SpaceX Falcon 1 launch

[PauLauM]

they should use HD cameras 

[7j8i9m]

First, yes it's supposed to be red, that's one style of cooling. The conditions for the test as I understand them were achieve orbit and send back data to confirm, so the test was successful. Any other objectives were icing on the cake. It's like landing a gymnastics move at the olympics, nailed it, then falling on your face walking off the mat. Embarrasing but doesn't diminish the success itself.

[peepeevagi]

Falcon launch?

Falcon kick :D

[Cronites]

The contact and rotation at separation was largely due to the vehicle being at a lower altitude and a slower speed than intended, putting heavier air pressure onto the 2nd stage & fairing than what they were designed for at stage separation.

The vehicle was lower and slower at separation because of a computer error.

It reached 289km.

[am0767]

get ready for flight 5!!

[jasong19711]

they will fail but they will succeed and going PRIVATE will be the way that our race will make it to the stars.

Government funded space exploration is too bloated.

[hellomate639]

@jasong19711

Government funded exploration is too bloated with goals and too thin with cash. It's really annoying. We need to just say to Hell with all the other crap and just do science and work on a manned mission to Mars.

[jasong19711]

@hellomate639

you know it!

[AblePumper]

Thanks ugowar.

What I said was what I was taught back in Engineer School. It is a technique that is still in use today, but is starting to be come rare as LOX circulating through the nozzle walls has been shown since the 1960's to be a better thermal control method.

[AblePumper]

The engine bells always get red hot like that because it is a natural thermal effect that has been with all high energy astronautical propulsion systems since the German A-4[V-2] of WW2.

The engine is designed to be able to survive such heating for a specific amount of time.

[ugowar]

What's actually getting red hot here is the nozzle extension. It's designed to be radiatively cooled.

First stage engines are typically ablatively cooled or regeneratively cooled and neither of those glows hot on the outside.

Here, the throat of the engine is also ablatively cooled, but is invisible to the left.

[buckamoona]

is it supposed to turn red and rotate like that at the end?

[Luisvaldez989]

The second stage is supposed to turn red, but it encountered an anomaly. it rotated like that, and I saw in Wikipedia that Flight 2 was a failure.

[buckamoona]

man that thing is getting red

[masterchief377]

AWESOME!!! One step closer to mars!

[bug9999]

wow nice work ~~~

[helloterran]

That is one powerful little rocket!

[effzehn]

Gratulations!

[Frontlobotomy]

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU GUYS RULE

[fergielover69]

I SAW MY HOUSE

[newton2013]

I had a BB Gun that shot at 450 feet per second. The vehicle after reaching qzone is measured as travelling at 280 Meters a second. +3 times faster than a bb shoots out of a bbgun. Velocity Rules.

[newton2013]

I typed that all wrong, oops.

[squallgzy]

I think SpaceX will success at last, it will find a new and cheap way for us to launch a rocket.

[gravesclay]

Fuel slosh also known as pogo, causes a linear oscillation not the kind of gyration you see here. Watch closely at 4:12 the staging of the rocket is what actually causes the issue. The first stage slams into the nozzle, causing the rocket to veer off course, at that point guidance takes over and begins gimbaling the engine to attempt to correct this problem, it begins to over correct and the mission is aborted. At least this is what we came up with in my special topics physics 399 course :)

[warrenkm]

It's a transverse oscillation, unlike 'chugging'. The control/guidance system recognized an out of bounds condition due to positive feedback re sloshing and shut down prematurely. There wasn't starvation.

[kingofmonkeyfolk]

This man totally rocks and I wish him the best for flight #3.

[NorseGraphic]

You can see why they lost telemetry by looking at the exhaust-vent starting to glow. They need some sort of cooling system.

[destructovision]

i got to build and install an oven for these guys' El Segunda, Ca. plant. Way cool company. Wish I worked for THEM

[Ruebe85]

Oh we got some einstein's here

[furgee]

The second stage bell was way to hot. They should wrap the inlet hoses around the bell (from the LOX tank) to cool the bell. Im no enginere by no stretch of the imagination but that is what NASA does. I believe its called pre-warming

[byetis]

There was no problem with the temp of the bell. Niobium maintains its strength very well at elevated temperature (which is why they used it). The nozzle appears to be very well designed.

I think you're used to seeing alloys like steel get soft and weak when it starts to glow.

[furgee]

yeah i am, i just assumed that when it turned red it was softening as well as oscilating

[sennetor]

SpaceX now have a regeneratively cooled Merlin 1C engine but I don't think they are using LOX since this would cause the Niobium nozzle to oxidize in seconds. I presume they are using the propellant. :)

[countmacula]

M1C (1st stage engine) nozzle is stainless steel, it uses the fuel (RP-1) as the regen fluid. Only the 2nd stage engine nozzle is niobium. The "hot spots" on the 2nd stage nozzle are nothing to worry about. Niobium can take it. Yes, it's very well designed. :-)

[lithiumdeuteride]

The Merlin engine has always used RP-1 (rocket-grade kerosene) and LOX.

[spacemanspiff2]

scowell, shut the heck up. go launch your own and then get back to us with your comments. Oh, and the snow was either coolant that crystallized or some of the condensation shown earlier that froze upon entering into COLD BLACK SPACE!

