Posted on 02/14/2017 8:20:59 AM PST by BenLurkin
Nine Merlin engines ignited and throttled up to nearly 2 million pounds of thrust Sunday during a brief hold-down firing of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, sending a plume of smoke out of the flame trench at Kennedy Space Center’s historic launch pad 39A as the company preps for a space station cargo mission next weekend.
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Onlookers at Kennedy Space Center reported visible venting of super-chilled liquid oxygen vapors from the rocket leading up to the static fire test, then a white cloud of rocket exhaust rushing out of the north side of the launch pad as the Merlin engines ignited at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT).
SpaceX confirmed a few minutes later that the static fire was successfully completed, and engineers are reviewing data collected during the test.
Sensors in each engine were to measure many performance parameters during the brief ignition at the launch pad. Hold-down restraints kept the rocket on the ground.
The hotfire test marked the first time a rocket ignited at pad 39A since July 8, 2011, when the final space shuttle mission blasted off there. The launch complex sat dormant for three years until SpaceX signed a 20-year lease to take over the pad in 2014.
The milestone static fire test is a major step leading to SpaceX’s first-ever launch from pad 39A scheduled for next Saturday, Feb. 18, with a Dragon supply ship carrying 5,266 pounds (2,389 kilograms) of equipment and experiments to the International Space Station.
If the rocket takes off Feb. 18, the Dragon spacecraft will reach the research lab in orbit Feb. 20.
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceflightnow.com ...
In the documentary “For All Mankind” they have some hi-res cameras in the flame trench to record the rockets firing for one of the Apollo missions. They replay it slo-mo in the film. Incredible sight!
yes i have seen it it is amazing must find it again
” Vehicle Assembly Building.
The hangar can accommodate five Falcon 9 rocket cores at a time, according to SpaceX.”
Seems we had at least that many External Tanks hanging in their like drying sausage on the wall.
In ‘74 I worked for Boeing at Vandenberg AFB with Techs who’d built the VAB.
Later, I worked for Lockheed Martin West Coast Shuttle, then Titan IV as a Systems Engineer.
I loved those engines in the Unlimited Hydroplanes.
That sound pounding off of the waters of the Columbia river traveled for miles.
I think a FReeper directd me to it, but I forget: On Youtube I saw one of these slo-mo cameras aimed at the hold-downs, and a guy narrated it, which was a lot cooler than it sounds.
It was maybe 30 seconds but took a few minutes to play out.
It was very informative.
The "white cloud of rocket exhaust" was water from the sound suppression system being turned into steam.
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