
Falcon 9 GEO Transfer Mission - revelation
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/?2
======
delsarto
Aborted second time -0:48; engines didn't start this time and someone on the
live stream called "abort"

listened back to the stream

"abort abort abort - props con(?) abort"

at about 1h:58m in the stream

EDIT : announcer did say that engineering stopped it because they hadn't done
their review. Maybe the "abort abort abort" wasn't as dramatic as it sounded

"We called manual abort. Better to be paranoid and wrong. Bringing rocket down
to borescope engines ... Elon Musk (@elonmusk) "

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/statuses/406209289494462464](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/statuses/406209289494462464)

~~~
jrockway
I believe they call it the "net", not the live stream. What is to us a "live
stream" is to them their real life!

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deletes
Abort $%&#!. Aborted on time T+2 seconds. At least it is safe. Shutdown was
made after ignition.

Update: Problem was the slow ramp up of the thrust of the rockets. Engineers
are looking at the data. Rocket is on stand-by to launch today, but the
commentator sounded skeptical.

Update: Clock was restarted with T-00:25:10, still some problems to resolve.

Update: Aborted on time T-48 seconds. Done for today. The rocket will be
inspected and another launch attempt will be in a few days.

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sillysaurus2
Thanks for submitting this now rather than 15 minutes from now! Moments like
these are historic, and it's wonderful to experience this in realtime rather
than watching a replay.

T minus 10min. Go SpaceX!

EDIT: It's impressive they were able to abort safely after ignition. That's
historically rare, isn't it?

~~~
ronnier
Looks like they'll make a second attempt. He just said "resetting to t-13
minutes"

~~~
topbanana
The operations team are getting ready in case the engineering team give the
green light

~~~
ceejayoz
Musk seems to think they're going forward.

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406194506011525120](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406194506011525120)

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oliwary
Elon Musk just tweeted: "Launch aborted by autosequence due to slower than
expected thrust ramp. Seems ok on closer inspection. Cycling countdown."

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406194506011525120](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406194506011525120)

~~~
ceejayoz
Countdown just started up for a 6:44 launch time.

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philwebster
Maybe a knowledgeable person can answer this question: What is the white stuff
fluttering down from the rocket?

~~~
TallGuyShort
If you watch some of the video footage from Saturn V launches you see some
fairly large sheets of ice. Quite impressive scale compared to this!

~~~
Crito
The super slow motion footage is _fantastic_ :
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HcnmthntUo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HcnmthntUo)

~~~
aninhumer
This version has an interesting commentary instead of silly music:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPW7ZqtW5U4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPW7ZqtW5U4)

The footage is indeed amazing though.

~~~
DanBC
[http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/rocketry/home/what...](http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/rocketry/home/what-
was-the-saturn-v-58.html#.UpiP3tJdWOE)

> The Saturn V rocket was 111 meters (363 feet) tall, about the height of a
> 36-story-tall building, and 18 meters (60 feet) taller than the Statue of
> Liberty. Fully fueled for liftoff, the Saturn V weighed 2.8 million
> kilograms (6.2 million pounds), the weight of about 400 elephants. The
> rocket generated 34.5 million newtons (7.6 million pounds) of thrust at
> launch, creating more power than 85 Hoover Dams. A car that gets 48
> kilometers (30 miles) to the gallon could drive around the world around 800
> times with the amount of fuel the Saturn V used for a lunar landing mission.
> It could launch about 118,000 kilograms (130 tons) into Earth orbit. That's
> about as much weight as 10 school buses. The Saturn V could launch about
> 43,500 kilograms (50 tons) to the moon. That's about the same as four school
> buses.

To get some rough idea of scale, this blueprint shows a person near the engine
/ nozzle / thing.

[http://jleslie48.com/0206pr/saturn5allclean2.jpg](http://jleslie48.com/0206pr/saturn5allclean2.jpg)

------
delsarto
Just said that they're putting a bit more fuel on in the hopes of trying again
if the engineers can figure out what went wrong, their window is about an
hour.

Also said that if not today, they have more or less the same window tomorrow

EDIT: someone just said starting the clock momentarily ... looks like they
might be going again

------
j15e
> Increasing helium spin start pressure. Probably <50% chance of passing all
> aborts, but worth a try. Countdown resuming ...

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406205240040771584](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406205240040771584)

------
Aaronn
Can anyone explain what happened?

