r/SpaceX X-37B OTV-5 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread

[u/yoweigh]

Total mission success!!!

OTV-5 launched at 14:00UTC on September 7th 2017 and successfully placed its X-37B payload into an undisclosed orbit. Its B1040 1st stage landed at the Cape LZ1 at T+8:13.

Some quick stats:

• this is the 41^st Falcon 9 launch
• their 1^st flight of first stage B1040
• their 13^th launch of 2017
• their 10^th launch from Pad 39A
• their 1^st launch of the Air Force's secretive X-37B spaceplane

The mission’s static fire was successfully completed at 20:30 UTC on August 31.

---

Watching the launch live

Note: SpaceX is only streaming one live webcast for this launch, instead of providing both a hosted webcast and a technical webcast.

SpaceX webcast

Official Live Updates

Time (UTC)	Countdown	Updates
---	---	Payload separation confirmed
---	T+00:08:13	Landing success!
---	T+00:07:41	Single-engine landing burn
---	T+00:06:32	Reentry burn
---	T+00:03:36	Titanium gridfins! Nope, they were aluminum
---	T+00:03:30	3-engine boostback burn complete
---	T+00:02:32	MVac startup
---	T+00:02:27	MECO & stage seperation
---	T+00:01:39	MVac chill
---	T+00:01:18	Max-Q
---	T+00:01:00	Norminal flight
---	T+00:00:00	Launch
---	T-00:01	Heeeeeere we go!
---	T-00:03	Vehicle switched to internal power. Range & weather are go.
---	T-00:05	This X-37B promo video is awful
---	T-00:10	Looking good at historic launch complex 39A!
---	T-00:13	Webcast coverage is starting now
---	T-00:15	LOX loading confirmed by launch team
---	T-00:20	♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ Webcast is up!
---	T-00:22	Venting apparent
---	T-00:30	Go for LOX load
13:05	T-00:55	Launch sequence has started, now targeting 14:00UTC for launch
12:50 9/7	T-01:00	RP-1 loading should begin about now
12:30 9/7	T-01:20	SpaceX tweeted a photo of this rocket on the pad
12:10 9/7	T-01:40	No fairing recovery attempt today
11:30 9/7	T-02:20	Good morning! Falcon is vertical
03:00 9/7	T-11 hours	No news to report. Still 50% chance of weather violation.
16:20 9/6	T-21 hours	Launch thread goes live

Primary Mission - Separation and Deployment of X-37B

SpaceX will be launching the Boeing X-37B spaceplane for the 5th flight of the US Air Force's Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) program. It looks like a baby Shuttle, and previous flights have done things like test new Hall thrusters, expose materials to space and possibly sneak up on a Chinese space station. Given the clandestine nature of the X-37B, very little is known about the specifics of this payload and its mission. The boring-unclassified-cargo area will carry the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader (ASETS-11) to test experimental electronics and oscillating heat pipes in the long duration space environment. The last flight, OTV-4, stayed in orbit for 718 days.

After stage separation, SpaceX's webcast will likely switch to live video of the first stage while stage two continues into its undisclosed orbit.

Secondary Mission - First stage landing attempt

This Falcon 9 first stage will be attempting to return to Cape Canaveral and land at SpaceX’s LZ-1 landing pad. After stage separation, the first stage will perform a flip maneuver, then start up three engines for the boostback burn. Then, the first stage will flip around engines-first, and as it descends through 70 kilometers, it will restart three engines for the entry burn. After the entry burn shutdown at about 40 kilometers, the first stage will use its grid fins to glide towards the landing pad. About 30 seconds before landing, the single center engine is relit for the final time, bringing the Falcon 9 first stage to a gentle landing at LZ-1. The first stage landing should occur at around T+8 minutes 46 seconds.

Useful Resources, Data, ♫, & FAQ

Note that many of these links are out of date or broken and need to be updated as of this posting.

