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NASA / SpaceX CRS-7 Launch

10:21 EDT, 28 June 2015

By Greg Annandale

July 10^th, 2015

Two weeks ago I had the distinct pleasure of attending one of the NASA Social events at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida. The event was organised around the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket; a cargo resupply mission to the ISS on behalf of NASA.

A group of around 35, we were treated to a couple of days’ of tours and talks pre-launch followed by a view of the launch itself; the access we were granted throughout and the openness to share information and answer questions was impressive. It’s clear that everyone involved is hugely passionate about what they do (on every scale) and has an intense emotional attachment to the past, present & future of the agency.

Added to this, it was the first time foreign nationals had been permitted on such a visit - very commendable (given the added organisational complexities) and something for which I’m extremely grateful (and hope can be continued for future events).

The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)

The interior of the building in the header image, the VAB is quite simply enormous - built in the mid 60s it originally housed the Saturn V rockets, followed by the Shuttle and is now being adapted for the SLS (and other rocket types).

Along with the VAB, we also toured the Thermal Protection System Facility where the heat-resistant materials for spacecraft are designed and manufactured.

The VAB & Mobile Launcher Platform, viewed from 'The Causeway'

Inside the Thermal Protection System Facility

Heat resistant tiles demonstrated in the Thermal Protection System Facility

Heat resistant fabric demonstrated in the Thermal Protection System Facility

The tiles, being 96% air, absorb tremendous amounts of water

ISS Processing Facility

Prior to being launched on Shuttle missions, the various modular components that make up the ISS are processed here. One of the components on display was the second International Docking Adaptor (IDA-2) due to launch on CRS-9 (we would see IDA-1 launching two days later on CRS-7).

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Press Conferences

Part of the pre-launch schedule consisted of a number of conferences with topics ranging from briefings from launch control, weather updates, the status of science experiments aboard the ISS and discussions around the details of the cargo being launched.

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Kennedy Space Center - Visitor Complex

During downtime between events, what better than to wander around the visitor complex. The Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit is a clear highlight.

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Pad viewing

9 hours before scheduled launch, we were taken to a viewing spot to see the rocket on the pad.

Look closely and there’s a bit of the Milky Way visible in the right-hand / portrait image!

The Launch

The allocated spot on ‘The Causeway’ offered a fantastic view of the launch, but of course a long lens is a must!

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30km UP

The 1st stage’s 9 engines are still clearly visible.

"NON-NOMINAL FLIGHT"

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"We appear to have had a launch vehicle failure"

From the ground (at least to untrained eyes), what looked like the 1st stage separation at around 42km altitude was in fact an explosion caused by an over-pressurisation event in the 2nd stage.