Orion Launch Today
Discussion
el stovey said:
Eric Mc said:
el stovey said:
Watching this in lovely HD on my telly. The coverage is really great.
Imagine if the moon landings could have been viewed like this instead of rubbish black and white 60s TV.
They were colour from Apollo 12 onwards - alhough most of us still had B & W TV sets.Imagine if the moon landings could have been viewed like this instead of rubbish black and white 60s TV.
My earliest clear memory is watching the Apollo 8 launch in October 1968 - when I was 10. Before then I don't think there any TV relay satellites in orbit to allow launches from the US to be shown live.
A lot of the TV coverage of the early US manned launches can be found on youtube. From 1965 onwards US TV showed the launches in colour.
rhysenna said:
Is the window for launch to do with the readiness of the rocket or something else?
That - plus matters such as lighting conditions - both at the Cape and at the planned splashdown point in the Pacific. The mission is scheduled to last about 4 hours - by which time it will be beginning to get dark in the splashdown area. They want to have decent daylight to observe the Orion as it comes down on its parachutes and to facilitate the recovery operation.
Most missions have much tighter launch windows because the spacecraft is being sent to a particular target in space, such as the Space Station or the moon. The movement of the target will determine when the launch needs to happen.
MartG said:
rhysenna said:
Is the window for launch to do with the readiness of the rocket or something else?
Something else e.g. not hitting something already up thereETA: hadn't though of daylight for recovery, good point.
paul_y3k said:
RizzoTheRat said:
RobGT81 said:
You don't have these issues on KSP.
I was just thinking the exact same thing 
Given all the massive improvements in technology, and the fact that this is a well proven system (7 heavy launches with one partial failure, the only one in 27 total launches for the Delta IV family) and they still have this many issues, it makes you realise just how much of an achievement space flight actually is, and the Apollo program in particular!
I was just thinking how reliable the Saturn family was. I can't remember a single Apollo flight of any sort being delayed seriously because of holds such as this.
I wonder is that due to the fact that the F1 engines of the Saturn V (and the lower powered first stage engines of the Saturn 1 and 1B) used kerosene as their fuel rather than liquid hydrogen. Because kerosene is liquid at normal temperatures, it is much easier to handle and you don't get all the problems caused by the extreme cold soaking you get when handling liquid hydrogen?
I wonder is that due to the fact that the F1 engines of the Saturn V (and the lower powered first stage engines of the Saturn 1 and 1B) used kerosene as their fuel rather than liquid hydrogen. Because kerosene is liquid at normal temperatures, it is much easier to handle and you don't get all the problems caused by the extreme cold soaking you get when handling liquid hydrogen?
I wasn't that bothered about space flight until I went to Florida in the Summer and we went to KSC. It was awesome. We attended an astronaut training experience and actually did a shuttle mission simulation and I was the Public Address Officer (they liked my British accent) in Mission Control. I now feel I could phone up and help with this mission.
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