^^ HEY! You stop dissing weather talk!!

That said, this is beginning to try my consciousness! Damn you Florida and your Land/Sea Breeze convection patterns! (Unless this is just leftovers from the frontal boundary that moved through yesterday)

[Edited on October 28, 2009 at 11:04 AM. Reason : .]

10/28/2009 11:01:00 AM

YOU people

10/28/2009 11:03:29 AM

11:16 count, launch at 11:20 now

10/28/2009 11:03:36 AM

11:20...sigh

10/28/2009 11:03:59 AM

10/28/2009 11:05:15 AM

For serious, what would happen if they just launched the damn thing right now?

10/28/2009 11:09:33 AM

i guess they want to be able to collect meaningful data, and that is easier when the weather is less of a variable.

10/28/2009 11:10:23 AM

ah, new launch at 11:30 now

10/28/2009 11:11:17 AM

^^i guess that makes sense

10/28/2009 11:13:02 AM

Quote :

"For serious, what would happen if they just launched the damn thing right now?"

Triboelectrification rule

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2009/10/what-is-the-triboelectrification-rule-anyway.html

10/28/2009 11:13:47 AM

The cloud coverage is the problem. For normal launch vehicles, clouds aren't really an issue. Ares I-X doesn't have a static shield though, so if it goes through a cloud there is a small chance of static discharge. There are TONS of crazy sensitive sensors all over the thing so even a small static discharge could severely mess things up.

10/28/2009 11:14:16 AM

OMG a bird just flew in front of the camera...scrub the launch!!!

10/28/2009 11:17:23 AM

^Even if a bird didn't fly into the field of view we should probably scrub it just in case.




LATEST UPDATE from weather, estimated that we'll have 10 mins of green time at 11:30 and are still go. Currently they are looking to possibly move the launch up by 2 mins.

10/28/2009 11:20:18 AM

don't launches usually take about 8 mins from lift off to clear the atmosphere?

10/28/2009 11:21:18 AM

Ares I-X is not clearing the atmosphere. It is an unmanned prototype just going into the upper atmosphere to gather various data.



ALL SYSTEMS ARE GREEN WE ARE CLEAR TO LAUNCH IN A FEW MINS. heading to the conference room.

10/28/2009 11:23:09 AM

clear to launch!

10/28/2009 11:23:12 AM

Sweet Jesus. Let's roll!

10/28/2009 11:23:46 AM

10/28/2009 11:25:20 AM

Is everybody watching this on the NASA channel?

It's on the small screen on CNN - maybe they'll have it in HD?

[Edited on October 28, 2009 at 11:28 AM. Reason : HD?]

10/28/2009 11:26:56 AM

i'm watching online.

10/28/2009 11:27:18 AM

4 minutes and counting

10/28/2009 11:28:04 AM

HD on Fox News

10/28/2009 11:29:15 AM

wow, my TV channel is like a full minute ahead of the internet stream

[Edited on October 28, 2009 at 11:29 AM. Reason : 1:20 time difference]

10/28/2009 11:29:22 AM

yea the online stream kinda sucks :-P wish it was hd

10/28/2009 11:29:46 AM

I am watching online because my frugal self ditched cable. It wouldn't matter anyways because TWC out here in Burlington, in their infinite lack of wisdom, doesn't carry the NASA channel. . . I do wish they had an HD feed though

10/28/2009 11:30:26 AM

holy shit that thing cleared the tower fast.

10/28/2009 11:31:07 AM

Mach 2 at 60 seconds, 8 miles downrange

Mach 4 at 100 seconds, 20 miles up, 32 miles out



[Edited on October 28, 2009 at 11:34 AM. Reason : ]

10/28/2009 11:31:50 AM

Uh oh!

phew. . they feed cut out!

[Edited on October 28, 2009 at 11:34 AM. Reason : .]

10/28/2009 11:34:21 AM

Quote :

"I do wish they had an HD feed though"

I found it in HD on FoxNews. CNN may have shown it also.

10/28/2009 11:36:40 AM

did he just clip his tie? haha

10/28/2009 11:40:32 AM

why'd they cut off that man's tie?

10/28/2009 11:41:20 AM

tradition apparently for new flight directors.

10/28/2009 11:44:19 AM

The stage separation looked a little funky but that wasn't really the main part of the test so it doesn't really matter. It was a beautiful launch though, the entire time there wasn't even any roll meaning the flight control system did it's job perfectly.

10/28/2009 11:46:46 AM

Hopefully somewhere Carl Sagan is smiling down on us. And with that, I am going to bed! Thank you, Wraith for edumucating us armchair astronauts!

10/28/2009 11:49:37 AM

so it's okay that the thing separated all crazy like that?

10/28/2009 11:51:44 AM

yea that shit was kinda wierd. I thought the upper stage was weighted so it was supposed to continue on the same trajectory.

10/28/2009 11:53:43 AM

I just talked to my friend down at KSC, I was asking him about the stage separation and he said that it was perfectly fine. The upper stage was not powered in this case, it was just a point mass. Normally there is a J-2X engine on the upper stage as well as a number of other small engines. Only a few were actually used in this case, and as shaggy pointed out, the upper stage was essentially just a dummy weight used to simulate the shape and size of what it actually will be. I do have confirmation that the upper stage engine simulator was cleared with no hitches though so even though it looked funky it did what it was supposed to do.

10/28/2009 11:57:45 AM

it did look strange, and i liked how right when it separated the video froze up.

10/28/2009 12:19:00 PM

i thought it was cool how you could see it breaking the sound barrier. (at least that's what I think it was that i saw.)

10/28/2009 12:20:24 PM

Waste of money.

10/28/2009 12:28:01 PM

Waste of money.

10/28/2009 12:34:55 PM

ignorance

10/28/2009 12:55:42 PM

^^ ignorance

10/28/2009 1:03:08 PM

Hey! Did you guys hear? The United States just spent the entire budget of my country to send a dummy payload into space, with the hopes of one day visiting a dead planet! I'm so excited!

10/28/2009 1:14:22 PM

^ignorance

10/28/2009 1:15:56 PM

Well, he's only 3 years old. And very hungry, I'd imagine.

10/28/2009 1:23:17 PM

Hey guys, we're the microbes in the water of Cape Canaveral that will save the human race when, through massive government research diverted from NASA, we're finally discovere......OH SHIT look at that bottle rocket go! Aww, it's over now and accomplished nothing. Sure is lonely here.

10/28/2009 1:28:32 PM

Hey guys we heard that NASA spent $16 billion this year to shoot off some stupid rocket. We could have really used that money! MEANWHILE, we're expected to kill towelheads with a measly $1.5 trillion every year! It's impossible! Have you seen how well they're equipped? They have some really freaking sweet sandals! The American people need to get their priorities straight!

[Edited on October 28, 2009 at 1:55 PM. Reason : .]

10/28/2009 1:47:32 PM

So you've decided to come into the thread, make incorrect assumptions and accusations, then for some reason try and blame NASA for the war in the middle east. Well done, troll.

10/28/2009 1:52:43 PM

I don't see any innacuracies. Manned spaceflight is showboating, not research. It's a waste of money. Money desperately needed to actually solve the world's problems. Or kill towelheads.

[Edited on October 28, 2009 at 1:58 PM. Reason : .]

10/28/2009 1:54:49 PM