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SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch and Historic Landing Aborted
An anonymous reader writes With only 29 seconds in the countdown, SpaceX had to abort the launch due to a last-minute problem with actuator drift, affecting the motors that control the second stage's rocket thrust. "SpaceX had to scrub Tuesday's attempt to launch a Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station and make a historic rocket landing. The landing experiment would have involved putting the first stage of the two-stage rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean, about 200 miles off the coast of Florida. Such a feat has never been done before. A successful maneuver would have marked a significant step toward making rockets more reusable and driving down the cost of spaceflight."
I know that they need to get successful launches, but the ability to scrub at the last moment is more important than a "balls-to-the-wall-let's-go-anyway-can-do" attitude. Unlike in Hollywood, there's no room for space cowboys in space.
They'll get it right when it's the right time.
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What I find impressive is SpaceX's turnaround time on scrubbed launches. I mean, sometimes they've fixed problems and relaunched within hours - 3 days is rather long by their standards and may have more to do with launch windows than anything else.
Who knows whether they'll nail this particular landing. But I'm pretty confident in the long run that they'll be nailing landing after landing with only the occasional random mishap (which is allowable, since it's unmanned). Now, whether they can collect, transport, refurbish, and relaunch cheaper than just building a new one, especially with their proportionally low production costs, that is yet to be seen. Best of luck to them, though!
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may have more to do with launch windows than anything else
Yes, the next ISS launch window is Friday morning.
... and in case you were wondering:
Actuator drift occurs when a valve is out of null, resulting in a piston moving slowly or drifting when there is no control signal (e.g. when the electrical power is off).
Now to research what is "out of null"....
Elon Musk just did an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit. Here's one Q/A.
Mr Musk, How will you secure the first stage of the Falcon 9 to the barge when it lands? Gravity or some mechanism? REPLY [–]ElonMuskOfficial " Mostly gravity. The center of gravity is pretty low for the booster, as all the engines and residual propellant is at the bottom. We are going to weld steel shoes over the landing feet as a precautionary measure." http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/c...