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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday September 07 2017, @12:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the off-we-go dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1937

Continuing its breakneck launch pace, SpaceX is preparing to fly its 13th Falcon 9 rocket in the 2017 calendar year. The booster is scheduled to loft one of the U.S. Air Force's two reusable robotic X-37B spaceplanes. However, the fifth Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-5) mission might be facing a delay brought about by the powerful Hurricane Irma.

*Update: According to Florida Today's Emre Kelly, SpaceX confirmed the company was targeting a 5 hour, 5 minute launch window that opens at 9:50 a.m. EDT (13:50 GMT) Sept. 7, 2017.

According to the 45th Weather Squadron on Sept. 5, 2017, the weather for this attempt is anticipated to have a 50 percent chance of unacceptable conditions. The primary concerns are thick and cumulus clouds.

Should a delay of 24 hours occur, conditions are expected to worsen as Hurricane Irma approaches. This will create low-level winds that will strengthen throughout the day. As such, concerns for a Friday liftoff are thick and cumulus clouds in addition to strong winds at launch time. The probability of a weather-related scrub is 60 percent.

In preparation for liftoff, on Aug. 31, 2017, SpaceX rolled its Falcon 9 rocket – sans the payload – up the ramp at Launch Complex 39A to perform its customary pre-flight static fire test. This involved firing up the first stage's nine Merlin 1D engines at 4:30 p.m. EDT (20:30 GMT) for several seconds to throttle up to 1.7 million pounds-force (7,560 kilonewtons) of thrust to verify all was well with the rocket.

Ground teams then lowered the rocket and rolled it back into the nearby horizontal integration facility to attach the payload fairing with the X-37B inside.

SpaceX is streaming the launch on YouTube.

Source: http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/space-exploration-technologies/x-37b-set-for-first-launch-atop-spacex-falcon-9/

Previously: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/06/09/2236228


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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @02:21PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @02:21PM (#564575)

    The Falcon 9 won and returned home victorious, striking a triumphal pose on the landing pad.

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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 07 2017, @05:59PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 07 2017, @05:59PM (#564680) Journal

    A sad thing is that the more routine re-landing the booster becomes, the less people will realize what an accomplishment it is.

    Of course, the next real test is to see those boosters get re-used more and more.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @06:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @06:31PM (#564699)

      The people who need to get it will get it.

      We will still get to see bungled landing attempts as Boeing and others develop their own reusable rocket systems. We will probably see SpaceX landing failures on the drone barge.

      The true test is for reusability to be reflected in launch prices, currently $62m for Falcon 9 and $90m for the upcoming Falcon Heavy. And I mean the prices listed on their website [spacex.com], not the specially discounted price that SES negotiated [nytimes.com]. SpaceX can list two prices for each launcher: reusable mode and full thrust expendable mode.

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday September 08 2017, @01:35PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Friday September 08 2017, @01:35PM (#565080)

      How is that sad? New heights are reached standing on the shoulders of the new normalcy.

      How many people realize what an accomplishment it is to be able to fly across the country in a couple hours? Or heck, even drive 20 miles in a few minutes? For the entire medieval period, and probably a fair time before it, that was a multi-day journey, and most people never traveled more than 10 miles from where they were born.

      Or even more impressive - how many people realize how truly astounding it is to have such a versatile energy source as electricity available at the flick of a switch, easily delivering light, heat, cooling, and many horsepower worth of labor for mere pennies an hour? To say nothing of nearly instantly communicating with people all over the world, and having the collected knowledge of humanity available at their fingertips for the asking (and then using that capacity to watch cat videos)

      Compared to that, cheap, reliable transportation into space are unlikely to be anything of significance for the vast majority of the population. Not even when the price for a trip to orbit falls to $1000/person, instead of $1000/pound.

  • (Score: 2) by el_oscuro on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:41PM

    by el_oscuro (1711) on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:41PM (#564832)

    I watched the video. As it came down from its parabolic arc, it hit a max velocity of almost 5k/second. It's short re-entry burn dropped it to about 3k. Can you imagine the Gs in a 2k delta V in 10 seconds?

    The the landing. It is still going 100m/second just off the ground and the final burn stops it cold just as it lands. Fricking awesome!

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