Thaicom 6 - 06.01.2014 - Falcon 9 v1.1 - Canaveral SLC-40

[igorvs]

SpaceX готова к первому запуску в Новом году
http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/008/140105preview/#.UsobK02IrRa

[igorvs]

SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 готовится к запуску Тайком-6
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/01/spacex-falcon-9-v1-1-launch-thaicom-6/

[igorvs]

Thaicom-6 легче на 122 кг. чем SES-8 и полетит он на 10000 км. дальше, на высоту 90000 км.

[G.K.]

igorvs пишет:
на высоту 90000 км.

А давайте сразу на овермун?

[igorvs]

Дождемся FH

[igorvs]

Утро

[Space Alien]

upd

igorvs пишет:
Утро

А это день уже похоже :

Ну надо же, хоть фото появилось первое    


https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/420217912549330944

 

[SFN]

G.K. пишет:
А давайте сразу на овермун?

Не вытянет

[SFN]

SpaceX ‏@SpaceX
#Falcon9 targeted to launch THAICOM 6 tonight. Launch window opens @ 5:06pm ET. Watch LIVE: http://www.spacex.com/webcast

[Space Alien]

Еще фоточки:







http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/008/prelaunch/

[freinir]

Блин, поздно... я уже засну.

[Старый]

Во сколько летят то?

[Большой]

Старый пишет:
Во сколько летят то?

сейчас показывают через 2 часа 55 мин
http://spacexstats.com/index.php

[igorvs]

2:06 ЛМВ

[SFN]

Большой пишет:
сейчас показывают через 2 часа 55 мин

3 часа 38 мин  

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/008/status.html

1710 GMT (12:10 p.m. EST)
The latest weather forecast issued this morning still shows an 80 percent chance of favorable weather for liftoff in a 122-minute launch window opening at 5:06 p.m. EST (2206 GMT).

"Today, a cold front will pass through the spaceport, bringing strong northwesterly winds and plunging temperatures. Mid- and upper-level clouds associated with the front will not clear instantly after frontal passage, and may linger through the launch window," meteorologists wrote in a forecast summary.

The primary concerns are for ground winds and thick clouds.

The outlook calls for scattered clouds at 2,500 feet and 10,000 feet, along with a broken cloud deck at 28,000 feet. Winds will be out of the northwest at 25 mph with gusts to 30 mph, with a launch time temperature predicted to be 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

If the launch gets delayed to Tuesday, the forecast also calls for an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions then.

1630 GMT (11:30 a.m. EST)
Technicians rolled the Falcon 9 rocket to the launch pad overnight, using hydraulics to lift the 224-foot-tall booster on its launch mount at Cape Canaveral's Complex 40.

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 after 1 p.m. EST (1800 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 Thaicom 6 communications satellite is 17 feet in diameter (5.2 meters) and 43 feet tall.

Check out photos of the rocket on the launch pad this morning.

Today's flight marks the eighth launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since debuting in June 10. It's the third mission of the improved Falcon 9 v1.1 version, which made its inaugural launch in September from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The launch of Thaicom 6 also marks the quickest turnaround in the history of the Falcon 9 rocket, coming just 34 days after another launcher lifted off with the SES 8 communications satellite.

For details on the Falcon 9 v1.1, here is part of our story on the rocket stemming from an interview with SpaceX boss Elon Musk in September:

Musk said the redesigned Falcon 9 is the prototype for a reusable rocket SpaceX envisions could drastically reduce launch costs, decreasing the price of a Falcon 9 flight even lower than SpaceX's advertised rate, which undercuts competing rockets, such as the Russian Proton and Europe's Ariane 5 launcher.

It is this version of the Falcon 9 that SpaceX hopes will safely deliver astronauts to orbit on the way to the space station, beginning as soon as 2017.

Reliability is paramount in the launch business, and cost and schedule are right behind in a matrix of concerns for rocket buyers.

Musk said SpaceX answered these appeals, and added power and efficiency to the Falcon 9's Merlin engines to loft heftier payloads into higher orbits.

SpaceX engineers installed a triple-redundant flight computer in the Falcon 9 rocket, adding another level of confidence in the launcher's avionics. They also wrote new software for the computer, which is based on a flight-proven unit from SpaceX's Dragon cargo-carrying space station freighter.

"You could put a bullet hole in any one of the avionics boxes and it would just keep flying," Musk said.

Designers adjusted the connection points between the Falcon 9's first and second stages, replacing nine hardware interfaces and three spring-like pusher elements - pneumatic devices which ensure stage separation occurs - with three connectors with integrated pushers.

"We go from 12 things that can go wrong to three at the point of staging," Musk said.

The Falcon 9 v1.1 is powered by 10 Merlin 1D engines - nine on the first stage and one on the second stage - each generating 147,000 pounds of sea level thrust. The vacuum-rated upper stage engine, sporting a niobium nozzle to radiate engine heat, produces 161,000 pounds of thrust once out of the atmosphere.

The Merlin 1C engine, used on all five of the Falcon 9's previous missions, was capable of firing with 95,000 pounds of thrust at sea level.

Along with greater performance, the Merlin 1D is easier to manufacture thanks to high-efficiency processes, increased robotic construction and a reduced parts count, according to SpaceX's press kit.

SpaceX upgraded the propellant injection system inside the Merlin 1D, replacing two valves dedicated to fuel and oxidizer with a single unit to improve reliability and save weight.

Musk said the Merlin 1D engine weighs in at less than 1,000 pounds.

"If we don't have the world record for thrust-to-weight ratio, we're very close," Musk said.

Musk's rocket team modified the engine arrangement on the first stage, an effort he said allows engineers to remove aerodynamic manifolds around the perimeter of the rocket.

Earlier Falcon 9s featured a square "tic-tac-toe" layout of the nine first stage engines arrayed in a three-by-three pattern. The Falcon 9 v1.1 uses what SpaceX calls an "octaweb" design, with eight engines surrounding a center engine in a circular pattern.

According to Musk, engineers installed ablative bumpers between the engines to prevent a mishap with one engine from damaging another.

The first stage upgrades also include a heat shield and stretched propellant tanks for the Merlin engines' supply of kerosene and liquid oxygen.

"We put a stronger heat shield at the base of the rocket to better enable the first stage to survive the high dynamic pressure on re-entry," Musk said.

The new Falcon 9 first stage is 60 percent longer but has the same diameter as the Falcon 9's previous version, permitting the rocket to be fabricated with the same tooling already inside SpaceX's rocket factory in Hawthorne, Calif.

[igorvs]

Вечер

[Veganin]

А Ф-9 красивый.
Удачного полета, Сокол!

[igorvs]

Согласен! Удачного полета!

[Salo]

1930 GMT (2:30 p.m. EST)
 Kerosene and liquid oxygen are being pumped aboard the two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. Both stages burn the mix of liquid propellants to fuel 10 Merlin 1D engines.
SpaceX says the webcast of today's launch will begin at 4:25 p.m. EST (2125 GMT), about 41 minutes prior to liftoff, and continue through the first cutoff of the second stage engine about 10 minutes into the mission.