I have heard a bit of backchannel news from the network infrastructure guys in North America. It appears that the text of the Bailout giveaway went up and the government server got hit by the Slashdot effect. It became unreachable due to the huge volume of traffic caused by people attempting to get their hands on the Reid-Pelosi financial free for all bill. From what I have heard, this is not just pork… it is the whole damn pig sty.
|
|||||
|
The launch live webcast link is here.. 2322. This could be an interesting evening. As you know, the third launch failed at staging. It was quickly determined that the cause of this was a ‘burp’ from the Merlin engine after shutdown. There is some fuel and oxidizer left in the system when the engine shuts down, and in a regen engine there will be a bit more because the oxidizer is warmed and the nozzle cooled by running it through tubes around the outside of the bell. When they checked test data they found this had actually occurred in a ground test but the transient was ‘down in the weeds’ at sea level pressure and had not been noticed as it was perhaps only a tenth of an atmosphere of pressure and thus hidden in the 1.0 sea level pressure. At high altitude the ambient was near zero so the burp was significant. What happened then, was that after a perfect first stage burn and a flawless staging… the engine burped perhaps 2 seconds after sep and was enough to cause the first stage to ram the second stage just as it was ready to fire. 2349. Fueling is in progress and near completion, or at least as near as they will go this early. The final top off will not occur until later in the launch. I am wondering if this might be partly to prevent the RP1 (kerosene) from chilling down as much as it did on a previous flight. Ah, the webcast has just now gone live. 0011. They are into the terminal count but they have been giving us loads of talking head chatter instead of the interesting stuff. I’d much rather listen to the real internal loop than people assigned to interpret to us. There is in any case only about 5 minutes to go. 0013. As you can see if you are watching the video, the tower is retracted, and we are now hearing the real control loop. 2:30 to go! Launch director gave a green, range is green, about 1 minute to go! 0018. She’s going up and looking great so far! Max Q… first stage going great. Getting close to time for pitch over and MECO. 0021. Second stage is burning beautifully!!!!!! There is no roll problem this time. Now we wait 4 minutes as she goes down range. 0022. No sign of roll anomalies like on flight 2. The slosh baffles are doing their job. 315 km high now… 0024. Almost there… the bell glows red hot but it is built for that. We now have lost signal, probably due to range. 0043. They are in orbit with their dummy satellite. The only things we need to hear now is whether they get a successful recovery of the 1st stage from the Pacific. It should have come down on parachutes but I don’t expect I will hear about that until ‘tomorrow’. I feel a bit like Elon… I hardly know what to say. I must admit that I was here screaming like the SpaceX employees and I now feel just limp, tired and very, very happy. So… another Falcon 1 launch latter this year and then on to the much larger Falcon 9 next year! September 28th, 2008 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
 The SpaceX test flight 4 of the Falcon 1 launch vehicle is scheduled for Sunday. That means around midnight in my part of the world and earlier in the USA. I will be here as usual, giving a blow by blow live-blogging of the event. My gut feel says they make it this time. But that and a shiny new pound coin will get you a small cup of coffee at the local coffee shop. Here is a very nice Q&A with Elon Musk done by the Washington Post. 2300. The launch webcast link is now up.. Coverage should start in about a half hour. September 28th, 2008 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
Bob Barr will be at Reason’s office in DC tonight at 20:00 Eastern Time. You can watch here for a link that will allow you to join the event. If you are in DC, you might want to plan on dropping in for the live event. The time at the Barr website says 9pm EST for the Counter-Debate now, which is 2100. September 26th, 2008 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
It is now officially official as the awaited press release has been officially released:
I will keep you informed as news comes in and if at all possible will live blog the launch from here on the other side of the planet from Kwaj as I have on each of the previous Falcon test flights. Monday, Sep 22: The engine test was accomplished successfully over the weekend so we are on track to see a flight 4 launch attempt later this week Tuesday, Sep 23: The flight is scheduled for today if you are in the US, or ‘tomorrow’ if you are where I sit. Window opens around 2300 UTC and runs until 0400 UTC. That will be afternoon or evening for US readers. Tuesday, Sep 23: They are swapping out a component in the second stage and the launch is now note expected until Sunday, Sep 28 at the earliest. Current range usage window lasts until next Wed, October 1. September 20th, 2008 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
Officially unofficial (as yet) information has it that SpaceX will try another test launch from Kwaj before the end of this month. I will keep you informed. September 19th, 2008 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)
I have been hearing that Sarah Palin was hacked and her private email put up on wikileaks. In addition some folk say they can not reach wikileaks and the FBI had shut it down as part of an investigation. Others say it is temporarily unreachable simply because so many people are trying to download. This has apparently been under discussion on SlashDot. I am just in the door from lunch and that is the entirety of what I know that is not from the tinhat brigade. I have checked none of it and am unlikely to do so as I am expecting a call from New York any minute about some engineering work. If the FBI is in the picture, I hope the crackers behind it get sent up river for a long time… and that they enjoy man-love from Islamic extremist prisoners. I would say the same if they hacked Joe Biden’s mail box: “T’ain’t no diff’r’nce to me.” A crime is still a crime. September 18th, 2008 | 33 comments - (Comments are closed)
Our suit has been filed in Texas. You may remember my earlier article about this: both the Republicans and the Democrats missed the legal filing deadline in Texas. Unlike their suit against us in Pennsylvania, this is not a simple nuisance suit. There appears to be a clear legal issue. The ruling parties have long gotten away with a one-sided set of ballot access laws. Laws are enforced against us but under the same circumstances they get a wink and a nudge and a pass. Times change. September 17th, 2008 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)
If you are a lover of aviation history, you may want to help them out. September 16th, 2008 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
I just found out about this good news in Pennsylvania:
This is particularly heartening to me as I vote absentee in Pennsylvania. September 16th, 2008 | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)
The National Space Society held a press event at the National Press Club today in conjunction with the Discovery Channel to announce the results of power beaming tests carried out in the Hawaiian Islands earlier this year, between January and April. The testing was funded and filmed by the Discovery Channel as an episode of an eight part ‘Discovery Project Earth’ series and should be airing tonight in the US. The briefing was given by John C. Mankins, COO of Managed Energy Technologies LLC who actually built and carried out the tests and shared the podium with Mark Hopkins, Senior Vice President of the National Space Society. The house was packed, standing room only with more people in the hallway,.according to an attendee whom I interviewed. John Mankins and his crew built a portable and modular energy transmission system for under a million dollars. This was not just a technological feasiblity study. We have known for decades that it is possible to transmit power via microwaves over long distances. What the Mankins test showed was how it can be done in a real world situation. They had to work around bureaucratic approvals which limited the total power; they had to deal with tribal religious requirements that nothing be left on the sacred volcano over night and they had to build equipment that could be carried to a site, plugged together, aimed and turned on. They succeeded. 1 watt of power was beamed from a portable antenna on Maui to a small receiving antenna on Hawaii, 147 kilometers away. The equipment was not engineered for efficiency nor high power, both of which are possible. Mankins and the Discovery Channel team have succeeded in what they set out to do: they have an iconic real world demonstration that shows the key technology behind Geosynchronous Solar Power Satellites works. September 12th, 2008 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
Johnathan has already posted a remembrance for this day, but I would like to add a hearty “Thank you” on behalf of the Samizdata editorial staff to all the US and UK warriors who have fought and died for us over the ensuing years. We will not forget you, either. September 11th, 2008 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)
|
   |
||||
All content on this website (including text, photographs, audio files, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
|||||