Air Force Eastern Range Radar Issue Delays Cape Launches
U.S. Air Force Radar Problem Delays NROL-67 and SpaceX CRS-3 Launches, SpaceRef Business
“A problem with the U.S. Air Force AN/MPS-39 Multiple Object Tracking Radar (MOTR) at the Eastern Range, reportedly a fire, has delayed the launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-67 launch and now unofficially SpaceX’s launch of the CRS-3 resupply mission to the International Space Station.”
Where is the redundancy in our radar system???!!!
Although there is only one MOTR at CCAFS, there are several other tracking radars and the capability itself is highly redundant. In fact at a conference in 2012 a USAF presentation indicated that by 2014 they would be able to use GPS data alone.
The problem is that military personnel are, perhaps rightly, rewarded for taking charge and following rules, not for making business profitable. Why should they take a risk by violating the range rules? Once again we are pushing Elon Musk to move to Texas, where he can launch under FAA jurisdiction.
He better quit _______ around and start building in Texas! This cape launch is starting to look like some kind of joke.
Is it possible to launch to orbit from New Mexico’s space port? Seems they need some business! I’ve often wondered if grasshoppering would lead to orbital flights???
Texas will limit Spacex to only about 10 or so a year 🙁
I wonder if Spacex has thought much about launching rockets on the other side of the REO grand???? Maybe they have been secretly buying up a little bit of Mexico.
Puerto Rico is in an excellent location for a launch site with access to all inclinations; the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station land is available and SpaceX has considered it. Personally if I were governor of PR I would may them as generous an offer as I could afford.
And the FAA has the same rules as the USAF. So, if this were any other range and one of its required assets had a fire, SpaceX couldn’t launch then either.
The FAA is as concerned with safety as NASA, but its policies for space launch are quite different from the DOD’s. Many of the DOD procedures and requirements are relics of an earlier age in spaceflight when cost was no object and are obsolete in a number of areas. Reliance on radar and optical tracking, for example, when active GPS is much more accurate. Another area is the requirement for an antedelluvian booster destruct range safety system when the FAA requirement can be met safely with thrust termination. After over 60 years of DOD range operations there is no way to launch or even schedule two launches during the same day. My friends in the DOD can do many amazing things, but regulating a private industry profitably is not normally a DOD mission.
Wrong, the FAA based its policies on the DOD’s. The radar and GPS comment is nonsense as the DOD is transitioning to GPS metric. DOD doesn’t require optical tracking. FAA will also require independent sources for track data and hence radar will likely still be used. Destruct is also not going away. A little research might be in order before posting.
Let’s keep this respectful if we can. Code of Federal Regulations Title 14 (Aeronautics and Space) Part 417 (Launch Safety) Appendix D (Flight termination system functional requirements) section D417 requires that the flight termination system for liquid propellant launch vehicles accomplish thrust termination and dispersal of liquid propellants without ignition. The latter can be accomplished by tank rupture but other methods are acceptable. There is no specific requirement to fragment or destroy the booster. Part 417.307 requires two independent sources of tracking data. Radar may be used as one of the sources, but radar is not specifically required.
What do you think destruct systems are? They are there only to rupture propellant tanks. Ignition of the propellants and fragmentation/destruction of the booster are not requirements but just secondary effects from the rupture. Try designing a system that ruptures the tanks and disperses the propellants and not get a ignition or secondary effects.
Again, try getting a vehicle independent track source without radar.
Musk and SpaceX should just buy the Sea Launch command ship and ocean platform launcher. I have a suspicion those Zenit rockets may be victims of the recent unpleasantness in Crimea. They are Ukrainian boosters using Russian engines , and the Sea Launch company is on the rocks financially anyway. Might be a geopolitical fire sale opportunity.
Sea Launch’s port facility and warehouses etc in Long Beach CA are located just a couple miles down the road from SpaceX and its factory up in Hawthorne CA … the Zenit SL and the Falcon 9 are similar in size and both run on kerosene. Seems serendipitous.
That way , SpaceX could avoid most bureaucratic bungling and ungawdly oversight by launching w-a-a-a-y offshore out of anyone’s reach, on a movable island flying the SpaceX flag… with a bar and dance floor maybe
Wouldn’t they have to have a seperate barge to use as a landing pad. I wouldn’t think they would want that fall last minute thrust trick to close their launch pad and fuel tanks.
Haven’t the Russians already bought Sea Launch?
Not a bad Idea Mack!
Is it possible to go New Mexico to watch any of the falcon 9R tests? That would be almost as cool as being at Kittyhawk when the Wright Brothers, did their glider tests, before they made history.
The 9R is being tested in New Mexico, not Mexico.
Typo thanks