The webcast has started, and they’re currently go for launch in about half an hour. It will take a while before they know if they’re successful, because they have to do a restart this time — it’s a mission requirement.
[Update a couple minutes later]
This is a little annoying. The webcast stalls every few seconds, and I have to hit pause/play to get it going again.
They must have their camera mounted on something bouncy, too.
They had a hold due to a vale issue, but they’ve restarted the count. T-11.
We won’t have long to wait to see if the restart is successful; the second burn is at t+26:52.
This isn’t just a big day for SpaceX, but for US commercial spaceflight – this is the first commercial sat launch from the US in 4 years. (ULA can’t compete price-wise with Ariane and Proton, but SpaceX can).
T-7. Godspeed.
Third hold and recycle to -13 min. Since the launch window is closing, won’t go today. The webcast says next window is Thursday.
Oh well. Looks like their next attempt will be during Thanksgiving dinner.
Hope this one isn’t a Turkey George!
I wonder if they’ll come up with a way to avoid launching on Thanksgiving, so that everybody can enjoy the day at home?
Why?
I think it should be pretty clear to everyone by now that SpaceX wants a team that cares more about launching than holidays.
I’m actually surprised to hear that there’s people who’ve gone to work at SpaceX who later leave because they didn’t understand this.
well I suspect the Cape personnel in Range Safety and security and weather
and Tracking/telemetry may have something to say about this.
Sure SpaceX may be full of people who will work a holiday, but, this is a commsat
launch not a once in 175 year launch window.
There will be a lot of unhappy cape staff, if they get dragged out on a holiday for this.
I’ve worked missions over Thanksgiving. I can tell you that your FOS. Ask the guys that worked Apollo 8 if they were unhappy about it. Not everyone has a reflex to hate work because it is sometimes inconvenient.
Also KSC security works Thanksgiving regardless of if there is a launch or not.
Personally, I’d rather they launch on Thanksgiving so I can watch it at home with proper beverages at hand. Tonight I had to stay after work to watch, since there was no way I could have gotten home in time if they had launched at 5:37 pm.
It’s not just any holiday, it’s the only holiday devoted to the opening and settling of a new world, taking huge risks and suffering untold hardships to move people into an alien environment, far from anything they’ve ever known, to see if by the grace of God they can survive, put down roots, and lay the foundations for future freedom and prosperity.
I could go into more detail about Thanksgiving dinner, and how for many turkey and ham symbolize the SLS, while for others turkey and ham symbolize the SLS, and how mash potatoes are LOX while brown gravy is LH2 and white gravy is RP-1, while yams are PBAN solids, stuffing is a perchlorate, and cranberry sauce is hypergolic with red wine, but these things have been known since Plymouth rock, though unspoken.
So no, it’s not just any holiday, it’s the human space settlement holiday.
Either you or somebody who knows the SpaceX and/or the Cape personnel needs to e-mail that to them.
OK, I linked that at the NSF.com party thread.
What better way to celebrate it? 🙂
Sounds like another holiday that needs fireworks. I’m for it.
Lame. Better luck next time.
So yeah, basically the same issue as the WDR.
It’s behaving like it’s a totally new pad.
Scrubbed. Some odd venting occurred just after they retracted the strongback and a hold was called.
Next try won’t be until thursday at least.
I noticed better video on the spaceflightnow.com website
I gather that heavy holiday air traffic is what makes Tuesday and Wednesday unusable…and who knows how much current national weather is also affecting that factor.
We have liftoff!