First of all, I was playing webmaster and social media guru (you, in the front row, stop laughing!) today. Starting today if I did it right (which means “starting tomorrow” according to the guy in the front row) notices should be appearing on my Google+ and LinkedIn pages every time an article gets posted here, just like notices have been posting to my Twitter and Facebook pages for many months. So, hello to anyone reading “We Love The Stars Too Fondly” for the first time after seeing it mentioned on Google+ or LinkedIn! Spread the word! Browse! Comment!
It was a good day today for SpaceX! They got the first launch of 2014 off on the first try, successfully delivering the Thaicom 6 communications satellite into a perfect orbit. Congratulations to everyone there for a job well done!
It’s always great to see a successful launch, but for the past few years it’s been even better due to the use of small video cameras. NASA-TV will carry coverage of NASA-related launches (and you know how much I love NASA-TV), but for non-NASA launches like SpaceX’s commercial jobs, many of them are shown live online. SpaceX is doing a fantastic job of showing their launches on LiveStream, and today’s was no exception.
Look at the view you start to get at about T+0:00:48. You’re looking straight down the body of the rocket with the engines firing below you and the Earth dropping away. Talk about “seeing the Earth in your rear-view mirror!” But it got even better. Watch what happens at T+0:02:58. As the first stage shuts down, the video feed switches to a camera inside the engine compartment of the second stage. We see the stage separation, the first stage falling away, and the second stage engine lighting off and starting to glow red hot. That’s just freakin’ amazing!
With luck it will be a busy year for launches, both from SpaceX and Orbital on the commercial side, and Boeing and Lockheed Martin (the United Launch Alliance) on the government side. Let’s see Falcons, Atlases, Antares, and Deltas all heading off-planet safely and successfully all year! (Ditto for the Soyuz, Protons, Arianes, Long Marches, PSLVs, H-2As, Zenits, and Vegas all launching around the world. By the way, just what is the plural of “Soyuz”?)
The next launch scheduled is in less than forty-eight hours, with Orbital set to launch an Antares rocket carrying a Cygnus cargo ship to the International Space Station. Check NASA-TV early Wednesday afternoon for that launch. If you happen to be on the US East Coast and it’s clear, you might be able to see the launch yourself.
Later in the year, if all stays on schedule, SpaceX will be firing off their first Falcon Heavy. SpaceX originally started launching their Falcon 9 rockets, so named because they use 9 engines. The Falcon Heavy will use 27 of those engines and its capabilities will rival that of NASA’s Saturn V (which hasn’t flown in forty years) and the Russian’s Proton heavy-lift vehicle. That launch will go out of Vandenberg Air Force Base, about a three hour drive north of here. I might just have to do whatever’s needed to get up there to see that one.
On the “down” side, it was a short Christmas light season with Thanksgiving coming unusually late. Today was the start of a couple days’ work to get our decorations down and stored away. That corner of the living room looks naked with the tree gone, and poor Joey no longer has a prime place to lurk and fantasize about glorious ambushes. On the other hand, we can now see the book cases in that corner, and we’ll try moving the stationary bike there. The bike will either get us motivated to exercise while we’re watching television, or will be a great place to hang laundry on while folding it.
We all know what the Vegas line on that bet is.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 