What a beauty. Photo sequence below, and I just posted a preliminary flight video (no audio), and SpaceX has now added the full video, with audio but with stretches of lost signal)
11 responses to “SpaceX Falcon 9 1.1 Launch Sequence at Vandenberg AFB”
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Blastoff… From Elon Musk
"Launch was good. All satellites deployed at the targeted orbit insertion vectors.
Rocket booster relit twice (supersonic retro & landing), but spun up due to aero torque, so fuel centrifuged & we flamed out.
Between this flight & Grasshopper tests, I think we now have all the pieces of the puzzle to bring the rocket back home." — ElonThe new circular engine ring (versus 3×3 grid before) makes a wonderful Ring of Fire
Stage Separation
The huge carbon fiber fairing separates, two parts split apart by helium pneumatic arms
Revealing the Casiope satelite within (gold box on bottom right):
The payload here is much smaller than the available space inside, which could house a greyhound bus oriented vertically:
and pre-launch 
Continuing to climb. The niobium halfnium bell on this second stage is much larger than the nine on the boosters (to operate better in near-vaccuum) but it is thinner than a Coke can
SECO – second stage engine cutoff
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Great shot! The weather was excellent! What a fantastic launch. Since you get base access and are well informed about the launches, do you happen to know what the object is I caught in the picture I shot of the contrail of lat Sunday’s launch?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/esse/10063995785/ -
Elon and I think you got a great shot of the booster midway through its 180° pivot (bottom right of your photo). Once the engines are pointing in the direction of travel, they lit three of the nine to decelerate the booster and take it back toward the pad. Closer to Earth, it pivots 180° again to point the engines down for a propulsive landing.
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SpaceX just posted a great video compilation of their recent launch from Vandenberg. I notice it has 418 views and 402 likes at this point. That’s the highest ratio I have ever seen.
video
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