Serious Nasa TV coverage of today's delta launch with massive on-screen time for Marc "Moose" Lavigne. Running back and forth with clipboard reading chart recoders of engine (and motor) data.
I watched in a window on my work PC while doing many other things. How cool.
-Fred Shecter NAR 20117
Congrats Moose!!
HPR may be dead, but Deltas still rock.
He had the nicest shirt in the room. Very professional - I liked his style.
Everyone should watch the next Delta launch to see him in action.
I was wondering something about the Delta 4 launch. All three main engines burned hydrogen and oxygen, right? Then how come the flame was such as pronounced orange/yellow? Shouldn't it have been like the SSME flame which is nearly invisible?
From what I've read, the core engine is liquid, but it also has 6 (I think) solid booster motors - described as 'graphite/epoxy', 3 lit on the pad, another 3 lit after burnout of the first three.
There's cool video of the boosters separating and igniting, and you can see the massive diffusion of the trail at high altitude.
You're thinking the Delta II and Delta III, in their common configurations. There are Delta II configurations with fewer GEMs (graphite epoxy motors). With cancellation of the Delta III, Beoing created a the Delta II Heavy, which uses the Delta III GEMs, as opposed to those more commonly seen on the Delta II.
The Delta IV also comes in several configurations, the Medium is just the core motor; the upper range Mediums use GEMs, adn the Delta IV Heavy uses three of the first stage motors.
-Kevin
So which Delta *are* we talking about here? I'm lost now!
I started talking about the Delta IV launch which featured Moose on the TV coverage.
Others started rambling about other Deltas.
The Delta IV uses 3 parallel common core boosters.
Use the web. It's easy and provides actual facts instead of garbled third hand remembrances.
I was hearing his voice and just -WAITING- to hear him say a "Moosism" like "mash the button" or something. But he DID use a rocketeers term to describe the motors ejecting in mid-flight (ala U.S. Rockets Sentra SRB).
The images of in-flight "pod release" were really good and I do believe it was Moose that encouraged the video releases from prior flights from the main Delta body of the motors ejecting close-up and falling away.
Local rocketeer goes big time! Hi Moose (and tell the official NASA PR lady to stop calling you "Marc Lavigne", it sounds WIERD!
:)
Jerry
Sorry, I completely missed the '4' - there was another Delta launch recently - January 12th 2005 - which was Delta 2, carrying 'Deep Impact'.
Actually, I just made a mistake. D'oh!
The recent Moose TV was of the Delta II (I don't remember if it was "heavy" or not).
Delta IV was launched a week or so earlier and I missed the live coverage. If Moose was working that one, he would have been pretty stressed since he monitors the performance (i.e. how much fuel and oxidizer left, speed, altitude, energy, etc.). So when the side boosters followed by the central core booster shut down a few seconds early and dropped away, he would have been watching the upper stage burns and levels and seen the inevitable 'run dry' situation.
-Fred Shecter NAR 20117
No doubt from a Moosecam (tm)!
Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!
-Fred Shecter NAR 20117
The Delta IV HEAVY uses 3 parallel common core boosters. There are several configurations that don't.
Agreed! Boeing has some decent info on the configurations on their website.
-Kevin
That was on the NASA channel and he calls the mid-flight ignition motors "air-starts".
ROFL.
Hi Moose!!!
I'm guessing (it's Usenet, after all) that they run extra LH around the inner surface of the nozzle bells to chill them and to protect them from too much LOX so they do not burn through. That gives you extra hydrogen around the outside that can then burn as it interacts with the air upon exit.
An e-mail to moose could answer this with facts, but I wouldn't want to ruin a good r.m.r. thread.
;-)
-Fred Shecter NAR 20117
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