
The First Falcon 9 Launch - ugh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NREJEZ5eluk
======
ihodes
EDIT:

IT LAUNCHED! I can't contain my excitement. That vehicle will transport
astronauts to space stations (and beyond?) in the Dragon capsule.

At 11:48, stage separation confirmed, and 2nd stage ignition as well. So, so
amazing!

At 11:54, Falcon 9 achieved earth orbit.

The video signal has now been lost (too far away, apparently!)

So, so cool.

\--------

From the website:

    
    
        It looks as if we may have experienced a shutdown
        condition just after ignition. In these situations the
        vehicle puts itself into “safe mode”. There may be the
        chance to “recycle” the count and try again.
    

The reason appears to be (as of 10:57)

    
    
        We are hearing from Mission Control that the pad abort 
        involved an out-of-limit startup parameter.
    

It looks like they're going to try it again, but that was from 10:30 Pacific
Time. (Edit: they say they are, as of 10:58.)

At 11:26 (PST), a bird flew by… still waiting on "T-zero time from Mission
Control."

Retry scheduled for 11:45 (PST)!

Systems checks looking good (11:41 PST).

It's the little kid inside of me, I know, but I want SpaceX to succeed. Their
goals have been dreams of mine all my life.

~~~
kellishaver
That was so awesome. My 8yr old was jumping up and down, cheering. It was just
a beautiful launch.

~~~
jacquesm
I feel like I'm 4 all over again myself and watching the moonshot on our
grainy black and white tv...

What a fantastic day this is. History was made today, I know there will be
plenty of people to try to diminish the achievement by saying 'we did all this
in the 60's', but what matters here is that it is not some government entity
doing it, it's a company doing it and where there is one there'll be more.

Space is finally really being opened up, and with a bit of luck the pace will
now accelerate.

I'm all for a second space race.

~~~
kellishaver
I completely agree. And also, yes, we did do it in the 60's and it was an
amazing feat of science/math/engineering to have done so. But what really gets
me... look at the technology we have available to us now compared to what it
was 50 years ago. Once we get over the initial hurdles of making this work
with modern technology in the private sector, things have changed and improved
so much that the level of innovation is really just going to skyrocket, I
think (pun fully intended!). It is extremely exciting that they did it now,
but what's even more exciting is the potential of where this can now go.

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kellishaver
Ooh, I would have missed this were it not for the delay. Now I can watch.

Also, here's the instruction manual!
<http://www.spacex.com/Falcon9UsersGuide_2009.pdf>

The prospect of real, affordable, commercial spaceflight is very exciting to
me. I feel like a little kid again.

~~~
mkramlich
user guide, nice. hope they have a Python API!

~~~
watmough
The Houston Python users group has some NASA / Constellation guys... I suspect
they might have a Python api.

------
MikeCapone
Don't despair SpaceX fans, it took 4 tries to get Falcon 1 into orbit.

 _Warning, going to plug my blog_

I wrote something about it back when it happened:

[http://michaelgr.com/2008/09/30/spacex-falcon-1-rocket-
reach...](http://michaelgr.com/2008/09/30/spacex-falcon-1-rocket-reaches-
orbit-on-4th-try/)

------
JoeAltmaier
Now I have to rush off and watch a robot a mile below the ocean surface, 50
miles out to sea, attempt a heroic effort to cap a catastrophic oil spill. Ho
hum.

~~~
stuff4ben
These are amazing times indeed!

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ErrantX
There she goes :) I always feel like a little kid watching rocket launches,
only now I want to be a Rocket Engineer instead of an Astronaut (ok, as well
as).

(on a side note: am I right in thinking the gas venting from the side is
pressure release?)

~~~
jacquesm
Both the first and second stage have venting ports.

------
mhansen
Video without the 'buffering':
<http://www.spacex.com/multimedia/videos.php?id=51>

------
blizkreeg
For my money, Elon Musk is _the_ entrepreneur. Gotta admire this man.

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pcestrada
From Wikipedia: "Musk has described himself as a workaholic who routinely puts
in 100-hour work weeks, primarily on his businesses Tesla Motors and SpaceX.
In his rare free time, he says he plays with his five children"

Guess that's what it takes to reach the stars.

------
gfodor
The audio just announced they have time today for another attempt. Yay.

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Jasber
They re-started the countdown timer: "New takeoff time is 2:45 EST"

------
timtrueman
Audio feed of what's going on:
<http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?feedId=705>

------
phreeza
I wonder when Elon Musk will be the richest man alive. Maybe sometime around
2020 if he plays his cards right?

~~~
huherto
But it is more fun to see him do with just a few hundred million what huge
corporation couldn't do with a lot more money.

------
Alex63
Incredible! It reminded me of watching the Apollo launches when I was a kid.
The web video feed was fantastic - amazing to be able to watch the Earth
falling away in real-time.

Would be interesting to know if the roll that was occurring as the ship
reached orbit was intentional.

------
Keyframe
Awesome news! I wonder if there are viable alternatives to launch against
chemical rockets? Also, bitgravity sucks big time, couldn't get a frame from
them, let alone a stream.

~~~
Zaak
Nope, there are no currently viable alternatives to chemical rockets. There
are possibilities such as nuclear rockets and space elevators which might be
viable in the future. A space elevator mainly requires advances in ultra-
strong cable materials. A nuclear rocket would require a drastic change in
government policies and public attitudes about nuclear technology.

------
barmstrong
Love how you can hear a guy in the background: "that's fuckin awesome".

Can you imagine that sneaking into a NASA launch? Love it!!

------
joshsharp
That video is painful to watch, I don't suppose anyone has found a better
version elsewhere?

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enntwo
It just spun around a bunch and then the feed cut. Is the show over or did
something happen?

~~~
fhars
Yes, show is over, the falcon is behind the horizon.

------
czstrong
As of 2:30 Eastern the count resumed and is at 14 minutes.

------
jacquesm
Wow that was so close...

I hope they'll get another chance today.

~~~
ugh
Perhaps we should explain that for all those hitting the link and being
confused: The launch was aborted in – literally – the last second. Maybe they
can try again today, maybe not.

– edit: They will try again today. Reason for the abort was “an out-of-limit
startup parameter.”

~~~
jacquesm
It looks like they will re-try, the counter was just reset to t-15:00 again,
but holding for now.

Apparently no engines actually fired so they're cleared to re-try. Wonder what
the cause of the shut-down was, but shut-downs are better than on the pad
explosions I guess...

------
mikeknoop
Does the Bitgravity stream have audio?

~~~
ugh
Yep, it’s just silent most of the time.

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jacquesm
Yay! :) :) :)

------
jacquesm
keeping toes _and_ fingers crossed...

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mkramlich
I'm investing in asteroid mining _now_...

