SpaceX Falcon 9 historic landing thread (1st landing attempt & most recent missions)

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SpaceX launch set for this Friday, March 30th, at Vandenberg AFB in California.

Launch time set for 7:14 AM PDT (10:14 AM EDT).

Launching the 5th set of Iridium NEXT satellites, using the same booster used to launch the 3rd set.

While they could land the booster on the ASDS "JRTI", apparently they won't since this is the second flight of the booster and they will never fly the Block 3 or 4 boosters 3 times. Also, JRTI may still be undergoing rework. But they'll probably try to recover one of the payload shrouds, using the "Mr Steven" ship with its huge net to catch the fairing half. Tried that last time but Musk implied the fairing's steerable gliding parachute wasn't big enough (indicating next time (this time?), it would be bigger)

Article on static firing for mission: "Falcon 9 conducts static fire test ahead of the fifth Iridium NEXT mission"

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/03/satellites-fifth-iridium-next-launch-arrive-vandenberg/

Iridium's mission patch:

1482303.jpg



After this launch, then CRS-14 at the Cape, currently set for April 2nd.
 
From Twitter:

Matt Desch @IridiumBoss


We are having an issue with 1 of the 10 satellites in prep for #Iridium5. Our supplier and launch team is resetting for NET 3/31, with potential to shift into next week, if not resolved quickly. Launch success is priority #1! Will provide more info as available.
Click to expand...

SpaceX Verified account @SpaceX


Static fire test of Falcon 9 complete—targeting April 2 launch from Pad 40 in Florida for Dragon’s fourteenth mission to the @Space_Station.
Click to expand...
 
Matt Desch
‏ @IridiumBoss
22h22 hours ago

Positive update to our satellite and launch delay. Just been apprised there has been a technical resolution; satellites and F9 are in great shape and ready to go! Was ground harness test cable issue - now fixed. Launch now pulled back to Friday, 3/30 at 7:14am pdt! #GoTeam!



SpaceX
‏Verified account @SpaceX
3h3 hours ago

Falcon 9 and payload are healthy—the teams at Vandenberg are now targeting Friday, March 30 at 7:13 a.m. PDT for the launch of Iridium-5.



Iridium and SpaceX seem to disagree by 1 minute. Important when it is an instantaneous window :)
 
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Iridium-5 NEXT mission is set to launch Friday morning at 7:13 AM PDT, 10:13 AM EDT, from Vandenberg.

This will be the second flight of the booster, which will not be recovered.

Press kit link: https://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/iridium-5_press_kit_2018.pdf

1483407.jpg


Webcast link:

[video=youtube;mp0TW8vkCLg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp0TW8vkCLg[/video]
 
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Yeah, I was puzzled by that too.

AFAIK Iridium is a private company that has A) nothing to do with NOAA and B) no claim to, or need for, launch info to be confidential.

Right??? :confused2:
 
Is it possible that the rocketcams use a frequency that could cause interference with a NOAA satellite that happened to be in range?


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum
 
Bureaucratic BS.

"NOAA recently asserted that the cameras on the second stage, which are used for engineering purposes, qualify as a "remote sensing space system", thereby requiring a provisional license so we could fly on time. The license prohibited SpaceX from airing views from the second stage once on orbit. We don't expect this restriction once we obtain a full license. There is also no such restriction for our next mission for NASA. "
 
I read the same thing elsewhere too. It baffles me that you have to have a license in order to broadcast pictures of the Earth from space!?!?!? That's absurd! Surely there's more to it than that.
 
That is probably related to the regulations that are used to limit the resolution of satellite images that private companies are allowed to be able to capture or to sell to non-government customers. If there is, as it appears, no exception for low resolution images, everybody would require a license even if the images are completely harmless from a national security perspective. Kinda odd that this is handled by the NOAA but I guess this is still better for companies than dealing with the NRO.

Reinhard
 
davel said:
Bureaucratic BS.

"NOAA recently asserted that the cameras on the second stage, which are used for engineering purposes, qualify as a "remote sensing space system", thereby requiring a provisional license so we could fly on time. The license prohibited SpaceX from airing views from the second stage once on orbit. We don't expect this restriction once we obtain a full license. There is also no such restriction for our next mission for NASA. "
Click to expand...

Exactly, why should NOAA have anything to do with photos and transmission of them from space, communications is the realm of FCC, government agencies are a bunch of retards.
 
rharshberger said:
Exactly, why should NOAA have anything to do with photos and transmission of them from space, communications is the realm of FCC, government agencies are a bunch of retards.
Click to expand...

