Spacex Launch April 30: Animation, Photos

**Space Racer** · 05-19-2012, 04:46 PM

Gemini 6A Launch Abort

First launch attempt
The launch abort of Gemini 6A, attempted December 12, 1965.

The first attempt to launch the 6A mission (second attempt for Gemini spacecraft No. 6) was on December 12, 1965 at 9:54 a.m. EST.[3] All went well right up to ignition—in fact the engines did ignite, but then a plug fell out of the bottom of the rocket, starting the onboard computer. This was not meant to happen until the rocket had actually lifted off, and the onboard computer detected that there was no upwards motion, causing it to abort the launch. At this point mission rules dictated that the crew should eject from the spacecraft, as the rocket would explode on impact with the pad if it had lifted off by even an inch (2.54 cm).

Schirra elected not to eject as neither he nor Stafford had detected any upwards motion, and the ejection seats were seen as a last resort. In an early test of the system involving a dummy, the hatch had failed to blow off and the dummy's head was rammed into the side of the spacecraft. Also all ejection seats cause a dangerous compression of the spine as these were designed to carry the astronauts as quickly as possible (with the goal of evacuating the astronauts a couple of hundred meters away from an exploding rocket).

The Martin and Air Force teams who erected and tested the rocket found that some plugs on the rocket were able to pull out more easily than others. They replaced them with the ones that were harder to pull out on future missions, and a safety wire was added to make sure that the rocket had lifted off.

However, another problem was found as the engineers examined the thrust versus time graph. They found that the thrust rose nominally but started to decrease before the plug had fallen out. Through the night, engineers examined the rocket engine piece by piece until they found that a plastic cover had been left in the gas generator port. With this problem solved the rocket and spacecraft were rescheduled for a launch three days after the first attempt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LzUgvSYYGc
.

**Some Dude** · 05-20-2012, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by timebuilder

I never applied. When I was the right age, I was sitting in the second row at the Fillmore East in NYC watching Clapton kick off his Derek and the Dominoes tour.

Nah, spacex, they have a branch in vandenburgh Ca. close to where im trying to go. They where looking for someone to run their hvac show, guess they found someone.

**Space Racer** · 05-20-2012, 12:35 PM

The Rocket Factory

This is a photo presentation of the SpaceX factory floor in Hawthorne, Ca.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/05...top-to-bottom/

**Space Racer** · 05-21-2012, 08:57 PM

How One Faulty Nitrogen-Purge Valve Forced SpaceX to Abort

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/05...e-valve-abort/

**Space Racer** · 05-21-2012, 09:20 PM

Streaming Video

In addition to the websites listed in post #11, the launch can
be viewed at Spaceflight Now's Livestream connection.

http://www.space.com/15760-spacex-ca...-webcasts.html

See also http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ for timelines, updates, video.
Check out the press kit for detailed mission info.

Looks like Spaceflight Now is all over this thing.
Their coverage starts at 2:30 AM.

SpaceX's Livestream video won't be available until 3:15.

**Space Racer** · 05-21-2012, 10:15 PM

This is the direct link to Spaceflight Now's streaming video:

http://www.livestream.com/spacefligh...gn=footerlinks

(It's not real obvious in the Space.com article mentioned above.)

**Space Racer** · 05-21-2012, 10:35 PM

Looks like SpaceX's webcast will begin at 3:00, not 3:15.

http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

(It probably won't make any difference in the overall scheme of things, but you never know.)

**Space Racer** · 05-22-2012, 04:32 AM

Sweet!
What a fireball there was coming off the back of the rocket!
And it was square!

What a smooth launch.

SpaceX had their own talking-head TV show this time. They
had three of their own people in Hawthorne giving the play
by play on the SpaceX webcast.

The webcast showed streaming video of Falcon 9 stage
separation and solar array deployment after NASA video
lost sight of the rocket and switched to mission control.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 video telemetry dropped out at about
T+13:45.

When the solar array was deployed, a large crowd of
employees roared with cheering and applause.

Dragon is in orbit and under way.

**Space Racer** · 05-22-2012, 05:07 AM

Here's the SpaceX Show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB8Gb...feature=relmfu

Go to 1:06:00.

Oops, my bad. This is the aborted launch.
I missed this show on the 19th. When I
went to the Spacex.com streaming video link,
all I found was the Livestream video from the
launchpad, so I watched most of it on Ustream.

**Space Racer** · 05-22-2012, 04:01 PM

Spacex video of the launch and flight, including stage separation and solar array deployment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=julrL3o_yow

Elon Musk during liftoff:

Spacex employees cheer at liftoff:

Solar array deploys:

Webcast hosts celebrate with employees as solar array locks in position and Dragon begins orbital operations:

**Space Racer** · 05-22-2012, 08:07 PM

HERE it is!

This is the SpaceX webcast of the
Falcon 9 launch on 22 May 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-gSkGQnFR8

**Space Racer** · 05-23-2012, 04:58 AM

Track Dragon and the ISS across the globe:
Dragon: http://www.n2yo.com/?s=38348
ISS: http://www.n2yo.com/?s=25544
Both:http://www.n2yo.com/?s=25544|38348

See an interactive 360 view of Dragon interior:
http://www.spacex.com/panorama/index.html

**Space Racer** · 05-23-2012, 02:14 PM

How Elon Musk got into the rocket business,

some insight into how Elon thinks,
why rockets are designed to be expensive and complex,
and how SpaceX is changing some critical priorities in
the rocket business:

http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exp...Employees.html

(This is not a boring article.)

**Space Racer** · 05-23-2012, 05:47 PM

When will it be in your neighborhood?

http://www.spaceweather.com/flybys/?...jbc7usnkh23q73

**Space Racer** · 05-24-2012, 09:17 PM

TRUCKS...IN...SPAACE

http://www.space.com/15703-space-sta...ps-photos.html

**Space Racer** · 05-25-2012, 06:50 PM

Dragon Videos

The Dragon took several hours to approach the ISS. Most of this time was spent holding position while data was checked and safety was confirmed.

The approach was delayed for a while because one of Dragon's two LIDARs (aka LADAR in military circles) was bouncing laser off a spot on the ISS which was a different distance than the spot the other laser was aimed at. The LIDAR ranging info was compared to info from the IR (infrared) range detectors (which were referred to as thermal imagers because they had the added (superfluous) benefit of providing a heat picture of the ISS). The ranging issue was resolved by backing away for a while and tightening the laser beam.

Normally only one LIDAR is required, but SpaceX took two so they could verify the precision of the equipment and software.

These are early approach videos. There's not a lot to see (except a couple of Russian spacecraft suckling at the ISS, a lot of clouds, and the occasional Dragon retro rocket), but there is plenty of interesting and informative commentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6_h2...feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX9Pb...feature=relmfu

These are edited and compressed videos of the berthing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbKP6V_O5qM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WAY7boAE68

The guy who did these videos has a YouTube channel and a very nifty website:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SpaceVidsNet
http://spacevids.info/