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At Long Last, a Private Cargo Spaceship Takes Off (Video)
Tuesday morning at 0344, right on schedule (and it had to be right on schedule), Elon Musk's baby finally left the launch pad on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). Two babies, actually: the Falcon 9 launch vehicle is what we watched as it took off from Cape Canaveral -- the first private spaceship headed for the ISS -- with the Dragon spacecraft perched on its nose. The Dragon carried over 1000 pounds of supplies and experiments for the ISS. The launch went off without a hitch. But don't stop holding your breath quite yet; Dragon isn't scheduled to dock at the ISS until Friday.
Slashdot now accepts reader-submitted video, either edited or raw. Email robinATroblimoPERIODcom for details.
After watching both this and Copenhagen Suborbital's launch, I noticed that the rockets seem to "pop" at a few Hz. I don't recall hearing this on NASA launches, does anyone know why this is?
Scotty is on board.
One Rocket, TWO takeoffs!
A commenter on NPR today made an interesting point. There is a lot of talk about "first private..." but NASA has relied heavily on private industry since the beginning. Lockheed Martin, Morton Thaikol, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon, Rockwell Colllins, Teledyne, Honeywell, Kodak, Perkin-Elmer.........
And Falcon launched from a government built/owned/maintained launch-site.
What *is* different is the accounting. Instead of a bevy of cost-plus contracts there is now a single-point fixed-cost provider which, surprise surprise, seems to be able to deliver at a much lower cost/kg.
And no, this does not detract from their accomplishment. Getting to space is still difficult and risky. Congratulations to everyone involved regardless of who writes their paychecks.
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"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
Not bad. That's the way to do video.
Tsk Tsk for slashdot of all places to embed video that's not at least compatible with downloadhelper so one can download the video and watch it on a decent screen without strbuffering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMu_x7zcTrs
For the minority of /. readers who care about the details, I highly recommend downloading the COTS 2 Press Kit from SpaceX.
It provides tons of details and graphics describing the mission objectives, schedule, cargo manifest, vehicle specs, and much more...
http://www.spacex.com/downloads/COTS-2-Press-Kit-5-14-12.pdf
(I am not affiliated with SpaceX, but I like what they are doing)
From a layman's perspective, I'm confused as to why it takes so long to get to LEO? How fast does this compare with the space shuttle? Why does it take so long to dock?
It's not McDonald's. You don't just drive up to it. Like a beautiful woman, you have to chase it... No, I didn't really say that.
Basically, they're taking their time checking systems out. They are doing a close approach pass to ensure that the communications and control links work before taking it in close. A Soyuz capsule has already crash-parked into the ISS with much consternation and concern. They're just being really, really careful.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I'm assuming the noise is more due to the mic cutting out than actual sound that the rocket made. Are there mics that can capture the roar, so it can be played back in DTS? :)
They should have used Monster Cables.
Shhh. You're going to soft-boil all the free market hard-ons.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Takes so long? If your car could drive straight up as fast as it could go, it would take 2 hours to get there. 10 minutes is insanely fast for 200 miles.
Call me when your renault can do 0.33 miles per second.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Yes, getting 100+ miles high is the easy part - getting that high with 17,000 MPH of sideways velocity is where it gets tricky. Without that much sideways velocity, you just fall back down.
It only takes about 10 minutes to get to orbit. I believe the Shuttle and the Progress & Soyuz spacecraft all took about 2 days to dock with ISS. I believe most of that time is spent matching the orbits perfectly and "catching up" with it in orbit (you don't want to approach too fast and slowing down requires fuel, and fuel is weight so you want to use as little as feasible).
Dragon is taking awhile longer because this is only the second time that the Dragon has flown and the first time docking. So, they're going to run a whole bunch of tests to ensure that they can control the spacecraft from the ground and then a bunch more to make sure the astronauts on the ISS can control it. Then, finally, they'll let it get close enough to dock. I suspect (though I have no actual information on this) that once they get past the "test flight" phase, it will take a similar amount to time to Soyuz/Progress/Shuttle to get there.
Go Badgers! -- #include "std/disclaimer.h"
Yes. using real microphones that use 48Volt phantom power it would have done a great job at it. Problem is Slashdot's budget is $12.50 and they cant hire anyone that is experienced or skilled in video, so they have to learn as they go.
Buy a real field mixer, some real microphones (like a shotgun on a boom with an audio person) and record to a audio recorder and not to the $200.00 camcorder.
they really need to spend about $3500.00 on some real gear (if your video camera does not have XLR mic inputs, it's not good enough) and hire a second intern. Although I am assuming it's just him and a tripod. I am certain their budget for video is even lower than I am guessing.
Honestly they should not be even trying to do HD. SD is just fine for web video like this, a old Canon XL1 would be high end for their use and would record audio better, a used Senheiser ME66 on a mic stand next to the tripod powered from the Camera's XLR inputs and they would be better equipped than 90% of the other websites out there.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I know you think you'e being clever, but the fact is that NASA worked very hard to prevent any private development of space flight capabilities for several decades.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Private, public, who cares?
What matters is that we keep it going.
Agreed - and also not much to transcribe as a result.
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Title: "Fourth Time's a Charm" - The SpaceX Falcon Finally Gets Off the Ground
Description: It's been a long time coming, but a private spaceship is finally heading for the International Space Station. Yay!
00:00 TITLE
A shot of Timothy Lord in front of the countdown clock at Cape Canaveral is shown.
