22-05-2012 08:35

Andrew Remmers

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

I wish I could have made it there Barry! I was also there on the first night it scrubed! Much dissapointment with FLASH then.. what just happened? I'm glad it finally took off and only wish I could have seen it this morning.

22-05-2012 08:40

ttldomination

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

I believe that the issue was traced to a faulty valve in Engine 5.

- Sunny G.

22-05-2012 09:24

EricS-Team180

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Thanks for the pics, Barry !

22-05-2012 12:03

dustinjones36

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

I too was up both Saturday morning and this morning to watch the launches....My only issue is they aren't visible from Indiana, so I had to rely on NASA TV. Part of the fun is watching the difference in the SpaceX and NASA guys, or as I noticed, jeans/shorts/t-shirts vs. suits and ties.

22-05-2012 12:17

ehochstein

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Oh to live close enough to see a launch... The one time I saw one was when I was 5yo and I barely remember it. But hey it inspired me and that is all that matters right? I mean it is pretty much the only thing I remember about that vacation to Florida.

22-05-2012 16:17

torihoelscher

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

I watched it online!!! It was soooooooo cool!!!

22-05-2012 16:37

Aren_Hill

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

I watched it live from cocoa beach, got a good picture of walle waving goodbye I'll put up later

22-05-2012 17:56

EricH

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

That's what the official release said, I'm going to go with that.

I was up early enough, and in Titusville--but not quite in time to make it out to the nearest good viewing, so had to settle for webcast.

22-05-2012 18:24

dodar

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

If you were in Titusville you could have just walked outside and saw it.

22-05-2012 18:52

EricH

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Two problems with that. One, I'm often a tad bit directionally disoriented by the time I get to where I'm staying. Two, I'm not exactly in Titusville proper--I'm staying at The Great Outdoors with some of my teammates for Lunabotics, and it just so happens that a lot of the lower-sky directions are blocked by either trees or houses. The group that went out to watch it went to the Merritt Island causeway.

22-05-2012 19:57

dodar

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Dang, well it wasnt as pretty as a shuttle launch becuase normally you can see the body of the shuttle but since this rocket had 9 engines it was super bright so all it looked like was we were launching a star into orbit.

22-05-2012 21:05

Aren_Hill

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

I must say I'm very luck to have been able to snag this picture, weird time to be happy a rocket* launch was delayed.

22-05-2012 21:10

dodar

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

That is an epic picture. Send it to SpaceX and I bet they would put it up on their website.

22-05-2012 21:16

Barry Bonzack

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Winner of coolest picture I've seen yet is this one, where EPCOT's Mission Space building makes an X with the path of the rocket.



More cool facts:
The Falcon 9 had on board the ashes of Mercury Astronaut Gordon Cooper, the 6th American in space. It also carried the ashes of James Doohan, who played Scotty in the original Star Trek series.


Check out the official launch video from SpaceX. The coolest part isn't the launch, its at 12:50... go there, and keep watching.



Want to witness for yourself history and the making? Go to www.heavensabove.com and track when the dragon capsule goes over your house. You can see it with the naked eye. In a couple days, you'll see both the space station and dragon go by together.

23-05-2012 09:16

Andrew Remmers

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

http://i.imgur.com/MTNgx.jpg

picture is huge, but this one pretty cool to guys.

- Andrew

23-05-2012 12:19

Kevin Watson

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Cool photo. Do you know who took it?

After the launch, a portion of the celebration moved to the SpaceX headquarters roof, where Dragon was visible three hours after launch. It was pretty epic.

I'm not sure if it'll be webcast and/or on NASA TV, but early tomorrow morning we start the C2 demo phase of the mission, where we demonstrate that we can navigate and move around ISS successfully. Once this is done and we get the okay from NASA, we'll berth with ISS the next day, which I believe will be shown on NASA TV.

-Kevin

23-05-2012 16:13

Barry Bonzack

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

I found it on Tampa Bay Channel 9 News website, they give credit to
Matt Stroshane / Disney Parks Blog

Keep us posted Kevin, I'm rooting for you all like you're my sports team.

23-05-2012 18:21

Kevin Watson

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

I sent the photo to Elon & Gwynne (our CEO & President) and a bunch of other folks. People are digging the double SpaceX "swoosh".

Dragon is doing great and we're preparing for operations with ISS over the next couple of days.

-Kevin

23-05-2012 19:08

CarterM

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Random thought: Any FIRST alumni involved with this?

23-05-2012 19:21

Akash Rastogi

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Kevin Meissner, alumni of 11, is currently a structures engineer for SpaceX. He's the only team alum I know of working there. I trust there's plenty of people from FIRST involved though, including Kevin Watson ^

23-05-2012 20:03

rsisk

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Aisha Ayoub Malik who has judged in LA and at CMP works at SpaceX as does Andrew Keisic from 294

23-05-2012 21:35

Kevin Watson

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Yes, there are quite a few FRC alumni here.

-Kevin

23-05-2012 21:38

dodar

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Do you care to mention who and their teams?

24-05-2012 00:25

PAR_WIG1350

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Why School? Why Finals? at 3:25-ish (three hours from now) it is passing over Narraganset, RI with a magnitude of .9. I've decided not to check to see if it will be visible from Providence since I need to sleep before exams start tomorrow. If the launch had happened a month later, I could be setting up the telescope right now.

25-05-2012 10:04

Akash Rastogi

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

The ISS has captured the Dragon module. This is very very cool. Congrats SpaceX/humanity.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

25-05-2012 12:13

Barry Bonzack

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Dragon is now berthed to the space station! I believe they are openning the hatch tomorrow to receive the supplies

05-06-2012 00:06

akeisic

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

In addition to mentoring 294, I'm also a 217 alumn.

Robert Leibersbach from TorrBot (1197) and Ben Seipser from El Segundo Robotics (1759) also work at SpaceX.

05-06-2012 10:51

Andy Baker

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Jadon Smith, team 45 alumni and 1998 driver, is the "Lead Propulsion Systems Analyst" at SpaceX.

Andy B.

14-07-2012 20:03

Barry Bonzack

Re: pic: SpaceX 3:44 AM History

Thought everyone would enjoy this. some of the Apollo astronauts signed a congratutory poster to SpaceX.



This is really cool, as some of the astronauts have criticized government spending on commercial space. Elon Musk stated in an interview that he considers these critics some of his greatest heroes, and sources of inspiration.