Falcon 9 GEO Transfer Mission [video] | Hacker News Reader

Falcon 9 GEO Transfer Mission [video]

spacex.com

115 pointsandymoe54 comments

I'm pretty sure I just heard someone in the background saying over the radio, "What you talkin' 'bout, Willis? We going up top. Totally different". Not what I remember hearing as a kid during NASA launches :)

Thanks for this. I heard it too, but thought for sure that I had imagined it.

The beauty of not being a NASA launch ;)

Second language speaker here, what does this sentence mean?

It is a humorous reference to an American sitcom from the 80's called 'Different Strokes'. A lighthearted way of expressing disagreement.

[edit: While I'm at it: the main character 'Arnold' would express disagreement with his brother 'Willis' by saying "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?" something like once per episode. This was a running joke for the sitcom.]

Aborted again due to a flight computer bringup issue (again); looks like they might not meet their window tonight :(

EDIT: I think the most precise real cause heard was "abnormal data," actually. My bad and thanks to "kindredlight."

argh, so nerve-wracking

When can we confirm that they missed their window?

(Edit: new window is Thanksgiving day, one minute later than today. Might have to stream this one to the Apple TV for the whole family…)

They just did on the livestream.

Just confirmed. It'll launch on Thursday instead.

It's been called off. Next launch window in three days, one minute later than today's window.

Entertainment during Thanksgiving dinner. :-)

Just confirmed on webcast but even before the launch window only extended to 6:43 EST, not enough time to reset the countdown.

The "confirm flight computer is not in start-up" call is part of the vehicle safing process after an abort or hold is called. It is heard immediately after any hold or abort during the terminal count. This does not indicate the cause of the abort.

True... thank you for the correction. I think the most precise real cause indicated was "abnormal data from stage 1" which doesn't mean much.

Elon Musk just clarified what happened: "Saw pressure fluctuations on Falcon boost stage liquid oxygen tank. Want to be super careful, so pushing launch to Thurs."

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/405134552458620928

I was watching the stream. Immediately prior to the final hold (more accurately "Hold! Hold, Hold, Hold!") there was a clearly abnormal burst of fuel vented from the midpoint of the vehicle, in two or three bursts. Happened several seconds after they pulled back the support structure. My eyes widened at that point. "Is this normal?!" I thought, and was glad to hear the hold command!

I played a few games of Kerbal Space program recently, so I can understand what's happening a little better now.

I'd love to have a place somewhere where I can "watch" launches in a way similar to KSP's map view. You would be able to see the rocket, including it's essential info (altitude, speed, the ball thing) and also be able to see the manoeuvres they do.

Man, I hope SpaceX has far more success with their launches than I do in KSP, otherwise Orlando is going to have quite a fireworks show.

I'd settle for just seeing things like their delta-V maps. It's one thing for me to make my own for KSP missions, it's another to see one for a real world situation.

While I'm a mere Kerbalnaut myself, here is some napkin math that almost checks out. For a GTO payload, the Falcon 9 http://www.spaceflight101.com/falcon-9-v11.html has:

  S1 Mass full: 490,300kg (that's both stages, fuel in both, plus the fairing and payload)
  S1 Mass empty: 100,300kg (S1 mass minus stage one fuel)
  S1 ISP: 282s (sea level) to 311s (vacuum)

  S2 Mass full: 82,300kg (second stage, fuel, fairing and payload)
  S2 Mass empty: 11,500kg (S2 mass minus stage two fuel)
  S2 ISP: 340s (unspecified)

According to this delta-v calculator http://www.strout.net/info/science/delta-v/, that would give delta-v values of:

  S1 delta-v: 4388m/s to 4840m/s
  S2 delta-v: 6562m/s

  Total delta-v: 10.8km/s to 11.3km/s

For GTO, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta-v gives a delta-v value of 11.8km/s to 12.5km/s, so these numbers fall just under the low end of that range. However, maybe the highly elliptical orbit that this launch is aiming for is slightly more efficient than whatever orbit is assumed for that chart on Wikipedia.

I agree. NASA's MAVEN launch last week had a fantastic live stream that included commentary plus telemetry data, it was space nerd heaven.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/40966344

I couldn't find a better video, that one cuts off 6 minutes into the launch, before they get to the good part where the telemetry shows orbital information. The stream went on for at least 45 more minutes, I grabbed a screenshot 51 minutes into the launch:

http://imgur.com/LUD6XUk

The amount of learning one can do on KSP alone shouldn't be underestimated.