00:00) Countdown voice guy
7 minutes
00:01) Timothy
As you can see from the countdown clock behind me, it's now just under 7 minutes until the historic SpaceX launch to the International Space Station is set to happen.
Hopefully, we won't have any engine glitches this time, and it will actually go off.
00:12) TITLE
The SlashdotTV title sequence fades into view. It reads:
Timothy Lord, reporting
from Cape Canaveral, Florida
00:18) TITLE
The view changes to that of the Falcon 9 rocket at its final countdown stages. The Video is credited as: (NASA video clip)
00:17) Countdown voice guy
5... 4... 3... 2.. 1... 0.
Aaand launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as NASA turns to the private sector to resupply the International Spac Station.
00:33) TITLE
Various shots of the rocket's progression are shown from hereon without specific commentary outside of that of the control room with the background noise being the roaring rumble of the Falcon 9 rocket.
01:45) TITLE
The image mixes and changes to a view of the control room with personnel carefully watching the mission and congratulating each other on the successful launch, before the rocket's progression is shown once more.
02:47) TITLE
The view fades slowly back to that of Timothy Lord on the grounds at Cape Canaveral.
02:47) Timothy
The Falcon 9 lift vehicle has now done its job.
It's much more to the Dragon capsule's mission before it can deliver its half ton of supplies, and must go through an elaborate sequence of moves to approach, and then dock with, the ISS itself.
02:57) TITLE
The view changes back to the Falcon 9 rocket as it ascents further into space.
02:57) Timothy
That docking is slated for Friday.
03:13) TITLE
The view of the Falcon 9 rocket fades out as the SlashdotTV logo fades in.
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Although I think the editing is not in-sequence. A few shots of the 'close-up' of the engine with little plumage are shown spliced between shots where the rocket's exhaust is unmistakable. The live stream I watched showed the engine close-up fairly late into the launch.
I also do wish they had included, or were able to include (perhaps that's SpaceX's property, rather than government?) footage of the solar panel deployment. The control room crew were much, much more excited about that then they were about the successful launch - to the point of one of the control room people on audio breaking her calm demeanor in announcing telemetry data and practically giggled. It was really great hearing that, and the elation that followed, in the audio.
On the other hand, it's cool seeing the control room shots in this video - I don't remember seeing those in the stream I watched. Quite different from what one might expect.
Trouble is it was too dark to see the milk-bottle they launched it from.
If it had been left to the private sector, we'd wouldn't have got to the moon, mars, the heliosheath. And despite the fact that earth orbit is profitable, probably no private sector project would have made the investment or taken the risk to go to space at all.
Space X can only do what it's doing now because it's standing on the shoulders of previous public sector projects. And heck this very project is being paid for by the public sector.
Reality = the $800 Panasonic camcorder and Azden shotgun mic + Audio-Technica wireless lav & handhelds that are the Slashdot standard video gear are at least as good as a Canon XH A1, which was the high-def successor to the XL1.
XLR mic inputs are only really necessary if you're dealing with music and need big audio bandwidth. And nowadays, you might as well use a Zoom H4 for sound, and it will provide phantom power and give you two channels of directional sound through external mics plus 2 channels of ambient. This assumes you either own a copy of pluraleyes or know how to synch audio manually.
Prior to the Challenger disaster in 1986, NASA had grabbed the entire space market in the US. Private companies couldn't launch payloads on rockets other than the Shuttle. And there's a long history of NASA (and US Congress) acting to protect businesses that had long been contractors for NASA. For example, consider the oligopoly of space launch providers, including the Shuttle, that had existed after Challenger through to the DoD's EELV (Evolutionary Expendable Launch Vehicle) program which encouraged competition between Boeing and Lockheed Martin's launch vehicles and creation of new launch vehicles just below the Shuttle's range.
Dragon isn't scheduled to dock at the ISS until Friday.
The Dragon isn't capable of docking, it has to be grappled by the station's robotic arm and berthed to a common berthing port. It is scheduled to receive an upgrade that enables it to use docking ports in the future, but on this flight, it's berthing, not docking.
Actually even successful private companies can become inefficient and incompetent, usually when they start operating almost in monopoly. Then other leaner and more focused companies appear and start killing them. I believe it's not public vs private, it's about competition and also the inefficiencies due to the size of the company. Public often is big and has no competition by default, so the problem is aggravated.
It's wrong to think so much of the public vs. private thing. Ultimately corporations and individuals act at the request of the government and have a role in influencing it. And large corporations like Boeing or Lockheed Martin act as administrative units in themselves, establishing rules and regulations for their workforce, holding elections among their shareholders, sending lobbiests to congress and so fourth.
The main difference here is the way NASA and SpaceX are working together. Rather than issuing a cost plus contract and heavily overseeing and micro-managing the development of this rocket, they've issued a fixed price contract and left most of the details up to SpaceX. The reason it works is SpaceX is ultimately responsible for the financial results of the endeavor. If they come in under the bid amount (which is their intention) they make money. The more they save, the more they make. If they come in over budget they either lose money or they have to go back to NASA and ask for more (at which time the whole project would be in question). But you can only do this with well developed technologies, so that you know the costs well enough to bid a reasonable amount. If you try it with cutting edge technology, it would almost certainly fail.
Hopefully someday NASA will be able to simply buy newly developed rockets "off the shelf" where companies and individuals bear the risks of development on their own, but that'll only happen if SpaceX is secessfull in bringing the costs down by another order of magnitude or so (which is their intention).