NASA programming is done. I just switched over to the SpaceX streaming video and found that their feed has much more interesting video. Still burning, and looking good.
Second stage separation. Don't look now, but there's a Dragon in orbit. Congrats to SpaceX for another success!
Nasa Launch Video http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=36606091 Only first stage though. Anybody found the whole flight with rocket cam? I'd like to see the view from orbit.
Elon Musk has just sealed his position as Alpha Geek: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/08/5614525-dragon-could-visit-space-station-next If it wasn’t spam, it’ll have been a rowdy bunch of Vikings.
What goes up: And up: And up: And even further up: Must come down: Kersplash! Some decent still from orbit would be good. Haven't found any yet.
Turns out the secret payload was a giant wheel of cheese. I'm sad to admit I had to brush up on my Monty Python to get the specific reference.
Yay - dragon in orbit, and heading for the ISS. After the disapointment of the scrub at the weekend due to a duff valve, A flawless launch - just watched it on space flight now's live stream. http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/120519abort/ http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/status.html
The abort was possibly cooler than the launch- clever monitoring systems say "Nah" and quietly shut everything off without fuss, then the irritating announcer chap gets totally confused.
Yeah - very cool. It's one of the thing that impresses the hell out of me with SpaceX and how they do things. They've taken another step toward maintaining space vehicles like airliners - Launch aborted, route cause found, part swapped out on the pad and they're ready to go 2 days later (not because it took that long, just that they had to wait for the next instantaneous launch window) I'm sure any other launcher - Arianne, Atlas, The Shuttle - would have had a lengthy roll back to their VABs and had a full engine swap, waking weeks or months.
That depends entirely on the root cause. Although the Shuttle was rolled back on occasion, it does have a history of repairs made at the pad. Good on SpaceX, though. I hope the berthing goes just as smoothly!
The best line from this morning goes to Don Pettit: "Station-Houston. It looks like we got us a Dragon by the tail." Congratulations to SpaceX for a seemingly perfect mission so far!
I've had the day off work, and have been watching it all on NASA tv on the interwebs - awesome stuff.
