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SES-8 – Falcon 9 GEO Transfer Mission
Always worth to keep an eye on: https://twitter.com/elonmusk
- ramidarigaz 13y agoBest of luck to the SpaceX team! Hopefully they got everything fixed!
- nakkiel 13y agoSomehow I forgot to mention Elon Musk's Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/elonmusk https://twitter.com/elonmusk. Always a good read.
- matponta 13y agoVery interesting, often a source of insights into what's really going on. Plus, he's rarely wrong
- hkbarton 13y agoGood Luck SpaceX
- jhgg 13y agoHere we go again! I hope it happens this time!
- deletes 13y agoStream has started, launch in T-00:15:30.
- daeken 13y agoAaaand liftoff! Glad to see that it went off without a hitch this time (so far).
- alexjeffrey 13y agoalthough all the rain on the camera makes it difficult to watch :(
- aidos 13y agoVelocity of 1.2km/s - rockets are just awesome.
- double051 13y agoIt'll have to go over 7km/s to reach low Earth orbit, and even faster still to complete it's mission to the geostationary satellite belt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_orbit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_orbit
- unspecified 13y agoAs Randall Munroe says: But getting to space is easy. The problem is staying there. http://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ http://what-if.xkcd.com/58/
- tocomment 13y agoEdit: I'm going to try to rephrase this whole question since it got so unpopular. (I also said moon when I meant sun) Lets say we fly a rocket up to earth sun L4 at a really slow speed. When we reach L4 we fire retro rockets to slow down as to not overshoot. It seems to me that we never have to reach a high speed to stay in space at that point. The two bodies would be holding us there? Is that correct? Is there a certain speed to fly out to L4 which uses less fuel than speeding up to 8km/s like you would need to stay in space orbiting earth?
- MrMeker 13y agoIf you did that you would have a huge relative velocity to the Lagrange point. You'd shoot right past it unless you could kill all your relative velocity, which would mean you would have enough delta-v to achieve orbit anyway.
- tocomment 13y agoI updated my question to explain it better I think.
- 13y ago
- InclinedPlane 13y agoLaunch, MECO, stage sep, second stage is running now. Update: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO), now coasting until second stage reignition. Update 2: Second stage reignition should occur at 3:08pm PST (about 6 minutes from now) and burn for about 1min 11 seconds. Update 3: "second stage restart burn successful. Orbit looks nominal" - @SpaceX Update 4: "Spacecraft separation confirmed! SES-8 is now in its targeted GEO transfer orbit." - @SpaceX
- S_A_P 13y agoSo far a success, congrats SpaceX team!
- skorgu 13y agoAnyone know how long until they attempt the second stage restart?
- cocoflunchy 13y agoApparently it should at about T+30 min (seen on the SpaceX subreddit, so I don't know if it's accurate).
- skorgu 13y agoThanks! Reddit open thread for this launch: http://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/1ryy1n/rspacex_falcon_9_v11_ses8_official_launch/ http://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/1ryy1n/rspacex_falco...
- waterlesscloud 13y ago"At T+27 minutes, 2nd stage engine will reignite for ~1 minute. At T+33 minutes, spacecraft separation"
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- gatehouse 13y agoIgnition is around 42:20 relative to the stream beginning.
- hkbarton 13y agoFlight Update Falcon 9 and SES-8 satellite currently in parking orbit, awaiting second burn. All systems nominal.
- jccooper 13y agoSaw the 1st stage doing some RCS maneuvers right after separation, but they cut the camera away from that shot pretty quick so I couldn't see exactly what. They're not supposed to be trying to "land" this one, but I bet they're getting aero data in support of the F9-R. All in all, looks like a good launch. Can't wait to hear about the second burn, which was last flight's sticking point.
- pvarangot 13y agoHere, look at the left frame at about 3:30. It looks like RCS maneuvers, some guy on reddit claims he saw a relight from his backyard but its not visible in the official video. http://youtu.be/cXEJLhAh-Kg?t=3m15s http://youtu.be/cXEJLhAh-Kg?t=3m15s
- jccooper 13y agoA bit better. Yeah, that stage was working pretty hard on something. Hard to say but it may have been turning around, like the F9R would for its first retro burn. Some extra practice wouldn't hurt.
- TrainedMonkey 13y agoPossibly just insuring it lands in designated area, so it does not land on anything important and they do not have to search for it.
- arrrg 13y agoThey turned it around to see when it falls apart if not re-lit but falling down the right way (engines first).
- latchkey 13y agoJust curious, what is the purpose of the 4 towers around the launchpad?
- pbosko 13y agoLightning rods
- dredmorbius 13y agoTrivia: Apollo 12 was struck by lightning, twice, after leaving the pad. http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/appel/ask-academy/issues/volume2/AA_2-11_SF_history.html http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/appel/ask-academy/issues/vol... This knocked out command module electrical systems, and it took some damned fast thinking from ECOM (electrical and environmental systems) who recalled an earlier incident and gave the instruction "SCE to AUX", resetting electrical systems. Actual launch: http://fixyt.com/watch?v=eWQIryll8y8 http://fixyt.com/watch?v=eWQIryll8y8 Dramatization: http://fixyt.com/watch?v=TMYNy3JsHTE http://fixyt.com/watch?v=TMYNy3JsHTE
- physcab 13y agoI know HN readers have a love affair with SpaceX but my dad's company is launching a rocket on Thurs at Vandenberg and it should be fun to watch: http://www.noozhawk.com/article/atlas_v_set_for_launch_from_vandenberg_thursday_20131202 http://www.noozhawk.com/article/atlas_v_set_for_launch_from_...
- Crito 13y agoThe Atlas V uses the very cool Russian designed RD-180 engine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RD-180 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RD-180 The documentary The Engines That Came in from the Cold is an interesting look at these engines and the NK-33's, and US/Russian collaboration.
- bane 13y agoI'd also like to add that Orbital Sciences is another great space launch company that's often forgotten about. They're HQ is also on "Warp Dr.".
- hughes 13y agoAfter sitting through both launch attempts, I missed this one. Is there any way to view the launch video?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- InclinedPlane 13y agoCheck youtube, there are already several uploads of the video there.
- mdisraeli 13y agoAnyone know the details of the music Spacex used on the feed when not broadcasting?