SpaceX Falcon 1 launch

evan13579b Says:

Apr 12, 2008 - Ya all he's done is sold two companies for hundreds of millions of dollars and managed to create two more money making revolutionary companies. It must be all the engineers he happened to have run into throughout his life. Ya, what a leach, it boggles the mind. /sarcasm

kingofmonkeyfolk Says:

May 15, 2008 - This man totally rocks and I wish him the best for flight #3.

sennetor Says:

May 17, 2008 - SpaceX now have a regeneratively cooled Merlin 1C engine but I don't think they are using LOX since this would cause the Niobium nozzle to oxidize in seconds. I presume they are using the propellant. :)

antiarcanum Says:

May 24, 2008 - They didn't "lose telemetry" until the engine died due to fuel starvation (not shown in this vid). The oscillations at the end are the start of uncompensated (or poorly compensated) fuel slosh, which eventually leads to engine starvation. Surprisingly, even with the fuel slosh issue, it remained on its trajectory while gyrating and oscillating, a testament to the rest of their GNC algorithm.

countmacula Says:

May 30, 2008 - M1C (1st stage engine) nozzle is stainless steel, it uses the fuel (RP-1) as the regen fluid. Only the 2nd stage engine nozzle is niobium. The "hot spots" on the 2nd stage nozzle are nothing to worry about. Niobium can take it. Yes, it's very well designed. :-)

gravesclay Says:

Aug 2, 2008 - Fuel slosh also known as pogo, causes a linear oscillation not the kind of gyration you see here. Watch closely at 4:12 the staging of the rocket is what actually causes the issue. The first stage slams into the nozzle, causing the rocket to veer off course, at that point guidance takes over and begins gimbaling the engine to attempt to correct this problem, it begins to over correct and the mission is aborted. At least this is what we came up with in my special topics physics 399 course :)

squallgzy Says:

Aug 3, 2008 - I think SpaceX will success at last, it will find a new and cheap way for us to launch a rocket.

warrenkm Says:

Sep 23, 2008 - It's a transverse oscillation, unlike 'chugging'. The control/guidance system recognized an out of bounds condition due to positive feedback re sloshing and shut down prematurely. There wasn't starvation.

newton2013 Says:

Sep 28, 2008 - I had a BB Gun that shot at 450 feet per second. The vehicle after reaching qzone is measured as travelling at 280 Meters a second. +3 times faster than a bb shoots out of a bbgun. Velocity Rules.

newton2013 Says:

Sep 28, 2008 - I typed that all wrong, oops.

fergielover69 Says:

Sep 29, 2008 - I SAW MY HOUSE

Frontlobotomy Says:

Sep 29, 2008 - CONGRATULATIONS, YOU GUYS RULE

effzehn Says:

Sep 29, 2008 - Gratulations!

helloterran Says:

Sep 29, 2008 - That is one powerful little rocket!

bug9999 Says:

Sep 29, 2008 - wow nice work ~~~

masterchief377 Says:

Sep 29, 2008 - AWESOME!!! One step closer to mars!

lithiumdeuteride Says:

Sep 29, 2008 - The Merlin engine has always used RP-1 (rocket-grade kerosene) and LOX.

buckamoona Says:

Sep 30, 2008 - man that thing is getting red

buckamoona Says:

Sep 30, 2008 - is it supposed to turn red and rotate like that at the end?

Luisvaldez989 Says:

Sep 30, 2008 - The second stage is supposed to turn red, but it encountered an anomaly. it rotated like that, and I saw in Wikipedia that Flight 2 was a failure.

AblePumper Says:

Jan 21, 2009 - The engine bells always get red hot like that because it is a natural thermal effect that has been with all high energy astronautical propulsion systems since the German A-4[V-2] of WW2. The engine is designed to be able to survive such heating for a specific amount of time.

ugowar Says:

Jan 23, 2009 - What's actually getting red hot here is the nozzle extension. It's designed to be radiatively cooled. First stage engines are typically ablatively cooled or regeneratively cooled and neither of those glows hot on the outside. Here, the throat of the engine is also ablatively cooled, but is invisible to the left.

AblePumper Says:

Jan 23, 2009 - Thanks ugowar. What I said was what I was taught back in Engineer School. It is a technique that is still in use today, but is starting to be come rare as LOX circulating through the nozzle walls has been shown since the 1960's to be a better thermal control method.

jasong19711 Says:

Feb 4, 2009 - they will fail but they will succeed and going PRIVATE will be the way that our race will make it to the stars. Government funded space exploration is too bloated.

am0767 Says:

Apr 2, 2009 - get ready for flight 5!!