UPDATE: They did it!!
For those of you awake right now, Spacex's Falcon 9 rocket with Dragon capsule will be launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida in less than an hour. If successful, this mission will see the first private spacecraft docking at the ISS. Check out the webcast and live text/video updates from SpaceFlightNow:
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/
http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/status.html
Dragon won't be docking with the ISS until Friday so don't wait up for it tonight. You'll see the Falcon 9 launch, taking just under 10 minutes to reach orbit at which point Dragon will separate from the second stage of the rocket. Depending on video Tx range, we may also get to see the solar arrays deploying (even the big guys have trouble with FPV!) After the video cuts out there should be a press conference discussing what happened and explaining any anomalies.
As a former SpaceX engineer, I'd be glad to answer any questions (on publicly available info) people have about the launch. Wish them luck!
Comments
Maybe we are looking at propulsion backwards. Isn't force just the macroscopic effect of momentum/energy exchange at the quantum level, according to the Standard Model. We really need to look at things from the point of view of exchanging momentum, rather than creating a force.
Probably anti-gravity will never really be possible, in terms of removing the effects of gravity. However, our current propulsion systems are never going to get us into outer space, due to inefficiency. As long as we exchange momentum, by "throwing away" mass, we'll always have to carry massive amounts of fuel weight around. We need to find some way of exchanging momentum without loosing mass, not anti-gravity.
Sure, but a rocket will always be a rocket. Maybe more efficient, but essentially the same tech. Nasa uses the ultimate in ablative nozzles. After and during firing, they are ablated by 100%. ;-)
Great achievement, for SpaceX!
However, I don't want to be cynical here, but nothing really new technologically has happened.
Dragon made it to the ISS!!
NASA TV Live Video of Dragon on Station
Pictures of the Berthing Process
Congratulations to the SpaceX team! The biggest milestone of this mission is successfully completed.
Now that the complete webcast has been uploaded
We can see John Insprucker was the other Air Force guy, in addition to John Muratore. So they seemed to go from the traditional college graduates of a startup to pretty experienced celebrities. Pretty ecstatic audience when the solar arrays deployed at 56:00. You know that was where a lot of low cost spaceships failed.
Jack, it's obvious why Jeff left SpaceX, to join 3DR of course.
Anyone remember the show in 1979, called "Salvage 1"? It was about a guy to made started a space salvage company with a rocket made out of junk yard parts. SpaceX is the real thing, except they're not using junk yard parts, I hope. ;-) Great achievement!
Haha no problem, I'm targeting the right people at least!
As the update above says, the launch was successful and we even saw the solar arrays deploy completely on live video, very exciting!!
@Jack Right, there are still a lot of steps to go through before docking so the mission is by no means over. I left because although it was extremely exciting to to be a part of, I have always wanted to start my own projects (www.event38.com :) ). Elon is big on hiring very young engineers as much as possible. Most of my colleagues were around my age, 22-27, and had little prior experience. I entered fresh out of school (BS Aerospace Eng) and it was something of a miracle that I did get in.
@Monroe Prometheus sounds awesome! I'd love to see some of that stuff open sourced ;)
Wow awesome FPV video! That's likely to scare some people though :)
Here's a guy who got video of the launch from his FPV radian. What a great idea!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KburnQRulRQ
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