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Thanks for submitting this now rather than 15 minutes from now! Moments like these are historic, and it's wonderful to experience this in realtime rather than

Thanks for submitting this now rather than 15 minutes from now! Moments like these are historic, and it's wonderful to experience this in realtime rather than watching a replay. T minus 10min. Go SpaceX! EDIT: It's impressive they were able to abort safely after ignition. That's historically rare, isn't it?

lispylol 13y ago
Now that's an awesome feature.
ronnier 13y ago
Looks like they'll make a second attempt. He just said "resetting to t-13 minutes"
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- topbanana 13y ago
  The operations team are getting ready in case the engineering team give the green light
  - ceejayoz 13y ago
    Musk seems to think they're going forward. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406194506011525120 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406194506011525120
bdonlan 13y ago
Aborting after ignition is only possible with liquid engines. The F9 in particular is designed to light and stabilize all nine engines before removing the restraints holding the rocket down - this gives them very robust abort capabilities. And since the engines are designed for multiple lights, they can even retry it without needing refurbishment.
- Crito 13y ago
  An interesting case is Mercury-Redstone 1 which aborted right after takeoff. This wasn't on purpose of course.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O4V7JfeTSU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O4V7JfeTSU The wiki page is a pretty interesting read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_1#Test_background_and_launch_failure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_1#Test_backgro...
ceejayoz 13y ago
> EDIT: It's impressive they were able to abort safely after ignition. That's historically rare, isn't it? I'm not sure how rare it is with liquid fueled rockets, but I know it's not even possible on solid fueled rockets (like the Shuttle's two boosters).
capnrefsmmat 13y ago
Space Shuttles ignited the liquid-fueled engines several seconds before liftoff, and I believe there were several launch aborts after ignition: http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/abort.html http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/abort.html I don't recall that happening with the Saturn V or other early rockets, apart from the accident Crito mentioned.
- tanzam75 13y ago
  Gemini 6A also aborted after engine ignition. The astronauts climbed out, the engineers found the problem, and they launched successfully three days later. Liquid-fueled engines are inherently restartable. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to test an engine without throwing it away afterwards. Sometimes manual intervention is required, though. For example, the starter cartridge on the Titan was a consumable part, and had to be replaced before restarting the engine.

lispylol 13y ago

Now that's an awesome feature.

ronnier 13y ago

Looks like they'll make a second attempt. He just said "resetting to t-13 minutes"

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
topbanana 13y ago
The operations team are getting ready in case the engineering team give the green light
- ceejayoz 13y ago
  Musk seems to think they're going forward. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406194506011525120 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406194506011525120

bdonlan 13y ago

Aborting after ignition is only possible with liquid engines. The F9 in particular is designed to light and stabilize all nine engines before removing the restraints holding the rocket down - this gives them very robust abort capabilities. And since the engines are designed for multiple lights, they can even retry it without needing refurbishment.

Crito 13y ago
An interesting case is Mercury-Redstone 1 which aborted right after takeoff. This wasn't on purpose of course.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O4V7JfeTSU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O4V7JfeTSU The wiki page is a pretty interesting read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_1#Test_background_and_launch_failure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_1#Test_backgro...

ceejayoz 13y ago

> EDIT: It's impressive they were able to abort safely after ignition. That's historically rare, isn't it? I'm not sure how rare it is with liquid fueled rockets, but I know it's not even possible on solid fueled rockets (like the Shuttle's two boosters).

capnrefsmmat 13y ago

Space Shuttles ignited the liquid-fueled engines several seconds before liftoff, and I believe there were several launch aborts after ignition: http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/abort.html http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/abort.html I don't recall that happening with the Saturn V or other early rockets, apart from the accident Crito mentioned.

tanzam75 13y ago
Gemini 6A also aborted after engine ignition. The astronauts climbed out, the engineers found the problem, and they launched successfully three days later. Liquid-fueled engines are inherently restartable. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to test an engine without throwing it away afterwards. Sometimes manual intervention is required, though. For example, the starter cartridge on the Titan was a consumable part, and had to be replaced before restarting the engine.