Falcon 9 Launch Totally Successful

That was very impressive, especially when you consider that it was the first launch attempt and they had just recovered from a pad abort an hour before. I was amazed to see Falcon 9 launch and blow away by the successful staging. I'm wondering about the roll near second stage cutoff. It seems to have been preceded by a rather large attitude "wobble" but it was hard to tell with the spotty webcast streaming. My gut tells me that it was not nominal but we'll have to wait and see what SpaceX has to say.

Regardless, it went far better than I personally expected. Well done to the whole SpaceX team!

Awfully quiet in here. What a drama, after weather, aborts, etc. Cool heads pulled it off.

Woh...looked pretty clean. Should be really exciting when they put seats in it.

Yeah Keith, so much for the commercial space haters out there...correct me if I'm wrong, but if memory serves you didn't say the same of the Griffin/Ares haters after the launch of the Ares 1-X last October.

Congratulations SpaceX.

Kudos to SpaceX an making orbit on the first try of Falcon 9.

Falcon is 200 miles up.

Constellation is six feet under.

The taxpayers thank you.

This is a very important day. If it weren't for all the political crap around the Obama Mars plan, it'd still be an important day, but now it is officially VERY important.

And I am VERY happy, and just ranting. GO SPACEX!

It may be a tad premature to call the flight a total success, after all the data have hardly been analyzed. Be sure that the engineers will quibble about this or that and make improvements before the second test flight attempt.

That's not to say it wasn't a very good day for SpaceX especially and the Merchant7 in general. There was no obvious failure, and it looked like a boring old regular launch that proceeded as planned (as if any launch is boring.) One thing is for sure: it's no longer debatable that a private concern can build and execute a launch into orbit.

Now that the system has been shown to work, it's time to prove it is reliable and robust. If today is any indication, then one can safely assume that that will happen too.

Congrats to SpaceX! Well done. But don't get to far ahead of yourself. There is a long road set ahead (Man-rating, Dragon development, etc...) I wish you luck.

This is great news! I am amazed that they were successful on the first attempt. So much for the Ares huggers.

I can't think of anyone who would be unhappy that Falcon 9 had a successful launch.

Who are the commercial space haters Keith?

In what context are you using that expression?

Congrats to all of the SpaceX team! I bet Elon has a better night's sleep tonight than he had last night!

There is always room for reasonable people to disagree on policy, but if you are not happy with this then there is something wrong with you. This is a positive development for the United States.

Way to GO! SpaceX

Go Falcon!
Now, try to find anything about today's successful Falcon 9 launch on www.nasa.gov

Congrats to the entire SpaceX team! You guys have worked hard and you really did a great job today. Bravo to you! You have my utmost respect. Not to mention, it was loud as heck and really incredible to watch! :)

That said, Keith, once again you show how little you are interested in journalism, and how much you have embraced your personal bias and sensationalism. Drinking the Kool-Aid, as it were.

Its pretty easy to call something a total success when they gave no criteria for what is considered a successful flight. Did they meet their intended orbital insertion? What was up with the abort earlier in the day? Did the first stage parachutes open? Was the first stage recoverable? Did they have any issues during the countdown? What waivers did they process and what safety measures where bypassed? They are so afraid of the "arm chair rocket scientists", well why are they so afraid of independent analysis? The second stage in particular didn't seem to perform nearly as expected, although that is just speculation since we had no idea WHAT it was actually supposed to do, or at least what was planned.

Since my tax dollars are going to be spent on this rocket, and actually already have since they are under contract, they should be held to the same scrutiny as NASA and its contractors. Full disclosure of all their flight data should be required. Where is your demand for this Keith? You sure made that demand of I-X. You sure criticized it awfully quickly.

Either report responsibly, or take your toys and go home. Either that, or don't call yourself a journalist, and don't put in for NASA press credentials ever again. Opinionated bloggers who don't care for the truth don't get the same respect as someone like Miles.

Although I will give you that you are leaps and bounds above the garbage Fox was spewing out... "shoot the rocket out of the sky"... yeesh...

None of that is aimed at the workers of SpaceX though, you guys did a great job. Your brethren at KSC did applaud you and wish you the best.

I agree with CharlesBoyer. It may be premature to jump to the conclusion that the flight was "totally successful". It's not clear if the rolling of the second stage was an off-nominal condition. In addition, it seemed like the second stage engine cutoff earlier than the stated cutoff would be. I believe it was stated cutoff would be T+9:30, but it seemed to be closer to T+8:45. Successful by most standards, yes... but "totally successful"?

We know you have a bias towards commercial, but you may want to make sure your facts are right before posting a conclusion. Not even SpaceX has come out with official numbers yet.

We can put a man on the moon, but we can't come up with lagless streaming video. ;-)

Congrats to SpaceX, good job!

Nice Job Space X! Score one for US based, smaller, more nimble, more competitive business.

I hope that NASA allows it to move up the COTS testing (after all todays First Flight telemetry is examined by all stakeholders).

WAY TO GO SPACEX. The flight looked rock study. I don't think fixing the roll will be a big deal. It was amazing that they could go from an abort at ignition, to a successful launch in less than 2 hours and in the same launch window.

Congratulations SpaceX!!!!

SpaceX has a truly outstanding team. That kind of success can't happen by accident.

Are there any guys from the orginal Von Braun "rocket team" around still? I would like to know what they thought.

Congrats Elon and the whole SpaceX team -- Space 2.0 has finally begun!!!

