

First Privately Developed Liquid Fuel Rocket to Launch Today - lupin_sansei
http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=46
Web cast here http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php
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ashleyw
Sounds fun, some cool facts here: <http://www.spacex.com/falcon1.php>

It makes me wonder how you deal with something like this. If something like
this happened in Russia (or "somewhere"), and somehow the US didn't know about
it, they would have jets up in the air and the whole country put on red alert
as soon as they find out about a rocket being launched, I expect. Does SpaceX
have to send letters out to the major nations of the world, or something? Or
have I got all this out of movies and there's no real way to track recently
launched missiles?

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quickpost
There are definitely ways to track recently launched rockets. See here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-Based_Infrared_System>

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lupin_sansei
Oh dear. "the flight of our first stage, with the new Merlin 1C engine that
will be used in Falcon 9, was picture perfect. Unfortunately, a problem
occurred with stage separation, causing the stages to be held together. This
is under investigation and I will send out a note as soon as we understand
exactly what happened. "

Video here: <http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1299>

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Prrometheus
They aborted the launch. Apparently they are taking a cautious approach to
launching rockets, which is good.

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gibsonf1
Look back quickly, as they restarted and have 4 minutes to launch right now.
<http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php>

Update: Rocket has launched :)

Update: Report of an anomaly on the vehicle - screen black

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zandorg
How depressing. I wait all night (UK time till 5am), watch it climb to 50km,
and it goes and blacks out!

I hope this turns out okay.

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zandorg
I guess the headline's correct. They did 'launch', it just didn't finish doing
so!

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mkn
The launch is currently scheduled for 20:00 PDT.

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softbuilder
The explosion is scheduled for 20:03.

Bets? Any gamblers in the house?

Edit: Ok, let's say T + 3 since they're having trouble getting it up.

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Eliezer
Voted up for being right. (However sadly.)

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softbuilder
Thanks. And it _is_ sad. I was pretty much hoping to just be a smartass. I
love the new space race, however slow it seems to be playing out. I went to
the first SS1 launch. But traditional private rockets have a terrible history.
I think Rutan's way is best.

