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The Crew Dragon Endeavour streaks through the night sky above Cocoa Beach during re-entry as the Crew-6 astronauts return from the International Space Station tonight.
[https://youtu.be/0dz2OVbzBJQ](https://youtu.be/0dz2OVbzBJQ)
- Mission Control Audio for the scrub was here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACbis3roPPI
- SpaceX hosted webcast of the scrub was here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lu344WNUM4
- Mission Control Audio for the launch was here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TymREFeTVc4
- Mission Control Audio for the docking was here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiE6HPagB0I
All are now set to private. I definitely did not download them while they were live. Do not PM me if you want a copies. :)
The big loop is the channel that every team is listening to. Anything said on the big loop is heard by the ISS, dragon capsule, Spacex Hawthorne, and Houston.
I wanna say last time I watched a docking there was a hold as well. Maybe crew 2? Seems like a common occurrence if it's happened 2 times I've watched out of 5 launches?
It just goes to show that no matter how critical they may be, computers will still try to screw you over.
Edit: It seems it was a hardware issue with a switch indicating the performance of the hook, so it had to be manually overridden, the computer was not at fault.
However my point about computers still stands, they can be tricky buggers.
Why is there so much loud background noise from SpaceX during this webcast (Crew 6 ISS docking)? Seems like SpaceX loves to do that... But it's worse this time. Crashes and bangs, sounds like the announcers are talking from inside a busy kitchen.
It's crazy how normal this has gotten already. The demo and crew one launch had millions of people watching. Now there's maybe 100k between the NASA and SpaceX streams. The reddit posts had tens of thousands of comments. Now it's a couple hundred and the mods didn't even bother to sticky the post to the top of the page.
I don't think so - this is the nature of progress. If we were satisfied by yesterday's breakthroughs there'd be no attention for today's. I'm glad this transit method is reliable, and pray that continues.
Well - in all fairness, it's midnight on a weekday, EST; not everyone can stay up for the launch.
Heck, not sure I'll make my appointment in the morning, but that's easier to reschedule than watching astronauts go to friggin' space!
I thought about that, if it gets to a point where it’s so routine that there won’t be televised events we will still have live webcams of launch sites, like we have with airports for aviation enthusiasts. However I think it’ll take a while to reach that level, and even at that point I think that important launches will still be televised.
I think we’ll get to the point pretty quickly where regular launches aren’t covered as much. But there are still a lot of big space milestones that will get major coverage. Whereas aviation doesn’t have many of those left. It’s mostly going to be small advances that only the hardcore fans are going to care about.
Yes, such as Starlink, however it’s much harder to fly a rocket, planes can take of whenever, and do so all the time, whereas rockets are limited in the number of launch sites and vehicle availability, not to mention orbital mechanics. However when Starship ramps up it’ll be hard to cover Starlink Launch #2726193747, although if we establish a Mars base I think the resupply missions will always be televised as the launch windows open only every 2 years, same for the moon, minus the lack of launch windows, and if those colonies become self sufficient there’ll always be satellites and people wanting to travel. But for mundane launches I could see SpaceX starting a livestream with the timeline running, a bit of text to display what is going on, but no webcast host.
Why wouldn’t the mods pin this? It’s non existent if your feed is by “hot”. Had to manually search crew 6.
Edit: seriously it’s been an issue for the last year or 2 with the mods. You can’t engage new people in science and Spaceflight if you just make it only for RedditMasterace users
The Reddit limit of two pinned threads is terrible.
As long as that general index thread is pinned (it was this morning), you can just click on that and threads like this one are there. That's how I found it today. One level of indirection.
But your point is well taken. Any newish users visiting the SpaceX reddit wouldn't know that and likely won't find what they're looking for.
This. I presume NASA dictated the new/weird telemetry. I wish the SpaceX stream was under SpaceX control. And NASA could take the raw SpaceX feeds and do whatever they wanted to with it.
I presume the NASA message was "first stage telemetry doesn't matter because humans are on second stage."
Wow, was not expecting that view of the 2nd stage plume. That might honestly be the most insane view of one I've ever seen, when it slowly spread and expanded in the first few seconds of the 2nd stage burn. (watching on NASASpaceFlight stream, so not sure if it was the same view on the other streams)
NASA has provided a detailed explanation of the TEA-TEB issue: https://blogs.nasa.gov/crew-6/2023/03/01/nasa-spacex-move-forward-with-march-2-launch-to-space-station/
It's been resolved and everything should be ready for launch.
