Orion flight test rescheduled for tomorrow

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#.VIAwicl5V8F

by tempestn • 12 years ago

169 71 12 years ago

tempestn2• 12 years ago

The coverage is switching between live launch coverage and other NASA stuff right now. Launch window opens at 7:05am EST.

bjz_• 12 years ago

Some bright soul seems to have sailed their boat into the launch area - looks like it is going to be delayed :(

vital101• 12 years ago

NasaTV looks like its struggling with load. Use http://www.livestream.com/spaceflightnow for a better stream.

trothamel• 12 years ago

http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv also seems to be working reasonably well.

Untit1ed5• 12 years ago

It boggles my mind that a 12 year old playing DOTA can reliably stream to an audience but NASA can't figure it out.

EDIT: Seems they've swapped their stream for the ustream one, guess they can.

jbjorge• 12 years ago

The number of viewers might be a bit different.

CHY872• 12 years ago

Does it though? Does it really?

chinpokomon2• 12 years ago

What boggles my mind is that NASA TV is blocking the ability to stream to a Chromecast device. I can't fathom what they think they are protecting. I first noticed the problem when I wanted to watch the Rosetta landing and blew it off as an odd technical problem with my Chromecast that I needed to fix. Trying it again this morning, I realized that this must be something NASA TV is actively blocking. I've never seen this specific behavior on any other site.

mhandley• 12 years ago

There's also a BBC feed: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30327137

donpdonp• 12 years ago

Also remember what we might be taking for granted with this stream - THAT WE HAVE A LIVESTREAM.

Its not secret. Its not hidden. Its not classified. Its in the open. Ever seen our astronauts launch in a Soyuz from the Russian launch facility? No, because they don't stream it! Its certainly technically possible, its most likely administratively denied.

Being open requires more than a livestream. For instance I doubt the accelerometer data from the Orion itself is available, but its something. Fund public science. Make results public.

walls• 12 years ago

The Soyuz launch around two weeks ago was streamed. Granted, the footage was more or less constrained to the cockpit, but it was streamed.

quarterto2• 12 years ago

Currently the launch is on hold for a couple of reasons:

1. There is (was?) a boat in the exclusion zone

2. The second stage propellant needs more conditioning

The hold was going to end in 2 minutes, they're going to cycle the clock to at least T-9mins when they've decided exactly when T0 is.

EDIT: as of 12:07 GMT we're at T-10mins.

robodale• 12 years ago

I thought they were saying "bolt" instead of boat. I was confused as to why they aborted early on because of a bolt in the exclusion zone.

kirk21• 12 years ago

I don't get why they don't launch if there is a boat. If there is someone with a death wish, that is his problem. Second time in a few months they have to scrub for a boat. Idiots should pay a lot of money.

drinchev3• 12 years ago

New T-zero time 7:17 EST

UPDATE ( 7:14 ) - Ground wind violation, Launch delayed.

UPDATE ( 7:46 ) - New T-ZERO time 7:55

UPDATE ( 7:53 ) - Launch on hold. Another wind violation.

UPDATE ( 8:15 ) - New T-ZERO time 8:26

UPDATE ( 8:23 ) - Launch on hold again.

UPDATE ( 8:28 ) - Left and center booster anomalies ( Valves sensors, showing not closed ). Quote from official NASA blog : "A fill and drain valve on the rocket did not function correctly. Standing by as rocket and spacecraft are safed."

iancarroll• 12 years ago

They just said they're going to test the valves five times and give a recommendation to start the count or not.

joezydeco2• 12 years ago

Now 14:44Z (9:44 EST).

Sounds like they're disabling a bunch of automated safeguards (like the wind speed monitoring) to get this thing up.

joezydeco2• 12 years ago

And it's scrubbed. Back to work, everyone!

drinchev3• 12 years ago

UPDATE ( 9:30 ) - There is a new T-ZERO 9:44

film42• 12 years ago

UDATE: 24-hr re-cycle.

drinchev3• 12 years ago

Google Earth link of launch site

https://www.google.de/maps/place/Cape+Canaveral+Air+Force+St...

antr• 12 years ago

Launch update: it's 12.45pm GMT. Time to launch in 10 min, 7.55am EST.

Update 2: at 7.53am EST, a new launch time being established due to wind anomalies.

EvaK_de4• 12 years ago

New launch time: 08:26

EvaK_de4• 12 years ago

Everything is GO right now... Winds, too, finally.

EvaK_de4• 12 years ago

...and aborted. :(

washedup• 12 years ago

Just on hold.

EvaK_de4• 12 years ago

Anybody understood why the countdown was aborted with only 3 minutes left?

quarterto2• 12 years ago

Wind. Again.

