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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday March 31 2018, @04:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the no-views-for-you dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

On Friday morning, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket into space and later deployed 10 Iridium communications satellites into low-Earth orbit as planned. But unexpectedly for most watching, the company's webcast was precluded from showing the mission in its entirety.

At T+ 9:00 minutes, just two seconds before the rocket's second-stage engine cut off from firing, the video from space ended. The launch commentator, SpaceX engineer Michael Hammersley, explained earlier in the broadcast that "[d]ue to some restrictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, SpaceX will be intentionally ending live video coverage of the 2nd stage just prior to engine shutdown."

Asked about this on Friday morning, a NOAA spokesman was not aware of the situation. "I can only think it's an error," Chris Vaccaro told Ars. "I would double check with them (SpaceX)." NOAA has promised more information will be forthcoming. (4:45pm ET Update: NOAA released this statement).

We did double check with SpaceX. It was definitely an issue with NOAA, the rocket company said. Apparently NOAA recently asserted that cameras on the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, which SpaceX uses for engineering purposes, qualify as a remote sensing system, which are subject to NOAA's regulation. A provisional license obtained by SpaceX for Friday's launch of the Iridium-5 mission required it to end views once the second stage reached orbit.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday April 01 2018, @06:37PM

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 01 2018, @06:37PM (#661199) Journal
    Agreed. I wonder if the astronauts on the space station got permits for their cameras in orbit :-p

    I know this is a foreign concept to government agencies, but seriously....word it so non-security impacting use is not subject to needless restriction and administrative overhead "cameras which do not image the Earth, or are not be designed/used in a fashion that can resolve a 100 meter square object on the ground above height xxxx meters are exempted"

    (or some similar appropriate constraint)
    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды