Octopus Overlords

Or you can watch on Spacex.com of course. About four minutes to go.

Absolutely awesome launch. I went outside to watch and when I realized the Falcon 9 was going to fly almost in front of the moon I tried to get a quick shot with my crappy camera phone:


I don't know if folks watched some of the launch coverage, but the trajectory was almost due south, flying down the east coast of Florida. So I was able to watch it not only till booster cutoff, but through second stage start up and continued ascent. And I got to see the famed "halo" effect, but I couldn't get a picture of that. The image below is from a west coast launch but it is pretty much what I saw tonight



About the only disappointment was that I didn't get to see the final booster burn as it came in to land at the Cape. The final burn occurs pretty low and unless I plan ahead and climb on my roof I'm not going to see it . However, there is a Falcon Heavy launch this Friday with two boosters coming back, so that climb on the roof option may not be totally off the table

There was a boom of the booster landing, but it was nowhere as loud as the one from the first launch of the year. Unfortunately if they do launch that Falcon Heavy just before six pm on Friday, there will be a strong wind out of the west so the sound will be carried away from me.

UPDATE: I did find a YouTube video showing the halo effect. What you see below is pretty much what I saw tonight.

Very very cool! (For you, me -- I slept.)

Sad news for Virgin’s LauncherOne

Some fun talk about orbits. I had no idea that is what had happened and would not have predicted that was what the orbit would look like from the description.

That's fascinating. Somehow I never heard of gravitational braking before, even though I'm sure (now that I think about it) that missions to the inner solar system, such as the Parker probe, must use it. Getting to the sun is actually quite hard because you have to shed a lot of the velocity imparted by the Earth's orbit. Parker must have used Venus and Earth flybys to "accelerate backwards." This is an epiphany that I'm just making up in my head.

I cringe a little whenever sci-fi shows spacecraft just pointing where they want to go and hitting the accelerator, banking into turns, or getting too close to the sun and being pulled in. Which is to say, most sci-fi shows. The Expanse is the only one I can think of that took orbital mechanics seriously.

Kraken wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 6:13 pm That's fascinating. Somehow I never heard of gravitational braking before, even though I'm sure (now that I think about it) that missions to the inner solar system, such as the Parker probe, must use it. Getting to the sun is actually quite hard because you have to shed a lot of the velocity imparted by the Earth's orbit. Parker must have used Venus and Earth flybys to "accelerate backwards." This is an epiphany that I'm just making up in my head.

Have you not played Kerbal Space Program? It's something every space nerd needs to play with at some point. It took from zero understanding of orbital mechanics to some understanding in a mere 3-4 years!

coopasonic wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 6:54 pm

Kraken wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 6:13 pm That's fascinating. Somehow I never heard of gravitational braking before, even though I'm sure (now that I think about it) that missions to the inner solar system, such as the Parker probe, must use it. Getting to the sun is actually quite hard because you have to shed a lot of the velocity imparted by the Earth's orbit. Parker must have used Venus and Earth flybys to "accelerate backwards." This is an epiphany that I'm just making up in my head.

Have you not played Kerbal Space Program? It's something every space nerd needs to play with at some point. It took from zero understanding of orbital mechanics to some understanding in a mere 3-4 years!

+1 to this. If not for KSP I'd still think a Hohmann transfer is when you change subway trains at Hohmann

coopasonic wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 6:54 pm

Kraken wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 6:13 pm That's fascinating. Somehow I never heard of gravitational braking before, even though I'm sure (now that I think about it) that missions to the inner solar system, such as the Parker probe, must use it. Getting to the sun is actually quite hard because you have to shed a lot of the velocity imparted by the Earth's orbit. Parker must have used Venus and Earth flybys to "accelerate backwards." This is an epiphany that I'm just making up in my head.

Have you not played Kerbal Space Program? It's something every space nerd needs to play with at some point. It took from zero understanding of orbital mechanics to some understanding in a mere 3-4 years!

I played around with it just long enough to fail to reach orbit a couple of times, and didn't have the patience to learn it.

A green comet will appear in the night sky for the first time in 50,000 years

Get out there and see it. Its your only lifetime chance. Good for a month I think.

