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SpaceX's Falcon 9 Appears As UFO In Australia
RobHart writes "ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Commission) has reported extensively on a bright spiraling light that was seen in Eastern Australia just before dawn. It has just broadcast a report from an Australian astronomer who has suggested that the light was probably the successful Falcon 9 launch, which would have been over Australia at that time on its launch trajectory."
Update: 06/05 22:20 GMT by T : Setting aside the literal exhaust fumes, reader FleaPlus says, It's "interesting to look at the reactions from those in Congress who control the purse-strings for NASA (one of SpaceX's biggest customers). The successful launch was congratulated by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL and former astronaut) and Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL), both praised and criticized by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) due to the successful launch being a year later than previously predicted, and blasted by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) for merely replicating what 'NASA accomplished in 1964,' who added that the company's success 'must not be confused with progress for our nation's human spaceflight program.'"
FWIW, I have a substantial blog post with details, including a rant against the ABC story. :) This was definitely the Falcon 9 second stage, despite the UFO guy's protestations: the timing, position, and appearance all match.
*** Phil Plait, aka The Bad Astronomer http://www.badastronomy.com
A doubter quoted in the article says "Firstly, the time of the launch was 18.45 GMT, which translates to 4.45am EST, the duration of the flight was 9 minutes 38 seconds - this is a full hour before the reported sightings."
Did he forget that we're on DST right now? He should have looked up the EDT time, not EST.
Congress Reacts To Successful Falcon 9 Launch
In Norway I believe Russia recognized it was a failed missile test.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
and nobody outside Australia knows about it, and we all think it is just some UFO flyover when they launch a rocket in to space.
Come on. Nobody here can keep a secret. Have you met an Australian outside AU who knows how to shut up?
http://michaelsmith.id.au
There is always a final burn after 1/2 orbit to circularize the orbit. Which is probably what the OP was babbling about. There was no intention to put the Falcon 9 into an escape orbit.
On the other hand, Falcon 9 is capable of putting a payload into GEO. It requires more deltaV to achieve a circular orbit at GEO than it does to reach escape speed (if the fuel needed to circularize the orbit at GEO were spent during the initial boost, Falcon 9 would be about 150 m/s shy of a Mars transfer orbit.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
You did not miss much from what I saw. I'm in Newcastle and was out for an early ride and say it at 5.50 EST. To me it looked more like a unusual cloud formation near the moon. It was interesting enough for me to mention it to my friends when I met them at 6 but they did not even notice it. I did not think about it again until I saw it on the evening news with a few ufo nuts.
The smarter home exchange, http://switchhomes.net
Escape velocity is easy to achieve. Hell, a delta 2 sent both rovers to mars. The falcon9 has a lot more lift than it. They weren't aiming for anything, with a hyperbolic orbit right over a ground station they can track it for a long time as it travels away from the earth and gain valuable data.
Yes, it was more successful than even they had hoped. Even if the second stage didn't light at all, they would have still called it a success. And I would agree with that. They got more accomplished than Ares I did, and that launch cost over a billion dollars.
According to the Falcon 9 user's guide, it's capable of sending a payload of about 2.5 tons to escape velocity (C3=0).
Though I agree, the OP meant "orbit circularization".
Anyway, three cheers for SpaceX, but if I were NASA I'd make damn sure they know what the deal was with that roll before they let a Dragon anywhere near the ISS.
Russia, China, and soon India all have more advanced space programs than the USA right now.
Not right now. The U.S. put more people into orbit on one flight last month than China has in their entire history. Maybe someday China and India will pass us, but not yet.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Obama is trying to develop a viable space program that works and we can actually afford. The first part of that is a lowering
the cost to get stuff to orbit. Spacex will be part of that plan
Agree. If there's one thing space exploration has taught us, it's that plans count for nothing. The US had grand plans for the Shuttle. The Soviets had grand plans for the Moon. You don't have a space program until main engine cutoff.
I don't want to be a chest-beating American here, the grandparent post may turn out to be true 20 years from now. But right now, at this moment, the U.S. has:
1 guy in orbit
300 tonnes of space station hardware in orbit
13-20 Earth-observing satellites
2-3 sun-observing missions
1 mission to Mercury
1 mission to the asteroid belt
4-5 missions to Mars
1 mission at Saturn
1 mission heading to Pluto
plus some miscellaneous ones I've forgotten about. Some numbers are approximate because it depends on how you count.
Anyway, *that* is a space program. The future may bring what the future may bring, but right now, find me another country that is doing a tenth as much space stuff.
Actually, it is special. It's cheap. Which was the whole point, from the beginning.
SpaceX isn't aiming to do anything new, they're aiming to do the same thing for less than half the price (per kilogram, Falcon 9 Heavy compared to the Ariane 5).