SpaceX CRS-9 missed launch, in Canada.

We were disappointed to miss this launch AND landing, but we were happy with family in Canada all week.

Approaching YYZ

The official stats:

July 18	Falcon 9   •  SpaceX CRS 9
Launch time: 0445:29 GMT (12:45:29 a.m. EDT) Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the 11th Dragon spacecraft on the ninth operational cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. The flight is being conducted under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. Delayed from Dec. 9, June 24, June 27 and July 16. Read our full story. [July 18]

Space!

Ryan

I was somewhere in the desert when we missed another launch. ABS 2A & #Eutelsat 117 West B

We were away on vacation visiting friends and family in Colorado and Utah. We were somewhere in Greenwood Caverns during the launch. No behind the scenes photos. No barge landing either. Oh well.

Uncredited photo plastered across social media. Probably belonging to Eutelsat. 

The official stats:

June 15	Falcon 9   •  ABS 2A & Eutelsat 117 West B
Launch time: 1429 GMT (10:29 a.m. EDT) Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the ABS 2A and Eutelsat 117 West B communications satellites. ABS 2A will distribute direct-to-home television, mobile and maritime communications services across Russia, India, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean region for Asia Broadcast Satellite of Bermuda and Hong Kong. Eutelsat 117 West B will provide Latin America with video, data, government, and mobile services for Paris-based Eutelsat. Built by Boeing, the satellites launched in a conjoined configuration and will use all-electric propulsion for orbit-raising. Delayed from 4th quarter 2015, March, April, May 3 and late May. Moved forward from June 16. Delayed from June 14. Read our full story. [June 15]

Space!

Ryan

Sometimes you need to rest and let the rockets fly as they may #JCSAT14 #SpaceX #Falcon9

Even though it would have taken a simple alarm and sitting up in bed to look at the window, we missed this launch as we were all sick and needed our rest. I actually thought that we would be woken up by the rumble, but not this time. With a long launch window as well, it could have turned into a very long night. Just to gauge how sick we were, I stayed home from hockey the previous Friday night and I rarely miss hockey! I did head dow to Port Canaveral to snap a few photos of the first stage after it returned from landing on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. It was an impressive site to see the scale of the first stage compared to the tiny workers at it's business end preparing the hardware to get loaded on a flatbed truck a few days later. Another notable milestone is that this may have been the 50th launch since Jen and I moved to Florida in Sept 2012. I will need to check the stats and figure out when the 50th launch we "not miss" will occur. As I write this month-late blog entry, another first stage has arrived at the Port! The pace of space is picking up, and the place for space is the Space Coast!

Twitter original text: She's still got legs. SpaceX Falcon 9 1st stage at Port Canaveral from #JCSAT14 launch. #CapeLife #Falcon9 #SpaceX

We missed the #GPS2F12 launch, but not the webcast. Family first!

The launch was delayed and pushed into our vacation. For the actual launch day we were in south Florida (Pompano Beach) with our family. We watched the webcast and went outside with the babies for the odd chance we would see or hear the rocket overhead.  Being 200 miles to the south, I knew it was a longshot (the trajectory would need to also be going south), but the cloud coverage made sure we would not see anything. The babies of course are not aware yet, and it is still a fun ritual to spot the rocket.

Rafi and Harper enjoyed meeting each other and shared a launch experience... well at least the webcast!

The labor of launching a rocket. #GPS2F10 launched as #BabyK prepped for arrival. #ULA #AtlasV

After a sleepless night, we headed to the hospital on the morning of July 15th expecting both a rocket launch and a baby launch. With contractions steadily progressing, we didn't know if we would catch the launch. At the beginning of the launch window, we were in between contractions so we took our positions by the hospital window. The rocket launched right on time and unfortunately we couldn't see if from Melbourne. However, I did get to see this particular rocket up close on one of our legislative tours of KSC/CCAFS. We went up to the top deck of ULA's Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) and were able to look down at the rocket before the payload was added. We saw the rocket on multiple platform levels with the most bizarre floor numbers. We even got to stick our heads pretty close to the RD-180 engines on the ground floor and read the Cyrillic print "РД-180" in red paint. To finish the story, after a long labor, Rafael Neil Kobrick was born on the next day at 0030, July 16th, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch to the Moon! It happened to be a new moon that night and a very busy hospital.

The Atlas V patiently waits for it's payload to be delivered at LC-41. We went to the very top floor (just under the yellow crane, but not up by the ULA logo) and what a view of the Cape! Photos were not allowed inside/outside the VIF, but check out the video below.

Missed launch, but worth it. Away on #BabyMoon

This is a null space blog post. It's a placeholder about missing a Florida launch, but maintaining a count on how many have occurred since we moved the Florida (35th?). This was the 4th launch I have missed, and the 2nd one while being out of town. But the excuse is good, we were at the Grand Canyon (or on the way there) for our Baby Moon.

Red sky at morn, sailors be warn. Missed the #SpaceX #AsiaSat8 launch, but the rumble woke me up!