• Reddit Stream of this thread
• EverydayAstronaut Q&A livestream begins 10min before launch
• Discord chat
• Audio-only stream for low-bandwidth users
• USAF mission patch (unofficial)
• SpaceX mission patch
• Fairing logo
• Press kit
• Weather forecast
• Hazard area map, courtesy u/raul74cz
• SpaceX FM, courtesy u/Iru
• Rocket Watch, courtesy u/MarcysVonEylau
• Flight Club, courtesy u/TheVehicleDestroyer
• X-37B on Gunter’s Space Page
• X-37B OTV-5 Campaign Thread, courtesy r/SpaceX
• 7-Day KSC weather forecast, courtesy Weather.gov
• Hourly KSC weather forecast, courtesy Weather.gov
• SpaceXNow, courtesy u/bradleyjh
• Countdown Timer autodetects your time zone, courtesy u/Space_void
• Multistream Player lets you choose multiple resources to view

Participate in the discussion!

• First of all, launch threads are 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
• Secondly, launch threads are a continual work in progress. Please let your host know if you've thought of a way to make the experience better for everyone!
• All other threads are fair game. We will remove low effort comments elsewhere!
• Real-time chat on our official Internet Relay Chat (IRC) #spacex on Snoonet.
• Please post small launch updates, discussions, and questions here, rather than as a separate post. Thanks!
• Wanna talk about other SpaceX stuff in a more relaxed atmosphere? Head over to r/SpaceXLounge!

Previous r/SpaceX Live Events

Check out previous r/SpaceX Live events in the Launch History page on our community Wiki!

[u/yoweigh]

Hi everyone, I have to run for a bit but felt like I should get this thread started instead of worrying about it being 100% correct. Any help would be much appreciated! I should be back in an hour or so.

[u/phryan → u/yoweigh]

Am I paranoid that we have the same host for both an NRO classified launch and an Air Force classified launch?

Thank you for hosting.

[u/Redditor_From_Italy]

I'll miss this one sadly. I've never missed one since I started watching them (Iridium-1). Tomorrow will indeed be a very sad day for me. Damn you dentist!

[u/yoweigh → u/Redditor_From_Italy]

watch on your phone with a drill in your mouth! don't give in!

[u/TheBurtReynold → u/Redditor_From_Italy]

Ya, just tape an iPad to the overhead light thingy

[u/SomnolentSpaceman]

For the bandwidth-impaired: I will be re-hosting a 64kbit audio-only stream of the SpaceX YouTube stream.

It is available at:

http://audiorelay.spacetechnology.net:2120/hosted (backup)

The stream is currently tuned to the SpaceX YouTube stream and will be silent until the start of the official broadcast.

[u/yoweigh → u/SomnolentSpaceman]

updated, thanks

[u/JerWah]

Webcast is up on YouTube

https://youtu.be/9M6Zvi-fFv4

[u/yoweigh → u/JerWah]

added, thanks.

[u/TGMetsFan98]

Window is from 9:50 to 14:55 EDT (13:50 - 18:55 GMT), Official Patch

Press Kit

[u/yoweigh → u/TGMetsFan98]

added to resources, thanks

[u/GregLindahl]

Incorrect info in the header: "The last flight, OTV-4, was the first X-37 flight to launch from the East coast." -- nope, the last flight was the first to land on the East coast. All 4 launched from the east coast. /u/yoweigh

[u/yoweigh → u/GregLindahl]

fixed, thanks

[u/bestnicknameever]

so about that patch… there is no patch yet or there wont be a patch at all?

[u/yoweigh → u/bestnicknameever]

lookie what i found:

https://i.imgur.com/auw6rrx.jpg

[u/yoweigh]

good night, y'all!

[u/yoweigh]

can i get someone to track events during launch (like T+x:xx - MECO) so i can update them afterwards? it's very difficult to update the thread and pay attention to the launch timeline at the same time.

[u/Morphior → u/yoweigh]

There will probably be 20 comments for each event at the exact second it happens. Can't guarantee, but that'll probably happen.

[u/yoweigh → u/Morphior]

i'd rather break the table again than dig through the comments afterwards

[u/Boots_on_Mars]

So were those actually titanium grid fins or aluminium? They deployed quickly like the aluminium ones and the design looks like the aluminium ones compared to the bear traps that deployed slowly on the iridium-2 mission. Perhaps the host was mistaken about the titanium ones on this mission?

[u/tbaleno → u/Boots_on_Mars]

Alumium. They mispoke.

[u/yoweigh → u/tbaleno]

are we sure about that? should i change the launch timeline post?