 

A recently discovered comet will soon make an appearance in the night sky for the first time in 50,000 years.

Discovered on March 2, 2022 by astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility’s wide-field survey camera at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, the comet will make its closest approach to the sun on January 12, according to NASA.

Skygazers in the Northern Hemisphere using telescopes and binoculars should look low on the northeastern horizon just before midnight to spot it on January 12, according to EarthSky.

The icy celestial object, which has steadily brightened as it approaches the sun, will subsequently make its closest pass of Earth between February 1 and February 2, around 26 million miles (42 million kilometers) away, according to EarthSky — as the comet nears Earth, observers will be able to spot it near the bright star Polaris, also called the North Star, and it should be visible earlier in the evening.

Don't know if people know about this or have seen it, but you can download the Falcon Users Guide from SpaceX. Eighty-eight pages of nerdy goodness. It covers the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy.

The Falcon launch vehicle user’s guide is a planning document provided for customers of SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.). This document is applicable to the Falcon vehicle configurations with a 5.2 m (17-ft) diameter fairing and the related launch service (Section 2).
This user’s guide is intended for pre-contract mission planning and for understanding SpaceX’s standard services. The user’s guide is not intended for detailed design use. Data for detailed design purposes will be exchanged directly between a SpaceX customer and a SpaceX mission manager.
SpaceX reserves the right to update this user’s guide as required. Future revisions are assumed to always be in process as SpaceX gathers additional data and works to improve its launch vehicle design.

Two hours until Falcon Heavy launches at sunset.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01 ... ght-today/

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sun Jan 15, 2023 4:57 pm Two hours until Falcon Heavy launches at sunset.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01 ... ght-today/

The last time there was a Heavy launch it was foggy, but it is beautiful out here today. Looking forward to a nice ascent and a double boom when the boosters come back.

Should be a fun one. The F9 launches are a bit old hat now (at least for those of us who can't see/hear them IRL) but Heavy still gets me excited.

Looking forward to the first Starship orbital test soonish, now, too.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sun Jan 15, 2023 6:15 pm Looking forward to the first Starship orbital test soonish, now, too.

SpaceX just did another stacking of the Super Heavy Booster and the Starship, with Elon now tweeting that a late February/early March launch attempt might be in the works. However, I'll believe that when they do a full up static fire test on the SHB with all 33 engines or how many they are going to use for that first flight.

By the way, am I wrong or have they not ever flown the Super Heavy Booster on a short hop? I'm not sure they were ever planning to, but just wondering.

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 15, 2023 6:31 pm

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sun Jan 15, 2023 6:15 pm Looking forward to the first Starship orbital test soonish, now, too.

By the way, am I wrong or have they not ever flown the Super Heavy Booster on a short hop? I'm not sure they were ever planning to, but just wondering.

I don't believe they have.

watching this live on a twitch eating channel where they're eating outside down there in FL and also on SpaceX's site lol.

Man, SpaceX has really nailed their camera feeds. Incredible views.

Too bad its for Starlink I think. And Musk. Otherwise beautiful.

Another fabulous viewing opportunity. The sun had just set a few minutes before so as the Heavy climbed into the sunlight those of us on the ground weren't overwhelmed with the sun glare. We had the usual contrail as the rocket when through those altitudes but as it ascended into the thinning atmosphere you could see the exhaust gases from the boosters forming their usual teardrop shape. And because the gases were illuminated by the sun but because the sun was below the horizon for us on the ground, the gases were amazing visible.

You could see the two side boosters separate and do their burns and even see the reaction jets putting out their gasses. As the boosters turned around you could see their burning and even see the occasional puffs of the control jets, which is something I've never seen before from the ground. Since we were looking upwards into the engine bells it was possible to follow the boosters as they returned to the Cape, with the steering jets puffing. About half way down the sky (obviously much closer to us) you could see the second firing of the booster's engines, very neat. Then unfortunately as boosters got closer to the horizon you were no longer looking up into the engines so I lost sight of them. And as before the local tree line prevented seeing the final landing burns. We did have a nice twin set of ba-booms

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sun Jan 15, 2023 7:07 pm Too bad its for Starlink I think. And Musk. Otherwise beautiful.

