Business, Space, Technology and Society

Falcon Heavy Static Fire

22 Comments

Chris Gebhart is live streaming it.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Also Florida Today.

[Update a few minutes later]

They fired, right at the opening of the window. Probably have Youtube later today.

[Update a while later]

The fact that it happened right at the beginning of the window is a good sign, indicating that there were no issues with the wet dress rehearsal. I’m curious to know if all twenty-seven engines lit. If they did, they must be very close to being ready for a first flight. Also, they’re past Elon’s initial concern that the pad wouldn’t be able to handle the thrust, or the plume interactions. There should be no proble with lift off, and now probably the biggest uncertainty will be the ability to stage the side cores in flight (and perhaps fly and land three cores simultaneously).

[Update a couple minutes later]

Here’s Robin Seemangal’s raw video.

[Update a few minutes later]

Looking at tickets for Florida.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here’s the view from SpaceX’s camera.

If I fly in on Monday, I might see two launches. There’s a Falcon 9 flight scheduled for Tuesday.

22 thoughts on “Falcon Heavy Static Fire”

  1. You can rewatch the Florida Today video, but it isn’t exciting. First, you have to jump ahead over 30 minutes to see anything more interesting than some fueling pressure releases. Then you can see the engine test exhaust, but its all the excitement of watching a launch the Cape while no sense of what’s going on (unless you’ve done it before) and hardly any sound.

    Don’t know if it was successful, because it seemed to be short duration test. Was that the intended length of the test? If so, congrats. The exhaust plume seemed large and wide enough to suggest liftoff capability. And the test was sustained enough to suggest thrust can be maintained.

  3. From the SpaceX camera it looked to be only 8 seconds. I’m not suggesting it was cut short from the intended 12 seconds.

  4. I like the SpaceX cam. Wow that was loud. I wonder how well the pad held up. I’m sure it has been refurbished some since STS days, but STS was tearing it up near the end of the program.

    2. “I wonder how well the pad held up.” Is an actual flight easier on the pad, because the ship leaves? On the other hand, you have less control on what gets hit.

      1. I would think so from at least a heat perspective. I’ve seen full flight profile tests at Stennis, but the “pad” there is a body of water.

        BTW, if ever travelling on I-10 between LA and MS; I recommend stopping at the MS visitor center and seeing if a test might be occurring. They often are open to visitors to witness the test fairly close up. You can get within a mile of the test (not so at KSC), and a full flight profile is amazing because it is 8 minutes plus of sound and fury.

  5. You seem to be blocked at PayPal?

    Also, FYI on the mobile format replys to individual messages are not possible.

    1. My phone and tablet appear to display different mobile versions of the site.

      On my phone, it operates just like the desktop version but with the main page having just a post title, date, author, and number of comments. The interior of the post looks the same as the desktop with nested comments and everything. The main page and posts have the same visual theme too.

      On the tablet, the main page has a post title, about 30 characters of the post, a read more link, date line, and tag line. The interior of the post has the comments in chronological order. The main page and posts have a different visual theme. It’s the blue one.

  6. They’ll be attempting to land two cores simultaneously back at the Cape while the center core will continue burning for another minute or so before attempting to land on the barge downrange. That’ll be something to see. One of the more interesting challenges to me is how the outer cores will have to switch control laws for the engine gimballinng after separation, at least in the roll axis.

  7. A video from Tim Dodd (Everyday Astronaut) here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDiJh8loTOE

    Starting at 4:08 or so shows it to appear to last 11 seconds.

    At around 6:00 he discusses the staggering of ignition of side cores vs center core. I would concur with that (staggered ignition) although neither he nor I can tell you the sequencing. Dodd suggests it was side cores first then center core, I’m tending the other way in order to minimize shear forces on the hold downs and stack. I don’t see a compelling reason for SpaceX to keep this a secret so we’ll know sooner rather than later I think.

    1. Can anyone comment on whether center core will be throttled down during ascent until side cores are jettisoned? Seem to remember reading somewhere that would be the case in order to prolong boost of center core. I presume how much that is put in practice will depend upon the payload mass and orbit inclination.

    2. As an amateur, I would guess side cores first. Consider the weight of the payload. The reason we’re doing multiple cores is to have a heavier payload, no? Add to that the weight of the side cores which at the moment of launch you propose to be dead weight?

  8. I find this tweet suspect:


    A French space reporter just yelled “It’s like the 4th of July!” pic.twitter.com/vJssukqgIz

    — Robin Seemangal (@nova_road) January 24, 2018

    Eh? Not Bastille Day?

    🙂

    1. Unconstitutionality should always be sufficient reason to strip the cloak of sovereign immunity from a government actor.

Comments are closed.