SpaceX News

[Giorgio]

Hopefully they will record the tests using the new NASA’s newHigh Dynamic Range Camera.
I am pretty curious to see how well their new engine will perform.

[zapkitty]

I am pretty curious to see how well their new engine will perform.

So is the USAF, which put up a third of the budget for flight testing Raptors as the upper stage of a Heavy.

It's a bit of overkill, but enables testing faster and cheaper and at the end Spacex should be able to say "The MCT engines have already placed payloads on orbit!"

.... this before the MCT is even built.

[Giorgio]

Just confirmed another successful barge landing, this time with a single engine. Video should be more impressive than the 3 engine landings. Eager to see it!

[Skipjack]

Yeah, the video feed always cuts out during the landing because the shaking makes them lose the satellite uplink

[KitemanSA]

Why they can't just record it and then up-link when it restabilizes... SMH

[zapkitty]

Why they can't just record it and then up-link when it restabilizes... SMH

?... they do. But that act moves the recorded bit away from "live feed" territory.

So barge landing sequences become youtube bait

[Maui]

...when they do release recorded footage recently, they seem to be very fond of doing so in super-fast forward format. I can't decide if they think this looks cooler (it doesn't) or if they are doing so to hide details that may be useful to competitors.

[Skipjack]

...when they do release recorded footage recently, they seem to be very fond of doing so in super-fast forward format. I can't decide if they think this looks cooler (it doesn't) or if they are doing so to hide details that may be useful to competitors.

They had some slow mo footage too.

[Diogenes]

Something Just Exploded on SpaceX's Launchpad

This morning a number of people near Cape Canaveral Air Force Base are reporting on Twitter that a Falcon 9 rocket blew up on the launch pad at SpaceX's facilities. It is not clear yet exactly what cause the explosion or if it was the rocket planned for a launch this Saturday September 3.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/r ... aunch-pad/

[Diogenes]

[Giorgio]

Here is the video of the explosion.

It starts at 1:10.

Gut feeling tells me it was an electric issue at the LO2 charging area, maybe a wrongly insulated sensor, maybe something else, maybe I am wrong. It will be interesting to see the report when they will release it, it will be another useful lesson.

[krenshala]

That looks like something on the connection between payload/Dragon and second stage failed, which then set off the first stage. It could definitely have been from the (re)fueling since it looks like it starts on the gantry side of the rocket.

[Diogenes]

Here is the video of the explosion.

It starts at 1:10.

Gut feeling tells me it was an electric issue at the LO2 charging area, maybe a wrongly insulated sensor, maybe something else, maybe I am wrong. It will be interesting to see the report when they will release it, it will be another useful lesson.

If the reports I have seen are correct about the customer, my gut feeling tells me it is sabotage.

[ladajo]

In other news, SES-10 will be the reflight cargo on the recovered CRS-8 booster. Yay!

[DeltaV]

Israeli payload. Jihadi quadcopter attack?