Category: Fun & Curios

Another textbook night launch

(What? Yeah, I know. Just humor me. Re-living a career here)

Big Day for Mankind’s Ambitions
Records for most engines and for most thrust (2 of the 33 shut down)
UPDATE: engines ran at half-throttle

[uncovers eyes]
Hey! It didn’t blow up or fall over! It didn’t blow up or fall over!
[dances around in glee, trips over cane, wipes up sloshed coffee and cigar ashes]
Locker room pats on the ass for Elon Musk, Gwynne Shotwell, and their SpaceX team

Note: the flames after shutdown are normal.
I’m guessin’ fuel (methane) vents through the engines after the Ox valves close
to avoid a super-hot lean-mixture situation in the combustion chamber & throat.
(Operative word: guessin’, i.e. too lazy to look it up)
UPDATE: Just occurred to me that the fuel used to cool the engine bells has to vent after shutdown.

Views from drone of Booster 7's static fire test pic.twitter.com/KN4sk1nohf

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 9, 2023

Clear night launch
Different narration for a change
Also, their ground camera captures a nifty Moon-lit “jellyfish” as Stg-2 moves on

Satellite deployment

Falcon9 Mission 200
Night launch from the Cape

(What? Hey, they don’t hafta watch. Just entertainin’ myself, here.)

Another flawless mission in the unusually bright, clear sky of ol’ Vindanfog

Hey, you can see my ol’ crew room building and blockhouse from here!
…but I wish somebody had explained a launch to me like this, back in the day

Textbook Night Launch
The awesome is now routine
We’ll look back on these as the Falcon9’s glory days

First Falcon9 launch since yesterday

It’s like they know what they’re doing

For satellite deployment, skip ahead to ~T+1h29m