Folks:

I cheered that rocket all the way to orbit!

My girlfriend looked at me kind of funny. I told her that unlike a Shuttle launch, crew loss wasn't a issue... so I could afford to let go some.

I don't know it Spacex had Draco thrusters on the second stage that would have been used to control the roll. Pitch and yaw are controlled by the vacuum Merlin.

Smiling largely:

tinker

Creon, you should know, it takes them a little time to write it and some time to get it approved, but here is the administrator's statement that just went out via email

June 4, 2010

Bob Jacobs
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1979
bob.jacobs@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 10-132

NASA ADMINISTRATOR'S STATEMENT ON FIRST FALCON 9 LAUNCH

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The following is a statement by NASA
Administrator Charles Bolden regarding Friday's launch of Space
Exploration Technologies' Falcon 9 rocket.

"Congratulations to Space X on today's launch of its Falcon 9 launch
vehicle. Space X's accomplishment is an important milestone in the
commercial transportation effort and puts the company a step closer
to providing cargo services to the International Space Station.
"Preparations are proceeding for the first NASA-sponsored test launch
under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services project
later this year. COTS is a vital development and demonstration
partnership to create a commercial space transportation system
capable of providing cargo to the station. "This launch of the Falcon
9 gives us even more confidence that a resupply vehicle will be
available after the space shuttle fleet is retired."

For more information about COTS, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/c3po/about/c3po.html

SpaceflightNow is quoting Elon Musk saying the orbit is within 1% of target.

Yes, sincere congratulations on the successful launch, SpaceX team.

As for the Editor's Note: So, you're immediately calling out others for chewing crow/falcon when you've just chewed on the former administrator's bones? (http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/06/failing-queen-v.html)

Frustration and anger can come across as hate sometimes, but many who are termed "haters" on this site are actually just skeptics or lovers of different plans.

It would be fun if the Queen of England could be a guest moderator sometime. I imagine her date book is filled for a while to come though, and that would cause delays.

The last I checked,they had not even put Demo 1 on the launch schedule.At least they could say the last half of '10.

There are people out there who love to have the Falcon 9 fail, these people think that only NASA should put astronauts into space. But ask yourselfs this question what is NASA for? Is to provide a high price taxi ride into LEO to the space station or is it to explore space. Why is NASA so good at deep space unmanned exploration? Simple it leaves communication satellites to PRIVATE companies and concerntrates on deep space exploation. Let private companies send go to the space station and let NASA do what it should of been doing a long time ago with its astronauts and exploring Mars.

Woohoo! Congratulations SpaceX!!

It's a historic day for U.S. spaceflight.

Congratulations to the Space X ops team for resolving all countdown issues and launching within the window. I will be fascinated to hear the explanation of the 2nd stage roll rate.

In answer to Creon above regarding NASA.gov covering this event

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/jun/HQ_10-132_SpaceX_Launch.html

"Now, try to find anything about today's successful Falcon 9 launch on www.nasa.gov"

How about spacex.com? They still have "Preparing for Test Launch" and the target date for the launch of 2009 and a message from Elon Musk on April 15 on their front page. You can click on a link for a transcript from the launch, but that's not on the front page.

No, we can't put a man on the moon. Haven't been able to since the last one in 1972. You remember all that damn "spam can and old geezer" technology? Besides we've been there and done that and no reason to go there again. So why you you expect anything more from the internet?

Go SpaceX.

Sherlock,

I can only speak for myself. I am (was) working on Constellation. I never thought it was a sustainable program. With a flight rate of 2 launches per year we would never be able to afford to fly enough to make it a safe rocket. For the $10 Billion the program cost we could have bought 100-200 launches on an EELV. We could have launched a lot of hardware. Also instead of Apollo on steroids we should have designed a program to use existing rockets. If that meant we could only put a 2 or 3 person vehicle so what? Plus flying EELV's or Falcon 9's you get the benefit of a flight test for free when someone else launches something.

That being said I am still a bit worried with Obama's plan. I don't blame him, he is in a tough place. I would have liked to see the EELV plan but that needed to be started 5 years ago. So what do we do now? I really hate to give up our access to space while Commercial gets going. I am curious about ISS funding. Isn't there any money available from that budget? We were spending money to design, build, and launch those modules. Just keeping it supplied shouldn't cost the same as building it.

So everyone I know that is worried about Obama's plan are not hoping Space X fails. Most would love for commercial space to succeed because that means someday we may be able afford to fly. On the other hand we also know how dangerous spaceflight is and if you get complacent people pay for it with their lives and we don't want to give up existing capability with nothing ready to replace it yet.

Somewhere, Wernher Von Braun is smiling, for his heir did good today. Cluster's Last Stand II! Launch baby launch!

SpaceX took a huge step forward today, but it is very premature to call the launch a total success. They appear to have lost the booster, and the upper stage may have had roll stability issues. These are teething problems that presumably can be worked out, but they do make the launch less than a total success. That they made the orbit desired is a major accomplishment that should be celebrated today before getting to work on issues tomorrow.

I'm a little offended by Keith's comments. I disagree with Obama's plan, not because of LEO (go Space X and I hope you keep being successful), it's the lack of a real plan for deep exploration. To me it has never been an issue of Space X (or the like) vs. Ares. I say Space X to ISS, Ares to Mars.

With that said, being from SoCal especially, congrats to Space X. Job well done, and I hope that LEO gets open to more of us. Proud day for the US space program. A small company in southern California accomplished what most countries haven't been able to do over the last 4 decades.