
SpaceX test firing the Falcon 9 - mladenkovacevic
http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php
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mladenkovacevic
Also just to manage some expectations.. the rocket will not fly.

This is just a firing of the engines I believe.

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reitzensteinm
They REALLY need to say that on the page. This has the opportunity to spread
virally and the crowd doesn't manage expectations very well :)

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lutorm
Which part about "STATIC FIRE TODAY" did you miss?

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rflrob
For an enthusiast, it may not be clear exactly what "Static Fire" means. While
Static means non-moving, it also means the hissing noise on mis-tuned analog
connections, and it's not inconceivable that it has another overloaded
meaning.

~~~
nknight
> _For an enthusiast_

I think you're misusing that word. A space flight and/or specifically SpaceX
enthusiast would recognize the terminology instantly.

Assuming you mean something like "amateur" or "layman", thinking anything
without the word "launch" in it is in fact a launch still seems a remarkable
leap of illogic.

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jvm
In my dialect, enthusiast == amateur and parent used it appropriately.

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nknight
I'm afraid your dialect is rather singular.

<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enthusiast>

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jvm
<http://thesaurus.com/browse/amateur>

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ChuckMcM
Linking to the press release : <http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20120427>

Would have prevented some confusion. The good news is that the test appears to
have gone as planned so they are still on track for the May 7th launch.

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jluxenberg
The mission to the ISS is scheduled for May 7th [1]. Exciting times!

[1]
[http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/30/11472882-wat...](http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/30/11472882-watch-
spacex-fire-falcons-engines?lite)

~~~
mladenkovacevic
Yes this was just a little tease before that grand event. I hope all goes
smoothly.

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mladenkovacevic
Countdown was halted at 47 seconds... Team reviewing data... Now clock reset
to 13 minutes. Test fire possibly aborted?

~~~
mattmillr
From their twitter: "May recycle and try again today, watch for update."

<http://twitter.com/#!/spacex>

~~~
reitzensteinm
Just in: Flight computer aborted rocket hold down firing. Anomaly addressed.
Cycling systems to countdown

Might not be long now?

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mukaiji
there are entrepreneurs. and then there is Elon Musk.

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jurjenh
Just my luck to switch to this and see the top comment:

    
    
      elonmusk Woohoo, rocket hold down firing completed and all looks good!!
      41 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite
    

bugger, I always seem to just miss the boat. Oh well, I guess it wasn't too
spectacular from the comments here.

~~~
danielweber
It fired for two seconds. There really wasn't going to be much to it anyway,
unless something went tragically wrong.

Still nice to see them proceeding through all the hoops, though.

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bodski
Countdown has resumed (~12 minutes)

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leot
Here it is:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJKs0dEbyEk>

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mladenkovacevic
Countdown sequence resumed! now at 13:50

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ndcrandall
Looks like they got over some of the difficulties

"Final Readines Poll in progress"

Countdown sequence resumed at T-13

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jcarreiro
I just tuned in, and it looks like the clock is still holding at T-13.

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fsckin
It's moving again... T-12

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jessriedel
Was the test successful? Rather underwhelming visually.

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mladenkovacevic
Hehe yeah not quite as thunderous as a Saturn :P But consider this like the
rocket version of a Prius :)

~~~
ChuckMcM
And with Saturn V once you turned it on, you were going to burn through all
the fuel whether that was a good idea or not :-)

~~~
mladenkovacevic
I can't imagine how the astronauts felt sitting on top of that behemoth. I
don't think I'm exaggerating at all by saying that I would've shit my space-
diapers long before the countdown reached zero.

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ChuckMcM
I saw a fascinating talk last week from the guy who heads up the NASA
vibration lab. According to him there is so much vibration of your head during
launch that its damn difficult to read the gauges much make intelligent
choices about what to do next. This was a real concern for the Constellation
program which had a lot of vibration issues.

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cdrxndr
The antici ...

pation.

~~~
greg_bt
Looks like its back on, countdown is at just under 12 minutes.

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cjdavis
T-00:03:30..

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stevejabs
That was it?

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pdubs
Yeah I kinda felt that too, but then I thought "that's a _spaceship_!"