Space

Like USSF-44, USSF-67 is a classified mission. We do know a bit about the coming flight, however.

The main payload is a military communications satellite called Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM 2, which the Falcon Heavy will send to geostationary orbit, about 22,200 miles (35,700 kilometers) above Earth. Also flying Saturday is a rideshare spacecraft called Long Duration Propulsive ESPA (LDPE)-3A, a payload adapter that can hold up to six small satellites, according to EverydayAstronaut.com.

In case anyone wants to get up early on Wednesday (0710 EST) and watch my next satellite launch:



This one is GPS III vehicle #6 of 10.

Sorry it's only a boring Falcon 9 launch.

Hrdina wrote: ↑Wed Jan 18, 2023 12:48 am In case anyone wants to get up early on Wednesday (0710 EST) and watch my next satellite launch:

Too early... it probably won't even wake me up, unless something goes wrong

Falcon 9 launches are like buses, you miss one and there will be another coming along soon after

I'll be outside shoveling during your launch. Godspeed!

And indeed I slept through the launch, but then nothing important happens before noon

Hrdina wrote: ↑Wed Jan 18, 2023 12:48 am In case anyone wants to get up early on Wednesday (0710 EST) and watch my next satellite launch:



This one is GPS III vehicle #6 of 10.

Sorry it's only a boring Falcon 9 launch.

Congratulations on a successful launch! I was up, but on my way to work at that time. I just saw the launch and landing on youtube. I admit I haven't seen all the over-water landings but this was the first one I've seen where the camera did not cut out as the booster landed.

And this is what it looked like:

Apparently it went well.

Time to plan that trip to northern Alabama if you want to see it!

Saturn IB rocket no longer safe to keep standing at Alabama rest stop

A roadside rocket display that for more than 40 years has stood as a welcome sign for drivers entering the state of Alabama is no longer safe to be left standing and should now be replaced, according to NASA and the museum charged with its care.

Officials at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville have decided that the Saturn IB rocket erected in 1979 (opens in new tab) at the Ardmore Welcome Center in Elkmont needs to be replaced. More than just a matter of moving it elsewhere, the Apollo-era artifact may be destroyed due to its failing condition after nearly four-and-a-half decades on outdoor, vertical display.

"A beacon to travelers along I-65 for many years, this rocket was not built to withstand more than 40 years of continuous exposure to the elements of nature," NASA officials said in a statement. "The support structure has deteriorated over the years, the damage is too significant to repair, and could potentially pose a structural safety issue if left in place."

raydude wrote: ↑Wed Jan 18, 2023 4:04 pmCongratulations on a successful launch! I was up, but on my way to work at that time. I just saw the launch and landing on youtube. I admit I haven't seen all the over-water landings but this was the first one I've seen where the camera did not cut out as the booster landed.

Thanks, and yes the landing video on this one was particularly good!

One funny thing about these launches is that I work on the payload, and our box is powered down until several days after launch. We go to MEO, and Falcon 9 drops us into an orbit with a low perigee and an apogee up near our mission altitude. They do multiple burns at apogee using the spacecraft engine to raise up our perigee. Once the orbit is mostly circular, they can deploy solar panels, turn on payloads, etc. So I can be sure my phone won't be ringing for the first week or two after launch.

Hrdina wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 2:35 pm We go to MEO, and Falcon 9 drops us into an orbit with a low perigee and an apogee up near our mission altitude. They do multiple burns at apogee using the spacecraft engine to raise up our perigee. Once the orbit is mostly circular, they can deploy solar panels, turn on payloads, etc

Ah, it's not that hard

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 3:53 pm

Hrdina wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 2:35 pm We go to MEO, and Falcon 9 drops us into an orbit with a low perigee and an apogee up near our mission altitude. They do multiple burns at apogee using the spacecraft engine to raise up our perigee. Once the orbit is mostly circular, they can deploy solar panels, turn on payloads, etc

Ah, it's not that hard

Easy as cake!

Hopefully my satellite will never use that deorbit routine checklist.