/sci/ - Science & Math

They are launching SES-8, a communications satellite.

The Falcon 9 1.1 will have to do the first upper stage relight to launch the payload to a geosynchronous transfer orbit, an operation that was attempted on the previous orbital flight, but which failed at that time.

T minus 5 minutes. If you want to watch SpaceX's third abort in a row live, get in the webcast!

There's also a chance of SpaceX's first big public rocket blow-up.

T minus 1 minute!

Watch the launch live!
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

IT'S HAPPENING

Space pencil is going to space!

For reals this time!

Why do I get the feeling that Samara is going to call me when this video is over?

>>6200816
LAUNCH! past max-Q nominally

1-2 sep and fairing sep nominal

went to go take a picture of it but i had my macro lens on.

by the time i put on my other lens all there was left was the smoke trail ;_;

>>6200873
not nominal: forgot to fill the windshield wiper fluid

>>6200878
you're on site?! damn, I'm jealous. For a twilight launch, I bet the vapor trail is spectacular!

they didn't relight the first stage

>>6200886

naw man i wish.

I'm just a bit south on the other coast of florida but i can always get a view of the launchs. It's pretty cool despite being so far away

>>6200888
No, they hadn't planned to.

It's a GEO launch, so they want as much margin for error as possible with the upper stage relight. That means burning all of the first stage fuel to put the upper stage in LEO with as much upper stage propellant left as possible.

>>6200888
as planned: they reserved maximum performance for the flight, since it is their highest orbit so far.

>>6200873
First burn complete: a few minutes to the second burn for GTO

I'm pretty annoyed that they aren't continuing the webcast until the second burn.

Left for food while the second stage was still burning, did it make orbit?

>>6200907
engine chill: complete
webcast chill: complete

>>6200915
that's at T+27m, btw.

Spacecraft release at T+33m

>>6200919
Yeah, it's in LEO. They haven't done the second burn to GTO, though. Then SES-8 will have to circularize itself to GEO.

>>6200922
>>6200907
this is the critical moment, because the second stage failed a relight test on the last launch.

>>6200944
2nd burn nominal!

>SpaceX @SpaceX
>#Falcon9 second stage restart burn successful. Orbit looks nominal.

>>6200955
Separation confirmed! totally nominal mission (on the third try…)

>>6200963
It's a pretty impressive demonstration of their ability to abort and retry quickly, even after a faulty ignition.

They had several problems that could have caused launch failure, but instead of costing tens of millions of dollars and delaying communication services by months or years, it only delayed launch by about a week.

For SpaceX, this is 7 Falcon 9 launches, 7 successes. (they had one engine out on one launch, but it would still have been possible to complete all mission objectives, if NASA hadn't asked them to ditch the secondary payload)

>>6200816

SpaceX are definitely going to have a catastrophic accident in the near future.
Their goal is re-usability
They're going to hit major development hurdles once more real world testing takes place
Development is expensive and they will reach a point where they find themselves deciding what areas they think they can afford to trim a little funding

>>6201260
>SpaceX are definitely going to have a catastrophic accident in the near future.
So what? Every other orbital launch provider also has catastrophic accidents.

Because the performance requirements are so high and the mass allowances are so low, and because so few flights are flown, rockets blow up sometimes. That's why they have to launch over the ocean.

As Elon says, they've budgeted for craters.

God damn. Falcon 9 upper stage looking back at Earth.

Blue Origin released a video of a test of their fully-assembled hydrolox engine, being put through a full simulated suborbital flight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r6r0eglKPo

I wouldn't be surprised if they achieved reusable first stage for orbital launch at about the same time as SpaceX does.

and humanity pierces the heavens with a giant flaming space boner yet again

"excuse me while i fuck the sky"
-elon musk
(not an actual quote)

>>6201358
Why are they using hydrogen-LOX for a first-stage suborbital booster? The exhaust velocities don’t match well, and you have a lot of handling and bulk-density issues.

>>6201389
Space vaginas would not be aerodynamically sound.

>>6201397
STOP OPPRESSING ME

>>6201395
>Why are they using hydrogen-LOX for a first-stage suborbital booster?
Lots of reasons, but the big one is that the high specific impulse means they don't have to have a crazy mass fraction to boost a substantial upper stage.

Having more vehicle mass to work with means they should be able to make a more durable, reliable vehicle.

Another thing is that, having done their hydrolox homework, they can easily make a high-performance upper stage without a big, separate development effort. They could very easily end up eating SpaceX's lunch with a better vehicle.

>The exhaust velocities don’t match well
What does that even mean?

Good article on why this is a big deal:
http://michaelbelfiore.com/2013/12/why-mondays-spacex-launch-is-a-big-deal.html

By starting up commercial satellite launch operations, SpaceX is going to have lots of money to work with, to develop crew capability, reusability, and their next-generation vehicle, so they're not going to be at the mercy of NASA's funding.