Maybe the first satellite pictures were for weather, so everyone decided that NOAA was the right agency within the Department of Commerce to handle it? Once they handled some permits, it makes sense to keep all satellite picture permits in one place so you don't have five sets of rules depending on what you're taking pictures of.
 
Recovery attempt for fairing half failed.

Musk tweeted:
GPS guided parafoil twisted, so fairing impacted water at high speed. Air wake from fairing messing w parafoil steering. Doing helo drop tests in next few weeks to solve.
Click to expand...

CRS-14, resupply mission to ISS using a Dragon spacecraft, is scheduled for Monday April 2nd, at 4:30 PM EDT.

Launch from LC-40 at KSC.

The booster flew before for CRS-12. And while it could do an RTLS landing, it will be expendable since as a Block 3 or 4 booster it won't fly a 3rd time and they have plenty of left over 2-flight boosters. I will note that even for today's launch, it had legs and grid fins, as they are testing new re-entry and landing techniques for Block 5 to reduce the amount of fuel needed, and reduce max heat loads (apparently a bit of a "glide" re-entry which can save fuel by extending horizontal distance, reduce the re-entry burn, and cause a more diagonal atmospheric re-entry so it does not encounter the denser atmosphere as fast as for a much steeper descent so there is less max heat though a longer duration for the peak heat period).

CRS-14 might do the same kind of reentry and landing tests at sea (expendable flight, simulated precision landing in the ocean).

Soon, they will start flying the Block 5's which are supposed (we'll see) to fly 10 times without refurbishing, then after refurb be good for 10 more, to a claimed 100 flights. So, anyway, seems like they won't be recovering any boosters again till the Block 5, or if there are any never-flown block 4's left (think a few reused left but not any unused....not sure though).

The first Block 5 launch was to be the one after this (Bangabandhu-1), but due to a customer satellite delay it's been set back to April 24th. Otherwise, that was going to launch days after CRS-14.

Back to CRS-14:

The Dragon is reused from CRS-8 (though there is extreme tear-down, rebuild, and replacement of many parts so re-use is a relative term).

NASA report wth CRS-14 Overview (pdf file): https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/spacex_crs-14_mision_overview_high_res.pdf

Three sets of gear riding in "the trunk", photo below. THe lowermost is ASIM (ESA’s Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor ), briefly described at this link: https://m.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/03/ASIM_in_Dragon

ASIM_in_Dragon_article_mob.jpg
 
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Launch in about 26 minutes, 4:30 PM EDT.

This is also on NASA TV. Check it out since they have better telescopic cameras. But remember this is an expendable, no RTLS back to the Cape
 
Watching both NASA TV and SpaceX youtube, looks like NASA has a 30 second delay.
 
NOAA did NOT cut the SpaceX webcast.

SPACEX cut the SpaceX webcast.

They could have continued with the webcast after reaching orbit, simply not show any onboard video. The could simply and easily carried on with info about how the flight was progressing, the release of each satellite up to the final deployment of the last satellite.

I think it was more of a "snit" on SpaceX's part to just end it and blame NOAA for SpaceX's "Snitty" choice to end it.

Regardless it was "Snitty" behaviour by SpaceX to be so misleading about it. They simply could said that due to recent interpretations of regulations on video imaging from orbit, they could not show any more onboard video for the rest of the webcast, they were working on solving this for the future, and keep on webcasting to the last deployment.

In better news, here is a very good article reviewing the changes to Falcon-9 from 1.0 to Block 5:

https://theclimategap.com/falcon9-evolution/

Falcon 9’s History Explained – The Specific Design Changes that Led to a Rapidly Reusable Rocket


"After nearly a decade of development, SpaceX will soon debut the final design of its Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX’s primary launch vehicle has advanced a long way from its early beginnings, but now its continual improvement will stop for the foreseeable future. In order to be human-rated for NASA crew flights, a rocket must have at least seven launches using the same design. SpaceX can no longer pencil-in changes with every launch. Now it has to finalize a blueprint. That design is the so-called “Falcon 9 v1.2 Block 5.”

The upcoming Bangabandhu-1 launch that will debut Block 5 has electrified SpaceX fans but has also clouded the details surrounding Falcon 9’s development history. This post is intended to clear the skies by aggregating the publicly-available details of previous rocket versions. I wasn’t satisfied by general reports of “uprated thrust” and “redesigned engines,” so I set out to find the specific changes that evolved a Dragon-launching Falcon 9 v1.0 into the rapidly reusable Falcon 9 v1.2 Block 5........."

(use above link to read more)
Click to expand...

The Bangabandhu-1 launch, using the first Block 5, is planned for April 24th (was supposed to have launched earlier this month but was delayed by the customer's satellite not being ready).

