2nd launch window tomorrow, i'm guessing approximately the same times?

12/4/2014 10:08:53 AM

How are they gonna go to mars if they can't launch during a little breeze?

12/4/2014 10:25:00 AM

flight delays are very normal, and launching during ideal circumstances minimizes risk. a gust of wind probably wouldn't cause a launch failure, but better to take that variable out of the equation all together to improve odds of a nominal launch.

12/4/2014 10:30:03 AM

We could spend more time/money to develop systems to counteract the wind.

Or we could just be fucking patient.

12/4/2014 10:38:34 AM

ITT: Armchair rocket scientists who think they know more about shooting things into space than NASA.

You guys really like to trivialize things. Look at the side profile of this vehicle. It is huge. A little wind over a large surface area means a lot of force. Before the engines fire, the umbilicals detach but the vehicle is still physically held down to the pad by hold down posts. That makes it essentially a cantilevered beam experiencing a lot of lateral stress flexing the vehicle. When the hold down posts detach the whole structure undergoes a crazy amount of dynamic oscillation that can lead to serious problems during the first few seconds of flight.

On top of that there is a very specific keepout zone on the launch tower. The flame trench of the pad only handles a certain amount of engine gimbal so if all that wind force pushes it into the keepout zone any number of things sticking out from the tower can smack against any part of the rocket causing who knows what to happen.

This is something that every launch vehicle ever has to deal with so if you are able to solve that problem you'll be doing a great favor to all of mankind.

12/4/2014 10:41:06 AM

I watched this launch get scrubbed on my phone while taking a shit at work. We are the future people.

12/4/2014 10:43:49 AM

Obviously the surface area of a Mars lander won't be as large, but how are they planning for accounting for wind/weather on any Mars craft trying to get back into orbit?

12/4/2014 10:44:55 AM

winds on mars do get pretty high, but mars also has less than 1% of atmospheric pressure than Earth does at sea level.

12/4/2014 10:49:26 AM

Chill people...the Russians are keeping close eyes on this.

12/4/2014 10:57:54 AM

A lander on Mars wouldn't be taking off from a pad and it would have a lot smaller profile so wind wouldn't be as big an issue. It would obviously still be a concern since winds on Mars are crazy high but a smaller spacecraft like that would have a lot more maneuverability and control options.

[Edited on December 4, 2014 at 10:58 AM. Reason : ]

12/4/2014 10:57:59 AM

Speaking of wind on mars, i'm reading a really good novel now called "The Martian: A Novel"... it's about a near-future mission to mars that goes wrong and the aftermath. It's not that long of a read and only 2 or 3 bucks on Kindle.

12/4/2014 11:09:43 AM

Launch Window of 0705-0944E tomorrow

12/4/2014 7:50:16 PM

Quote :

"ITT: Armchair rocket scientists who think they know more about shooting things into space than NASA"

Man, I was just joking. I know nothing about shooting things into space. Well, I did build model rockets in 4th and 5th grade, so I'm kind of an expert.

12/4/2014 8:17:14 PM

try SCE to AUX

12/4/2014 8:17:55 PM

^you are quite the steely-eyed missile man.

12/4/2014 8:33:17 PM

You have to be really careful when dealing with technology from the 1960s

12/4/2014 8:50:09 PM

Coverage back up... this thing looks beautiful the way it's being lit at night.

12/5/2014 6:35:13 AM

Thinks are looking good for launch this morning so far. about 10 minutes to go.

12/5/2014 6:52:53 AM

2 minutes!

12/5/2014 7:03:04 AM

1 minute!

12/5/2014 7:04:18 AM

Go baby go!

12/5/2014 7:05:27 AM

I hope some news agency got a liftoff vid, as the whole feed cut out :/

and nasatv's site is still crashing

ustream is doing a little btter.

[Edited on December 5, 2014 at 7:11 AM. Reason : .]

12/5/2014 7:10:28 AM

I got the whole stream, but it was cloudy so it was harder to track by camera.

12/5/2014 7:12:31 AM

Ya when I got it back on ustream all you could see was a glow in the cloud

12/5/2014 7:14:35 AM

my stream cut off at t-2 seconds ugh. i had a back up though.

12/5/2014 7:16:44 AM

but so far so good!

12/5/2014 7:17:52 AM

so they just listed the tracking stations, said Diego Garcia, and some island in the pacific, but not Canberra. Thought we used Canberra for just about everything still?

12/5/2014 7:22:46 AM

not sure but this mission is at a much different inclination than the International Space Station (this one does not go as far North) so maybe that's the difference.

