Privately-funded rocket ready for 2nd try
 

There were the launching by Europeans earlier, but they were by a consortium of Euro governments, right?

The missile's name was something like the Ariel or the Aryan -- http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/scared.gif -- ?

Isn't Sea Launch private?

Originally posted by Will9
Isn't Sea Launch private? Using Russian Soviet-funded and Ukraine/Russian gov't assembled launch vehicles.

Seems like a stretch to call Sea Launch's development privately-funded. Hardly a bolt on the rocket doesn't have its heritage in the Space Race.

The Falcon 1 is a clean-sheet design having no heritage of any sort beyond a very few parts.

Here's the play-by-play. Looks like we might have a scrub today, due to difficulties obtaining telemetry data.

http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon/f2/status.html

Nah, it doesn't make any difference. A rocket this size is a pretty good neighbor.

Still on hold. They're probably making the decision whether to scrub today's launch.

T -25.

T-10

T-2

Stop spamming.

argh, I hate getting all worked over and excited to have it cancelled. This thing is like my love life.

T -5 minutes and counting. http://www.discussworldissues.com/im...ons/icon14.gif

Ignition! But there was an abort before the launch!

Seems suspicious to me that they cancel almost when they're about to launch.

Hey how come my webcast isn't moving? It's a live video stream right? Or is it just pix? I just see the same pic, its stuck, stuck at T-16!

Not with this rocket. It has hold-down capability. Once the engine starts up and everything appears green, then the vehicle is released for launch.

They're recycling and trying again. I've not seen this before, to be sure.

T -12:30 and counting.

Liftoff!

2nd stage ignition confirmed!

Nominal!

Telemetry lost at T +5:05 minutes. The webcast cut off too. Looks like the rocket was lost, but not before doing most of its job (the satellite was a dummy satellite). Before the webcast cut off, there was some swaying back and forth of the 2nd stage engine.

Did the satellite actually deploy?

Originally posted by Sn00py
We've lifted rockets so many times now, why is it still so difficult? We've only done it about 5,000 times total in 60 years.