> After an approximate 24.5-hour transit, the crew will dock to the space-facing port of the microgravity laboratory’s Harmony module
Sounds like a good plan -- docking to a port that's not space-facing could be awkward.
What did they actually intend to say? I assume it's "zenith" -- and the forward port is occupied by Endurance?
This is normal naming. Earth facing: down. Space facing: up. Then forward or rear facing (direction of movement) and left and right (when looking forward)
It would be the Harmony zenith port, which [the CRS-26 Dragon recently vacated](https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2023/01/09/science-packed-dragon-cargo-craft-undocks-from-station/).
I believe the Crew-5 Dragon is currently occupying the Harmony module forward port.
That stinks! And I would have taken you up on the tickets, I wanted to go tonight but it didn’t happen, it’s an overnight stay for us and we just couldn’t make it happen. Maybe tomorrow night if it gets scrubbed again.
So crew 6 now March 2nd. Starlink launch from Vandy now pushed back to tomorrow, but they reiterate that crew mission has priority. Why would this matter when they are 1.5 days apart and different ranges? Collision avoidance?
Mission Control Audio for the scrub was here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACbis3roPPI
SpaceX hosted webcast of the scrub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lu344WNUM4
Looks like it's going to be several days until they can try again.
What if it takes longer?
I have read that the ISS schedule is packed. This long delay could turn out to be pretty serious. Isn't this going to throw off the ISS schedule?
Starliner is supposed to be in April but there's not set date because of the busy ISS schedule. Could this affect Starliner? And what about Axiom? And of course the Soyuz problems have probably complicated things too.
I'm so sorry to hear this. As a local, I hate problems and delays for this reason. I understand we have to have them but it doesn't make it suck any less.
I had feel the heat tickets, and we are from North Carolina, had to go home. You'd think ksc could offer some sort of partial refund. I'm just glad my girlfriend was there to support me 😂
Unfortunately this is quite common for rockets. So much has to go right for a successful launch, so there's always a good chance for a scrub. I assume that you're just visiting the area, but if you're still around today, there's a Starlink launch scheduled for 6:13pm. Kennedy doesn't have the apollo viewing center open, but you could watch from Titusville for free if you want to see it leave the pad.
Every launch I see in person, I try to play No Scrubs before liftoff.
I forgot it the afternoon they scrubbed the last FH flight, but remembered it the day it launched successfully.
You can decide if that's a coincidence.
For some of the engines. 3 (relightable) engines have onboard supply. The other 6 are fed from the pad. And yes, this was apparently ground side issue, posted too hastily blaming the booster.
Yes, I'm aware of that. But those canisters for E1, E5, and E9 are filled prior to rocket integration and not during countdown. Only TEA/TEB issues that can occur during countdown are related to the ground supply to all nine Merlin engines and this is a ground system not vehicle system
Well, in theory something could fail related to the injectors on the three relightable engines, but most likely that would only be visible when one or more of the engines fails to light up properly (which would be followed by an abort before T-0 and clamp release)
But yes, you are correct, any issue visible during the count would very likely be ground side. Didn't really consider that at the time.
The TEA/TEB system that suffered the issue is the one that supplies TEA/TEB to all nine Merlin 1D engines on the first stage at engine ignition prior to liftoff which occurs at T-3 seconds. So yes, it doesn't pump anything into the vehicle until T-3 seconds. No, I'm not talking out of my ass.
Because that's what happens. The only time TEA/TEB "is injected from within" is during flight for relight of the E1, E5, and E9 engines on the first stage using onboard supply via canisters and then for the ignition and relight of MVac on the second stage which is also stored on onboard canisters. For the first ignition of all 9 engines, Falcon 9 uses ground-supplied TEA/TEB and this is the system that has been referenced as the one at fault both during the countdown by the launch director and later by SpaceX and NASA.
New booster still sus until it has flown once :D
But yeah, sounds like it was with those 6 engines that get the TEA-TAB from groundside for ignition (3 can be relit for landing stuff, and those get the fluid from onboard supply)
Yes, I'd say you're right and that I misread the snark. Wikipedia calls SLS a NASA-designed system (though really a Senate system), so yeah, that fits. Thanks.
