Live rocket launch

[Davey-T]

One of the guys said the fuel tanks were single skin which is why they got ice on the outside.

Dave

[JamesF]

1 minute ago, Davey-T said:

One of the guys said the fuel tanks were single skin which is why they got ice on the outside.

When the top half of the rocket crumpled on impact it did give the impression of being a single skin too.

James

[Davey-T]

Presumably it will have boosters strapped on the side to escape Earth gravity.

Dave

[JamesF]

11 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Presumably it will have boosters strapped on the side to escape Earth gravity.

The rocket tested yesterday is actually intended to be a second stage.  There will be a much bigger first stage to get it off the ground, I believe.

James

[Alien 13]

I thought the first stage would be mounted horizontal on a kind of sled on tracks, rather like a roller coaster 

Alan

[johngm]

43 minutes ago, JamesF said:

The rocket tested yesterday is actually intended to be a second stage.  There will be a much bigger first stage to get it off the ground, I believe.

James

I concur James, this will be mounted on top of the Super Heavy which will have 28 of these Raptor Engines. The Starship section is to be fitted with another 3 engines, these will be vacuum raptors for orbital flight. SN9 is Completed and when the data from SN8 is obtained,  he  will make the necessary mods to prevent the crash happening. Elon said they Lost pressure in the LOX header tank and if you look, you can actually see the liquid methane burning green prior to the crash land. I personally think this was an 85% success when you think what SN8 Achieved. First time 3 raptors used together, the engine command, the belly flop and skydive, and the operation of the flaps and Engine reignite to get it vertical.  It even landed on the Pad ! (although crashed). I'm fairly confident that SN9 will get it right.  Speculation is that SN9 will Launch in January

John

[johngm]

Super heavy.

 

[SamAndrew]

10 minutes ago, johngm said:

I concur James, this will be mounted on top of the Super Heavy which will have 28 of these Raptor Engines. The Starship section is to be fitted with another 3 engines, these will be vacuum raptors for orbital flight. SN9 is Completed and when the data from SN8 is obtained,  he  will make the necessary mods to prevent the crash happening. Elon said they Lost pressure in the LOX header tank and if you look, you can actually see the liquid methane burning green prior to the crash land. I personally think this was an 85% success when you think what SN8 Achieved. First time 3 raptors used together, the engine command, the belly flop and skydive, and the operation of the flaps and Engine reignite to get it vertical.  It even landed on the Pad ! (although crashed). I'm fairly confident that SN9 will get it right.  Speculation is that SN9 will Launch in January

John

I'd say 85% is a little low, more like 98% for me! they proved there were no fundamental design or construction flaws; all those welds that could have failed, the glide, the engine restarts, and the belly flop - all went perfectly.

[johngm]

8 minutes ago, SamAndrew said:

I'd say 85% is a little low, more like 98% for me! they proved there were no fundamental design or construction flaws; all those welds that could have failed, the glide, the engine restarts, and the belly flop - all went perfectly.

And SN9 is even better. Better Stainless steal, and the welded seams on that look even better. I think with SN9, he will land it successfully. 

[Alien 13]

14 minutes ago, SamAndrew said:

I'd say 85% is a little low, more like 98% for me! they proved there were no fundamental design or construction flaws; all those welds that could have failed, the glide, the engine restarts, and the belly flop - all went perfectly.

I would agree with the 98% the failure at landing will also provide very useful data anyway, perhaps more so than had the mission been a 100% run.

Alan

[Mognet]

5 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

I thought the first stage would be mounted horizontal on a kind of sled on tracks, rather like a roller coaster 

Alan

That would explain the Fireball XL5 inspired design. Just need the space scooters now

[Alien 13]

1 minute ago, Mognet said:

That would explain the Fireball XL5 inspired design. Just need the space scooters now

I had this in mind, scary that GA got it almost spot on..

Alan

[JamesF]

13 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

I had this in mind, scary that GA got it almost spot on..

Especially when you see the Starship mock-ups that have windows in.

James

[maw lod qan]

Last few nights have been perfect. This evening at 8:09ET they have a ULA heavy putting a spy satellite up.

Now we have clouds rolling in! I wanted to watch that heavy go off.

This is the one that's been scrubbed over and over and over again.

[JamesF]

The ULA heavy launch appears to be streamed here:

though the stream doesn't seem to have started yet.

James

[Davey-T]

Nothing happening here either.

Dave

ULA - Delta IV Heavy - NROL-44 | Rocket Launch - YouTube

[JamesF]

No cloud according to my commentary.

James

[JamesF]

Apparently they have some alarms, so it may not happen for that reason.

James

[Davey-T]

Launch say about 8.00 EST which is about 5 hours behind GMT

Dave

[Skipper Billy]

Launch in 45 mins planned.

01.15hrs UK time

[JamesF]

Some interesting discussion at the moment on the NSF channel about the fact that SpaceX want to launch from the same site tomorrow, but if NROL-44 doesn't fly tonight they may try to bump SpaceX.  Not everyone is apparently happy about this situation

James

[John]

I still find it incredible that you can watch this stuff happening live from the other side of the Atlantic.

We visited KSC in late February this year. Had no idea then of what 2020 held in store ........

[JamesF]

1 minute ago, John said:

I still find it incredible that you can watch this stuff happening live from the other side of the Atlantic.

Absolutely.  Also amazing about the NSF streams over the last couple of days was that they have remote controlled cameras filming the launch that are basically consumer camera bodies with some modifications, run by people thousands of miles away, and the whole stream is put together by someone else thousands of miles away.  And it all works

James

[Sunshine]

I wonder if the engines are the legendary RD-180

[JamesF]

Eastern time is five hours behind GMT?  So that means the Falcon 9 launch is scheduled for about 4:30pm tomorrow afternoon for us?

James