JCC The Official SpaceX Launch/Disaster Thread

This is SpaceX's return to flight after the CRS-7 disintegration in June.

Live stream will be here:

 

It involves a landing attempt too.

 

Live stream has started.

 

Nice shot of the landing.

 

My HS classmate is apparently one of the lead software engineers or something on this...

 

Yes, yes, but were they all wearing inoffensive shirts?

 

@heels#, of course the engineers said that. It's how they keep their reputations as miracle workers.

 

SpaceX will launch Jason 3 from Vandenberg today, using the last Falcon 9 v1.1 first stage they have in stock (having moved to the v1.2). Launch is scheduled for 18:42 UTC (13:42 EST, 10:42 PST). After stage seperation, an attempt will be made to land the first stage on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Pacific ocean.

Live stream will be here:

 

Live stream is now live. About 20 minutes to launch.

 

T-4 minutes.

12 - 15 foot waves out in the ocean... the barge is moving quite a bit. The rocket might tip over...

 

LIFTOFF!

 

Pretty good launch. Shame they lost the feed for the landing though.

 

I've got a bad feeling about that lost video link. He said it's about 30 seconds to landing. Well close to 30 seconds later, a small amount of orange (the color of rocket exhaust flames) appeared in the middle of the screen indicating the rocket was right on top of the drone ship, and right then the video locked up.

I have a bad feeling about why that might have been...

 

Hopefully just the bad seas. Satellite links are pretty tricky if the thing the link is on is moving. I know when it's fairly windy here I have problems with my sat dish getting a signal due to the dish movement.

Edit - friend is watching as well and he emailed me:

They just said they did land on target, but landed hard, and broke one of the struts. They did not land upright, but more news in 15 minutes.

 

Update: Landing leg broke.

Which means it probably fell over and exploded.

 

Hopefully not..

 

I confess I'm not entirely sure why they've gone back to attempting to land at sea. I presume it's just the safety concerns with landing on land? At the same time, though, that's what wound up working....

 

The launch window opens at 11:64 UTC. Or 18:46 EST, i.e. Cape Canaveral time.

After stage separation, they will attempt to land the first stage on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, but their expectations are low. Due to the combination of a heavy satellite (about five and a half tons) and the need for a high energy state at stage separation (for a speedy transit to GTO) there will be considerably less fuel available for the boostback and landing burns. The rocket will be operating close to the limits of its capability during the landing attempt.

The full livecast will be here:



A technical webcast featuring just the rocket (no narration or scenes at SpaceX HQ with hosts etc.) will be here:

 

Perhaps you should make a dedicated space launch thread instead of making a new one every time.

 

They named the drone ship after a Culture GCU?

Awesome.

 

They named both of them after Culture ships. OCISLY is the Atlantic ocean ship, for launches from the Cape. The Pacific ocean ship they use for Vandenberg is named Just Read the Instructions.

 

Scrubbed.