New Satellite launch from nasa

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

WHY CAN'T BRITAN HAVE A COOL SPACE PROGRAM?!!!!!!??!??

Anyway, finally a lunar (nearly wrote Munar) atmosphere study mission.

Isn't it about 0.0000000000001 times less thick then earths?

[SRV Ron]

Wouldn't it be interesting if they find out that much of the atmosphere on the moon consists of the exhaust products from Apollo moon landings and unused fuel from crashed boosters and abandoned LEMs?

[daffy]

I'm very happy to see NASA doing this, and think it's a long time overdue....decades in fact, in my opinion. Absolutely, without a doubt, an organization which contains the biggest nerds, geeks and cool people in the world, and they have been sadly tied at the hands for too long. Politics aside....space exploration should be encouraged and progressed like this one today. I am excited about the prospect of opening the doors to private operations, and think that is the way forward, but it all needs NASA to light the match, so to speak. Go NASA! Go to the moon again, finally....and let the nerds do their exploring and testing! (I say nerds, very lovingly by the way).

[Wrymn]

it looks rather like ICBM than nasa rocket

[lazarus1024]

I was about eight miles away during the launch, it was an awesome experience, can't believe how quickly it got up there.

THis may interest everyone here too: http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/Publications/Minotaur_IV_Guide.pdf

Sweet! My in-laws watched it from the inlet of Assawoman bay (its the interior water way by Ocean City) near their house. I think that is about 20 miles away.

I need to go visit them and then drive down for a launch of an Ares (or, hey, maybe some day bigger rockets!). I live about 3hrs away and I did manage to see it. Sadly the trees behind my house blocked most of the view, but I saw a few twinkles through the branches and then right after 1st stage seperation when it was well on its way through the gravity turn it broke in to the open between two trees for about 45 seconds before it passed behind another tree right before 2nd stage seperation.

I got a picture of it, but I was using a wide angle lens, so it didn't come out great (25 second exposure on a tripod). I was hoping it would be in the open more, plus I was hoping to catch more of the vertical launch component, but the trees blocked too much. There is a nice raised field about 200yds from my house that should be much less obstructed views. I am going to have to try over there next time.

[SRV Ron]

"it looks rather like ICBM than nasa rocket "

That may be due to the fact that the first stage is fabricated from recycled Peacemaker ICBM SRB stacked three high.

[Cyrus Ageis]

I watched the whole thing live. It was awesome.

Except the part where altitude and speed were measured in feet and FPS, and position downrange was measured in kilometers, (sometimes they referred to altitude in kilometers too, sometimes feet), and the display board had both.

Did they not learn from the LAST TIME they mixed up standard and metric measurements on the same mission? Please NASA, for the safety of the probes, settle on ONE UNIT OF MEASUREMENT!

[SRV Ron]

"Did they not learn from the LAST TIME they mixed up standard and metric measurements on the same mission? Please NASA, for the safety of the probes, settle on ONE UNIT OF MEASUREMENT! "

That happened to a commercial route for Train Simulator. The results were elevations in meters using feet from the elevation topography of the route. the results, track grades three times+ what exist on that route making it completely unplayable for hauling ore cars from the mine to the docks. The rolling hills looked like mountain ranges. The F units, even though modeled correctly with the correct physics, couldn't pull their rated number of consists for the route. They would bog down on grades with wheels spinning on dry rails or slide out of control down 6% grades that in the real world are 2% max.

[cypher_00]

Haha this is funny..

Turns out while looking back at photo's of the launch NASA accidentally also launched a frog when they launched LADEE:

http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/4561/Wetenschap/article/detail/3508388/2013/09/12/Foto-NASA-lanceert-per-ongeluk-kikker.dhtml

Sorry the article is in Dutch but it says the frog was most likely swimming in the water they use to suppress the sound from the launch.

(edit: for those who do not see it look at the top left of that picture)

Edited September 12, 2013 by cypher_00

[Loerelau]

Did read it as well this morning... Poor frog (Or is it Jeb?)!

[Mokmo]

Haha this is funny..

Turns out while looking back at photo's of the launch NASA accidentally also launched a frog when they launched LADEE:

http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/4561/Wetenschap/article/detail/3508388/2013/09/12/Foto-NASA-lanceert-per-ongeluk-kikker.dhtml

Sorry the article is in Dutch but it says the frog was most likely swimming in the water they use to suppress the sound from the launch.

(edit: for those who do not see it look at the top left of that picture)

On Gizmodo : http://gizmodo.com/a-frog-got-too-close-to-a-nasa-launch-and-well-this-h-1300166953

[rodion]

Are all green things with bulging eyes instinctively attracted to launch pads? This is getting out of hand.

[lazarus1024]

Oh crap, they forgot to close the capsule hatch and Kermit fell out!!!