Added: Aug 20, 2008
From: Southpaw018
Duration: 6:22
The launch of the Falcon 1 rocket on Omelek Island, Kwajalein Atoll.Liftoff was 3/20/2007 at approx. 01:10 GMT (9:10 EST). This video runs T -1:19 to T +5:00; the video feed was lost at approx T +5:05.Thank you to Farker FrankTheTank for the file!
Channel: Travel
Tags: falcon rocket space spaceflight spacex
Rating: 4.86 (102 ratings) Views: 70416' favoriteCount='83 Comments: 55
scowell Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - I saw two possible failure modes (the reason we *don't* see the last 5 seconds)... one was hot spots on the 2nd stage motor nozzle, and the other was the obvious guidance oscillation the system was in... that circular chasing mode needs to be damped out somehow.
rowlodge Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - thought i saw the rocket bell housing get knocked on real hard by the first stage, i was waiting for the rocket to malfunction but it did'nt.
scowell Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - Snow in the camera compartment?
AeroEngy Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - Yeah I saw that to looks like the S2 nozzle took a decent hit. Also, there is another video on youtube that shows about 10 more seconds of the flight that really shows it go out of control and head almost end over end.
AeroEngy Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - Yeah ,the S2 nozzle looks like it took a decent hit on separation. Also, there is another video on youtube that shows about 10 more seconds of flight where they really lose control and almost go end over end.
spacemanspiff2 Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - scowell, shut the heck up. go launch your own and then get back to us with your comments. Oh, and the snow was either coolant that crystallized or some of the condensation shown earlier that froze upon entering into COLD BLACK SPACE!Moron.
AeroEngy Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - Actually I have launched several rockets putting different types of payloads into orbit(GEO and LEO). I know how complicated it is and Elon saying this mission was 95% successful is ridiculous.
MBlaugh Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - Elon is an assclown. Full of himself and treats his brilliant engineers like shit. If anything brings this company down, it will be him and his monstrously inflated ego.
scowell Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - Address my guidance system comment, or eat some dark space yourself, clown.
wspaceport Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - Go to the Wikipedia site for an analysis of the Falcon 1 test flight.
furgee Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - The second stage bell was way to hot. They should wrap the inlet hoses around the bell (from the LOX tank) to cool the bell. Im no enginere by no stretch of the imagination but that is what NASA does. I believe its called pre-warming
byetis Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - There was no problem with the temp of the bell. Niobium maintains its strength very well at elevated temperature (which is why they used it). The nozzle appears to be very well designed. I think you're used to seeing alloys like steel get soft and weak when it starts to glow.
furgee Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - yeah i am, i just assumed that when it turned red it was softening as well as oscilating
CrazyHorseInvincible Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - You have to be kind of a lunatic to be this ambitious. Steve Jobs of the '70s and '80s comes to mind. Keep in mind that he also has to maintain enthusiasm for the stakeholders, so maybe he can't afford to be somber.
Ruebe85 Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - Oh we got some einstein's here
destructovision Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - i got to build and install an oven for these guys' El Segunda, Ca. plant. Way cool company. Wish I worked for THEM
NorseGraphic Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - You can see why they lost telemetry by looking at the exhaust-vent starting to glow. They need some sort of cooling system.
evan13579b Says:
Aug 20, 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:
Aug 20, 2008 - This man totally rocks and I wish him the best for flight #3.
sennetor Says:
Aug 20, 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:
Aug 20, 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:
Aug 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2008 - I think SpaceX will success at last, it will find a new and cheap way for us to launch a rocket.
file83 Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - You can see it begin to oscillate at around 4:20 and it just gets worse and worse from there. Rocket must have fell apart after becoming unstable.