Warbird Information Exchange

For those interested in private spacecraft launches, the SpaceX Falcon 1 is getting ready to launch in about 5 minutes (maybe).

http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php

Ahhhhh, ABORT at ignition..........

For those who did not get to see and listen to the launch attempt, it was pretty interesting after they shut down the rocket and one of the launch engineers had a "hot mike" and he said a few colorful comments.

I like these guys!!! Not NASA for sure!

Sorry, this may not be warbirds but it is pretty darn cool!

Pretty cool stuff, Hopefully they make it soon.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Actually the are now again T-5:00 to launch.

NOT NASA AT ALL!!!

I am going to check it out.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Really cool launch through the second stage separation. Then a little bit later you could see some oscillation in the rocket engine and the webcast ended.

Not sure if something happended to the rocket, but darn cool stuff. Hope it worked for them!

Yeah, I wonder if that nozzle was suppoed to be turning white hot as well. Looked like something was starting to come loose and there were all kinds of little flakes drifting about...

Thanks for the heads up on this, I caught it about 3 minutes after launch. I was wondering if it just went dead for me, guess not!

Can anyone post someting if they find out what happened.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

I have been watching the news sites covering the activities of SpaceX and all is very very quiet.

So I guess no news is probably bad news.

But, you gotta hand it to an average Joe (OK he really has mega $$$$$) starting from scratch and building a rocket company. At least this time the rocket made it farther than last year.

The best part was a launch abort at ignition, with smoke and everything, and then within a couple of hours recycling everything and getting the rocket into the air, way into the air.

Go SpaceX!!!

Here is the news:

"It looked so good to start... but problems apparently crept up four minutes into the launch of SpaceX's Falcon I rocket.

Company founder Elon Musk told reporters the Falcon I successfully reached space, "and retired almost all the risk associated with the rocket."

Musk states all went well through stage two separation and rocket ignition... but problems arose with roll control in the later portion of the second stage burn.

The exact fate of the second stage isn't known... only that the rocket made it to approximately 984,000 feet altitude, after which point the engine shutoff.

The stage did not reach the desired orbit, and Musk said it's likely the rocket reentered the atmosphere after about one-half orbit.

Reiterating this was a test launch, Musk said he feels many concerns about SpaceX's ability to launch rockets have been answered by today's events.

"All in all, we feel pretty good about this launch," Musk said. "I'm pretty happy, but nervewracked."

This is a tough business. Some have been building launch vehicles for more than 50 years yet failures are still quite common. Thank goodness this wasn't an X-Prize launch or some manned vehicle.

Very heartening to see that people inspired by Apollo, Soyuz and ESA work have continued where the USG, succeeding Russian agencies and ESA have left off. Interesting that people call it the final frontier, but it really is so deep that we may only dream of how far we can go.

All that aside, Rutan's engineering is par none. His airplanes are real neat, but his engineering is just incredible. As was said, 50 years of failures with lots of public monies, and he does it in 10 years. So who is he, in the world of space flight? He's not Orville or Wilbur, more like a Glenn Curtiss or Glenn Martin. Thoughts?

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

He's Burt Rutan of course...I think the guy sets a new standard for aeronautical history. Kinda like Jack Northrop...and the flying wing.

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Zane Adams
There I was at 20,000 ft, upside down and out of ammunition.
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