Live SpaceX rocket launch in one hour

[Picasso]

SpaceX is doing a live broadcast of a night time launch from the USA today. Can watch the live stream over at http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/004/status.html

[dsli_jon]

SpaceX is doing a live broadcast..

Success! Very-cool, thx fer the linkky..

fyi, for others, http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/004/falcon9.html - http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/004/dragon.html ..pretty-rad...

..can't wait till we can all 'be Major Tom', someday..
j

[buffo]

Unfortunately, not a 100% successful mission. The private satellite didn't make it to the proper orbit because one of the engines failed during launch.

Still, at least the ISS will get it's cargo, and the rocket survived an engine failure without blowing up, so that's a huge plus. All in all, a good day for private space launches, but not a great day, sadly.

Adam

[Picasso]

The Orbcomm satellite failed to make orbit because of NASA/RUSSIAN rules about restarting the 2nd stage after a fault of the first stage. SpaceX could have restarted second stage to boost and release the sat but rules are rules I guess.

[planters]

The Orbcomm satellite failed to make orbit because of NASA/RUSSIAN rules about restarting the 2nd stage after a fault of the first stage.

If that is true and the flight is un-maned then to what point? What would be the downside of restarting other than causing the mission to fail for a different reason? Or were there other reasons? I hope it was not due to the fear that the failure needed to be due to less spectacular causes than an engine failure and so a possible salvage of the mission took a back seat to publicity.

[Picasso]

If the first stage fault damaged the 2nd stage and it went boom the debris would/could be in the path of IIS. Its a heck of a long shot but I guess its best to play it safe. The Orbcomm sat is under Dragon attached to 2nd stage, Dragon was released first and flew off on its own to meet the station. 2nd stage was to coast 10mins and do a restart. But pre-flight rules said no doing X if X happens. So SpaceX was forced to command the release of the Orbcomm sat.

[buffo]

Right. The danger (if you can call it that) was that a second failure could occur that might possibbly endanger the ISS. One hell of a long shot, I agree, but the last time the space agency started taking chances we had the Challenger disaster, so I can't really fault them for playing it safe.

Adam

[Picasso]

Doh, guess that sat could just not boost out of it's current orbit. "Orbcomm craft re-enters, company claims total loss"

Updated story....http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/004/121011orbcomm/