Rocketry General Thread

So lame. Oh well, it rarely happens the first try.

I’d rather the launch be scrubbed than launch with a bug that ends up turning the rocket into a kerbalesque explosion.

I know. I agree. I just wanted it to go off without a hitch. Is the next one AM or PM?

Also, judging by the announcements, it all sounded promising. If I had to bet on it, I would bet that they’re going to recover it this time.

50/50 from SpaceX means 75% chance in reality. They really take the sentiment ā€œunder-promise, over-deliverā€ quite seriously.

You mean like not putting in enough hydraulic fluid?

Turns out the issue was the Airforce’s fault. They lost 2 radars and a heater(from what I heard from the stream, and a friend of a friend who is texting a SpaceX employee) which forced SpaceX to scrub.

I also got the ā€œYou’re spamming too muchā€ warning from discourse :frowning:I hope you guys don’t mind…

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Screw the forum fairy.

If you got something to add, post at will. :triumph:

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After Elon’s bad-mouthing of the Air Force a while back, this got my tin foil hat to wiggling. Was the Air Force griefing SpaceX? It turns out that the tracking radar went down about this time last year as well. Launches were postponed for three weeks. This time, the delay is only a day.

Update for anyone planing on following the launch today: the launch seems to have been moved to Tuesday. :unamused:

https://twitter.com/NOAASatellites/status/564775743025319936

EDIT: Or possibly not. Seems like there is some discussion still ongoing, but as the weather isn’t favorable today anyway (only 40% go) I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Oh Xamino, the wait is half the fun :wink:

I heard this was their first launch of anything passed geosynchronous. Can anyone confirm? Should make for one interesting recovery scenario.

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Sure can. DSCOVR is supposed to be launched into the L1 point which is ~~1 million miles out from the Earth. It’s scientific goal is to monitor the solar wind and give a forewarning against CMEs…Additionally it will provide a 24 hour live stream of the Earth from a million miles away which is pretty cool! This is the next milestone for certification for the airforce’s EELV program to launch airforce payloads.

Edit: Forgot to mention I’m sad the launch was postponed…

Double postin’ ohh yeah!

Alright guys, the launch is set for 6:05 est which is approx 3 hours from now. Here are some links in case you are too lazy to scroll up.

Link to SpaceX stream: http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

Link to Nasa stream: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#.VNfkdPnF_y-2

The SpaceX stream doesn’t feature prelaunch news while the Nasa stream does.

Turns out dragon just left the ISS too…SpaceX has a lot going on right now.

Edit1: Nasa stream is live 2:34 pst. T-minus 30 minutes

Edit2: SpaceX stream is now live 2:44 pst. T minus 20 minutes…it appears there are high upper level winds…if they do not subside they will scrub the launch until tomorrow. 1 balloon left to test again in ~5 minutes to see if the winds subside.

Edit3: Damn the winds, launch is scrubbed :frowning:

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Nooooooooooooooo. EVERY. TIME. :frowning:

I bet the moment I don’t watch live things will go wonderfully. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Probably :frowning: That’s always how it goes! Including the landing!

Postponed until tomorrow at 6:03 EST…I’ll have to convince my thermal prof to let us watch it during the first 10 minutes of class. I probably won’t be able to be on top of updates either.

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Someone please tell me how is it possible to have a launch window of one second every time? :stuck_out_tongue:

This is the cause of multiple factors. Due to the Earth’s tilt, and the position of KSC on the Earth, every launch will happen with some inclination. Unfortunately it’s not quite as nice as the equatorial orbits we get in KSP… Another type of launch window that is so short is when launching to the ISS. It’s moving so quickly relative to the surface that we have to launch at the exact moment to be able to catch up to it efficiently.

For this launch, DSCOVR is set to go out to the L1 point, 1 million km out from the Earth. Due to the fuel constraints, if the satellite is launched into the wrong inclination, it would be unable to correct the inclination and insert itself into the L1 intercept course, and stop once it gets there.

TLDR: Fuel basically. For the ISS it’s more of a timing issue.

Edit: I’m not sure how else to elaborate so let me know if it’s unclear

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It seems to me that it’s always an issue of reaction mass. Given a lavish budget, ships could launch whenever they liked, then make up the difference with thrust maneuvers. It is the fact that reaction mass is so precious that we rely on Hohmann transfer orbits, optimal launch windows and such.

In comparison, ships without such requirements - like Infinity’s - can take off whenever they like and just chase down their intended target. Other constraints can inspire a minimum trip time. For example, other resource restrictions (power, life support), time-based hazards of being in the transit space (radiation, debris), or cargo restrictions (spoilage).

NASA made a video that attempts to describe the ins and outs of launch windows for lunar landings. I think it could have been presented much better than it was, but it might help.

Due to bad weather the first stage will not attempt to land on the barge if they launch in 2 hours.

http://www.spacex.com/press/2015/02/11/dscovr-launch-update

At this point I’m kind of hoping for a scrub… :stuck_out_tongue:

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I was just thinking the same thing

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Nope, proceeds as planned as soon as the waves are too high.

God doesn’t like SpaceX right now, apparently. Or, maybe I should say the universe’s RNGesus.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/565637505811488768

There, so the droneship should be able to handle 30 foot waves next time… Lol. 30 foot waves… Nuts. Go from normal 5-10 foot waves to 30 when they need to land the damn thing… and a motor goes out on the droneship.

@elonmusk Build it into a flying aircraft carrier like in the Avengers

@DanielLockyer We could actually do that…maybe we should

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/565638406945144832

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