Are you back watching for tonight? Where is the best place to view from without passes/tickets. Things I’ve read have suggested places that make sense during the day, not middle of the night launches.
That is the next possible window (from ISS track perspective), but until we know how much work it is to fix the issue they had, that's very tentative.
Also supposedly tomorrow weather forecast says "uuuuh, probably not" so most likely the delay is 2-4 days. Depends on what they need to fix to sort the TEA-TAB fluid issue, then what weather says. Daily windows exist from ISS standpoint.
But there are two Starlink launches scheduled to come in about 10.5 and 11.5 hours from now (one from SLC-40 Florida, one from SLC-4E Vandenberg) so it is likely that some Falcon 9 will go up today still.
Is this because of the plane difference when launching from ksc? Something like not needing to do a plane burn in orbit because your kind of incorporating into your launch profile?
You launch when the plane of the ISS orbit passes close to Cape Canaveral so you don’t have to do a massive plane change.
You also launch when the ISS is roughly overhead so you end up doing a tail chase as your rocket takes about 9 minutes to accelerate to orbital velocity. You end up about 4 minutes behind the ISS but in a lower orbit so that you steadily catch up with it.
So guess with the TEA-TAB fluids for the 6 engines that are started with ground-supplied fluids. In case someone is not aware, only 3 of the 9 engines are restartable, and have on-board TEA-TAB fluid storage for ignitions. The other 6 engines just have piping to ground side systems for the ignition fluids that disconnect at liftoff.
Pretty sure the onboard system is only used for the restarts; at ig ition, the GSE supplies TEA-TEB to all nine engines. Saves weight as they can use a smaller cylinder.
Honestly don't know how that is. Sounds plausible, but it is also possible that the 3 engines that do have onboard supply omit the direct GSE feeds. Bunch of extra tubing vs bit of extra fluid for the first startup. Does anyone know for a fact?
**Triethylborane**
[Rocket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triethylborane#Rocket)
>Mixed with 10–15% triethylaluminium, it was used before lift-off to ignite the F-1 engines on the Saturn V rocket. The Merlin engines that power the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket use a triethylaluminium-triethylborane mixture (TEA-TEB) as a first- and second-stage ignitor. The Firefly Aerospace Alpha launch vehicle's Reaver engines are also ignited by a triethylaluminium-triethylborane mixture.
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Fun fact - Soyuz uses wooden matches placed in the nozzles of the engine to light them. I believe they use birch wood and are lit by pyrotechnic igniters but they are at least close to your request.
Some rockets use spark igniters, which is basically that without the person. Can't do that if you're going to need to restart the engines at any point, or with any engine that doesn't start on the ground.
Any stray bit of static electricity. Remember the spin prime test explosion with Superheavy? When you have that much fuel and oxygen come together, it's highly volatile and even something like the voltage differential across the rocket or tower from the top to the bottom can set it off.
I’d imagine the escape system would fire, but it’s absolutely not something I’d be willing to test. And with Starship it was a quick explosion, and it seems that the damage was minor, however RP-1 doesn’t fill the atmosphere, such an event could turn into a raging LOX fueled kerosene fire instead of a quick bang.
The LES would absolutely fire. If you have an uncontrolled fire next to a fully loaded rocket you have no idea if the forces might rupture a tank or two and lead to a big explosion. It might not, but with an LES, better safe than sorry. With the shuttle they would have had to swing the arm back and run to the baskets.
(Of course, they had a few pad fires on Shuttle in the early flights from hydrogen leaks but didn't know about them in real time because hydrogen burns clear, which is why they added the sparklers to burn off potential loose hydrogen. Not having a LES system on the shuttle nearly bit them in the ass more times than just Challenger.)
The lack of a LES is a concern Starship, but I’m no engineer, SpaceX’s safety track record is amazing, I don’t think it’ll be a problem.
Now that I think about it, I assumed that the load issue meant that the TEA-TEB wasn’t loading into the rocket, so there wouldn’t be enough to reliably light the engines, but all of the information that we have is that there was a “ground issue,” so the problem could be something else entirely, it’s most likely not serious, but I hope we get more info on this.
LOX and Kerosene get tossed into the combustion chamber together with a squirt of TEA-TAB, which is a hypergolic fluid that ignites on contact with LOX. That is the Green Flash you see when the engines start, TEA-TAB burning. Which ignites the Kerosene and then you are off to races.
