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Monday's SpaceX launch was a success with both the landing and with the booster recovery. Unfortunately, the second launch mentioned in that story had to be delayed:
Moldy Mouse Food Postpones SpaceX Launch:
SpaceX has postponed its cargo launch to the International Space Station until Wednesday after mold was found on food bars for a mouse experiment bound for the orbiting outpost, NASA said.
[...] Some 40 mice are part of the experiment aimed at studying the effects of microgravity in the immune system.
The launch will be the 16th for SpaceX, as part of an ongoing contract with NASA to send supplies to the astronauts living at the space station.
Some 5,600 pounds (2,500 kilograms) of food, experiments and other gear is packed onto the unmanned Dragon cargo ship, which will blast off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Launch is scheduled for 1 hour after this story goes live.
The launch will be live-streamed on YouTube starting approximately 15 minutes before launch time.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday December 05 2018, @06:33PM (25 children)
Did anyone notice the 1st stage seem to begin spinning as if out of control right before the video suddenly cut out?
I was thinking, something is definitely not right.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday December 05 2018, @06:43PM (5 children)
I didn't watch the launch, but this is on Twitter [twitter.com]:
Where were they attempting to land the first stage? Drone ship?
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by Sulla on Wednesday December 05 2018, @06:55PM (4 children)
Looked like it was supposed to land on land. As soon as the retros came on it looked like there was too much thrust off to the side, when they cut out there were lots of corrections, wobbly, spinning, then driving out to sea, and feed cut.
Hopefully they eventually provide the footage, based on prior videos of crashes I assume they will. Too bad the stage crashed as it was a new one.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday December 05 2018, @07:23PM (2 children)
I wish they had just left the video feed live. There was obviously a problem.
It was coming down steady. There was a great view of the ground. Then it started making some adjustments which suddenly got larger and larger. It seemed like a bit of a spin. Then some over correction in the reverse direction spin. Then again. Before the video cut off it had made a full 360+ spin, I think to the left (ccw from rocket pov), then back again, and the tail end "aiming point" now seemed to move along the ground. At that point I internally thought something is wrong. Then the video cut out. No more mention of it. Just of the 2nd stage progress. Then you could hear cheering. So it was not clear what they were cheering about. Then an announcement it had landed at sea.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Sulla on Wednesday December 05 2018, @07:49PM (1 child)
https://twitter.com/elonmusk [twitter.com]
Musk's twitter has a video of the water landing
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday December 05 2018, @10:56PM
He also said they'd reuse it for some "internal" mission.
Landing video looks soft (impressive considering the failure), but I'm not sure what the dip in the salty drink does to the hot engines bells and the resultant steam bubbles to the rest of the structure.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday December 05 2018, @08:27PM
They were originally going to land on the pad, but there is another spacecraft on a different pad with a NRO payload. That forced them to move the planned landing to the barge close offshore.
There was a hydraulic failure in the gridfin system preventing normal landing of the first stage. The first stage detected the malfunction and made a soft water landing off the coast. A recovery boat is en route to pick it up.
Mr. Musk indicated that they may try to refly the core for an internal mission.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday December 05 2018, @07:15PM (14 children)
Yep. I think that's one major difference between SpaceX and NASA: With NASA if something goes wrong it would still be broadcast - I remember watching Challenger. Maybe they lost the signal at SpaceX, it's sure possible, but I got the distinct impression that as soon as the data went south they cut the Stage 1 feed. Can't have the unexpected being broadcast to the world.
The other thing, I'm not sure where the commentators were physically but at each major event (including the water splash of Stage 1) a great big cheer went up in the background. Rah rah SpaceX! This is contrasted with every NASA broadcast I've ever seen and remembering a line from Gene Krantz' memoir about the movies in that there is no way that a cheer would be allowed in a NASA control room - they all had to keep concentrating at their jobs, good or bad. Maybe I'm an old curmudgeon who's taken too many lawns but I prefer it that way, personally - YMMV.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday December 05 2018, @07:27PM (1 child)
I was watching and find it hard to believe signal was lost. Although the steering was obviously out of control, there was no physical harm to the rocket still falling.
As for the cheering, I don't think it is from the control room but from the peanut gallery.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday December 06 2018, @12:21AM
I'm guessing it's just in case it happens to miss by enough to hurt someone.
They've had no qualms releasing missed landings and explosions, and they quickly released the video linked in the comments here.
But when your bomb is tumbling (apparently) out of control, keeping the cool feed can turn into a legal problem. Not because there wouldn't be another 20 camera feeds showing the crash and blast, but because your broadcasting killing people live is typically considered negatively.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday December 05 2018, @07:45PM (2 children)
No way would an erratically spinning rocket possibly lose its link to mission control!
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday December 05 2018, @09:41PM
I had seen it spin a full 360 with perfectly clear signal.
Video below of it landing in ocean.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 06 2018, @06:04AM
Or because the transmitting antenna is highly diectional?
Or because the extra tens of meters of unexpected movement of the antenna was smooshing all the radio waves on top of each other, thus making it unintelligible?
Ockham says "human with big red button wants to save face".
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Informative) by Sulla on Wednesday December 05 2018, @07:52PM (2 children)
To my understanding this is not from the control room. Older videos shows a lot of the people from spacex gathered to watch the launch/landing that appear to be different than the control room. Visible in the FH launch.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday December 05 2018, @07:59PM
On Monday's launch and other previous launches, you can hear the commentator(s) talking over what sounds like cafeteria noises. Maybe they just gather employees in the company lunchroom to watch the launch on a big screen while eating some food (increasing their serotonin levels). Then record their enthusiastic applause as background noise for the live stream.
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(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday December 05 2018, @09:15PM
That's sort of what I gathered. And it was still good coverage - I liked it. Although I found the cheering pretty distracting it was still well worth watching and I'm glad SpaceX provided the coverage. It was also very interesting in a positive way that the commentators all (?) seemed to be actual line employees and not PR spokespeople - that was pleasantly different.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 05 2018, @11:31PM (5 children)
I'll note that in the case of Challenger, there were plenty of private feeds from the media too. And NASA has been notoriously poor at anticipating future problems. Maybe they just weren't prepared that day to cut the feed.
Yea, it's a different sort of theater when NASA does it. I look instead at who's successfully launching payloads. Sure isn't NASA these days, nor should it be.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 06 2018, @06:15AM (4 children)
Yup, because launching things into space is absolutely nothing to do with either aeronautics[*] or space.
[*Given the spelling of that word, when will americans admit that "airplane" should in fact be spelt "aeroplane"?]
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @07:16PM
When we start saying "aeroplane", aka never.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 06 2018, @07:27PM (2 children)
It's not their job. Just like flying people and cargo is not their job.
Never. I'm puzzled you even think that is something that can be brought up in polite company! Given the spelling of "air" why shouldn't we call airplanes, "airplanes"?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday December 07 2018, @03:56AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 07 2018, @07:10AM
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 06 2018, @05:09AM (3 children)
Sure, he's releases his blooper video of historical failures, but even doing that is reinforcing the pretence that failure is a thing of the past.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 06 2018, @07:31PM (2 children)
We could also look at the rate of successful launches. They are considerably higher now than in the early days when no launches were successful. So this pretense was indeed true. Hmmm, does that make it not a pretense then?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday December 07 2018, @03:51AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 07 2018, @05:45AM
And that's relevant how? Who again is selling this as failures never happen anymore?