SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch, June 4, 2010

[mj1]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

That was INFREAKING-credible. Orbital insertion and on the first launch attempt! NO ONE expected that. I'll bet those 'hatin Senators are --itting their pants right now. And that launch restart so fast? NASA would NEVER be able to do that. SpaceX you rock. Onwards and upwards...What's next?

 

[mj1]

Question. Could someone please post a link to the recorded launch as soon as it's available? The live feed was kind of choppy and I'd like to watch the whole thing again.

 

[aaron38]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

I missed the entire first stage burn, but damn fine work SpaceX. The Falcon 9 reaches orbit on the first try!

Looks like they may have a second stage roll issue to correct, but I'm looking forward to the 2nd launch and putting a real Dragon capsule into orbit.

 

[EarthlingX]

Most impressive

 

[MeteorWayne]

I'm sure Zipi or EarthlingX will have it up as soon as it's available.

 

[js117]

Great job SpaceX

 

[docm]

That liftoff was SWEET!! Bright, LOUD and they probably have grass fires to the perimeter fence. Fox covered the vast majority of it live so we got it on DVR.

Freaking AWESOME!!!!

Senator Shelby et al can now go to a corner, put on their beanies and shut the heck up.

 

[Testing]

That second stage camera is incredible. Who's to say the roll was not intentional. Looked like the horizon stayed in view the whole time. Anyone know how lon the plan to stay up?

 

[mj1]

I'm sure Zipi or EarthlingX will have it up as soon as it's available.

Thanks Meteor. And by the way, you do a great job in here. One of the most competent posters I've seen since I've joined this site.

 

[EarthlingX]

Here is one, from the wild :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt_SA1aXU60[/youtube]

 

[Zipi]

I'm sure Zipi or EarthlingX will have it up as soon as it's available.

EarthlingX already posted one, but here is a link to Youtube for more:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_t ... s=28&uni=3

We'll post the official one when it is available...

 

[EarthlingX]

This one is nice, looks as if Falcon made a hole through the clouds

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaS2pZjTIdU[/youtube]

 

[MeteorWayne]

That second stage camera is incredible. Who's to say the roll was not intentional. Looked like the horizon stayed in view the whole time. Anyone know how lon the plan to stay up?

From what I've heard the dragon capsule (just a qualifier) is expected to orbit for about a year.

 

[docm]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTkr9PeDeko[/youtube]

 

[EarthlingX]

By Fox News, not bad :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuwq4bNQ-gQ[/youtube]

 

[Ajboc]

Thanks for the videos everyone. After Elon was saying things like 80% chance of successful lift-off, it is a very nice surprise to see it not only lift-off but reach orbit. Great day for SpaceX!

 

[shuttle_guy]

A beautiful launch. We watched from the roof of the KSC Launch Control Center.

Congratulations to SpaceX Very well done. I wjish I knew where their launch party will be !

 

[docm]

The headline image on foxnews.com somehow seems appropriate....

 

[Boris_Badenov]

The video is up on YouTube.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhoX5XcqnfA[/youtube]

 

[nimbus]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

Fantastic!! In your face, naysayers

^^^

Left to party at 2 am. Woke only now. #$%^&!! :evil: Can't wait for the HD videos..

 

[alpha_centauri]

Great first flight, to orbit without a hitch.

The second stage sep. looked awesome.

That second stage camera is incredible. Who's to say the roll was not intentional. Looked like the horizon stayed in view the whole time.

IIRC they had someone from SpaceX on the live feed over at SpaceflightNow after the launch who seemed to think it was rolling too much.

 

[docm]

Telemetry shows the second stage and Dragon hit the nail on the head; SpaceX was shooting for a 250 km/155 mile circular orbit. They actually got an apogee (high point) <1% and a perigee (low point) 0.2% off the mark. Not too shabby.

 

[nimbus]

Is it the video, or does the exhaust plume really burn that yellow? It starts around 7'40" into the Fox coverage (totally ridiculous "ALERT" message on the bottom right BTW).

That looks like a whole lotta rolling at the end of 2nd stage segment of the SpaceX video..

Overall not freakin bad for a company doing everything from scratch.

 

[Aquafresh]

Does anyone know whether they planned to recover the first stage on this flight?

I believe the Falcon 1 launches each had trouble with stage recovery, and a partially reusable launch vehicle was one of the more appealing aspects of the design. If they can demonstrate that they were able to recover and reuse the Falcon 9 first stage that would be a HUGE success on what was only their first test flight.

 

[tgeairn]

Does anyone know whether they planned to recover the first stage on this flight?

The intent was to recover the first stage (eventually to recover and reuse), but sfn is reporting that the first stage broke up on descent. If the breakup wasn't chute related (bad chutes = hard water impact), then that imo could point to an engineering problem.

Overall nice work SpaceX!