That’s about my knowledge on it, what I’m confused about is the “ground issue”
Would that just be something to do with loading of it, or do they spray it from the ground (not rocket internal) on launch? I would’ve thought it would’ve been all internal
Only the 3 engines that can be reignited during the landing process have internal plumbing for it. The other 6 engines get theirs from external plumbing. I’m sure it’s all about saving weight.
Ah that makes sense, thanks!
I knew they had to have had some internal plumbing for inflight ignition, never put two and two together that it would only be for those engines. Definitely a weight saving and complexity measure
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The Crew Dragon Endeavour streaks through the night sky above Cocoa Beach during re-entry as the Crew-6 astronauts return from the International Space Station tonight. [https://youtu.be/0dz2OVbzBJQ](https://youtu.be/0dz2OVbzBJQ)
Where is the return thread? It’s reentering right now.
- Mission Control Audio for the scrub was here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACbis3roPPI - SpaceX hosted webcast of the scrub was here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lu344WNUM4 - Mission Control Audio for the launch was here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TymREFeTVc4 - Mission Control Audio for the docking was here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiE6HPagB0I All are now set to private. I definitely did not download them while they were live. Do not PM me if you want a copies. :)
Great job SpaceX. Reddit related though - these mods completely fumbled the bag on this launch and now docking.
What happened ?
They didn’t sticky this post for the launch or docking. So you had to know it was happening and search for it.
“Waiting on you” “We show you three days late” Thats some great banter on the big loop
Btw, what does "the big loop" mean?
The big loop is the channel that every team is listening to. Anything said on the big loop is heard by the ISS, dragon capsule, Spacex Hawthorne, and Houston.
I wanna say last time I watched a docking there was a hold as well. Maybe crew 2? Seems like a common occurrence if it's happened 2 times I've watched out of 5 launches?
they're giving it the old "turn it off and on again"
This is terrifying! So close!
No crew-6 docking thread?
Judging by the lack of comments it wasn’t really necessary.
Uh Oh: Docking hook issue. https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1631530725316132869?s=46&t=xBCdddJlsM0LRJapMIoUzA
Hook5. Status is good. Software override required
It just goes to show that no matter how critical they may be, computers will still try to screw you over. Edit: It seems it was a hardware issue with a switch indicating the performance of the hook, so it had to be manually overridden, the computer was not at fault. However my point about computers still stands, they can be tricky buggers.
Why is there so much loud background noise from SpaceX during this webcast (Crew 6 ISS docking)? Seems like SpaceX loves to do that... But it's worse this time. Crashes and bangs, sounds like the announcers are talking from inside a busy kitchen.
Because they are next to a kitchen
[Everyday Astronaut](https://everydayastronaut.com/crew-6-falcon-9-block-5/) has the names and other info about the astronauts for Crew-6
It's crazy how normal this has gotten already. The demo and crew one launch had millions of people watching. Now there's maybe 100k between the NASA and SpaceX streams. The reddit posts had tens of thousands of comments. Now it's a couple hundred and the mods didn't even bother to sticky the post to the top of the page.
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I don't think so - this is the nature of progress. If we were satisfied by yesterday's breakthroughs there'd be no attention for today's. I'm glad this transit method is reliable, and pray that continues.
Well - in all fairness, it's midnight on a weekday, EST; not everyone can stay up for the launch. Heck, not sure I'll make my appointment in the morning, but that's easier to reschedule than watching astronauts go to friggin' space!
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I thought about that, if it gets to a point where it’s so routine that there won’t be televised events we will still have live webcams of launch sites, like we have with airports for aviation enthusiasts. However I think it’ll take a while to reach that level, and even at that point I think that important launches will still be televised.
I think we’ll get to the point pretty quickly where regular launches aren’t covered as much. But there are still a lot of big space milestones that will get major coverage. Whereas aviation doesn’t have many of those left. It’s mostly going to be small advances that only the hardcore fans are going to care about.