12/5/2014 8:18:43 AM

Both shuttle and EFT-1 launched with what we call a "Due East" intended insertion orbit. This is an inclination angle of about 28 degrees. Although I think EFT-1 is actually different by like 0.4 degrees, so not much.

12/5/2014 8:25:59 AM

Never mind, this one wasn't going due east. Shuttle missions are only at the 8 degree orbit when it isn't an expedition mission.

Sidenote, nice picture taken by a friend from the causeway:


[Edited on December 5, 2014 at 9:04 AM. Reason : ]

12/5/2014 9:04:01 AM

am I wrong that the ISS has an inclination of about 52 degrees? obviously the shuttle missions to other destinations wouldn't launch with that inclination, but for ISS missions wouldn't they have had to launch differently?

12/5/2014 9:06:31 AM

It did it's second burn about 40 minutes ago... on it's way to it's apogee* (highest point in it's orbit) which is much higher than any manned (or man-capable) vehicle has gone since 1972 (Apollo 17, last human mission to moon)

it will then head down to a high velocity re-entry and spashdown around 11:30. A drone is already in the pacific with cameras to try and capture video of it falling under parachutes.

[Edited on December 5, 2014 at 9:43 AM. Reason : *is it technically still called an apogee when the perigee brings it back down to Earth?]

12/5/2014 9:41:31 AM

Passing peak altitude. Will start to gain velocity as it falls back to earth from here until atmosphere (should hit atmosphere around 11:15ish.)

12/5/2014 10:11:05 AM

^ I guess it is. Apogee is just any high spot in an orbit relative to a body. Normally you just dont have a negative perigee.

12/5/2014 10:12:51 AM

Predicted 8.2 G's during reentry!

12/5/2014 10:14:42 AM

stand by for seperation

sucks we are not recovering the rocket motor

12/5/2014 10:27:47 AM

they are about to hit the space bar! [/kerbal]

12/5/2014 10:28:51 AM

so Im watching the twitter #nasatv feed on ustream along with the vid feed, funny as theres been so many ksp references made.


side question, anyone know of a roadmap for future orion test flights up to a manned flight(s)?

I know comparisons have been made of this flight to apollo 4, wanted to see if there were other milestones to be done/met.

[Edited on December 5, 2014 at 10:50 AM. Reason : .]

12/5/2014 10:49:44 AM

SLS will carry orion on an unmanned trip to a very high retrograde orbit of the moon ~2018

12/5/2014 10:54:15 AM

~12 minutes till reentry

12/5/2014 11:06:24 AM

fucking stream died again

12/5/2014 11:11:38 AM

hasnt died for me

which site you using? I gave up on nasatv's own site. ustream has been perfect except for the at launch issue.

12/5/2014 11:13:37 AM

got it back up.

12/5/2014 11:16:15 AM

Quote :

"Orion will only be a small part of the package that eventually goes to Mars. There are additional modules in development. After launch on its way to Mars, Orion will dock to a larger habitation module (think something like an ISS module) that the crew will live in until they get to Mars. There will also be a lander module which might be sent to Mars orbit in advance - before the Orion module and the crew launch. Orion is like the brain center of the system. It's also like a lifeboat with many automated emergency return home systems. The idea with Orion is to take the lessons learned from Apollo and the Shuttle Program and use them to develop a safe, reliable, repeatable command module that can be used for any number different missions. Apollo and the shuttle were never extremely safe. Orion will be far safer. Sorta like the difference between an experimental jet fighter and a Boeing 737. Or like the difference between a Formula 1 racecar and a Toyota Corolla. A fully studied, fully known quantity that can be produced in numbers and work correctly every time."

http://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/2ocvsx/orion_has_successfully_launched/cmm0sl0

I didn't know this, i had been wondering how they were doing this for Mars.

12/5/2014 11:19:05 AM

REENTRY!

12/5/2014 11:19:22 AM

LOS!

12/5/2014 11:20:08 AM

Dammit people! I have an ecology test in 40 mins and can't be distracted by your rocketeering shenanigans!

12/5/2014 11:20:53 AM

^^^^Theyve showed mockup pictures today on the coverage of a possible space station orbiting mars with a lander.

[Edited on December 5, 2014 at 11:21 AM. Reason : fix ^]

12/5/2014 11:21:04 AM

showing now a picture with thrusters firing. hope we get some good pictures of the reentry itself

hockey roman, its all over in next 5 mins, one way or another.

[Edited on December 5, 2014 at 11:23 AM. Reason : .]

12/5/2014 11:22:22 AM

can see it on the UAV!

12/5/2014 11:24:54 AM