Next launch is the TESS mission, currently set for April 16th
 
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georgegassaway said:
NOAA did NOT cut the SpaceX webcast.

SPACEX cut the SpaceX webcast.

They could have continued with the webcast after reaching orbit, simply not show any onboard video. The could simply and easily carried on with info about how the flight was progressing, the release of each satellite up to the final deployment of the last satellite.

I think it was more of a "snit" on SpaceX's part to just end it and blame NOAA for SpaceX's "Snitty" choice to end it.

Regardless it was "Snitty" behaviour by SpaceX to be so misleading about it. They simply could said that due to recent interpretations of regulations on video imaging from orbit, they could not show any more onboard video for the rest of the webcast, they were working on solving this for the future, and keep on webcasting to the last deployment.
Click to expand...

How are you so confident that what you are saying is true?
 
They could have continued with the webcast after reaching orbit, simply not show any onboard video. The could simply and easily carried on with info about how the flight was progressing, the release of each satellite up to the final deployment of the last satellite.
Click to expand...
Someone probably considered it a pointless exercise to have a newsreader calling out the mission, without any attendant video. I know I would have tuned off at that point anyway.
 
mpitfield said:
How are you so confident that what you are saying is true?
Click to expand...

Because all NOAA said was that SpaceX they could not show video from orbit

That's all.

NOAA did NOT order them to stop doing the entire webcast after reaching orbit, but that is exactly what SpaceX claimed as they signed off the webcast. SpaceX was "not being truthful" when they claimed that.

When I was a kid, I guess that once every Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo manned mission should have had their broadcasts ended as soon as the rocket was no longer video since "Someone probably considered it a pointless exercise to have a newsreader calling out the mission, without any attendant video."

Because until Apollo-7 there was no onboard video during a mission, and those were very short public relations broadcasts of few minutes, until hours after the landing of Apollo-11.

I guess when Apollo-11 was undocking, and the LM beginning its descent, and the landing, NONE of that should ever have been broadcast live either, since there was no live video of that phase, only radio/audio. It was not until hours after the landing that there was a live TV transmission, from a fixed camera on the LM, beginning to transmit video minutes before Armstrong came down the ladder and stepped onto the moon.

The video below of CBS' coverage of Apollo-11's landing, the first 20 minutes was without any live video other than CBS' studios and animation (this was preceded by HOURS of coverage by all the TV networks, but no live video from space). Later after the landing, at about 20 minutes into the video, it "jumps" hours to shortly before Armstrong came down the ladder, those hours in between were also broadcast by the networks, without any live space video.

[video=youtube;E96EPhqT-ds]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E96EPhqT-ds[/video]

So the only reason to tune in is live video from space, no live video from space then no point in sticking around for the news? "The Eagle has landed".... THAT whole landing should not have been broadcast since there was no live video? Gimme a (blanking) break.

A lot of the SpaceX webcasts for the more complex launches (such as for GTO) have not have any live onboard video during time periods when they were out of ground station reception range, to do a final second stage burn 20-40 minutes later and satellite deploy. They have gone to computerized graphics of the orbital path, and even during some deployments have had drop-outs of video signal.

The point of having a webcast is THE NEWS of what is happening. Not to show live onboard video 100% of the time as though space fans do not have the attention span, or care to stick around otherwise.

It was SpaceX's choice to end it mid-mission. It was "Snitty" behavior to put the blame on ending it abruptly on NOAA, SpaceX did that.
 
Any word on whether the licensing issue has been resolved? I really don't care whose fault it was. If we (they) can get this resolved and start streaming live video again during missions, we'll all be happy.
 
Sounds like you are a bit annoyed they cut the feed George :wink:

BTW, since you seemed to be having a go at me, I did see the moon landing live on TV. And I have seen most of the SpaceX launches, and quite many more from other flights. I watch them for the video feed, and used to prefer the technical webcast over the "hosted" version due to having less idle chatter. If I want to watch the news I will get CNN on cable. Not ready for that yet :rolleyes: This isn't the days of the "wireless" where we have to imagine a mission in our head, generated from descriptions by journalists speaking at us. Save the bandwidth for something better. I bet many other people feel the same. Drag NOAA, or whoever else, into the 21st century.
 
It does seem like SpaceX does their best to limit the webcast time to a minimum. They wait until 15 minutes or less before launch before starting the webcast (there is interesting stuff going on in the countdown before that) - They could start it a bit earlier. And they terminate the webcast just as soon as they can after the major events have occurred. One would think it costs a fortune to feed the video.
 

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