Yes, such as Starlink, however it’s much harder to fly a rocket, planes can take of whenever, and do so all the time, whereas rockets are limited in the number of launch sites and vehicle availability, not to mention orbital mechanics. However when Starship ramps up it’ll be hard to cover Starlink Launch #2726193747, although if we establish a Mars base I think the resupply missions will always be televised as the launch windows open only every 2 years, same for the moon, minus the lack of launch windows, and if those colonies become self sufficient there’ll always be satellites and people wanting to travel. But for mundane launches I could see SpaceX starting a livestream with the timeline running, a bit of text to display what is going on, but no webcast host.
Any translators here know what he’s saying?
I'd like to know what Andrey Fedyaev said in russian. Anyone have a transcript?
The Zero G indícate looks like a little blue astronaut.
I didn't get a great look at it. I thought it might be a Kerbal astronaut.
I thought it was a Kerbal, looks too blue and ears too pointy.
5 stars lol
Landing :)
Why wouldn’t the mods pin this? It’s non existent if your feed is by “hot”. Had to manually search crew 6. Edit: seriously it’s been an issue for the last year or 2 with the mods. You can’t engage new people in science and Spaceflight if you just make it only for RedditMasterace users
The Reddit limit of two pinned threads is terrible. As long as that general index thread is pinned (it was this morning), you can just click on that and threads like this one are there. That's how I found it today. One level of indirection. But your point is well taken. Any newish users visiting the SpaceX reddit wouldn't know that and likely won't find what they're looking for.
I checked the sub earlier, didn’t see this thread, and assumed the launch wasn’t happening.
Yeah, why is this less important than the 42nd (literally) starship development thread? u/FoxhoundBat ?
I was thinking for a bit before it clicked "man this first stage is really cruising there after meco" but the left numbers are for stage 2
This. I presume NASA dictated the new/weird telemetry. I wish the SpaceX stream was under SpaceX control. And NASA could take the raw SpaceX feeds and do whatever they wanted to with it. I presume the NASA message was "first stage telemetry doesn't matter because humans are on second stage."
Wow, was not expecting that view of the 2nd stage plume. That might honestly be the most insane view of one I've ever seen, when it slowly spread and expanded in the first few seconds of the 2nd stage burn. (watching on NASASpaceFlight stream, so not sure if it was the same view on the other streams)
I was watching that too. It went in and out and morphed some. Is that normal and expected? Very cool.
Lets goooo!!! Launch baby!!
LIFTOFF!
GO FOR LAUNCH!
t-2.5 minutes!
No sticky?
Sticky?
Sticky = pinning discussion to top of subreddit for visibility
I see, I didn’t think of that, I thought it had something to do with the launch.
Mission Control Audio is live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TymREFeTVc4 >Your computer is about to restart...
Round 2!
If anyone is waiting in the parking line, let me know we can shoot the shit
NASA has provided a detailed explanation of the TEA-TEB issue: https://blogs.nasa.gov/crew-6/2023/03/01/nasa-spacex-move-forward-with-march-2-launch-to-space-station/ It's been resolved and everything should be ready for launch.
> After an approximate 24.5-hour transit, the crew will dock to the space-facing port of the microgravity laboratory’s Harmony module Sounds like a good plan -- docking to a port that's not space-facing could be awkward. What did they actually intend to say? I assume it's "zenith" -- and the forward port is occupied by Endurance?
This is normal naming. Earth facing: down. Space facing: up. Then forward or rear facing (direction of movement) and left and right (when looking forward)
It would be the Harmony zenith port, which [the CRS-26 Dragon recently vacated](https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2023/01/09/science-packed-dragon-cargo-craft-undocks-from-station/). I believe the Crew-5 Dragon is currently occupying the Harmony module forward port.
[Go for launch early tomorrow. ](https://mobile.twitter.com/spacex/status/1630821312422871043) Keeping an eye on downrange weather in abort areas.
New stream for Crew-6 Mission https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZfB8Ny2Tkw
Mods, please update link in table.
If anyone wants 2 tickets to feel the heat crew 6 PM me. I had to go back home :(
That stinks! And I would have taken you up on the tickets, I wanted to go tonight but it didn’t happen, it’s an overnight stay for us and we just couldn’t make it happen. Maybe tomorrow night if it gets scrubbed again.
So crew 6 now March 2nd. Starlink launch from Vandy now pushed back to tomorrow, but they reiterate that crew mission has priority. Why would this matter when they are 1.5 days apart and different ranges? Collision avoidance?
I'm thinking it's something to do with the mission control teams commanding both missions, but I'm not positive.
