23 thoughts on “The Next SpaceX Launch”

  1. One issue I have with the SpaceX launch-cast waiting video is that it shows you moving through a star field, like the usual graphic on Star Trek, but they never seem to pass by anything particularly interesting. Darn it, why don’t their graphics people add an occasional nebula or tight binary star system? Also, most of the stars are way too large. They probably wouldn’t look that big that frequently even if you were zooming through a globular cluster.

    Whew. The live coverage finally started…

  2. I hit your site at just the right time–I clicked the livestream link, and it was about T-40 seconds.

  5. Well, they didn’t have an unscheduled hold or a glitch on that one. Smooth.

    However, I’ll point out that they could greatly reduce their oxygen venting by launching from somewhere in the Midwest or Northeast, or pretty much anywhere that isn’t Hawthorne or Cape Canaveral.

    *Goes to find a weather map with temperatures shown in degrees Kelvin.*

  6. If we’re critiquing the video, I’d like the ‘live action’ shot in the left 3/4 of the screen, and a rolling selection of -all- (at least, more of) the other screens on the right.

    That is: there’s the nose-down cam, there’s the second-stage-engine cam, there’s the IR version (?) of the second stage engine cam, there’s no “where are we on the launch profile?” shot at all.

    Once more beyond LEO, proving someone silly. Again.

  7. So far so smooth, now in a parking orbit until the 2nd stage relights.

    These are almost starting to get boring they’re going so smooth, which is great because it means they can spend more time on the risky stuff. With the next launch they might put landing legs on the first stage and attempt a RTLS.

    This is now the 3rd launch of the F9 v1.1, the 3rd launch of the fundamentally reusable first stage, which is pretty remarkable in itself. It also puts the Falcon 9 in the running for EELV launches in the future which is obviously a huge potential revenue stream. There are at least 8 planned EELV launches in 2014 alone, which gives an idea of the amount of business they could shift to SpaceX.

  9. You think EADS is happy today? A lot of old dogs might be shakin like they are shifting razor blades.

    2. A lot of people are smiling from this launch, especially at SpaceX. ISRO is still smiling from their recent successful launch of the GSLV, especially since they’re still moderately competitive with the Falcon 9. Every other commercial launch operator should be having trouble sleeping pretty much for the foreseeable future. When they are writing the history books they’ll have to look back at when the old launch companies were made obsolete, I think they’ll be spending a lot of time looking at 2014. Here’s the fundamental problem for anyone who isn’t SpaceX: they’re not only ahead, they’re advancing very quickly, even if you try to catch up you’ll just fall behind slower but you’ll still fall behind.

  12. I watched it at work, then had to stay late to finish up the work I didn’t get done while watching it.

    Another beautiful launch, and I’m glad it went off on schedule this time. There is something about SpaceX launches. I just don’t get the same butterflies and goosebumps when watching other launch vehicles.

  15. Good job.
    Just curious – how do the current major launching companies do so many launches per year (am I right that they do well more than a dozen?) Everyone is amazed that the launch pad for SpaceX was re-used so quickly. Does SpaceX have enough launch pads (and personnel to get their flights ready in parallel) to complete its full manifest this year? Do these other companies have a jillion launch pads.

    Was it considered odd that SpaceX never bothered to post the second second-stage firing and separation of the satellite? I was following it, and eventually the news just filtered through, something like “well, they’re all going home so I guess it was okay”. Are they so busy flying their birds that they don’t really have anyone who pays attention to this stuff?

    1. From what I’ve seen, SpaceX only has one pad (SLC-40) at the Cape right now and another at Vandenberg, CA. I don’t know how much (if any) refurbishment they have to do following a launch. Unlike some other companies, SpaceX rarely leaves their rockets on the pad for an extended time. They rolled out the rocket used in yesterday’s launch the night before and launched it less than 24 hours later. They do all of their preparation work inside a building with the rocket lying horizontally (the way the Russians have done it all along). They then roll out the rocket, erect it, make all of the necessary connections and begin the countdown.

      I don’t know how many rockets they can have inside the building at any one time but it’s likely more than one. As the launches increase, you can expect the ground crews to become more efficient with experience. They may also streamline the process by eventually eliminating the prelaunch static fire test once they gain enough confidence in their systems. As the number of launches increases, they’ll likely have to add more employees to avoid burning people out which can lead to mistakes. SpaceX didn’t get to where they are by being stupid. There’s also the amount of work and facilities they need to process the rocket payloads. I don’t know what the limits are on that.

      As for the second stage burn not being televised, it’s likely that it wasn’t in range of a ground station or at least one capable of relaying video. They could’ve hired bandwidth on a TDRS but that may cost more than it’s worth.

      1. Thanks for the info on the launch pads. I wonder how scalable “number of employees” is, that is, how easy is it to bring in new people and train them to handle a launch, once you’ve gotten good at it.

        As for the second question, that’s no what I meant. I knew that they wouldn’t be televising the second burn. But they were supposed to let people know that it was successful, and they didn’t.
        http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/008/status.html
        is where I was following. Note the confusion starting at 2218 GMT.

        1. OK, I misunderstood your second question. You aren’t the only one to notice that. Even this Aviation Week article mentions the confusion:

          SpaceX launched its second commercial communications satellite — Thaicom 6 — with an upgraded Falcon 9 on Jan. 6. But the company fell silent immediately after the Orbital Sciences Corp. spacecraft was to have deployed, raising the possibility that the new rocket’s troublesome upper stage failed to perform as advertised.

          The company later reported in a brief Twitter message that the spacecraft had deployed into its target orbit. Reporters at Cape Canaveral said SpaceX representatives left the press site about 10 min. after the scheduled spacecraft deployment without revealing the status of the mission.

          Maybe they were in a hurry to get to the post-launch party. Odds are SpaceX will do a better job next time. They want to build confidence in their system and this kind of confusion doesn’t help in that regard.

  16. Anyone find that the real time webcast would freeze after about 10 seconds, and stay frozen for some time?

    1. I opened up two windows to watch the launch. One window was set to SpaceFlightNow (SFN) and the other was SpaceX’s own web feed. The SpaceX window ran several seconds sooner than SFN’s feed and seemed to have fewer dropouts. It might’ve been due to heavy user loading at SFN or perhaps some network problem between their server and SpaceX’s.

      I echo Al’s suggestions for making the video better. I’d love to see multiple displays including trajectory data. However, SpaceX doesn’t have to do this at all so I’m grateful for whatever I can get.

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