The Money Shot

We're T-minus 25 minutes. There is no turning back now.

They are refueling both the LOX and the RP1.

During the operation, they unloaded about 15% of the RP1 from the rocket tanks. The reason they did this was because the LOX tanks and the RP1 tanks are adjacent to each other. If the RP1 tank is full, the fuels effect each other's temp. With a temperature differential between the LOX and RP1 of about 400F, that causes the LOX to boil-off much faster.

Since the race was to finish the operation before all the LOX boiled off, this move bought them some time. The LOX burn-off went from 8 gallons per minute to 4 gallons per minute. The delay took three hours in all. That's 750 gallons saved.

I told you they were smart.

T-minus 20 minutes.

Digg It!