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Space-X Launches!

March 20th, 2007 by Chris

So after the initial retry, the Falcon 1 launched from Kwajalein Atoll. From what I could see on the live webcast (which Eric noted may actually be unprecedented), the vehicle launched, stage separation occurred, the fairing separated and the second stage burn was well underway…. then the webcast cut off. So I don’t really know what happened in the end.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Computer / Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Space-X Launches!”

  1. B.Ruhsam Says:
    March 20th, 2007 at 8:48 pm

    Jim and I were chatting on ICQ during launch. We noticed the precessing wobble prior to loss of signal. Alas.

  2. Chris Says:
    March 20th, 2007 at 10:01 pm

    Yes there did seem to be a rather disturbing lateral bump/wobble at stage separation also… but then things seemed to stabilize. There were a few times during the second stage burn where the background view of Earth seemed to adjust position then recover. There was also a rather apparent ablative tear from the Kestrel engine nozzle, but this may be entirely normal.

    As you noted, in the last 10-15 seconds there seemed to be a oscillation in the engine gimballing, which might indicate a partial loss of roll control… except that the background planet view was not spinning.
    I’m not sure how rigid their airframe is, but its possible that they were suffering from some relative dynamics between the inertial measurement unit and the control system… this was a well documented problem in the early space launches… so I’d have to think they would have considered this.

    No announcements from Space-X as of 11PM… I have to believe no-news is bad news.

    Regardless, they’ve successfully launched, separated and staged, which is far better than NASA did with their second rocket launch. Hopefully they will successfully recover the first stage and learn something from that also.

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