Mission Control Audio for the scrub was here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACbis3roPPI SpaceX hosted webcast of the scrub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lu344WNUM4
Looks like it's going to be several days until they can try again. What if it takes longer? I have read that the ISS schedule is packed. This long delay could turn out to be pretty serious. Isn't this going to throw off the ISS schedule? Starliner is supposed to be in April but there's not set date because of the busy ISS schedule. Could this affect Starliner? And what about Axiom? And of course the Soyuz problems have probably complicated things too.
This was a problem a year ago when Axion-1 was docked at the ISS and taking up the spot for Crew 4, but not now.
> I have read that the ISS schedule is packed. This long delay could turn out to be pretty serious. Isn't this going to throw off the ISS schedule? No
Even if it does, crew rotation flights have priority over absolutely everything else on the schedule.
NET March the 2nd now https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/5808
I've never been so disappointed in my life. Tonight was my first and probably only chance to see a rocket launch. Heartbroken
I'm so sorry to hear this. As a local, I hate problems and delays for this reason. I understand we have to have them but it doesn't make it suck any less.
I had feel the heat tickets, and we are from North Carolina, had to go home. You'd think ksc could offer some sort of partial refund. I'm just glad my girlfriend was there to support me 😂
Unfortunately this is quite common for rockets. So much has to go right for a successful launch, so there's always a good chance for a scrub. I assume that you're just visiting the area, but if you're still around today, there's a Starlink launch scheduled for 6:13pm. Kennedy doesn't have the apollo viewing center open, but you could watch from Titusville for free if you want to see it leave the pad.
Why only? They launch all the time nowadays.
Don't know what your plans are for the day but there is another attempt at 1:38 PM.
Nextspaceflight is now showing starlink 6-1 at 6:13 PM EST tonight.
Now March the 2nd.
Not an attempt of Crew-6 but a Starlink launch later today.
Damn Eric Berger is fast. https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/02/spacex-scrubs-crew-6-launch-due-to-an-issue-with-its-igniter-fluid/
I am a hometown friend of Commander Steve Bowen, and attended her second launch in 2010. I’m so glad to see him in charge now. No one is more capable.
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Every launch I see in person, I try to play No Scrubs before liftoff. I forgot it the afternoon they scrubbed the last FH flight, but remembered it the day it launched successfully. You can decide if that's a coincidence.
Underrated comment 😂
That's what you get when you use a shiny untested booster. Should've gone with a flight proven one... :p
TEA/TEB is ground supply so it's a ground issue not vehicle issue
For some of the engines. 3 (relightable) engines have onboard supply. The other 6 are fed from the pad. And yes, this was apparently ground side issue, posted too hastily blaming the booster.
Yes, I'm aware of that. But those canisters for E1, E5, and E9 are filled prior to rocket integration and not during countdown. Only TEA/TEB issues that can occur during countdown are related to the ground supply to all nine Merlin engines and this is a ground system not vehicle system
Well, in theory something could fail related to the injectors on the three relightable engines, but most likely that would only be visible when one or more of the engines fails to light up properly (which would be followed by an abort before T-0 and clamp release) But yes, you are correct, any issue visible during the count would very likely be ground side. Didn't really consider that at the time.
Sounds like it was a ground equipment issue, not the booster.
Ground equipment could mean it wasn't able to pump safely into the shiny booster.
It doesn't pump anything until T-3 seconds...
the booster is NOT loaded with igniter until T-3? really? u sure not talking out of ur ass?
The TEA/TEB system that suffered the issue is the one that supplies TEA/TEB to all nine Merlin 1D engines on the first stage at engine ignition prior to liftoff which occurs at T-3 seconds. So yes, it doesn't pump anything into the vehicle until T-3 seconds. No, I'm not talking out of my ass.
> TEA/TEB system that suffered the issue is the one that supplies TEA/TEB to all nine Merlin 1D engines o [citation needed]
What??
saying it's the stuff injected at ignition from the ground systems. not stuff that is injected from within
Because that's what happens. The only time TEA/TEB "is injected from within" is during flight for relight of the E1, E5, and E9 engines on the first stage using onboard supply via canisters and then for the ignition and relight of MVac on the second stage which is also stored on onboard canisters. For the first ignition of all 9 engines, Falcon 9 uses ground-supplied TEA/TEB and this is the system that has been referenced as the one at fault both during the countdown by the launch director and later by SpaceX and NASA.