You know you're onto something when you start doing Delta-V calculations while designing your rocket and talking about bi-elliptic transfers and aerobraking on the forums.

It is not enough to become a rocket scientist, but it is enough to understand the basics.

And, as per another comment, you can even begin to understand some of the telemetry data, even if in an intuitive sense.

In orbit 1/4 the distance to the moon? Wow! I didn't realize we put satellites into orbit at that height.

We put lots of them up there! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit

Geosynchronous is nowhere near 1/4 distance to the moon. This sat is temporarily going to a highly eccentric transfer orbit on its way to GEO.

Yep. Keyword is "transfer" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_transfer_orbit

Looks like a bi-elliptic transfer to me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-elliptic_transfer

You're right of course, although I would argue that the difference between 1/11 the distance to the moon (geostationary orbit) and 1/4 the distance to the moon are not off by an order of magnitude, compared to LEO or other lower orbits.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/404067161175379968

We don't, at least not usually. The mission design is for the satellite to go up to 80,000 km where it will do an orbital plane change then settle back down into a geostationary orbit. It actually uses less energy to do it that way than to just do an apogee raise up to GEO then a plane change.

Countdown aborted at T-6:11. Looks like they still have some issues to resolve.

I think I heard them mention a computer that hadn't come up properly. Still, they have a reputation for fixing things quickly.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching their first mission where their programmers made changes while the craft was sitting outside of the ISS because the position markers weren't being spotted as they expected. They do have an amazing ability to change on the fly, not what you expect from a space program except in SciFi

Just reset to 13 minutes.

Now they're trying again! T minus 13 minutes! So cool!

OMG so so so cool

Held, reset to T-13m. They have an hour+ long launch window so they have a good chance of lauching today.

Edit: clock is counting down again, launch estimated to be 3:30pm PST.

66 minute launch window through 6:43PM ET. T-13 cycle must start no later than 6:30PM ET.

It looks like the countdown overlay is polling every 1 second but is off from the backing timer - some displayed "seconds" last more than a second while the next lasts much less.

http://www.waitingforfriday.com/index.php/Vetinari's_Clock

Aborted for today. Next launch window in.... 3 days it sounded like?

Well, I know what I'll be doing right before Thanksgiving dinner :)

Why is the countdown stuck at T-00:13:00? Shouldn't it be counting down?

Edit: Nvm, saw the overlay saying they're on a hold.

There's a valve on the first stage that they're concerned about (looking at a "signature" problem, whatever that means). They think they can resolve their concerns and still make the launch window (which is a little over an hour long).

Clock is running again now. Delay of roughly 20 mins to 22:55 UTC launch.

Edit: so they counted down to T-6min then stopped and reset again to T-13mins due to a first stage internal power problem. They're waiting on trajectory coordination before trying a third time today.

Edit 2: and they've aborted again at T-3:40 due to what looks like a LOX problem. That'll be it for today; the launch window has elapsed.

For info, even in a completely "nominal" launch there are holds. This is particularly true when you have a tight launch window. The idea is to build some slack into the countdown to allow for the possibility if correcting any unforeseen problems. This is possible because at certain points in the countdown you can safely wait for fairly long durations. So the countdown is started early with respect to its launch window, and if any minor problems crop up they can be corrected during the planned pauses without slipping the launch time, and hence missing the launch window.

They will try again on Thanksgiving (Thursday) at 22:48 UTC.

Here comes their favorite word..."nominal"... :)

I hate that this requires flash. Anyone who can continue updating for us that can't watch, that'd be great. Thanks :)

Here's the direct streams:

http://livestream-f.akamaihd.net/142499_129958_13c898be_1_20...

Or lower quality: http://livestream-f.akamaihd.net/142499_129958_13c898be_1_55... http://livestream-f.akamaihd.net/142499_129958_13c898be_1_15...

There's a live update thread on reddit. http://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/1rfc17/rspacex_falco...

thanks to the both of you :)

Even with Flash it's not the greatest video streamer. On Firefox on Linux it kept freezing every 5 or 6 seconds.

Flash or h.264, apparently, the video works fine on an iPad.

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