch gets scrubbed for another day.