First Privately Developed Liquid Fuel Rocket to Launch Today

http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=46

by lupin_sansei • 18 years ago

16 15 18 years ago

spacex.com

Web cast here http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php

mkn• 18 years ago

The launch is currently scheduled for 20:00 PDT.

softbuilder3• 18 years ago

The explosion is scheduled for 20:03.

Bets? Any gamblers in the house?

Edit: Ok, let's say T + 3 since they're having trouble getting it up.

softbuilder3• 18 years ago

Damn, I was off by almost a minute.

Eliezer• 18 years ago

Voted up for being right. (However sadly.)

ashleyw• 18 years ago

Sounds fun, some cool facts here: http://www.spacex.com/falcon1.php

It makes me wonder how you deal with something like this. If something like this happened in Russia (or "somewhere"), and somehow the US didn't know about it, they would have jets up in the air and the whole country put on red alert as soon as they find out about a rocket being launched, I expect. Does SpaceX have to send letters out to the major nations of the world, or something? Or have I got all this out of movies and there's no real way to track recently launched missiles?

quickpost3• 18 years ago

There are definitely ways to track recently launched rockets. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-Based_Infrared_System

Prrometheus2• 18 years ago

They aborted the launch. Apparently they are taking a cautious approach to launching rockets, which is good.

quickpost3• 18 years ago

Where did you see that? Source?

Prrometheus2• 18 years ago

They have a live webcast on the front page of the SpaceX website.

gibsonf1• 18 years ago

Look back quickly, as they restarted and have 4 minutes to launch right now. http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php

Update: Rocket has launched :)

Update: Report of an anomaly on the vehicle - screen black

zandorg2• 18 years ago

How depressing. I wait all night (UK time till 5am), watch it climb to 50km, and it goes and blacks out!

I hope this turns out okay.

zandorg2• 18 years ago

I guess the headline's correct. They did 'launch', it just didn't finish doing so!

lupin_sansei• 18 years ago

Oh dear. "the flight of our first stage, with the new Merlin 1C engine that will be used in Falcon 9, was picture perfect. Unfortunately, a problem occurred with stage separation, causing the stages to be held together. This is under investigation and I will send out a note as soon as we understand exactly what happened. "

Video here: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1299

First Privately Developed Liquid Fuel Rocket to Launch Today

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