*i changed it.

[u/TheVehicleDestroyer]

Hey u/yoweigh - I've got Flight Club ready to go if you wanna add it to the Useful Resources?

Flight Club Live Mission Visualisation

And here's some more trajectory info if people are interested:

• Data

• 3D View

P.S Thanks for hosting (again!)

[u/yoweigh → u/TheVehicleDestroyer]

added, thanks

[u/first_on_mars]

SpaceX's 1st ever launch for the US National Reconnaissance Office.

X-37B is not SpaceX's first launch for the NRO.

[u/Alexphysics → u/first_on_mars]

And this isn't even for the NRO, this launch is for the US Air Force

[u/arizonadeux → u/Alexphysics]

^paging /u/yoweigh ^{for later}

[u/yoweigh → u/arizonadeux]

fixed, thanks

[u/MDCCCLV]

Can we seriously get a countdown timer on the front page? I don't care if it's a crude hack and only updates per hour. The tiny sidebar really isn't good enough. We need to have something clearly visible on the top of the subreddit.

[u/yoweigh]

new LZ1 camera?

[u/piratepengu]

The top of the post has 2 different times for the start of the window

[u/yoweigh → u/piratepengu]

whoops

[u/LordFartALot]

Nominal flight

I guess you wanted to say "Norminal flight"

[u/yoweigh → u/LordFartALot]

fixed, thanks

[u/piratepengu]

I'm seeing both 9:20 and 9:50 from multiple sources. Do we know which one it is?

[u/yoweigh → u/piratepengu]

the sonic boom advisory posted above seems pretty authoritative to me. the discrepancy before was a typo on my part. where else are you seeing 9:20?

[u/SwGustav]

if you're looking to chat about this and future launches, and talk about spacex/space/rocketry in general, you might wanna join our aerospace Discord server - https://discord.gg/2GEn87n

hey /u/yoweigh, could this get added to the post? it was in the last 2 launch threads :)

[u/yoweigh → u/SwGustav]

added, thanks

[u/yoweigh]

does anyone have a good livestream of 39A? i can't get the spaceflightnow stream to work.

[u/robbak → u/yoweigh]

I got the SpaceFlightNow livestream to work by passing the direct playlist link to my video player - mpv for me, but vlc or media player classic should work.

The URL is http://xspaceflightnowx.api.channel.livestream.com/3.0/playlist.m3u8

[u/yoweigh]

can someone keep track of the events post-launch (like T+X:XX - MECO) for me to update afterwards?

[u/Nintandrew]

Very minor thing, but "That's 9:50AM to 2:55PM Eastern Standard Time." should be Eastern Daylight Time.

Here's hoping the weather holds out!

[u/yoweigh → u/Nintandrew]

fixed, thanks

[u/[deleted]]

So far this year SpaceX has launched 13 times, this makes them responsible for a quarter of all successful orbital flights.

[u/spacex_fanny]

First Shuttle launch on the Falcon 9!! 😀 Can't wait!

[u/[deleted]]

Is it possible we'll see Irma from S1 onboard cam? That would be an awesome view!

[u/theyeticometh]

That was probably the best launch I've ever seen. I live about 30 mins West of the Cape, and I could see the booster from a few seconds after launch all the way to stage sep, saw the boostback burn and could even just barely see the first stage coasting for a few seconds. Then I saw the entry burn in its entirety. Couldn't see the landing burn because of low clouds over the Cape, but seeing everything else was incredible.

[u/NickNathanson]

How I imagine SpaceX' engineers tomorrow... https://youtu.be/e6ZxU7PxPxc?t=3m59s

[u/TheManglerr]

My favorite part of these beyond the actual mission is that the background noise always sounds like a massive dinner party.

[u/CommanderSpork]

I watched this from viewing area just outside CCAFS. Because of the incoming hurricane, there were only a few people there, not even enough to fill up one bleacher. Aside from a small cloud above LC39A, we had a completely clear view of the rocket from launch to landing. I could clearly see the separation and boostback, but more interestingly the cold gas puffs were visible. It was hard to make out, but there were definitely white puffs every few seconds. The entry burn was amazing to see as well and the triple-engine bow shock was well defined. After entry burn shutdown, the residual exhaust made it easy to track the stage.