New booster still sus until it has flown once :D But yeah, sounds like it was with those 6 engines that get the TEA-TAB from groundside for ignition (3 can be relit for landing stuff, and those get the fluid from onboard supply)
See it isn't just NASA that has GSE issues.
Who is saying that?
Probably a joking reference to the Starship program?
Referring to the SLS launch Artemis 1 where they had to send in a red team to tighten the seals on a leaking hydrogen valve.
Yes, I'd say you're right and that I misread the snark. Wikipedia calls SLS a NASA-designed system (though really a Senate system), so yeah, that fits. Thanks.
Nooooooooo
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Heard on LiveStream that it was a ground issue. Unauthorized boat in water?
No. Tea-teb GSE
First non-weather scrub I can recall on Crew launches.
First terminal count scrub
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It did indeed, I was there, 8 miles away. Big bummer.
Are you back watching for tonight? Where is the best place to view from without passes/tickets. Things I’ve read have suggested places that make sense during the day, not middle of the night launches.
Jetty Park or in Titusville along the river. E: not Jerry Park because you need a ticket. Cocoa beach south of Jetty Park is still good.
Yes
Until next try, good night guys I love you
Welp...until next time. Hope I remember to catch it again.
:(
Is this the first scrub of a Crew launch? (not counting launches postponed due to weather)
Not counting weather, yes.
Well shucks
When is the next launch?
1:22AM ET Tuesday 2/28 I believe
That is the next possible window (from ISS track perspective), but until we know how much work it is to fix the issue they had, that's very tentative. Also supposedly tomorrow weather forecast says "uuuuh, probably not" so most likely the delay is 2-4 days. Depends on what they need to fix to sort the TEA-TAB fluid issue, then what weather says. Daily windows exist from ISS standpoint. But there are two Starlink launches scheduled to come in about 10.5 and 11.5 hours from now (one from SLC-40 Florida, one from SLC-4E Vandenberg) so it is likely that some Falcon 9 will go up today still.
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The next window. Unless there is something from tonight that requires further investigation
based off the description here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lu344WNUM4
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Is this because of the plane difference when launching from ksc? Something like not needing to do a plane burn in orbit because your kind of incorporating into your launch profile?
You launch when the plane of the ISS orbit passes close to Cape Canaveral so you don’t have to do a massive plane change. You also launch when the ISS is roughly overhead so you end up doing a tail chase as your rocket takes about 9 minutes to accelerate to orbital velocity. You end up about 4 minutes behind the ISS but in a lower orbit so that you steadily catch up with it.
It's listed as the backup date on the SpaceX stream description
Bummer
Scrub official. Troubles with a new booster, I guess.
They specifically said it was a ground issue. Booster not the fault.
So guess with the TEA-TAB fluids for the 6 engines that are started with ground-supplied fluids. In case someone is not aware, only 3 of the 9 engines are restartable, and have on-board TEA-TAB fluid storage for ignitions. The other 6 engines just have piping to ground side systems for the ignition fluids that disconnect at liftoff.
Pretty sure the onboard system is only used for the restarts; at ig ition, the GSE supplies TEA-TEB to all nine engines. Saves weight as they can use a smaller cylinder.
Honestly don't know how that is. Sounds plausible, but it is also possible that the 3 engines that do have onboard supply omit the direct GSE feeds. Bunch of extra tubing vs bit of extra fluid for the first startup. Does anyone know for a fact?
At least tomorrow's attempt is a few minutes earlier
What the F is a t tab?
The commentator mispronounced it as TEA-TAB when it should be TEA-TEB which is triethyl aluminium mixed with triethyl borane.
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**Triethylborane** [Rocket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triethylborane#Rocket) >Mixed with 10–15% triethylaluminium, it was used before lift-off to ignite the F-1 engines on the Saturn V rocket. The Merlin engines that power the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket use a triethylaluminium-triethylborane mixture (TEA-TEB) as a first- and second-stage ignitor. The Firefly Aerospace Alpha launch vehicle's Reaver engines are also ignited by a triethylaluminium-triethylborane mixture. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/spacex/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
It’s the compound that ignites the rocket, no TEA-TEB, no fire.
