SpaceX Launch Postponed

An anonymous reader writes with news about SpaceX's launch today and second attempt to land its Falcon 9 rocket on a platform floating offshore in the Atlantic ocean. "You can watch live as SpaceX launches its Falcon 9 rocket and attempts to recover the first stage portion via an automated, barge-based landing plan in the Atlantic ocean, with the first take-off attempted scheduled for 4:33 PM ET, provided conditions remain good and pre-flight checks go well. A big part of this mission, designated CRS-6 and designed primarily as a resupply flight for the International Space Station, is getting a second chance at recovering Falcon 9's first stage rocket. Once the second stage and the Dragon spacecraft detach from that first stage rocket, it'll undergo a controlled descent as it attempts to touch down with SpaceX's ocean-borne landing platform." Update: 04/13 21:43 GMT by S : The launch was scrubbed because of lightning in a nearby cloud. It's been rescheduled for tomorrow at 4:10PM ET.

Comments

Re:I can picture it now

[wonkey_monkey]

Elon Musk insists on all his employees working 7 seconds in the past so he can feel like he's living in the future.

Headline got ahead of itself

[wonkey_monkey]

SpaceX Launches CRS-6 Resupply Rocket and Tries Drone Ship Recovery

That'll teach you to use the present tense for something that hasn't happened yet.

Aborted at T-00:03:07

[compro01]

Weather doesn't want to cooperate. Anvil clouds within 10 miles of launch site.

Tune in tomorrow for next attempt.

Launch has been scrubbed

[ZeroSerenity]

Way to jump the gun there.

Why a one-second launch window?

[gman003]

I've seen short launch windows before, but not for ISS-bound launches. I remember previous Dragon launches having significantly longer windows to launch. Am I remembering wrong, or is there something about this launch that requires a shorter window?

Re:Why a one-second launch window?

[DerekLyons]

You're remembering wrong. Most ISS launches have windows a few seconds wide, at most. There's a lot of stuff in LEO, all moving very fast, If you want a course that will hit the ISS at exactly the right speed, and not come too close to anything else, you've got a narrow window to do it in.

You're explaining wrong. It has nothing to do with "other stuff" in LEO, and everything to do with the ISS's high inclination orbit. The plane of the orbit only passes over Cape Canaveral at intervals, and if you miss that window it will take excessive energy to match planes with the ISS.
 

You *can* launch outside that window (space is a big place), but it eats into your fuel and safety margins and usually there's no reason to do that.

Um, no. The width of the window is determined by the performance (available energy) of the booster and payload - you can't launch outside of it at all and reach the target. That's why windows exist in the first place.

Attached-anvil clouds

[ClickOnThis]

The launch was scrubbed due to attached-anvil clouds and lightning risk.

For the curious, attached-anvil clouds are also known as cumulonimbus clouds.

Re:Scrubbed Weather

[ganjadude]

dang coyote and his wacky acme schemes!!!!