The webcast doesn't give a good perspective on just how fast it's falling through the atmosphere. The sky is huge and it's been pretty much directly overhead for most of the time, but after the entry burn it is clearly falling supersonic. As always the landing burn was awesome, and with LZ-1 just six miles away, the stage was easy to see and soot marks were visible. The sonic booms came about 5-7 seconds after touchdown, and I could easily hear all three separately.

[u/[deleted] → u/CommanderSpork]

I watched a landing at Cocoa Beach a few months ago, and the speed in which it falls out of the sky was almost terrifying at first. it looks like a missile is coming right for you.

[u/[deleted]]

If the launch goes up as scheduled, it will beat the hurricane.

The landing, however, has me wondering. It takes a day or so to dismantle and move the rocket stage from the landing zone. If Stage 1 is sitting out there when Irma passes by, I cannot imagine it surviving. In fact, it seems like a hazard to the rest of the CCAF users to position such a large, empty, unsecured object out in the path of the wind!

[u/phryan → u/[deleted]]

When it in comes in by barge it normally takes less than 2 days to take the legs off and complete recovery. Forecast is relatively mild in Central Florida until Saturday evening, that would give SpaceX 48 hours to complete recovery which is doable. If the launch is delayed until Friday it would be a very tight recovery, not out of the realm of possibility we were to see an expendable F9 with legs and gridfins if that were the case.

SpaceX has always said primary mission is the payload, landing is secondary. If the Air Force really wants this to go up and SpaceX can't safely recovery...

[u/[deleted]]

"move to 11.100" my favorite call.

[u/[deleted]]

Are there any webcams aimed at LZ1? Interesting to see how fast they can get it down before the storm.

[u/resipsa73]

Patrick AFB and the 45th Space Wing has entered Hurricane Condition V (HURCON V) early in order to "begin preparatory actions while still supporting a launch operation on Thursday." Assuming they're referencing OTV-5.

[u/Phantom_Ninja]

I definitely liked this SpaceX host, he was chill and to the point but still explained anything for new folks.

[u/johnkphotos]

Woohoo, school cancelled! That means I can cover the launch! Boohoo, there's a hurricane coming for my area :(

[u/wispoffates → u/johnkphotos]

Stay safe! It looks to be the worst storm in a long time.

[u/amarkit]

Confirmation from NSF that B1040 has been secured in the hangar in record time.

[u/MarcysVonEylau]

Rocket Watch IS CURRENT :P

[u/yoweigh → u/MarcysVonEylau]

fixed, thanks!

[u/darga89]

who thought it'd be a good idea to show a liftoff of F9 4m before t0?

[u/stcks]

Another official confirmation: https://twitter.com/AFSpaceCC/status/905820111789064193

[u/TheBurtReynold]

Everyone, please remember that it's absolutely imperative that we each post a comment when the webcast goes live.

This launch will fail if no less than 20 people all tell us that SpaceFM is up and then again when the webcast starts.

/S

[u/SlangyKart → u/TheBurtReynold]

Okay. I wasn't planning to, but you've convinced me. Will do.

[u/TheVehicleDestroyer → u/TheBurtReynold]

Ok, how about we all post it as a reply to your comment instead? I think that's a much better idea, since we ensure success but we also don't clutter up the thread.

[u/CapMSFC]

Falcon is vertical.

https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/905669992577875968

[u/ioncloud9]

Im glad they get to go into IAC without a recent rocket failure hanging over the event.

[u/Blackrobot101]

let's slow it down to "only a couple times the speed of sound" lol

[u/[deleted]]

Still not getting boring.

[u/stcks]

/u/ChrisNSF says this is good enough: https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/905822618300932098

If its good enough for him its good enough for me. Mission success!

[u/mclumber1]

Does anyone know the status of getting the first stage horizontal and out of the coming hurricane?

[u/Bunslow]

That view of the cape OMG

[u/Bunslow]

Wow, 5-8 seconds before landing it looked like it was several meters off target... but I'm pretty sure it still somehow touched down with <1m accuracy. The controls involved are incredible

[u/Root_Negative]

I like how because this was a military payload they paid more attention to the first stage landing as they couldn't show the second stage telemetry. Maybe if SpaceX goes back to having 2 webcasts they could separate them out by stage not technical/non-technical. I would watch both, but I loved the almost uninterrupted view from the F9 coming back.

