SpaceX launch

[IO390]

I must get into the habit of posting these with more notice...

SpaceX on Livestream.

9 mins to go currently, then it will be attempting to land 9 mins after launch.

[RickieSalad]

They just scrubbed for weather. 

[Smokey]

well that explains why the livestream window still says "Please wait for the broadcast to begin".

[PA0PBZ]

They just scrubbed for weather. 

That's good, because I totally forgot to watch 

[ataradov]

They just scrubbed for weather. 

To be fair, the weather turned real bad by the time of planned launch. It was quite fine at the time they've stopped the countdown. The weather can change drastically in 3 minutes.

[mrflibble]

That's good, because I totally forgot to watch 

Planned for today 21:10 your local time.

[PA0PBZ]

That's good, because I totally forgot to watch 

Planned for today 21:10 your local time.

22:10?

[mrflibble]

Planned for today 21:10 your local time.

22:10?

Uhm, yeah, 22:10. Just checking to see if you were paying attention of course.

*cough*

[ajb]

Launch went off without a hitch, no word on the booster landing attempt yet.  Disappointing that they didn't stream from the landing platform. 

[PA0PBZ]

Elon Musk ?@elonmusk  · 12m12 minutes ago 
Ascent successful. Dragon enroute to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival.

[ataradov]

Let's wait for the video of "hard" landing.

[ajb]

Elon Musk ?@elonmusk  · 12m12 minutes ago 
Ascent successful. Dragon enroute to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival.

Given some of his previous tweets, that could mean anything from 'bent a landing leg' to 'sunk the landing ship'. . .

That said,

Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing

[ataradov]

They need some sort of a catcher. Otherwise it will tip over all the time. It is like balancing a pen on the tip of a finger.

[ataradov]

Also, I wonder how hard it is to steer the platform itself? They are probably doing something to keep it stable already.

[HP-ILnerd]

Video of the landing:  https://vine.co/v/euEpIVegiIx

Elon says on Twitter:  "Looks like the issue was stiction in the biprop throttle valve, resulting in control system phase lag. Should be easy to fix."

They need some sort of a catcher. Otherwise it will tip over all the time. It is like balancing a pen on the tip of a finger.

It's landing legs are plenty good to hold it vertical as long as it lands straight.  Same as the Grasshopper test vehicle.

[ataradov]

I really appreciate how open they are with information like this. Not that "we'll investigate and give a full report in 6 months" BS.

[rs20]

Gah, why is that video cut off just at the point of touchdown? Seems to be contrary to the earlier claim that they are super-open. But hopefully a better video will be released soon.

[ataradov]

6 second vine limit? I'm pretty sure they will release a full video later. For you it is fun to watch, they've just launched a rocket, they have things to do

[ataradov]

And here is a full video

[pickle9000]

And here is a full video

Thanks, that looks so neat coming in, sad ending.

[HP-ILnerd]

Wow, they are so close to landing this thing!

I would not be inclined to argue against Elon's assessment about stiction in the valve controls.  The reactions do look laggy.
If that's the case, and it's easy to fix as he says, they may well get it down next time.

Interesting how the landing gear goes from partially deployed to fully down so late in the sequence.

Fun to see that RCS thruster struggling to keep it vertical right at the end!

Considering how back in the 80's NASA did their flat-level best to make space travel seem like "business as usual" i.e, boring, it's nice
to see it becoming exciting again.

Perhaps really slick marketing too.  By being so transparent, we can emotionally share in the setbacks, and thus emotionally share in the victories.

[pickle9000]

It's just a cool thing

[CatalinaWOW]

I really appreciate how open they are with information like this. Not that "we'll investigate and give a full report in 6 months" BS.

While I like open-ness too, at this point they are guessing.  Might be a really good guess, but a guess none the less.  Would hate to see some valve company go down the tubes and then find next month that after more looking at the data the problem was really ...   Much of the country is conditioned to surety in these answers, particularly the finance business, range safety officers, etc.  It may take several iterations through Space-X's approach before the rest of the world can respond appropriately.

I have been through a lot of flight failure investigations.  While the first guess based on telemetry is often right, in my experience it would barely get a gentleman's C in university.  Even when it is generally right, it often is not the whole story.

[ataradov]

My comment was more about visual aspect of it. I really don't care about types of valves they have used, since I don't have enough information about the design of the rocket and how valve malfunction might affect it. I'm pretty sure majority of people will be in the same position. Plus so far their attitude was "oops, our fault, will fix in the next design"  rather than "company <X> that made the valve is to blame here".

I'm sure they will have much thorough internal investigation, but there is really no point to make that public, even if you have absolutely noting to hide. That information will simply be useless to majority of people.

[ajb]

Plus so far their attitude was "oops, our fault, will fix in the next design"  rather than "company <X> that made the valve is to blame here".

More than likely, they made the valve themselves anyway. . .

Significantly, the Merlin engines—like roughly 80 percent of the components for Falcon and Dragon, including even the flight computers—are made in-house. That’s something SpaceX didn’t originally set out to do, but was driven to by suppliers’ high prices. Mueller recalls asking a vendor for an estimate on a particular engine valve. “They came back [requesting] like a year and a half in development and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just way out of whack. And we’re like, ‘No, we need it by this summer, for much, much less money.’ They go, ‘Good luck with that,’ and kind of smirked and left.” Mueller’s people made the valve themselves, and by summer they had qualified it for use with cryogenic propellants.

“That vendor, they iced us for a couple of months,” Mueller says, “and then they called us back: ‘Hey, we’re willing to do that valve. You guys want to talk about it?’ And we’re like, ‘No, we’re done.’ He goes, ‘What do you mean you’re done?’ ‘We qualified it. We’re done.’ And there was just silence at the end of the line. They were in shock.” That scenario has been repeated to the point where, Mueller says, “we passionately avoid space vendors.”

http://www.airspacemag.com/space/is-spacex-changing-the-rocket-equation-132285884/?all