Update (4:48 Pacific time) The launch was scrubbed. I’m not sure why, and the new target launch date/time but when I find out I’ll post more.
I dropped by the SpaceX site to see what’s what, and as I write this they are planning to launch the Falcon 1 at 4:00 4:45 Pacific time! They also have a link to the live webcast of the launch on their front page, and something weird is going on though: it says the time is T+29 minutes (or possibly seconds; the countdown clock units are not labeled), yet the rocket is sitting right there on the pad. It looks windy, too, so they may have to postpone. Stay Tuned! Update: I complained to my sooper sekrit source inside SpaceX, and the clock is now working. T-18 minutes as I write this!
March 19th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
They just posted a 4:45 (Pacific) launch time on the updates page.
[URL]http://www.spacex.com/updates.php#demoflight_2_launch_update_8[\URL]
March 19th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Fracking tags!
March 19th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
woot! sometimes it does pay being a compulsive favorites clicker
March 19th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
The countdown just started.
March 19th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
T -3:30!
March 19th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Watching it here from Spain – T-3min now, ignition enabled
March 19th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Launch aborted?
March 19th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Abort!!
March 19th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Oh no! what happened? I have no clue what they’re saying, does anyone?
March 19th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
It seemed it was going well and the they aborted.
March 19th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I had my boss come over and I missed the call. Did anyone catch the reason?
March 19th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
lol, it seems even they don’t know. woman said something to the effect of: we’re going to take the next 10 minutes to asses why we aborted during the terminal countdown.
March 19th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Scrubbed for the day
March 19th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
scrubbed for the day. Darn.
March 19th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Aww, aborted. Too bad.
March 19th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Oh well, it was interesting while it lasted. Sounds like 24 to 48 hours before we’ll know more.
March 19th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Theory is the data link went down when they switched from the land line to RF comms at about T- 1:30. They’d been having considerable problems with the landline comms earlier which was why the launch got delayed for 45 minutes.
Disregarding my disappointment, I find it vaguely amusing that the company founded by an internet tycoon is having persistent connectivity problems
March 20th, 2007 at 12:10 am
BA, could you please share with us, the Universal times at least. Some of us live in other regions of the world, but we are just as interested in the launches etc.
Just having the time as 4:45 (even Pacific Time) does not convey whether it is daytime or nightime. We, around the world, then have to add or subtract hours to have some idea of the actual time of the event. So could you Zulu it, and we can all work off the same page? Pretty Please?
But we still appreciate that you do keep us up to date with these events, just would like to see it as it happens if possible. And we do have to sleep sometimes, even if the rest of the world is happening.
Ivan.
March 20th, 2007 at 7:50 am
And maybe ask them to provide the feed in a format that I can actually use?
It’s disheartening that a company that seems so progressive has completely ignored Linux users. :\
March 20th, 2007 at 9:04 am
reason: s/w simulation did NOT take into account the real h/w takes some time to switch from one mode to another.
S/w =
1) mode 1 (land line)
2) switch from mode 1 to mode 2 (RF)
3) check: if we are i nmode 2 then continue
if nOT: then ABORT
should have been
1) mode 1
2) switch fro mmode 1 to mode 2
3) wait (reasonable amount of time)
4) Check.
this is a basic s/w test scenario. Sad that SpaceX missed it
March 20th, 2007 at 9:07 am
The latest updates indicates that the software did not account for the minor delay, due to hardware, when they switched to radio telemetry.
They’re going to try again for a launch today at 16:00 (Pacific), That should be 23:00 UTC.
Explanation on the SpaceX web page.
March 20th, 2007 at 9:36 am
MKR, I run Linux and I was able to view the video feed. Have you tried using vlc?
March 20th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Walter, I didn’t think about using VLC to view it until after I posted that.
The link has vanished from the site, but I’m assuming they’ll post an update once they’re ready to try again.
March 20th, 2007 at 11:44 am
MKR, it’s a windows media feed, so I think you need the w32codecs.
March 20th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
For those still following this. The launch has been pushed back an hour and five minutes.