Gonna be exciting.......

[glhs837]

Still on for Monday, will be a SpaceX live webcast, like they do the /falcon launches. Expect a bare minimum of drone coverage up to 25,000 feet, hopefully they borrowed the NASA high chase bird. Test window is 0900 EST to 1800. With a fallback to Tuesday, of course. I'll be throwing the feed up on the big screen which I can see past my work monitor.

WB-57 - JSC | NASA Airborne Science Program

airbornescience.nasa.gov

This news report shows the exclusion zone pretty well.

SpaceX planned 9 mile launch, 'self-destruct' zone over Gulf

SpaceX came close to hitting the launch button on an early November flight up to 50,000 feet (9.4 miles) at its Boca Chica launch site, according to federal and state emails.

www.krgv.com

 

[glhs837]

Flight pushed back to No Earlier Than (NET) Wed, with another static fire on for tomorrow.

 

[1stGenSMIB]

Flight pushed back to No Earlier Than (NET) Wed, with another static fire on for tomorrow.

Awesome...thought I'd missed it. thanks for the feed a few posts back.

 

[glhs837]

Aaaaannnnnnd now its NET Thursday, which I want to happen, but a push wont bother me, driving down to Jax which means I'll need to pull over and watch on the phone.... now I want it to slide to Sunday so I can watch on the biiiig screen.

 

[glhs837]

This is what we've been waiting for.

https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/deta...fS6tJ9EtRnHBs_uyBfW-kr2qJAT4oBCwyan6FqSYBxaIE

 

[vraiblonde]

Aaaaannnnnnd now its NET Thursday, which I want to happen, but a push wont bother me, driving down to Jax which means I'll need to pull over and watch on the phone.... now I want it to slide to Sunday so I can watch on the biiiig screen.

We just got the word from SPI that it's Thursday but they didn't specify a time of day. I'm guessing they don't really know until that morning, is that right?

 

[glhs837]

We just got the word from SPI that it's Thursday but they didn't specify a time of day. I'm guessing they don't really know until that morning, is that right?

Well, even that morning we wont know, it's the sort of thing were you'll just have to leave two windows open, I recommend Labpadre Nerdle Cam, and the SpaceX webcast. The Lab crew is pretty good and have the launch sequence down pretty well. Me, if I'm home, I'll have Lab on the computer and SpaceX on the smart TVs youttube channel.

But Thursday is out, heres the text of the NOTAMS, or Notice To Mariners that shuts down airspace.

0/8423 NOTAM Details

Issue Date :​	December 02, 2020 at 1623 UTC
Location :​	BROWNSVILLE, Texas
Beginning Date and Time :​	December 04, 2020 at 1400 UTC
Ending Date and Time :​	December 06, 2020 at 2300 UTC
Reason for NOTAM :​	TO PROVIDE A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR ROCKET LAUNCH AND RECOVERY PURSUANT TO 14 CFR SECTION 91
Type :​	Space Operations
Replaced NOTAM(s) :​	N/A
Jump To: ​	Affected Areas Operating Restrictions and Requirements Other Information

Affected Area(s)	Top​
Airspace Definition:
		Region bounded by:
		Latitude: Longitude: FRD: From: 25º57'00"N 97º14'00"W To: 26º04'00"N 97º14'00"W To: 26º05'00"N 97º03'00"W To: 26º00'00"N 96º59'00"W To: 25º54'00"N 97º02'00"W To: 25º57'00"N 97º14'00"W
		Altitude: From the surface up to Unlimited
Effective Date(s):
		From December 04, 2020 at 1400 UTC
		To December 06, 2020 at 2300 UTC

 

[glhs837]

SpaceX finally put up the livestream, which indicates they think they are ready. Goes live 7am tomorrow....

 

[glhs837]

If anyone wants to know exactly how much the test article this is, spend a few minutes playing with this super zoomable image. You can see all the bumps and bruises, every hand written note in Sharpie, the fact that the body flaps are held closed with hardware from Harbor Freight....

EasyZoom

Share huge gigapixel high-resolution images from microscopy, photography, astronomy

www.easyzoom.com

 

[Sneakers]

Hate to say it, but it kinda looks like something you might find in a backyard in England. A do-it-yo-self.

...the fact that the body flaps are held closed with hardware from Harbor Freight....

Like I said.....

 

[glhs837]

Like I said.....

I see "dont sweat fidelity you dont need yet" Although the electric motors to drive those flaps are just ripped right off the Tesla production line as is the battery pack powering them. But again, this is a highly disposable test article with a stated 33.333333 chance of completing the flight intact. They have Serial Numbers 09 through 16 in various stages of assembly. 09s about done except for adding rocket motors, while 16 is starting to get stacked.

 

[vraiblonde]

SpaceX finally put up the livestream, which indicates they think they are ready. Goes live 7am tomorrow....

We got a message that said launch would be some time between 7am and 6pm. Elon Musk must have been a cable guy in his past life.....

 

[glhs837]

We got a message that said launch would be some time between 7am and 6pm. Elon Musk must have been a cable guy in his past life.....

Yep, big window, lots of things need to go right in a long sequence, so they baked in a lot of slop. Nothing sucks worse than busting your azz all day long to got the damn test article ready and lose your range window.... They can fill it, empty it, even swap a motor if need be. And still launch tommorow.

 

[GURPS]

If anyone wants to know exactly how much the test article this is

but there is rust



I wonder how much weight is saved not painting the damn thing white

 

[glhs837]

but there is rust



I wonder how much weight is saved not painting the damn thing white

Not so much weight as the fact that this thing will be undergoing reentry heat. The orbital ones will be covered on the "underside" by heat resistant tiles. This pic shows a robot installing them on a test piece. Remember, these are to be mass produced rockets, and so the processes must be fast and reliable and the finishes durable. So no paint no, Faberge eggs for heat shielding solutions. What you will see on later ones is a mirror polish on every surface not covered in heat shield tiles.

So every surface on the "underside" will be protected. The upper will be straight stainless steel.

 

[glhs837]

Feed goes live in 90 minutes, already 24,000 people on it Of course, there is no way of knowing how long after the feed goes live that they will attempt a launch.

Right now the Nerdle Cam looks amazing

 

[glhs837]

Dont give up the ship!!!! Window goes til 5pm CST, flaps are spread, and we just heard that the NASA WB-57 chase aircraft is on its way down from Houston....... That bird will record from 50-60,000 feet. Still might cancel, but hasnt yet.!!!!!!!

 

[vraiblonde]

Ugh. Everyone in the campground was at the Sunset Deck to watch the launch. We got to the countdown and....big nope.

 

[glhs837]

Ugh. Everyone in the campground was at the Sunset Deck to watch the launch. We got to the countdown and....big nope.

That's test. At 1.3 seconds on the clock, one of the Raptor engines commanded an abort. No idea why yet. Plan is to go again tomorrow, assuming the abort was for something simple. Worked out for me, what with making dinner and running errands, I ended up on a feed that was 20 minutes behind reality and would have missed it...... dodged that bullet.

 

[glhs837]

Window opens again at 8am. Back on the feeds. Since SpaceXs wont go live until about 10 minutes prior to launchm if you want more heads up, watch either the Labpadre Boca Chica or NASAspacefilght.com youtube channels. 8,000 folks watching LP, 15,000 watching NSF right now.