Falcon 9 pad test firing a success

SpaceX has released this statement:

Today, SpaceX successfully completed a test firing of the inaugural Falcon 9 launch vehicle at Space Launch Complex 40 located at Cape Canaveral. Following a nominal terminal countdown, the launch sequencer commanded ignition of all 9 Merlin first stage engines for a period of 3.5 seconds.

Just prior to engine ignition, the pad water deluge system was activated providing acoustic suppression to keep vibration levels within acceptable limits. The test validated the launch pad propellant and pneumatic systems as well as the ground and flight control software that controls pad and launch vehicle configurations. The completion of a successful static fire is the latest milestone on the path to first flight of the Falcon 9 which will carry a Dragon spacecraft qualification unit to orbit.

Update: Here is a video (via spacearium) of the test recorded by a shaky AF camera. The test starts around 13 seconds into the video:

Update 2: Stephen Clark reports on the test: Falcon Launch Report | Fire in the hole: Falcon 9 rocket lights up on pad - Spaceflight Now.

Posted 03/13/10 | 15:32:39 by TopSpacer | Filed under: Transport Companies

Comments

SpaceX has done it again! Congratulations! SpaceX has proven again that private enterprise is a sustainable pathway to "space for the rest of us"! Thank God Lori Garver gets it! I was banned by NASAWatch for supposedly badmouthing the Obama Administration. Let me say here "thanks to Obama" for getting this one right! And thanks to rlvnews and Topspacer for allowing freedom of speech on his blog!

Posted by Tony Rusi at 03/13/10 17:31:38

nasawatch sucks. big time.

Posted by josh at 03/13/10 18:19:29

gj, SpaceX ! :)

BTW: Anyone knows what weird optical effect causes the rocket to disapear during the firing and reapear shortly after ?

Posted by MartinK at 03/13/10 19:01:59

"Anyone knows what weird optical effect causes the rocket to disapear during the firing and reapear shortly after ?"

Sun going behind clouds and objects being lost in the haze. It's a very distant camera view.

That video, btw, runs at at least 2x the realtime speed.

Posted by Gordan at 03/13/10 19:42:03

"The company has released detailed updates on the cause of Tuesday's aborted engine test and other progress, but SpaceX was unable to announce when it would make static fire attempts. Officials did not give reports on the status of the Falcon 9 countdown, despite multiple requests for information.

The real-time information vacuum is a departure from typical rocket operations at Cape Canaveral. The high profile of the first Falcon 9 launch is garnering more interest than most unmanned missions departing from the spaceport."
-- Steven Clark

For myself, I think this is a good thing, at least so far as a rocket that is still going through tests, and acknowledging that the "public" is going to see what is happening anyway when the test goes off. I've been in situations like this before as an engineer and it ain't pretty when you have the intense media and social pressure on you to try and get this to work out.

If anything, my admiration for Elon Musk as an engineering manager has gone up a notch or two by trying to pull as much pressure off the engineering and launching team as he can. SpaceX announced that they were going to make another attempt in a couple of days for the static fire test, and they did just that. They didn't need to have the general public watching over their shoulder on a minute by minute basis when trying to solve some intensely technical issues.

I'm glad that this was a success, and I hope it works out for the Falcon 9 launch itself that is shortly to come.

Posted by Robert Horning at 03/14/10 05:30:36

Add Comment

Note: HTML code will not work except for bare URLs (i.e. http://www...). Also, for postings older than 1 week, comments are filtered manually to prevent spam and so may not appear for a few days.
Note: Trash talking and name calling, especially in anonymous comments, won't be tolerated.