Posted on 03/01/2015 6:20:12 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine
The 224-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket has been rolled out and rotated vertical atop Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad, aiming for liftoff at 10:50 p.m. EST (0350 GMT). Workers then began plugging into electrical and propellant lines ahead of the start of the countdown today.
No problems are reported at this stage in the launch preparations. Fueling of the two-stage rocket with RP-1 fuel -- a highly-refined kerosene -- and liquid oxygen should begin shortly around 7:50 p.m. EST (0050 GMT).
The rocket is one of the tallest in the world. The Falcon 9's first and second stages measure 12 feet in diameter, and the SpaceX-built payload fairing housing the Eutelsat 115 West B and ABS 3A spacecraft is 17 feet in diameter (5.2 meters) and 43 feet tall.
Today's flight marks the 16th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since debuting in June 2010. It's the 11th mission of the improved Falcon 9 v1.1 version, which made its inaugural launch in September 2013 from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The weather outlook for today's launch calls for a 70 percent chance of favorable conditions.
30 seconds
Okay... Here we go!
Liftoff!
Liftoff
Such an impressive machine for such a new startup.
2 min, looks great so far
altitude 60 km
I wasn’t around during the early space days at all, but it’s so amazing how you can watch fairing separation and staging and so on now.
3:00+ minutes, 2nd stage ignited OK.
alt 138 km, everything’s great
Looks like my kerosene stove in the dark.
I believe in April they’ll be trying the re-land Stage 2 (or 1) task.
It’s funny, but when it comes to space I’m more comfortable now with metric than miles lol. I know 100km is the edge of space and so on, but would have to convert some to miles.
What is that blue circle “God’s eye view of hot-tube” shot..?
Thanks for the link, we are watching- looks good.
See post #13.
SECO-1, looks good. They said they’d lose video probably early.
That’s the inside of the RP-1 (kerosene) tank, I think.
thanks! Great launch..!
Gave up on that. Now back to the blue screen of advertising. 8<(
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