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SpaceX Rocket Stuns Californians As It Carries 10 Satellites Into Space (theguardian.com)
A reused SpaceX rocket carried 10 satellites into orbit from California on Friday, leaving behind a trail of mystery and wonder as it soared into space. Elon Musk jokingly tweeted a video of the rocket with the caption, "Nuclear alien UFO from North Korea." The Guardian reports: The Falcon 9 booster lifted off from coastal Vandenberg air force base, carrying the latest batch of satellites for Iridium Communications. The launch in the setting sun created a shining, billowing streak that was widely seen throughout southern California and as far away as Phoenix, Arizona. Calls came in to TV stations as far afield as San Diego, more than 200 miles south of the launch site, as people puzzled about what caused the strange sight. Cars stopped on freeways in Los Angeles so drivers and passengers could take pictures and video. The Los Angeles fire department issued an advisory that the "mysterious light in the sky" was from the rocket launch. The same rocket carried Iridium satellites into orbit in June. That time, the first stage landed on a floating platform in the Pacific ocean. This time, the rocket was allowed to plunge into the sea. It was the 18th and final launch of 2017 for SpaceX, which has contracted to replace Iridium's system with 75 updated satellites. SpaceX has made four launches and expects to make several more to complete the job by mid-2018. The satellites also carry payloads for global aircraft tracking and a ship-tracking service. Did any Slashdotters manage to view the spectacle?
Yes, Iridium certainly was still going a few years ago when I wrote some code to do FTP over it. (for data from unattended ice measuring equipment in Antarctica, the only way they could do it)
As much as Elon Musk likes to make big announcements with dubious time schedules, SpaceX has really delivered in 2017. Copying from FutureMartian97:
18 Falcon 9 launches
100% Primary mission success
100% First Stage landing success
The first reflight of a Falcon 9 first stage
The first reflight of a Dragon Capsule
Reflying 5 first stages
Reflying 2 Dragon Capsules
And Falcon Heavy is going to launch very soon, currently scheduled for January.
I grew up in Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley. Starting in the early 1960s when I was 10 years old, I saw dozens of rocket launches from Vandenberg. They are/were generally not announced ahead of time. Maybe that's changed. When lit up by the sun from below the horizon, like this evenings launch, the rocket trail glows against the dark background.
The more spectacular launches in the 1960's and 70's were the result of explosions. You could see the trail suddenly bloom much wider, and the rocket at the front of the trail would often slow it's foreward trajectory, of even disappear of drop downward.
This evenings launch I caught driving home in the early stages, instantly recognized what it was. I pulled over to the side of the road and grabbed a vintage mini-monocular I keep in the car. 10x or something like that.
What you see is the rocket trail, like an airplane trail, and at the front of the trail is rocket itself. At the front there is a bowshock , the tail spreading out from the rocket. With the monocular the bright rocket was not resolved beyond a large 'point.'
I first saw it driving toward it after passing some small hills. The trail was to the west, with a gap in it. The trail was wider with more detail than a plane trail. The trail tends to widen over time, staring off fairly thin, say 1/10th or 20th the moon's diameter, and in a few minutes 10 or 20 moon diameters.
This launch was impressive for:
1. it seemed to be lower in the atmosphere than any other launch I've seen. It may have had a different trajectory than most launches.
2. It was moving faster than any I had seen before.
3. It was brighter, more contrast, as a result of lighting effects, and maybe actually being closer.
4. I watched it until it disappeared behind the hills, less than 10 minutes, spreading over at least 40 degrees.
5. The trail showed a lot of filament like detail, randomly spread out.
6 Staging occurred about 1/2 way through my viewpoint. I could see the falling away stage spiraling, leaving a corkscrew trail. This was spectactular--okay, for Gen-Xers: This was awesome. Naked eye and with the monocular I could see the second stage moving in a loop, making a loop every 5 or 7 seconds. I had never seen this in any detail.
Comment: I don't know if the bright view of the main rocket and the falling away stage was more reflected sunlight or a direct few of the rocket flame. My guess is with greater distance the brightness of the flame was lessened. With the monocular the main rocket and falling stage appeared not as points, but as a bright spot, that I could not resolved to see any detail.
After staging, the falling stage continued heading SE, but more east, while the main rocket left it behind heading SE but more south. As the separation of the two increased I could see a few bright spots that seemed to fall away from the main rocket. Satellites? Parts being jettisoned?
Meanwhile the trail keeps getting fatter, and the effects of wind start to slowly twist it.
Around 15 minutes after I first spotted it, and it has faded, and the filamentous detail has faded too. Or blended together. During this last phase color become more saturated. In the earlier portion of the event the trail is bright white with faints hits of color. At the end the trail becomes a fainter patch but with definite color. Blue-turquoise dominated the Western edge, while the south eastern and southern view was still white. I've seen the Aurora Borealis, but I suspect something like this.
Anyone care to compare this to a Canaveral launch, with the ocean and sun in the opposite direction?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
It launched south, went over Antarctica and back up along the east coast of Africa and through the middle east. I believe SpaceX only uses California for polar orbits, Florida for normal orbits.
This space intentionally left blank
For some reason SpaceX didn't want this one back. It was a Mod 3, and they are building Mod 5s. It was its second flight, so I guess they had no need for it. But, they did go through the landing procedure. When the second stage released, you could see the first stage fire its return to land burn. You could also hear them announce the reentry burn. I think I even heard them announce the landing burn. But there was no ship to land on. I guess they just did all this for testing and practice.
Yeah there's nothing extraordinary about launching a rocket into outer space... Anyone with a 3D printer can do that.