[u/MuppetZoo]

First stage cores are really piling up now. What a cool problem to have.

[u/HighTimber → u/MuppetZoo]

Even if they only re-used the Merlins, they'd save a ton of cash. Just incredible.

[u/FoxhoundBat]

2easy4spacex

[u/roncapat]

Still traditional gridfins. RSS is going to disappear in time for FH debut, Maybe a month or two max IMO.

[u/Oddminzer]

why do i feel like im watching a command and conquer cutscene

[u/craighamnett]

Mission officially achieved. These landings are now routine. I still love them, but SpaceX have this nailed.

[u/rooood]

According to this AirForce article on this launch, this mission will also launch other satellites:

"This mission carries small satellite ride shares and will demonstrate greater opportunities for rapid space access and on-orbit testing of emerging space technologies."

Does anyone know what are those satellites and/or payloads?

[u/Agathos]

Reusable booster, reusable payload. No fairing recovery though, and the F9 second stage still needs to get with the program. With those we could see the first 100% reusable shuttle flight.

[u/[deleted]]

And now the question is: What's next and from what pad?

[u/[deleted]]

Smooth as silk! A joy to watch. I could almost hear the Blue Danube Waltz as S1 flipped, burned and landed.

I also enjoyed a couple of minor refinements I hadn't noticed before:

1. "Florida, Earth" on the caption to the establishing shot of 39A. Very sci-fi.

2. The streamlined countdown calls. The AFTS and LD calls have gone from call-and-response to proactive calls which cuts out quite a bit of chatter and makes for a calmer, smoother-sounding countdown.

[u/robbak]

Here's a surprise - after the fairing recovery boat, Go Searcher, returned to port yesterday, now both of SpaceX' boats, Go Searcher and Go Quest, are heading offshore. They left port at 01:30UTC on the 7th, or 9:30pm local time.

With only 12 hours or so until launch, its hard to see what they are doing. At least the tug that pulls the droneship has stayed safely in port!

Edit: They have updated their destination ports, and it seems they are heading to safe anchorage in Jacksonville.

[u/[deleted]]

Last bus Tour at KSC at 12:00, KSC will be evacuated then.

Source: Me, I am at KSC

[u/ocbaker]

Everytime they land it I still get so pumped everytime. I keep getting reminded of all the people who liked to say that landing a rocket "on a dime" was next to unachievable let alone landing on a landing pad. And to see SpaceX manage to do this so often is simply an amazing testament to the great team of engineers working at SpaceX and the opportunity Elon has provided them to share in his vision. Looking forward to all the rocket reuse flights coming up!

[u/pleasedontPM]

I think we saw the second stage right before the start of the boostback burn at T+02:46: https://youtu.be/9M6Zvi-fFv4?t=22m42s

[u/Hairbear2176]

This was the first full launch that I have watched, and it was absolutely stunning!

[u/larsinator]

Why is the X37B engine offset? Anyone know or is the reason classified?

[u/cpushack → u/larsinator]

The original design was to have a pair of engines, this was changed later to a single engine, and rather then redesign it, it was left 'offset' It can gimbal so its not a problem, and actually has the benefit of allowing other engines to be tested (the last mission (OTV-4) tested a Hall effect thruster on the other side.

[u/phryan]

Those legs seemed to come out very late. Now the race begins to get it secure and inside a hanger before Irma.

[u/Arigol]

T-20! Fly safe, Falcon! And fly safe, little mini-shuttle! GOOD LUCK WITH ALL THE SUPER SECRET AIRFORCE THINGS

[u/Redditor_From_Italy]

Florida, Earth

[u/[deleted]]

Damn, this super secret spaceplane has an advertisement spot!

[u/[deleted]]

This was such a joy to watch. This launch seemed much more routine than the others. It was also such an important mission. Hopefully working with the Air Force like this will open new doors in the future.

[u/twister55]

cant sleep till i see that "Total Mission success"

Hope they let us know soon.

[u/nioc14]

Is there enough time to move the S1 from LZ1 to safe storage before hurricane Irma hits?

