Falcon 9 at Cape Canaveral

[Andy44]

Great. Last thing I saw on the news at work was that it was "aborted". I drive home, and here I missed the whole thing.

 

[communist]

when i saw that launch i screamed "the is with you"
awesome launch

 

[AirSimming]

I was a bit scared because it looked so slow after liftoff.

Indeed. It was heartbeat increasing. But I was more nervous during the Ares 1X launch to be honest. After the rocket had pitched to the side, which was the first shock, the roll looked like the vehicle was going to be out of control.

Anyway, SpaceX is doing very well. The launch was picture-perfect. If they now manage to fly Dragon into LEO and bring it back, and do that manned later on, it might even become my favourite manned system. Small, cheap and it looks nice from the design.

By the way: any addon underway? :lol:

 

[RisingFury]

Woohoo!!!

 

[Sky Captain]

:woohoo::hotcool::jj::hail: Successful launch!!! Unfortunately I was away from internet and couldn't see it live. But anyway amazing launch, ascent, staging and orbital insertion.

Congratulations SpaceX!!!

:hail:

 

[SiberianTiger]

So here it goes:

i = 34.50°
Hp = 237.4 km
Ha = 275.1 km
P = 89.47 min

Many congratulations to SpaceX! This may become the beginning of the new era of spaceflight.

Missed the launch: I held no hope of success. Now I'm proven wrong.

 

[Kyle]

Anyone know when the next one's suppose to go? Congrats this is amazing!

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

From Spaceflight Now:

It's official. SpaceX founder Elon Musk says the Falcon 9 rocket achieved a nearly perfect orbit during today's dramatic blastoff.

GPS telemetry showed the rocket's second stage and dummy Dragon capsule hit "essentially a bullseye," according to Musk.

The apogee, or high point, was about 1 percent higher than planned and the perigee, or low point, was 0.2 percent off the target. The second stage shutdown was nominal, Musk told Spaceflight Now.

The Falcon 9 was shooting for a circular orbit 250 kilometers, or 155 miles, high and an inclination of 34.5 degrees.

:woohoo: :speakcool: :thumbup:


BBC News: "SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket enjoys successful maiden flight".

Launch photos from Spaceflight Now.

Statement from Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Ranking Member Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).

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Anyone know when the next one's suppose to go?

Sometime in the first quarter of 2011, I think.

 

[GregBurch]

Stopped by for old time's sake on this important day ... and to collect on some "I told you so"-s ... Just kidding.

Was that an awesome launch, or what?!?!?!?!!!!

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Some launch photos from the KSC MOCOP Twitter account.

Hi-res version.

Hi-res version not available.

Hi-res version.

Hi-res version.

 

[Loru]

Good job.

 

[Star Voyager]

Here's some more photos:

http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/001/launch/

Didn't see the launch, but saw the abort. It's a shame, I notified all my friends back home to hear an explosion. Now I have to call and say sorry for the disappointment. Well, good luck on SpaceX's part anyhow !

 

[bwog]

I MISSED IT???? I've been wanting to see it for the last 3 months :thumbsdown:

 

[Andy44]

Stopped by for old time's sake on this important day ... and to collect on some "I told you so"-s ... Just kidding.

Was that an awesome launch, or what?!?!?!?!!!!

Missing you around here, Greg! Board's not the same without you. Good to see you're still vertical and breathing and all that.

---------- Post added at 06:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:32 PM ----------

BTW:

The first stage of the Falcon 9 apparently broke apart as it fell back to Earth after separation. The Freedom Star recovery ship has located debris in the water offshore.
Musk says this wasn't a primary objective of today's launch, but SpaceX hopes to recover and re-use the Falcon 9 first stage in future flights.

 

[AirSimming]

And here is a better video:

 

[Ark]

Unbelievable, a near-perfect launch on the first try!

 

[Linguofreak]

Stopped by for old time's sake on this important day ... and to collect on some "I told you so"-s ... Just kidding.

Was that an awesome launch, or what?!?!?!?!!!!

Greg! Good to see you! How's it going?

 

[mbartley]

Maybe a bit off topic, but now that the falcon 9 (and later the dragon capsule) is starting its era (or how you say that ), is there someone who's going to update the falcon 9 and dragon add-ons?

I think the Falcon 9 in this addon: [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3318"]Space-X launchers and Dragon v0,58[/ame] at least, flies a lot differently that the real thing did. From today's launch video, it climbed straight up for a long time before pitching over into a gravity turn. Very much like a Falcon 1. (in both reality and in the add-on)

When I fly the add-on though, I find the first stage accelerates very quickly and I have to start pitch over almost immediately or else end up with too much vertical speed and not enough downrange speed.

Also, flying it as best I can (manually for 1st stage, LaunchMFD for 2nd stage), the Falcon 9 add-on's payload to low orbit seems about the same as SpaceX says it should be, but payload to GTO or beyond is almost nothing. That doesn't seem right.

Some time ago, I looked at the numbers defined in the Multistage .ini file, and as I recall it seems to approximately match the known data (on SpaceX's web page) for Falcon 9. So I don't know what's up.

 

[silent_protagonist]

Did it seem to anyone else like the rocket slewed to the right in the first second or so after lift-off? In the replay it looks like it gets awefully close to touching the strong back before it finally gains more vertical speed.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Did it seem to anyone else like the rocket slewed to the right in the first second or so after lift-off? In the replay it looks like it gets awefully close to touching the strong back before it finally gains more vertical speed.

I thought the same thing. And (it might have been my video buffering or something) did the rocket leave the pad before the clock read "0"? I've not had a chance to see any more video yet...

edit--
Just watched it again, I thought I was concentrating so hard I sent myself into a time warp, but no... It looks as if the clamps released at T-2 and the rocket started it's "roll program".

Either way, intentional or not, it worked... Now I'll start waiting for Flight Two!