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32 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

WOAH.

 

This is going to be epic!

Also, the H-IIA and the Falcon are launching 61 seconds apart if all goes well tonight! If my source is correct, this will be the shortest delay between two orbital launches ever!

Back in the early days of the space race, IIRC, there were two orbital launches about 80 seconds apart. But one of the launches was only reported to the minute, not to the second, so there is a 30-second-either-way uncertainty.

Which means there is an 81.7% chance this is the shortest delay between two orbital launches ever, and an 18.3% chance that it is not.

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10 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Back in the early days of the space race, IIRC, there were two orbital launches about 80 seconds apart. But one of the launches was only reported to the minute, not to the second, so there is a 30-second-either-way uncertainty.

Which means there is an 81.7% chance this is the shortest delay between two orbital launches ever, and an 18.3% chance that it is not.

Even if it isn't, it's still the second closest and the closest in my lifetime, so it will be amazing either way!

Do you know which launches those two were?

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The SpaceX Flickr now has all full-res pics of the Roadster with flanking fairing halves.

What recovery hardware can we spot? I already see cylindrical nitrogen tanks (which, for the record, look IDENTICAL to the KSP cylindrical monoprop tanks, albeit more grey). What else? I see some lines that look like they could be rigging for chutes. Any thrusters? Any chute packs?

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1 hour ago, Ultimate Steve said:

WOAH.

 

This is going to be epic!

Also, the H-IIA and the Falcon are launching 61 seconds apart if all goes well tonight! If my source is correct, this will be the shortest delay between two orbital launches ever!

Where can I stream the H-IIA?  I want to watch both at once.  

:o

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The H-2A launch is scheduled about one minute before a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to blast off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

If both missions take off as scheduled, it would mark the shortest time between two orbital launch attempts since the dawn of the Space Age, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks global space activity.

The current record for the shortest duration between two orbital launch attempts was set in December 1970, when a Soviet Kosmos 3M booster and a French Diamant-B rocket lifted off from Russia and French Guiana 4 minutes, 44 seconds, apart, McDowell said.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/22/h2a-f37-launch-coverage/

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I'd have had this on at my Christmas party---we had an ISS pass and Dragon spotting, however.

What's up with that interstage? It's NOT black. I'm beginning to think it's in 2 pieces. Blacker on the seam, and regular looking (ish) where Falcon 9 is written).

They just said interstage is sooty.

Why the tarp?

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