~~~
revelation
At T+0, the flight computer ignites the engines, but the vehicle doesn't
liftoff yet. Instead, it is held down for two seconds while the flight
computer verifies that all engines are working correctly (to prevent blowing
up both the vehicle and everything in its surroundings).

It seems that the checks failed here and the flight computer aborted launch at
T+00:01.

~~~
jrockway

      if enginesOperational {
              // TODO(rocketman): Remove this before the actual launch
              panic("bail out for testing")
      }

~~~
toomuchtodo
I imagined this in William Shatner's voice.

~~~
revelation
Then you will probably enjoy this exchange:

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406211326282055681](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/406211326282055681)

~~~
toomuchtodo
Brilliant!

------
Narkov
Somone must have had their finger on F8 when it was starting. Now in safe
mode.

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loceng
Countdown clock reset! T minus 25min!

------
devonbarrett
>If launch aborts, we will bring the rocket down for engine inspection, so
probably a few days before next attempt

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/statuses/406205904141697024](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/statuses/406205904141697024)

~~~
Tuna-Fish
Just aborted.

------
123undefeated
A Great Education Here! Space the beginning of an infinite destination. Some
day we will move beyond a geosynchronous transfer orbit because no one have
measured the equator of the universe :) as of yet :)

------
vassvdm
Elon Musk: "If launch aborts, we will bring the rocket down for engine
inspection, so probably a few days before next attempt"

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matponta
Just love to see things like this. Makes me wonder what it was like to look at
those huge rockets for the apollo missions...

~~~
stan_rogers
I was eight, and it was awesome. And I don't mean the kind of "awesome" people
use these days when they find out the fries don't cost extra; I mean the
"inspiring actual jaw-dropping awe" kind we used back then. Scale made no
sense; it was huge in ways that rockets (who hasn't fired a rocket of some
kind as a kid?) shouldn't be, and your brain told you that it wasn't up to
walking speed yet when it cleared the tower, so it was definitely coming back
down any second now. Unfortunately, the best I could come up with at the time
was "ho... ly... cow!!!"

~~~
hga
I'm about your age and, yeah ... at this remove I'd use the word majestic, how
the huge Saturn V stack would _slowly_ start climbing and accelerating.

Compared to later programs, there's also a "wow" in that NASA was "going to
put some men on the moon", vs. the "space truck" paradigm of the Shuttle and
other launches which at best send probes to far off planets and such. A
different scale in every way.

------
revelation
We're past T-3:40 where the previous attempt failed.

Edit: Flight computer has aborted after engine fireup.

~~~
TallGuyShort
They say that after every failure. It's part of the abort sequence that they
confirm - not necessarily the cause of the abort.

~~~
revelation
Sure, but in this case it was the actual flight computer that aborted the
launch. No human had a part in it :)

~~~
TallGuyShort
Oh I see what you're saying. That's cool!

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coldcode
Clearly this is rocket science.

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soperj
I don't think the launch window has closed yet though, has it?

~~~
deletes
Caster said they have about 65 minute window today. Another attempt tomorrow
if today won't succeed.

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biolime
Looks like it failed :(

Edit: Failed was the wrong word, aborted is the correct term.

~~~
pbreit
By failed you mean successfully aborted.

~~~
lockmovdwordptr
Let's not exaggerate. It's impressive that their self-test could abort
successfully, yes. Though it's not certain yet whether there was anything
wrong and it _should_ have aborted.

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matponta
nothing, another abort.

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jngreenlee
Abort abort abort

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Gnewt
Another abort at about T-00:00:50 by prop.

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soperj
Hopefully it's a go this time!

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bencoder
stream repeatedly stops for me :(

~~~
TallGuyShort
I had a similar problem with Firefox on Linux. Chrome worked better. Possibly
the version of Flash they bundle...

------
j15e
calling `ABORT ABORT ABORT`

------
Yetanfou
Aborted at +00:02

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lotso
Aborted. Bummer.

------
abduhl
aborted at 0

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Kequc
Who is that announcer guy they keep using? He just drones on and on while a
hot chick sits opposite him looking mortified.

~~~
dlgeek
His title was Falcon 9 Program Manager, but I don't remember his name.