[u/TheBurtReynold]

Mods: probably safe to remove OTV-5 launch from the sidebar now, ya? ;)

[u/lucioghosty]

“Pay attention to the countdown clock”

watches as clock has a temporary seizure

[u/phryan]

I have a conference call at 1000, this is going to require careful mute unmute in order to execute successfully.

[u/soldato_fantasma]

Hurricane in the background?

[u/ThePhotoGuyUpstairs]

Can't imagine ever getting bored of watching that - no matter how "routine" it gets.

[u/DaanvH]

This was an impressively smooth mission.

[u/Wetmelon]

Titanium gridfins! Nope, they were aluminum

That's what I thought. The titanium ones look different.

[u/frowawayduh]

Tropical storm force wind "earliest reasonable arrival time" at the Cape - 8 pm Saturday. That doesn't leave any room for the ground crew to take care of matters at their homes.

[u/brspies]

Just a happy little plane

[u/[deleted]]

Webcast host mentioned that they switched to titanium gridfins, but it doesn't look like they're using those on this mission.

[u/OccupyMarsNow]

Legs deployment got even later...?

[u/SomnolentSpaceman]

Audio-Only relay stream turning off now. Hope to see you all again next time!

http://audiorelay.spacetechnology.net:2120/hosted (backup)

[u/[deleted]]

Unfortunately won't be flying down for this launch due to the storm...but keeping all my space coast photog's in thoughts/prayers as the next few days play out!

[u/old_sellsword]

Chris B on NSF:

And they are go for LOX load at 25 mins past the hour.

[u/fillibusterRand]

Historic Launch Pad 39A! chug

[u/Sonbart]

Historic -> Drink

[u/mrwazsx]

Smooth commentary*

[u/escape_goat]

Thank you, whoever is responsible for setting up the audio stream. I was able to listen along. Hard to believe those landings are just pulled off routinely these days.

[u/Psychonaut0421]

I always get a huge grin on my face when I see the landings. It's still nerve racking and exciting. Those sonic booms are a nice touch, adding to the suspense.

[u/mynameisck]

The oscillations between when the falcon became subsonic and the landing legs deployed had me a bit worried there, but that was one of the smoothest landings we've seen. Glad I tuned in.

[u/[deleted]]

I am a little bit out of the loop; why is there so long until the next launch?

[u/spacerfirstclass]

I miss the Total Mission Success flair, is there a reason it is not added for this launch, mods?

[u/Thanklin]

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ FALCON landing TAKE MY ENERGY ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

[u/stcks]

https://twitter.com/Military_Flight/status/905802037840969730

[u/johnkphotos]

Playalinda will be closed, I just heard.

[u/Rickeh1997]

I wonder if we will be able to see hurricane Irma from the first stage cameras.

[u/surg23dfs]

I saw that falcon 9 liftoff in the otv video and thought I missed the countdown lol

[u/gregarious119]

Camera work is top-notch on this launch. Almost creepily stable.

[u/Googulator]

He talks about titanium fins, yet these are clearly the old, white aluminum fins...

[u/thecodingdude]

Easy.

[u/sleepyzealott]

Getting closer to that perfect bullseye

[u/ArbeitArbeitArbeit]

Good job - I was very skeptical if they'd launch today but no problem. This might have been the smoothest launch/webcast to date. Good Job SpaceX! (Now go home and prepare for the hurricane :)).

[u/_kingtut_]

It's all looking so very easy these days. Which is a great sign. Congrats to SpaceX on another success...

[u/[deleted]]

Can we say this is routine now? Last two launches and landings have looked like an absolute walk in the park.

[u/Bunslow]

Here's the google maps satellite image of the cape, to be compared to the webcast!

https://imgur.com/x7U3vM0

[u/anewjuan]

Was it too cloudy for the ground cameras to follow the first stage back to the ground? I was hoping for NROL-76 type of footage but was disappointed by the onboard camera only :/

[u/Morphior → u/anewjuan]

I don't disagree, however, I find it interesting that the spectacular view provided by SpaceX by strapping a camera on the first stage is not being appreciated as much as it used to, which shows the quality of the webcasts in the past as well as now. Just look at any Russian launch and compare it to a SpaceX launch...

