# Mid-Atlantic Space Launch - TONIGHT!!!



## Ryan (Oct 27, 2014)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/10/27/spaceship-spectacular-rocket-launch-and-iss-flyover-this-evening-at-same-time/

We get a twofer here near DC, ORB-3 launches at 6:44, and the ISS passes nearly directly overhead just minutes later.

It's going to be a good show!!!


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## rickycourtney (Oct 27, 2014)

Launch has been scrubbed. They'll try again tomorrow.


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## Ryan (Oct 27, 2014)

Damn boaters.

Also, the top level of the parking garage at the BWI Airport train station is closed. Had to try from the next level down.

ISS pass was still cool, hopefully better luck tomorrow night.


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## Ryan (Oct 27, 2014)

Disappointing at best.


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## PRR 60 (Oct 28, 2014)

New launch time: 6:22pm EDT 10/28. For you true nerds out there, and you know who you are, that is 22:22UT.


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## rickycourtney (Oct 28, 2014)

Rocket exploded seconds after takeoff: http://kng5.tv/Rocket


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## xyzzy (Oct 28, 2014)

Wonder how far the flash of the explosion was visible. It appeared to blow about 5 rocket lengths up, which would be about 600 ft altitude.


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## Ryan (Oct 28, 2014)

So that ended poorly. Hopefully Orbital can figure out the root cause from the data they've collected.


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## PRR 60 (Oct 29, 2014)

xyzzy said:


> Wonder how far the flash of the explosion was visible. It appeared to blow about 5 rocket lengths up, which would be about 600 ft altitude.


My daughter, who now lives in Montana, used to live in Glen Burnie, MD. She heard from one of her friends back there who claims to have heard the explosion. Not sure if that is true or not, but it sure was a huge fireball. Makes you wonder what an "anomaly" like that with a Saturn 5 would have done. It would have been like an atomic bomb.

I feel for the engineers who work for Orbital and who's lives are centered on getting those birds into orbit. Orbital is not a huge company like Lockheed or Boeing with lots of divisions and products. This is all Orbital does. I suspect there were a lot of sleepless nights last night with visions of that explosion over and over. The overriding good news: no one was hurt.

If you look at some of the videos, during the short assent there is a plume of flame originating about half way up the rocket. It seems (to my amateur eye) that bird was doomed at ignition.


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## Ryan (Oct 29, 2014)

I'm not far from Glen Burnie and didn't hear anything (but I wasn't particularly listening, and didn't realize that it blew up until about T+2:30. Wonder how long it took the sound to get here.

A friend of mine whom I trust said that he heard it DC, so it's certainly possible. Nothing but flat land and the Chesapeake Bay between here and there.

Did I math right? 760 Miles/hour divided by 3600 means ~0.2 miles per second? At 100 miles away, that means it took 20 minutes to get here? I was long inside by that point - should have thought to stay outside.


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## rrdude (Oct 29, 2014)

The video from the small Cessna, showing the explosion, while far, far, away, is striking in how BIG the explosion was. Pilot said he felt the shock wave.

http://<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xkXJeJ2rIB4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


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## xyzzy (Oct 29, 2014)

Antares first stage has 68 megagrams RP-1 fuel (refined kerosene) with liquid oxygen in stoichiometric proportion. Second stage is 13 megagrams solid fuel, but that probably did not explode like the RP-1 did.

Saturn V first stage (the S-IC) also used RP-1 and LOX. Capacity was 387 megagrams RP-1... over 5 times the size of the Antares. In addition the second and third stages of the Saturn V used liquid hydrogen that would have exploded instantaneously too.


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## jis (Oct 29, 2014)

This unfortunately brings back memories of the early sixties, when such events took place more frequently than one is used to these days.


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## jis (Oct 29, 2014)

There is an Atlas V launch today from Cape Canaveral at 1:21pm EDT.

https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/events/2014/october/launch-atlas5-gps2f-8.aspx


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## fairviewroad (Oct 29, 2014)

Probably some Congress critter mistakenly heard the rocket was carrying supplies for ISIS and sabotaged the mission.


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## Paulus (Oct 31, 2014)

SpaceShipTwo (Virgin Galactic) was lost today as well. Reportedly one fatality, one survivor.


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## jis (Nov 1, 2014)

Paulus said:


> SpaceShipTwo (Virgin Galactic) was lost today as well. Reportedly one fatality, one survivor.


This was the only failure this week that involved a fatality.

Other than that this might set back Sir Bronson's plans to personally go to space in a commercially operated tourist service in 2015. A relatively minor problem compared to keeping human beings supplied with food and water in the Space Station.


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## rickycourtney (Nov 1, 2014)

This has been a difficult week for commercial spaceflight. It just underscores the incredible challenges involved with human beings attempting to leave our small blue dot.


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## CHamilton (Nov 1, 2014)

Richard Branson Speaks After Virgin Galactic Tragedy



> The dream of Virgin Galactic — a radical commercial space-travel effort that experienced a tragic setback yesterday — will live on, said founder Richard Branson, speaking from the Mojave Desert this morning.


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## xyzzy (Nov 1, 2014)

The Time magazine piece was a cheap shot. My opinion of Branson is a mixed bag, but so long as somebody is willing to invest money in Virgin Galactic, let them proceed. You know there was a time when the majority of the American public were afraid to fly, and for valid statistical reasons. Even into the 1960s, most airports had a machine where you could buy an insurance policy on the spot.


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## NW cannonball (Nov 2, 2014)

xyzzy said:


> The Time magazine piece was a cheap shot. My opinion of Branson is a mixed bag, but so long as somebody is willing to invest money in Virgin Galactic, let them proceed. You know there was a time when the majority of the American public were afraid to fly, and for valid statistical reasons. Even into the 1960s, most airports had a machine where you could buy an insurance policy on the spot.


If by "Time magazine piece" you mean the Jeffrey Kluger paranoid diatribe about "where Man was not Meant to GO" and "my billionaire buddies buddies bought a space-trip for their KID -- but now we know that's not SAFE" -- yeah a real cheap (meaning the writer didn't have to learn ANYTHING to push out that load of nonesense (like infants can fill their diapers without learning or teaching anyone anything))

Well - that's what pushing pundits go with, maybe it sells ads for something.

I agree that I have no clue what Branson is up to,

I also agree that "time changes everything" -- may be a bad quote considering that "Time" hasn't changed much since I first read it about the time of "Ivy Mike" '52? '54 - that's how a media outlet succeeds -- tell 'em what they want to hear, and sell ads.

And when a not very new tech goes public, and makes billions, "we knew it all along, you shoulda bought the future IBM (ATT, Microsoft, Amazon) at $0.003 !

Yup media sux.

Once in while tech wins. How many deaths from Icarus to Apollo 13 viaKitty Hawk and steam-powered balloons? Or early railroads?

How many lives saved and made better by better transport, road, rail, air??

Net-net big win for new tech, and not meaning any disrespect for those who voluntarily lost along the way.

Near space is difficult now, might or might not get easier to get to -- we might all die of Ebola before that happens.


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