Jump to content

Blue Origin Thread (merged)


Aethon

Recommended Posts

How much longer before the window closes?

To reach the L1 point? a ship can leave for it at prety much any time of the year as long as the moon isnt in the way. The only window they have is they need to launch at a very specific time of day to align the orbits properly. Other than that they are just at the mercy of the weather and if they keep haveing to scrub conflicting schedules.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Correct me if I'm wrong: Wednesday is the last chance to launch until the 20th due to the Moon getting in the way, right? (If it doesn't launch tomorrow I will declare the Moon worse than Ike)

That's correct,

Unconfirmed rumors that Elon will blow up the Moon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like Dragon touched down safely. I had started to get somewhat worried, considering that it was supposed to land 7:00ish and hadn't seen anything till just a half hour ago when Elon tweeted the pics.

Onward to tomorrow's launch!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man, I wanted to go to the states in 20178 to see the first launch of the SLS. I'm doubting this whole plan now...

I flew down to Florida to see STS-101 launch back in April of 2000. It didn't launch while I was there due to high winds. My regret isn't that I missed out on seeing that launch. My regret is that I didn't ever try again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I flew down to Florida to see STS-101 launch back in April of 2000. It didn't launch while I was there due to high winds. My regret isn't that I missed out on seeing that launch. My regret is that I didn't ever try again.

I live in the lower part of SC, so it's not too far away from me. Considering my interests I'm surprised that I have never attempted to see a launch in real life. I've heard that it's life changing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Weather 90% go for today.

From NASA:

Today’s launch opportunity is the final one before a “Moon Blackout†that begins Thursday and ends on Feb. 19. Because DSCOVR is traveling to deep space, the moon’s location on Feb. 12 through 19 would be close enough to DSCOVR to affect the spacecraft’s trajectory. This would require performing mid-course correction burns that would use more fuel than what is planned for the mission. After today, the next launch opportunity would be on Friday, Feb. 20, at 5:43:44 p.m. EST.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, that sucks. Here's the full press release:

SpaceX is still tracking towards a 6:03pm ET liftoff of DSCOVR, but unfortunately we will not be able to attempt to recover the first stage of the Falcon 9. The drone ship was designed to operate in all but the most extreme weather. We are experiencing just such weather in the Atlantic with waves reaching up to three stories in height crashing over the decks. Also, only three of the drone ship’s four engines are functioning, making station-keeping in the face of such wave action extremely difficult. The rocket will still attempt a soft landing in the water through the storm (producing valuable landing data), but survival is highly unlikely.

Wow, three-story heigh waves. This time round I actually hope they'll scrub the launch... I know the next opportunity will be in a couple of weeks, but I'm almost more interested in the reentry attempt than in the mission.

- - - Updated - - -

What's happening with the upper level winds? To my untrained eye, the 250 hPa analysis chart doesn't look much better today than it did yesterday?

http://i.imgur.com/19bwXEw.png

Indeed, yesterday's conditions were 80% green, so it's just a +10% increase. I don't really know, all I can say is yesterday high level winds were 151% over the limit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, three-story heigh waves.

The most recent NOAA surface analysis chart shows MSWH of 10-11 metres in that area. Mean significant wave height is the average height of the largest 33% of waves out there. That means that roughly 1 in 6 waves are bigger than that.

Edit: They also seem to be running against the gulf stream so they'd be steep and dangerous... I don't envy the guys who are out there supporting the ASDS.

5eneFgK.gif

Edited by PakledHostage
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...