Canon EOS 5D Mark II
ƒ/6.3
130 mm
1/3,200
400
At NASA Ames today. Designed and built by SpaceX in California.
Photo sequence below… Here is the launch video medley for a fine Saturday.
19 responses to “First Flight of the Falcon Heavy”
-
Wiring up the igniters to the cluster of three Aerotech D10-7W motors
The side motors, while identical to the central one, took an extra 0.5 seconds to come up to pressure
All three motors firing by this point…
But the rocket went unstable. We thought the 3D-printed fairing was sufficient nose weight, but she went unstable. Some folks suggested extra nose weight for the next 3D print, but on further thought, I think the problem is the fins on the outer cores. I need to move them to the central core to align the corrective moment with the center of the airframe.
Then the three parachutes popped out onto the tarmac, like a 1,2,3 count. The damage was minimal, and with a new 3D-print for the nosecone fairing and a swap out of two fins with their spares, she will be ready to fly again. Here is the launch video medley for a fine Saturday. -
Haha I couldn’t believe the headline! Great model. It doesn’t look all that heavy – maybe it should have been heavier!
-
Yeah, the CG has to be above the CP. Gotta remember to check that more precisely when I do a custom build.
Meanwhile, I just noticed some cool reflections zooming in on one of the self portraits…
under the watchful gaze of LOC Precision, suppliers of two of the airframe components we flew earlier
-
Yes, having slept on this, I think you are right. I added to the text above:
Some folks suggested extra nose weight for the next 3D print, but on further thought, I think the problem is the fins on the outer cores. I need to move them to the central core to align the corrective moment with the center of the airframe.
The aha happened when I remembered that the three-core Brighthawk flew fine with three cores… and central fins:
-
Yes, the Falcon Heavy should have a fully reusable booster, and so that’s what we have here! And we are 3D-printing a better fairing, and doing a better fin orientation for stable flight.
P.S. SpaceX just posted this on their fB page.
-
Hi, I saw this yesterday and thought it was so great. I was the person that tweeted SpaceX and Elon musk with the link. They then tweeted it an hour later. 🙂
-
At least it didn’t make a "core sample" attempt. had an Estes Mercury Atlas do that once.. (sniff)
-
My bet would be a combination of nose weight and fin area are needed, check out DFR Technologies Delta IV models, as the lay out is similar. Very nice work despite the mishap.
dfrtech.com/delta-iv/delta-iv-heavy/delta-iv-heavy-kit-18mm
his older now discontinued 24 mm D4 staged fully.
http://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?10541-Delta-IV-Kit-V...could also be some thrust imbalance as the engines didn’t all come up to pressure simultaneosly
-
Beautiful model. Looks great flying. A good way to check that your CP is behind your CG is to tie a string to the model at its CG and spin it in a circle, making sure it travels nose first. Run the the trial with empty as well as full engines. Of course this technique won’t work for Elon given the size of his creations.
By the way, the whole SpaceX enterprise has been just brilliant as well as a ton of fun to watch. -
Sorry I do not own that kit, so I can’t speak to the exact specs. YOu could try the contact us e-mail, from what I’ve seen on the rocketry forum he is a pretty nice guy and might give you a hand. (dfrtech.com/index.php?route=information/contact) You could try modeling your set up in Open Rocket (free openrocket.sourceforge.net/ not sure it can do the triple body or Apogee’s RockSim (not free but more capable, but I they have a free trial period http://www.apogeerockets.com/Rocksim/Rocksim_Trial))
Cmac9000 the swing test will only work if your string is significantly longer than the length of the rocket, otherwise your angle of attack will vary widely across the length of the rocket and tell you nothing of value. A 10 foot string on a 1 or 2 foot rocket is great, but as this looks to be about 4 foot tall the swing test is less than practical, or accurate.
-
Beautiful model! What scale is it?
I built and flew a 1:100 scale model of the Falcon H last year, on a single D12-3. It uses "fin pods" similar to the "Flame-Fins" (TM) used in Dr. Zooch’s (TM) Titan III, STS, and SLS models. It was stable. -
It’s based on the Falcon 9 model kit that SpaceX designed, and that’s 1:88 scale. That was based on 1.0 and the 1.1 is the same diameter but taller, so the scale is probably the same, but I may have the height wring (since the final specs for that airframe are not yet public).
Meanwhile, I notice that the Facebook post by SpaceX was enjoyed by many!
The photo is also great as my iPhone backdrop. On that screen size, it looks totally real.
Leave a Reply to cmac9000 Cancel reply