
Falcon 9 GEO Transfer Mission [video] - andymoe
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/?ses-8
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TallGuyShort
I'm pretty sure I just heard someone in the background saying over the radio,
"What you talkin' 'bout, Willis? We going up top. Totally different". Not what
I remember hearing as a kid during NASA launches :)

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AYBABTME
Second language speaker here, what does this sentence mean?

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ra88it
It is a humorous reference to an American sitcom from the 80's called
'Different Strokes'. A lighthearted way of expressing disagreement.

[edit: While I'm at it: the main character 'Arnold' would express disagreement
with his brother 'Willis' by saying "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?" something
like once per episode. This was a running joke for the sitcom.]

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bri3d
Aborted again due to a flight computer bringup issue (again); looks like they
might not meet their window tonight :(

EDIT: I think the most precise real cause heard was "abnormal data," actually.
My bad and thanks to "kindredlight."

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ra88it
When can we confirm that they missed their window?

(Edit: new window is Thanksgiving day, one minute later than today. Might have
to stream this one to the Apple TV for the whole family…)

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nakkiel
It's been called off. Next launch window in three days, one minute later than
today's window.

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ars_technician
Entertainment during Thanksgiving dinner. :-)

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martythemaniak
I played a few games of Kerbal Space program recently, so I can understand
what's happening a little better now.

I'd love to have a place somewhere where I can "watch" launches in a way
similar to KSP's map view. You would be able to see the rocket, including it's
essential info (altitude, speed, the ball thing) and also be able to see the
manoeuvres they do.

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daeken
I'd settle for just seeing things like their delta-V maps. It's one thing for
me to make my own for KSP missions, it's another to see one for a real world
situation.

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unspecified
While I'm a mere Kerbalnaut myself, here is some napkin math that _almost_
checks out. For a GTO payload, the Falcon 9
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/falcon-9-v11.html](http://www.spaceflight101.com/falcon-9-v11.html)
has:

    
    
      S1 Mass full: 490,300kg (that's both stages, fuel in both, plus the fairing and payload)
      S1 Mass empty: 100,300kg (S1 mass minus stage one fuel)
      S1 ISP: 282s (sea level) to 311s (vacuum)
    
      S2 Mass full: 82,300kg (second stage, fuel, fairing and payload)
      S2 Mass empty: 11,500kg (S2 mass minus stage two fuel)
      S2 ISP: 340s (unspecified)
    

According to this delta-v calculator
[http://www.strout.net/info/science/delta-v/](http://www.strout.net/info/science/delta-v/),
that would give delta-v values of:

    
    
      S1 delta-v: 4388m/s to 4840m/s
      S2 delta-v: 6562m/s
    
      Total delta-v: 10.8km/s to 11.3km/s
    

For GTO, Wikipedia
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta-v](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta-v)
gives a delta-v value of 11.8km/s to 12.5km/s, so these numbers fall just
under the low end of that range. However, maybe the highly elliptical orbit
that this launch is aiming for is slightly more efficient than whatever orbit
is assumed for that chart on Wikipedia.

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ssewell
In orbit 1/4 the distance to the moon? Wow! I didn't realize we put satellites
into orbit at that height.

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peeters
We put lots of them up there!
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit)

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kindredlight
Geosynchronous is nowhere near 1/4 distance to the moon. This sat is
temporarily going to a highly eccentric transfer orbit on its way to GEO.

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ssewell
Yep. Keyword is "transfer"
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_transfer_orbit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_transfer_orbit)

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mnw21cam
Looks like a bi-elliptic transfer to me. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-
elliptic_transfer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-elliptic_transfer)

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ramidarigaz
Countdown aborted at T-6:11. Looks like they still have some issues to
resolve.

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Symmetry
I think I heard them mention a computer that hadn't come up properly. Still,
they have a reputation for fixing things quickly.

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Shivetya
I thoroughly enjoyed watching their first mission where their programmers made
changes while the craft was sitting outside of the ISS because the position
markers weren't being spotted as they expected. They do have an amazing
ability to change on the fly, not what you expect from a space program except
in SciFi

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bri3d
It looks like the countdown overlay is polling every 1 second but is off from
the backing timer - some displayed "seconds" last more than a second while the
next lasts much less.

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ProCynic
[http://www.waitingforfriday.com/index.php/Vetinari's_Clock](http://www.waitingforfriday.com/index.php/Vetinari's_Clock)

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MrZongle2
Aborted for today. Next launch window in.... 3 days it sounded like?

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ramidarigaz
Well, I know what I'll be doing right before Thanksgiving dinner :)

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paragraft
Why is the countdown stuck at T-00:13:00? Shouldn't it be counting down?

Edit: Nvm, saw the overlay saying they're on a hold.

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gilgoomesh
There's a valve on the first stage that they're concerned about (looking at a
"signature" problem, whatever that means). They think they can resolve their
concerns and still make the launch window (which is a little over an hour
long).

Clock is running again now. Delay of roughly 20 mins to 22:55 UTC launch.

Edit: so they counted down to T-6min then stopped and reset again to T-13mins
due to a first stage internal power problem. They're waiting on trajectory
coordination before trying a third time today.

Edit 2: and they've aborted again at T-3:40 due to what looks like a LOX
problem. That'll be it for today; the launch window has elapsed.

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lukateake
They will try again on Thanksgiving (Thursday) at 22:48 UTC.

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bond
Here comes their favorite word..."nominal"... :)

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soperj
I hate that this requires flash. Anyone who can continue updating for us that
can't watch, that'd be great. Thanks :)

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S201
There's a live update thread on reddit.
[http://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/1rfc17/rspacex_falco...](http://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/1rfc17/rspacex_falcon_9_v11_ses8_official_launch/)

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soperj
thanks to the both of you :)