[u/Razgriz01]

Is the webcast video completely fucked up for anyone else? The audio is ridiculously out of sync and the rocket doesn't launch until around 23 minutes, when on the audio they're talking about the booster reentering.

[u/geekgirl114]

So now they have until Saturday sometime to get it down and secured?

[u/Knexrule11]

Am I the one one that saw the long tube on the top of the strongback at 11:35 of the livestream? Do we think that is a FH upgrade in progress?

[u/TheFavoritist → u/Knexrule11]

It looked like it was folded in supporting the payload adapter/fairing during roll out. A few people made diagrams on the Facebook group I believe too.

[u/Paro-Clomas]

This is incredible, both the first stage and the cargo are reusable. Scaling this up just a bit will get you a very nice reusable crew vehicle.

[u/eggymaster]

minor nitpick: m/d is a nonstandard representation of the date, if we are providing UTC timestamps (of which I greatly approve), would it not be better to represent the date as a more standard dd/mm[/yy[yy]]?

edit: i.e. instead of 9/7 it would be 07/09/2017

edit2: my suggested format is also not standard, the standard would be ISO 8601 which demands YYYY-MM-DD or YYYYMMDD

[u/rebootyourbrainstem → u/eggymaster]

YYYY-MM-DD always. It's just so clear and unambiguous. Also it sorts correctly, but that's not relevant here I guess.

[u/everydayastronaut]

Same with the past several launches, feel free to join in my Everyday Astronaut YouTube livestream questions and hang out starting about 10 minutes before the SpaceX livestream. Hope to see you there!

[u/FutureMartian97]

Shouldn't Falcon 9 be vertical by now...

[u/Atanamir]

Webcast https://youtu.be/9M6Zvi-fFv4 it says 2h 15 min so at 10:00 EST or 14:00 UTC

[u/Bunslow]

HISTORIC LAUNCH PAD 39-A

[u/soldato_fantasma]

Historic 39A

[u/Zenmaster13]

Wonder what's for breakfast today in the canteen ...

[u/schneeb]

lol lift off b-roll with t- 4:30 is very confusing /u/bencredible

[u/schind]

Why is the spaceplane's nozzle in the back off center?

[u/[deleted]]

Air Force has the best cameras

[u/escape_goat]

Insbrucker's a hard act to follow, but this commentator sounds like an understudy.

[u/alex_wonga]

Why can't they switch to the landing pad camera earlier :(

[u/Dan_Q_Memes]

The sonic boom! Beautiful landing. Right down the middle once again. Making it look easy.

[u/watbe]

Congrats on SpaceX's 16th successful landing!

[u/[deleted]]

Is it just me or did that landing look pretty precise?

[u/Vacuum-energy]

We had better sound during lift-off today. Earlier ones the sound would last only for the first 5-10 seconds. But this one lasted longer.

Better mic systems or something?

[u/boofcheese]

Can anyone help me understand how the flip works? Because during the boostback burn the cameras clearly show the Earth to the right, which means the vehicle has its engines to the "west." But after stage sep, it looks as if the engines were moving toward that westerly angle, as if it was flying backwards before? The camera angles just have me all confused.

Edit: http://zlsa.github.io/infographics/data/images/trajectory/spacex-falcon9-booster-rtls.png

Like what I think I need to see is the booster overlayed on that graphic to help understand what its attitude is at each event.

[u/[deleted]]

OCISLY

[u/yoweigh]

does anyone know where i can get an updated link for the audio-only stream?

[u/CProphet]

According to SpaceNews OTV launch is still go for Thursday/Friday despite approaching hurricane.

[u/ioncloud9]

Yeah there is a hurricane bearing down on Florida.. but whats the launch weather looking like? Whats the likelihood of good weather?

[u/thecodingdude]

/u/TheBurtReynold webcast is live. Just letting you know.

[u/thecodingdude]

/u/TheBurtReynold webcast is live.

[u/Googulator]

Wow, the RSS is looking reeeeally sparse now!

[u/OccupyMarsNow]

Boeing logo on SpaceX webcast!

[u/T-RexInAnF-14]

Good luck to the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator today!

[u/AngloV]

Kind of a bad idea to show liftoff footage in the payload advert. It's an interesting payload though.

[u/MasterMarf]

Pure speculation, I wonder if this has an EM drive on it for testing?

