It made it. It's in space. The final frontier!!!
Mofo, that is awesome beyond words.
Will update when I know more.
Here's a sweeeeet photo from the rocket as it left the atmosphere.
Nothing much more to say...
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Hooollllyyyyy Shhiiiiiittttt!!!!
Main Pressure Chamber Abort
Pressure for the Main Chamber was 0.2% under the abort limit.
Missed by a hair...
Attempt will continue after analysis.
Monday, March 19, 2007
T-Minus 8min
Auto-sequence has begun and the strongback has been lowered.
All systems still go.
Falcon 1 on Omelek
For those that don't have access to the webcam, here's a live photo from 1 minute ago.
t-minus 20minT-Zero at 4:45pm
As many of you probably know, the launch is in progress as we speak. I've been (painfully) in a car while this has been happening.
The status is that t-zero was moved from 4pm to 4:45pm to examine a data connectivity error between El Segundo (SpaceX head office), and Kwaj.
20 minutes to Ground Zero.
For the live webcam, go to:
http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php
Kimbal
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Static Fire Successful
In preparation for launch of the DemoFlight 2, the team on Kwaj performed a static fire test yesterday. A static fire is when the rocket is fully loaded with fuel, and taken all the way through countdown and then held down as the engines are fired.
The reason for the static fire is to go through the countdown and check all systems. The static fire was successful and proceeded without any aborts. (aborts would be a computer alert to abort the launch based on any small system failure)
Initial review is very positive, almost to the point of a perfect countdown. There was an alert on the GPS system, but it is a back-up system designed to help with accuracy of the rocket's position in space, but not flight-critical.
Regardless, the SpaceX team are examining the GPS thoroughly to understand what caused the alert. Once the scope of the problem is understood, it will determine when the launch will occur.
In the meantime, here is a killer video of the static fire:
http://www.spacex.com/00Graphics/Videos/StaticFire%20HScam1%202007-03-16.wmv
Kimbal
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