Perfect Launch: Private Rocket Gets Perfect Liftoff

SpaceX Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral this afternoon, in a picture-perfect liftoff. The vehicle separation occurred as planned, and shortly after that, the second stage ignited as designed. Beautiful!

In its first attempt at launch earlier today, Falcon 9 remained on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral because of an engine abort with about a second before liftoff. After that happened, SpaceX said the spacecraft put itself into “safe mode.”

A few minutes later, SpaceX reported, “The pad abort involved an out-of-limit startup parameter.” About an hour later, the countdown was resumed, and the powerful two-stage rocket gracefully lifted off the launch pad. At 9 minutes,4 seconds after launch, Falcon 9 achieved Earth orbit.

Via SpaceX

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NASA Set to Launch Kepler Planet Finder

NASA will soon be on the lookout for possible Earths in one faraway corner of the galaxy. A planet-hunting spacecraft, named "Kepler" after the German 17th-century astrophysicist, is scheduled to rocket away from Cape Canaveral, Fla., late Friday night. Excellent launch weather is forecast.

The telescope will spend 3 1/2 years staring at roughly 100,000 stars, measuring their brightness and any winks in the light that might signify orbiting planets.

NASA Set to Launch Kepler Planet Hunter

Skylon Rocket/Jet Hybrid Is, Scientifically Speaking, Super Cool

Editor’s Note:  If you’ve seen ‘When Worlds Collide‘, ‘Destination Moon‘, or any number of 50s scifi classics, then this machine looks an awful lot like a retro trip through scifi geekiness.

The Skylon reusable space plane takes off from an airport runway, burns atmospheric oxygen, switching to liquid oxygen and hydrogen to hit escape velocity and attain orbit. At least, it will in 10 years.

The plane will be designed to carry 12 tons of payload into orbit and return safely, without having wasted $100 million worth of throwaway rocket. The company behind this hybrid shuttle is Reaction Engines, which just got a million euros in funding to prove that its “air breathing” Sabre engine can work.

According to the BBC, the key to this engine is a super-cooler, which takes gasses entering the intake at 1000 degrees celsius, and drops them to -130 degrees C in 1/100th of a second, thanks to “arrays of extremely fine piping.” God knows those rocketeers love their piping.

Though not much more is known about Skylon at this point, it’s safe to say we’ll hear more about it and other non-wasteful spaceships in the future. I just hope they keep that Hotblack-Desiato-meets-Naboo-cruiser look. [BBC News]

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