Falcon 9 Launch & Recovery Operations |
Falcon 9 Launch & Recovery Operations |
 Jun 3 2008, 04:20 PM
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#1
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Senior Member  Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590  |
SpaceX just sent a press release with an update on the Falcon 9. They successfully did a 5-engine test. They also mentioned the next Falcon 1 attempt will be late June "or July," presumably meaning "late June or early July," but you never know. :-)
Here's the full text. This isn't on their web page yet, the last I looked: McGregor TX – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) conducted the first five-engine firing of its Falcon 9 medium to heavy lift rocket at its Texas Test Facility outside McGregor on Thursday, May 29. At full power the engines generated almost half a million pounds of force, and consumed 1,750 lbs of fuel and liquid oxygen per second. This five engine test again sets the record as the most powerful test yet on the towering 235-foot tall test stand. The test of the five Merlin 1C engines, arranged in a cross pattern like the Saturn V moon rocket, is the last step before firing the full complement of nine engines, scheduled for this summer. With all engines operating, the Falcon 9 generates over one million pounds of thrust in vacuum - four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft. “This is the first time that we’ve added more than one engine at a time, and all phases of integration and testing went smoothly,” said Tom Mueller, Vice President of Propulsion for SpaceX. “As with previous tests, we saw no unexpected interactions between the engines, and are on schedule for adding four more engines.” The first Falcon 9 will arrive at the SpaceX launch site at Cape Canaveral by the end of 2008. The next flight of SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 1 rocket is scheduled for late June or July of 2008. |
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Mar 10 2010, 10:57 AM
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#91
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
QUOTE (Greg Hullender @ Mar 10 2010, 03:25 AM)  They detected an anomoly Honest question: is anomoly a valid alternative spelling of anomaly? I've seen it spelled that way countless times, yet it doesn't appear to show up in (online) dictionaries. 
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Mar 10 2010, 12:53 PM
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#92
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 Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Don't think so, G. Anomaly is the only correct spelling AFAIK.
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Mar 10 2010, 02:36 PM
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#93
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Recorded video of the event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_0KqS13weI
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Mar 10 2010, 06:06 PM
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#94
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
QUOTE (ugordan @ Mar 10 2010, 02:57 AM) Honest question: is anomoly a valid alternative spelling of anomaly? I've seen it spelled that way countless times, yet it doesn't appear to show up in (online) dictionaries. Just a typo -- mine, not SpaceX's or Spaceflight Now's. Even native speakers sometimes have trouble with the spelling associated with reduced vowels. It varies all over the map from one word to another, even though the sound is just "uh". In this case, though, "anomoly" actually looks wrong to me -- no clue why I typed it. Getting old perhaps. :-) --Greg |
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Mar 10 2010, 08:32 PM
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#95
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Got it, thanks. I thought maybe it's one of those things like sulfur/sulphur, etc.
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Mar 10 2010, 11:51 PM
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#96
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Yes, spelling in English is a constant joy for us all (even native speakers, as Greg stated)...
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Mar 11 2010, 10:40 PM
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#97
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
Those sneaky SpaceX guys! After implying they might take several days before attempting another static firing, they set up to do one today (without telling anyone) but had to call it off because of weather.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/001/status.html Supposedly April 12 is the current planned launch date, but Elon says to think of this as "Beta Testing." Problems are expected to come from various causes, and we shouldn't get worked up over them. He did say they figured out what caused the abort of the last test fire. "The problem was pretty simple: our autostart sequence didn't issue the command to the normally closed ground side isolation valve. We had tested everything on the vehicle side exhaustively in Texas, but didn't have this iso valve on our test stand there. Definitely a lesson learned to make sure that *everything* is the same between test stand and launch pad on the ground side, not just on the vehicle side." They're hoping for better weather Saturday or Sunday for the next test. --Greg |
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Mar 13 2010, 04:32 PM
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#98
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
We should be about one hour from the live fire at 12:30 EST (9:30 PST or 1730Z) and Spaceflight Now has a live video feed going.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/001/status.html Not as exciting as the real thing, but kind of cool anyway. --Greg |
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Mar 13 2010, 05:40 PM
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#99
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Ignition happened on time at 12:30 PM local, waiting for official report on the burn. Looked better than the last time, and longer.
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Mar 13 2010, 10:04 PM
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#100
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1429 Joined: 26-July 08 Member No.: 4270 |
Successful.
QUOTE Today, SpaceX successfully completed a test firing of the inaugural Falcon 9 launch vehicle at Space Launch Complex 40 located at Cape Canaveral. Following a nominal terminal countdown, the launch sequencer commanded ignition of all 9 Merlin first stage engines for a period of 3.5 seconds.
-------------------- -- Hungry4info (Sirius_Alpha)
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Mar 13 2010, 11:43 PM
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#101
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Yesss....
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Mar 14 2010, 12:07 AM
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#102
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 Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
That must have been some sound.
-------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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Mar 14 2010, 10:16 AM
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#103
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
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Mar 14 2010, 08:57 PM
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#104
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 370 Joined: 12-September 05 From: France Member No.: 495 |
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Mar 14 2010, 09:25 PM
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#105
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
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