SpaceX Tuesday...

[MartG]

The Falcon 9 rocket is being fueled with kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants for launch at 6:05 p.m. EST (2305 GMT), but upper level winds could be a problem.

[Eric Mc]

Scrubbed.

[MartG]

Yup High level winds would exceed structural limits

They still have a Dragon splashing down in a couple of hours though

[Eric Mc]

They also mentioned that the gimbal limits of the rocket motors would have been exceeded i.e. the rocket motors would not have been able to cope with the deviations in flight path caused by wind shear.

[anonymous-user]

Eric Mc said:

They also mentioned that the gimbal limits of the rocket motors would have been exceeded i.e. the rocket motors would not have been able to cope with the deviations in flight path caused by wind shear.

It would have been difficult to explain how they had launched a rocket into space and "missed".... ;-)

[Eric Mc]

You don't want your gimbal limits to be exceeded. You might end up parking the lot in downtown Palm Beach.

[Beati Dogu]

The launch is on again for tonight, but no barge landing due to heavy seas and problems with one of the barge's 4 engines.

They'll try to 'land' it in the sea instead.


http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

[fadeaway]

The recovery part of the mission has been cancelled - the sea's too rough to land the rocket on the barge

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/11/spacexs-rocket-re...

Better luck next time spacex. Gonna be very cool when you get this right!

[Eric Mc]

I'll probably be collecting my pension.

[Eric Mc]

Great shot of the fairing being jettisoned. I can't remember ground cameras picking up a shroud coming off before.

[RobDickinson]

Next shot afik is using up all the fuel so no recovery attempt then either

[MartG]

[Beati Dogu]

Another tweet from Elon Musk:

"Rocket soft landed in the ocean within 10m of target & nicely vertical! High probability of good droneship landing in non-stormy weather."

Well that's good to hear. Pity about the bad weather scupppering the barge landing attempt though. I wonder how many more barge landings they'll need to do before they trust the rocket enough to land back at Cape Canaveral.

[Einion Yrth]

Beati Dogu said:

Another tweet from Elon Musk:

"Rocket soft landed in the ocean within 10m of target & nicely vertical! High probability of good droneship landing in non-stormy weather."

Well that's good to hear. Pity about the bad weather scupppering the barge landing attempt though. I wonder how many more barge landings they'll need to do before they trust the rocket enough to land back at Cape Canaveral.

With the ULA sabotaging the downrange radar every time they've got good weather, they may never get one. </tinfoilhat>

[vescaegg]

Beati Dogu said:

Another tweet from Elon Musk:

"Rocket soft landed in the ocean within 10m of target & nicely vertical! High probability of good droneship landing in non-stormy weather."

Well that's good to hear. Pity about the bad weather scupppering the barge landing attempt though. I wonder how many more barge landings they'll need to do before they trust the rocket enough to land back at Cape Canaveral.

Isnt there enough open space around to just land it somewhere that isnt close to anything else? Surely there is? Or is it just incase it misses by a mile or two?

[Eric Mc]

Way to early to allow a landing on land.

[CrutyRammers]

vescaegg said:

Isnt there enough open space around to just land it somewhere that isnt close to anything else? Surely there is? Or is it just incase it misses by a mile or two?

They've also got to consider an abort or breakup somewhere else in the flight, which would scatter debris for miles downrange. That's why they launch from the coast - even then a boat downrange can prevent a launch as per the last Orion test.

[scubadude]

Eric Mc said:

Way to early to allow a landing on land.

I suppose so.... but there are alot of really empty flat places around, but some aren't suitable launching from Florida.

Either that or an uninhabited island somewhere? Surely Mr Musk owns a Tracy Island like bond villain lair given his wealth? ;-)

[Eric Mc]

The trajectory of the rocket is determined by where in space it is headed. There isn't a huge variation in how the ascent flightpath can be changed - in that there is virtually none. This will be the major determinant as to where they can try and land a 1st stage as it falls back from 30-40 miles up.

[CrutyRammers]

Eric Mc said:

Great shot of the fairing being jettisoned. I can't remember ground cameras picking up a shroud coming off before.

Yeah good footage. I wish they'd followed the booster as it did its return burn, but I know they're not likely to do that for a good while.