Strike three. That's three missed launches in a row, but at least the rumble from the rocket woke me up at 4am so I experienced part of the launch and acknowledge that it actually did happen. I set my alarm for the beginning of the launch window at 1:25am and was up in time to test my camera (see image below). I was dazed and following updates on Twitter tagged with #SpaceX and #AsiaSat8, but then the time came and went and the launch was aborted at T-12 seconds! I saw tweets that the media was being escorted off base and to me that indicated at least a 30-min delay before another attempt could be made. I wasn't willing to stay up all night with an unknown launch window, so I decided to call it a night. Three launches in a week is pretty fantastic even if I missed watching them all!

Red sky at night is usually sailor's delight, but not today. I guess since it was 1:20am that "red sky at morn, sailors be warn" is more appropriate. This moment was captured leading up to the T-12 seconds abort of +SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket waiting to launch AsiaSat 8. It did finally go at 4am.

Most importantly on this date, is that it's Jen and I's 2nd wedding anniversary! We had a rover land on Mars for our wedding party post-reception (5 August 2012 - Mars Science Laboratory / Curiosity) and now a rocket launch on year 2! We missed the landing as well in 2012, because there's not much reception at Yellowstone National Park!

The stats (to be updated in past-tense later):

Aug. 5	Falcon 9  •  AsiaSat 8
Launch window: 0525-0811 GMT (1:25-4:11 a.m. EDT) Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the AsiaSat 8 communications satellite. AsiaSat 8 will support direct broadcasting, private networks and broadband connectivity for customers in China, India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Delayed from April, May, June and Aug. 4. [Aug. 3]

Space!

Ryan

My first missed launch while being in Florida, but at least I was playing ice hockey! #GPS2F7 on #AtlasV

Friday night I was on the ice playing hockey, yes ice hockey in Florida, so I missed my first launch ever while being in the same location/State. Apparently one of my teammates felt the building rumble. Next time I'll have to wear my digital sports watch and set an alarm. Douglas Adams would not approve of me not wearing my Timex 24/7. I was tempted to set an alarm, throw on skate guards, and "run" outside, but there will be plenty more launches to witness. At least I was able to capture a few photos of the rocket on the launchpad during the #SpaceInterns tour of CCAFS/KSC earlier this summer (Photo from 21 July).

A drive by of SLC (or LC) 41 and a view of GPS 2F-7 on top of a Atlas 5 rocket. This was the only view of the rocket I saw since I was playing hockey during the launch late Friday night.

The official Spaceflightnow.com summary:

Aug. 1/2	Atlas 5  •  GPS 2F-7
Launch window: 0323 GMT on 2nd (11:23 p.m. EDT on 1st) Launch site: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launched the Air Force's seventh Block 2F navigation satellite for the Global Positioning System. The rocket flew in the 401 vehicle configuration with a four-meter fairing, no solid rocket boosters and a single-engine Centaur upper stage. Delayed from July 31. See our Mission Status Center. [Aug. 1]

Space!

Ryan

#AFSPC4 scrub on #Delta4, my first of many missed launches since moving to Florida

It was bound to happen, but after 23 months of living in Florida, I was out of town for a launch. The AFSPC 4 launch on the Delta 4 would have been my 22nd launch since moving to Florida Sept. 2012. I only attended one of the four scrubs on July 24th (I was hoping to watch it 7/23 while sailing), and was out of town for the other two scrubs. This has only happened to me twice before. The first mission where I witnessed a scrub (actually two) and missed the launch was STS-127 when +NASA invited the Student Ambassador's to a special conference and launch viewing opportunity. I did drive back one-week later from Cleveland (I was at NASA Glenn Research Center for my PhD research that summer) hoping to see STS-127, but it was scrubbed again. Luckily we did see the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launch to the Moon (18 June 2009) with the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)! The second near-miss was for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission when I came for my interview with Space Florida and it scrubbed. We didn't move down to Florida from Cambridge until after the launch (September). For the record, my differentiation between a scrub and a delay is if they fuel the rocket. If it's fueled and doesn't fly, it's a scrub!

Rockets in mirror are closer than they appear. We slowly watched a blue sky over the rocket get covered by lightning storms in the area and heavy cloud coverage.

The fact that Florida is launching nearly one rocket per month is still a great pace and as activity increases on the space coast, I look forward to the future where I'm missing several launches per month. I believe we can achieve the frequency of one orbital launch per week complemented by suborbital flights even more frequent than that. I won't predict when that happens, because we all know that it's "only two years away".

Too late... clouds are overhead of the rocket and then launch window officially closed. If the launch window was longer (or opened earlier), they may have been able to launch that evening.

For those keeping score on launches, scrubs and delays, here's Spaceflightnow.com's summary of this mission. Previous launch information can be viewed on their extremely useful Launch Log.

July 28	Delta 4  •  AFSPC 4
Launch time: 2328 GMT (7:28 p.m. EDT) Launch site: SLC-37B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket launched the AFSPC 4 mission for the U.S. Air Force. The rocket flew in the Medium+ (4,2) configuration with two solid rocket boosters. The payloads included two satellites for the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program. Delayed from February. Moved forward from December. Scrubbed on July 23, July 24, July 25 and July 26. See our Mission Status Center. [July 28]

Space!

Ryan