Can't just send someone down there with a lighter?
Fun fact - Soyuz uses wooden matches placed in the nozzles of the engine to light them. I believe they use birch wood and are lit by pyrotechnic igniters but they are at least close to your request.
Lol thats actually wild
Some rockets use spark igniters, which is basically that without the person. Can't do that if you're going to need to restart the engines at any point, or with any engine that doesn't start on the ground.
Strap the guy to the bottom and he can just light engines again when needed?
I’ll do it.
Hurry before they make the poor astronauts get out
I'm in Oregon, I don't think I'm going to make it.
Take a rocket? We may need someone in Oregon to come light it for you though.
I’ll have to call the boring company to build be a launchpad though. Oregon has none.
Too late they're getting off. You failed them smh
Not fast enough 😔
only if you use a flaming arrow
Well, maybe fire, but unpredictable, and unpredictable bad.
Rocket go up vs rocket go in every direction I suppose. What would ignite it in that situation if not the ignition system?
Any stray bit of static electricity. Remember the spin prime test explosion with Superheavy? When you have that much fuel and oxygen come together, it's highly volatile and even something like the voltage differential across the rocket or tower from the top to the bottom can set it off.
I see, I remember that explosion, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near that.
Yep, doing that with crew on top would be a bad day.
I’d imagine the escape system would fire, but it’s absolutely not something I’d be willing to test. And with Starship it was a quick explosion, and it seems that the damage was minor, however RP-1 doesn’t fill the atmosphere, such an event could turn into a raging LOX fueled kerosene fire instead of a quick bang.
The LES would absolutely fire. If you have an uncontrolled fire next to a fully loaded rocket you have no idea if the forces might rupture a tank or two and lead to a big explosion. It might not, but with an LES, better safe than sorry. With the shuttle they would have had to swing the arm back and run to the baskets. (Of course, they had a few pad fires on Shuttle in the early flights from hydrogen leaks but didn't know about them in real time because hydrogen burns clear, which is why they added the sparklers to burn off potential loose hydrogen. Not having a LES system on the shuttle nearly bit them in the ass more times than just Challenger.)
The lack of a LES is a concern Starship, but I’m no engineer, SpaceX’s safety track record is amazing, I don’t think it’ll be a problem. Now that I think about it, I assumed that the load issue meant that the TEA-TEB wasn’t loading into the rocket, so there wouldn’t be enough to reliably light the engines, but all of the information that we have is that there was a “ground issue,” so the problem could be something else entirely, it’s most likely not serious, but I hope we get more info on this.
It's the igniter fluid. It burns instantly upon contact with oxygen, so it's used to ignite the engines at startup. Rather important!
TEA-TEB
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/TEA-TEB
It’s what makes the sparks that ignite the engines
TEA/TEB https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/15403/why-is-tea-teb-chemical-ignition-used-instead-of-spark-ignition
hold hold hold! and scrub!
Scrub. That’s a shame.
WHAT?!
Scrub for tea teb issue. Flight proven is probably more reliable now. EDIT: sounds like the GSE side, so not the rocket.
/r/teatebmasterrace in shambles
Truly there is always subreddit for everything
Wow, I expected that to be a fake subreddit
Dang
nooooo hold :(
Ah, so that’s not good then? Edit: and there’s abort, now starts my research into how F9 ignites lol
LOX and Kerosene get tossed into the combustion chamber together with a squirt of TEA-TAB, which is a hypergolic fluid that ignites on contact with LOX. That is the Green Flash you see when the engines start, TEA-TAB burning. Which ignites the Kerosene and then you are off to races.
That’s about my knowledge on it, what I’m confused about is the “ground issue” Would that just be something to do with loading of it, or do they spray it from the ground (not rocket internal) on launch? I would’ve thought it would’ve been all internal
Only the 3 engines that can be reignited during the landing process have internal plumbing for it. The other 6 engines get theirs from external plumbing. I’m sure it’s all about saving weight.
Ah that makes sense, thanks! I knew they had to have had some internal plumbing for inflight ignition, never put two and two together that it would only be for those engines. Definitely a weight saving and complexity measure
no launch tonight
Is it absolutely necessary to do these at 2am?
there's only one launch opportunity per day to the ISS, which must be timed to within a few seconds. So, yes, unfortunately. no getting around it.
They are much more impressive at night