Untit1ed5• 12 years ago

It'd be really great if NASA found some particularly charismatic engineer to act as a colour commentator and talk about the technology at play. The silence while we wait for a new launch time is peaceful but a bit dull...

fnordfnordfnord• 12 years ago

I'd nominate this guy. (Saturn V launch high speed video with commentary) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKtVpvzUF1Y

spiritplumber• 12 years ago

They could have Scott Manley do that. He does a great job with KSP, he'd do even better with real life stuff, I think. He knows what he's talking about, doesn't sutter or go "umm", and he sounds pretty hot.

tomswartz07• 12 years ago

"Hullo Its Scott Manley here!"

Lambdanaut• 12 years ago

Seconded. I learned just about all I know about KSP from that guy.

He'd make an excellent NASA caster.

Untit1ed5• 12 years ago

Haha, seems appropriate given that the rocket in question looks exactly like the first thing everyone builds in KSP once they get the radial separators.

gizmo686• 12 years ago

Scott Manley on Orion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd83B85CUI8&list=UUxzC4EngIs...

jbrooksuk• 12 years ago

I've never watched/listened to a live launch before. I'm finding it really interesting, terms like "race position", the alarm going off and the list of checks etc.

I'm really excited for this! Let's hope the wind dies down.

welshguy• 12 years ago

Engine bearing temperature trending the wrong way.

anurags• 12 years ago

You can also follow the NASA Twitter Feed: https://twitter.com/NASA

privong• 12 years ago

Awesome – the announcer just noted that there's a UAV which will be used to capture the final descent splashdown of the Orion capsule. That should make for interesting video. The UAV—Ikhana—looks to be a modified Predator:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/aircraft/Ikhana/index....

mikeyouse2• 12 years ago

That's amazing. SpaceX should get one of those too, I understand the restriction for manned flights when rockets or capsules are coming back down, but it was sure frustrating to miss the water 'landing' of that last Falcon-9 due to the chase plane staying so far from the scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIlu7szab5I

corford2• 12 years ago

New T-ZERO just set at 14:44 UTC (and that's the last possible attempt for today)

corford2• 12 years ago

And... bummer they've just scrubbed the launch for today :(

debacle2• 12 years ago

I haven't really been following this - was this a previously announced and planned launch, before the news about Mars yesterday?

smackfu3• 12 years ago

Yes, it's been planned for a couple of years.

debacle2• 12 years ago

Thanks. To the outside observer it seemed like the two were connected.

randallsquared• 12 years ago

Scrub for today; trying again in 24h.

parksy• 12 years ago

Fair enough, with the hardware cost, would be a mistake to launch without all systems in check.

DigitalJack• 12 years ago

True, but if they spent less time going from ready states to standby states and back again (aka recycling the clock) i bet they could have launched.

SliderUp• 12 years ago

Poop. Scrubbed for today.

noisy_boy• 12 years ago

I've always wanted to know about the steady emission of what looks like steam/smoke(?) from the upper body (not nozzle) of the rockets in the pre-launch stage. Anybody knows more about that?

CapitalistCartr• 12 years ago

That's liquid oxygen or liquid hydrogen cooking off.

lfuller• 12 years ago

It's liquid oxygen venting.

Oxygen can be kept in a liquid state by either keeping the temperature extremely low or keeping it under high pressure. Since reinforcing the tanks to handle incredibly high pressures would require too much weight, the tanks are instead constantly being topped up with cryogenic fuel until the moment of launch.

As for the venting: the fuel starts heating up and evaporating as soon as it's pumped into the tanks causing the pressure within the tanks to rise. Since the tanks aren't rated for high pressure, they have to vent the excess oxygen to keep within safety margins.

cowardlydragon• 12 years ago

... This is just the crew module?

... propulsion is the interesting part of interplanetary travel. What is the propulsion tech for this?

JonathonW• 12 years ago

This test flight is launching on a Delta IV Heavy, which is a pretty well proven launch system (first time NASA's used it, though, AFAIK).

Ultimately, Orion's supposed to be launched on NASA's new Space Launch System [1], but it's not ready yet. I believe the first scheduled test flight for Orion and SLS together is supposed to be sometime in 2017.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System

ChikkaChiChi• 12 years ago

NASA just showed the world that listening to data and showing restraint is far more important than grabbing a good headline. Kudos to them for doing the right thing.

natch• 12 years ago

I opened this up this morning to show my daughter at breakfast, thinking, hey, getting kids interested in this stuff is good.

Dead silence. Nothing. Not a word of commentary. To a kid, that conveys boring. I could hear some white noise and after a while some faint public address system speech way off in the background. So disappointing.

NASA, do you still have an educational component to your mission? It would be really great if these big launches were explained a bit on the live video feed. If there's nothing going on to explain, there should be a ton of material waiting from NASA history to fill the air time.

tempestn2• 12 years ago

At least in the hours up to the launch, it was actually really good. There was a ton of content describing the intended launch, its goals, requirements, planning that went into it, etc. There was also a segment with Elmo (from Sesame Street) talking with an astronaut and an engineer (iirc) that I saw, and apparently another similar special "guest". They probably just didn't have as much planned for the period after the launch was aborted.

Orion flight test rescheduled for tomorrow

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