We were waiting in anticipation of the launch of the SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket this morning. As I got out on my morning bicycle ride, there were crowds of people at every spot that had a view of the SpaceX Launch Facility...
I got back from my ride with about 40 seconds left on the countdown. Knowing it would be LOUD if it got off, I wanted to be here to reassure the big furry boy that everything is OK. We can't see the launch facility from our deck, but we keep watch with an iPad (with a live view) out on the deck...
Then, a hold. They were going through a series of final checks. Nothing on the iPad about when the countdown would continue... and then there was a huge cheer from the crowd over at the gazebo.
Launch!
It takes about 5 seconds for the roar of the rocket engines to reach us...
I tried to shoot some video of it as the view of the rocket cleared the houses across the canal from us. It was incredibly loud. (more on that in a bit)
The smoke plume that was left after the rocket passed beyond our view...
I went around to the front of the house to see where the rocket might be, but it was just some smoke...
It all happened fast. Things went south fast, and I'm not talking about the direction. It appears that 7 of the engines (33 total) malfunctioned, and the rocket exploded several miles off the coast (less than 4 minutes after launch). With the engine malfunctions, it started to rotate...
And then exploded...
Not what SpaceX officials were hoping for, but not unexpected.
Here's the video that I shot from our deck...
You can barely make out the rocket as it clears the houses across the canal from us. The roar is incredibly loud; you can feel it in your chest.
SpaceX is saying they learned a lot from this test (and reiterated that it was "a test").
Rufus did OK with the roar, but he did stay close to the furniture as he moved around the house. He was concerned, but not traumatized. I came inside (to check on him) as soon as the rocket was out of sight from our vantage point on the deck - that all happened pretty fast.
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This afternoon, we had to run an errand over to SPI. I was expecting huge traffic, but it was reasonably light. One "after-effect" from the launch: there is a layer of sandy soot on our pretty white car and the south side of the house. I held my breath as I lightly ran my finger on the car to see if it would come off...
Yes, it comes off. Whew! We had run the car through the carwash on Tuesday, so it was still looking good, until the launch. After taking care of our errands, we stopped at the carwash again to get the Equinox looking good. Elon owes me for a carwash!
Maybe tomorrow we'll hit the south side of the house with a hose and scrub-brush.
2 comments:
Space launches are a risky proposition, even though we take now them for granted. NASA blew up plenty of rockets along the way.
If you are curious, there is an app called "SPLnFFT" which does a pretty good job of measuring sound pressure level in dBA. It is less than $10 and is known to be more accurate than most of the free sound meter apps out there. (The app was designed by an acoustical engineer like me, and I keep it on my phone. It agrees within 2 dB of my pro-grade sound meters that cost several thousand dollars).
Hi Earl. Since I had just gotten back from a bicycle ride, I was still wearing my bike helmet and AirPod Pro earbuds... pretty sure the neighbors were thinking: "Does he really think that helmet is going to protect him if this thing blows??"
I literally parked my bike beside the house and got onto the deck with about 40 seconds before launch. It may not have seemed overpoweringly loud to me because of the earbuds. I never thought to check the sound level - I was too busy taking photos and video.
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