Moron.

[scowell]

Address my guidance system comment, or eat some dark space yourself, clown.

[wspaceport]

Go to the Wikipedia site for an analysis of the Falcon 1 test flight.

[scowell]

Snow in the camera compartment?

[rowlodge]

thought i saw the rocket bell housing get knocked on real hard by the first stage, i was waiting for the rocket to malfunction but it did'nt.

[AeroEngy]

Yeah I saw that to looks like the S2 nozzle took a decent hit. Also, there is another video on youtube that shows about 10 more seconds of the flight that really shows it go out of control and head almost end over end.

[AeroEngy]

Yeah ,the S2 nozzle looks like it took a decent hit on separation. Also, there is another video on youtube that shows about 10 more seconds of flight where they really lose control and almost go end over end.

[scowell]

I saw two possible failure modes (the reason we *don't* see the last 5 seconds)... one was hot spots on the 2nd stage motor nozzle, and the other was the obvious guidance oscillation the system was in... that circular chasing mode needs to be damped out somehow.

[file83]

You can see it begin to oscillate at around 4:20 and it just gets worse and worse from there.  Rocket must have fell apart after becoming unstable.

[scowell]

That shit was weak! You wasted 18 seconds of my life!

[toyrocketastronaut]

The first quarter of this video makes me think I've drunk too much wiskey. :)

[InfiniteRand]

That's my brother's baby there.

[tanuk4vr]

I personally think Brian Bjelde is "Da Man". Keep 'em flying, buddy.

[AeroEngy]

Well I have to say that SpaceX knows how to spin a failure. The first attempt that caught fire and crashed into the ocean after 30 seconds they called a success. Elon said "The good news is that all vehicle systems, including the main engine, thrust vector control, structures, avionics, software, guidance algorithm, etc. were picture perfect."

Now they lost control at 5 minutes in and say they have a 95% success. I mean seriously I wish them luck and all but get realistic.

[tanuk4vr]

So how many rockets have you put into space? Unless your name is Buzz Aldrin, you should probably shut your yapper.

[AeroEngy]

Actually I have launched several rockets putting different types of payloads into orbit(GEO and LEO). I know how complicated it is and Elon saying this mission was 95% successful is ridiculous.

[MBlaugh]

Elon is an assclown. Full of himself and treats his brilliant engineers like shit. If anything brings this company down, it will be him and his monstrously inflated ego.

[CrazyHorseInvincible]

You have to be kind of a lunatic to be this ambitious. Steve Jobs of the '70s and '80s comes to mind. Keep in mind that he also has to maintain enthusiasm for the stakeholders, so maybe he can't afford to be somber.

[evan13579b]

Ya all he's done is sold two companies for hundreds of millions of dollars and managed to create two more money making revolutionary companies. It must be all the engineers he happened to have run into throughout his life.

Ya, what a leach, it boggles the mind.

/sarcasm

[windowboy]

hows the monkey?

[bnewhall]

That's beautiful.

[pseudoid]

This launch is no trivial pursuit and it certainly IS "Rocket Science"!

I met with these whiz-kids engineers behind the whole effort and I was awe struck.

I have also had the luxury to have worked with some of the older brainiacs of the '80s Defense Initiative days.

Yet, the SpaceX bunch is a newer breed of young minds, equal to no other!

I commend the whole SpaceX team for such an undertaking!

I predict the third launch will be the charmer!

Go SpaceX, go!

[billymanbelbrot]

I guess it is pretty impressive considering the circumstances of its release.

[romanticpig]

At 2:52 there's clearly a collision between the first stage and the 2nd's engine. Could this be responsible for the following loss of a small ring at 3:12 and stage 2 failure in general?

[Jinkguns]

Does anyone have a video of the aborted attempt that day, specifically with the launch control technician cussing up a storm? Hilarious slip up. :D

[Fzzt]

Had to run out after the Abort, thx for posting up the full launch to 2nd stage flight.

[shattersoul]

SUCK IT NASA

[XenuXenuXenu]

Thank you for this

[farkyoutoob]

wow!

[Dullcheveeda]

VEry nice... how'd the test end?

[Southpaw018]

Unknown as of this time. Mission Control reported loss of telemetry and severe oscillation. Translation is possible loss of control of the rocket. They're still celebrating it as a success, though - second time off teh pad, first time into space.

[bakerlaw67]

This was AMAZING to watch live.  Thanks for the upload.

[djblueshift]

looks like the 2nd stage seperation knocked into the engine before it cleared

[billymanbelbrot]

What a terrible feed (at the beginning). Thanks for putting it up though.

[djblueshift]

FAIL

[notmtwain]

Best moment is at T + 2:50 when the first stage separates. You can see the ocean far below.

[Epsilon3311]

... Beautiful... I can't believe I was sleeping when it was on the official webcast... Picked the greatest time to take a nap, eh? Anyway, beautiful, but sad that it didn't work out completely.

[lifeinaustin]

Thank you for that.

[Sharkface217]

Sweet

[400758]

It's the Falcon 1, not 2. Thanks anyway :)

[Southpaw018]

Heh. Thanks. Fixed. ;)

[notmtwain]

Very cool but it asploded.