SpaceX And/Or Rocketry In General

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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NASA thinks Saturday is a

NASA thinks Saturday is a goer then :

"NASA's first cargo resupply mission of 2017 is poised to lift off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida loaded with almost 5,500 pounds of science experiments, research equipment and supplies bound for the International Space Station and its resident astronauts."

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

archae86
archae86
Joined: 6 Dec 05
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The YouTube link for the

The YouTube link for the hosted webcast is here.

Just before I posted it showed 24 hours to go. I think that is to scheduled liftoff time, so the actual talking heads will probably start 10 or 20 minutes earlier.

Speaking of visual matters, this will be the first launch from launch complex 39A since the last shuttle, and it is scheduled to be a daytime return to launch site (not landing on barge) of the first booster stage. That should mean that whole bunches of cameras will be trying to get shots of the booster as it comes down, possibly even one or two giving live video to the youtube show.

 

Anonymous

another link:

another link:  http://www.spacex.com/webcast

Gary Charpentier
Gary Charpentier
Joined: 13 Jun 06
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JumpinJohnny wrote: In a

JumpinJohnny wrote:

In a potentially major change in direction for NASA’s human spaceflight architecture, the agency is officially studying the possibility of adding a crew of astronauts to the first flight of Orion deep space crew capsule and the heavy lift Space Launch System (SLS) rocket currently in development, announced Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot. “I have asked Bill Gerstenmaier to initiate a study to assess the feasibility of adding a crew to Exploration Mission-1, the first integrated flight of SLS and Orion,” Lightfoot said.

Apollo 1, lesson not learned.

Anonymous

Elon Musk is reporting the

Elon Musk is reporting the possibility of a small leak in the upper stage.  If confirmed launch will be delayed.  

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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.... and then tweeted

.... and then tweeted :

"Looks like we are go for launch. Added an abort trigger at T-60 secs for pressure decay of upper stage helium spin start system."

Rather an understated comment I'd say. 

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

archae86
archae86
Joined: 6 Dec 05
Posts: 3157
Credit: 7226948258
RAC: 1073710

Links to the traditional two

Links to the traditional two youtube webcasts from SpaceX

technical more pad shots, fewer talking heads

hosted more talking heads, more Hawthorne crowd shots and enthusiasm

At the moment I am posting, both are only live enough to show a countdown to the expected launch moment a little over one and a quarter hours in the future.  On past experience both with probably actually go live with prelaunch video something like 20 minutes before that.

There may be a separate live video feed on NASA TV, though an EDGE program earlier today is over, I think.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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Very late abort there. Second

Very late abort there. Second stage thrust vector control.

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

archae86
archae86
Joined: 6 Dec 05
Posts: 3157
Credit: 7226948258
RAC: 1073710

scrubbed with a hold, hold,

scrubbed with a hold, hold, hold call at 13 seconds before launch (even less before ignition).  They say it was related to the previously mentioned TVC concern, which showed "out of family" behavior.

Next opportunity is in about 24 hours.

 

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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Elon tweet :"All systems

Elon tweet :

"All systems go, except the movement trace of an upper stage engine steering hydraulic piston was slightly odd. Standing down to investigate."

"If this is the only issue, flight would be fine, but need to make sure that it isn't symptomatic of a more significant upstream root cause"

"Not obviously related to the (very tiny) helium leak, but also not out of the question"

"Btw, 99% likely to be fine (closed loop TVC wd overcome error), but that 1% chance isn't worth rolling the dice. Better to wait a day."

"Uses high pressure bleed off the fuel side (RP-1 kerosene) turbopump, so no dedicated pump or fluid needed"

Paranoia Worx

or as someone tweeted : "more checkey less splodey" :-))

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

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