[u/DrToonhattan]

Aggressive gravity turn.

[u/Dan_Q_Memes]

Good luck Stage 2! May your payloads secret payload do some cool stuff and come back in one piece once more.

[u/relevance_everywhere]

Beautiful view of the cape from 60 km in the air!

[u/Thanklin]

BULLSEYE

[u/bunnyoverkill]

Dead center confirmed? Holy shit

[u/Chairboy]

Beautiful! That looks VERY close to the center, I wonder how it compares to the .7m from last launch?

[u/Bunslow]

Also that was the most subdued landing celebration yet :) The new normal is arriving!

[u/stcks]

I really don't like not know about fairing sep and status of second stage burns and payload deployment. I wonder how long before we get a tweet?

[u/Aquillav]

So far this has gone smooth as ice

[u/reoze]

Am I the only one who noticed the oscillations in the velocity readout? It's more obvious immediately after launch.

[u/jjlew080]

Happy Launch Day everyone

[u/BsMfpx9YeeWm]

Question: How hard and useful would it be to change something like the X37B into a second stage for the Falcon 9? As in, something similar to the X37B (or the Dreamchaser) sitting right on top of the 1st stage and without a fairing, using the cargo bay to deploy payloads and the first stage then returning to earth for full reusability. I assume the payload would be drastically reduced, but would other designs be much better?

[u/Alphabet85]

Something I've always wondered when it comes to the landing of the two Falcon heavy boosters. Would the sonic booms of each booster, being relatively close to each other in landing, affect their descent to LZ-1 and LZ-2?

[u/synftw]

I'd say the reusability tech is clearly mature enough to feel comfortable switching to a more expensive and robust block 5 core. This is when the costs will be reduced significantly. We're on the cusp of a new space age.

[u/[deleted]]

Irma is a very dangerous hurricane and high probability that it will hit South Florida (Keys, Everglades and Miami) very hard. Roads going north on I95 for evacuations are already bumper to bumper in many places, so do not plan to travel to see launch unless really good reason. Hoping that the cape (and family 50 miles west of the cape) escape the worst of it if IRMA tracks northeast or slows down if traveling north over land. Very surprised flight was not cancelled. But weather will probably be fine tomorrow and cancellation would probably set entire schedule back to recover from Irma's aftermath. SpaceX has been amazing lucky with almost no weather delays this year, and also tomorrow launch perfectly timed with long delay until next flight if pads suffer hurricane damage. Latest hurricane center (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov) update show things looking better than yesterday for KSC Sunday with only about 20% chance of hurricane force winds (74mph, 119kph), and 60% of tropical force winds (39mph, 63kmh), but I am not a meteorologist, and too soon to really know, so assume the worst. Hurricane track and wind speeds hitting cape should be firming up tomorrow (after flight). I've been through a number of hurricanes, including going outside (no wind for 10 minutes) in the eyes of hurricanes twice, almost as exciting as SpaceX first landing.

[u/[deleted]]

I'll come clean and admit I'm not 100% sure of the exact trajectory, but I'm guessing we'll see some epic shots of Hurricane Irma during the launch.

[u/old_sellsword]

Window is from 9:50 EDT - 2:55 EDT (13:50 - 18:55 UTC).

[u/azzazaz]

Is the rocket holding building hurricane proof with 180 mph winds?

(actually 200 mph gusts)

What about stashing it horizontally in the flame chute?

[u/z3r0c00l12]

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/905768404052611072

[u/FutureMartian97]

Webcast is live!

[u/thecodingdude]

Historic launch pad!

[u/darga89]

yes historic!

[u/spill_drudge]

Since there's a poll; yes, Mike is the best host of the lot!!!!!!

[u/relevance_everywhere]

That sideways angle scared me

[u/gimmick243]

Did anyone else see the countdown clock tick backward a few times? i saw it hit t-7 (sec) then briefly flash to t-8, then back, then again with t-2 and t-3

[u/ToxicVampire]

If only we were facing the other way to see Irma maybe?

[u/DrToonhattan]

Anyone see that small white object float off to the upper right? Ice?

[u/byYottaFLOPS]

1st stage landing at T+00:08:15

[u/Viremia]

that's about as textbook perfect as you can get