Any idea when we might hear about the balloon-aided recovery of the fairing? I imagine it has happened, or not, already, but I'm not on twitter right now.
Back yard view!
View attachment 343008
Do we know if they had a successful fairing dry recovery? Parachutes / balloons? Any video or pictures of the fairing recovery? From the video above I can't tell if they caught it or fished it out of the ocean.
There have been no succesful dry fairing recoveries to date.
In looking at the video, there is something on the deck that sort of looks like a fairing half. did anyone else see it?
The only ship capable of "catching" a fairing to keep it dry is "Mr Steven" on the West Coast. It has four huge arms with a big net.
They have had problems with the parachute deployment, and with controllability since apparently the fairing is trying to wobble around due to aerodynamics as the chute tries to steer it.
So, it makes sense to test it out on East Coast launches to work the bugs out, knowing it's going to get wet regardless. Because Mr Steven is never going to catch a fairing until they solve those problems. And they do a LOT more launches from the Cape than Vandenberg, so they can do a test as soon as they can get a revised/modified parachute system ready and put on a Cape launch rather than wait possibly months for the next Vandy launch. Caveat there is that for SOME missions that will barely have enough fuel to do a booster landing, they'd skip the mass of the fairing recovery system.
Also, Musk said that they'd be using a helicopter to do some fairing drop-tests, to work on these deployment and control problems.
I am surprised that Space X isn't using a helicopter to do aerial grabs of the fairings under chute, similar to what was done back in the day by NASA/USAF for satellite film canisters, not sure what the fairings weight though that may be why.
The fairnings land hundreds of miles out to sea, no copter could fly BACK with such a huge draggy thing without refueling. In theory if a copter was big enogh to catch one, it could then land the faring into a nearby ship, for the ship to carry back
Do we know if the shroud has maneuvering thrusters?
And... wouldn't it be more stable if they got rid of the pinch point in the harness? Just run each shroud line from a point on the lip of the fairing directly to a point on the periphery of the... what are they calling this, anyway? What name are they using for it? 'Parachute'?
By my (admittedly not vast) understanding, that pinch point they have virtually guarantees wobble, right? Just take it out. Wouldn't that be more stable?
SpaceX is targeting launch of Bangabandhu Satellite-1 on Thursday, May 10 from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The launch window opens at 4:12 p.m. EDT, or 20:12 UTC, and closes at 6:22 p.m. EDT, or 22:22 UTC. A backup launch window opens on Friday, May 11 at 4:14 p.m. EDT, or 20:14 UTC, and closes at 6:21 p.m. EDT, or 22:21 UTC. Bangabandhu Satellite-1 will be deployed into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) approximately 33 minutes after launch.
The Bangabandhu Satellite-1 mission will be the first to utilize Falcon 9 Block 5, the final substantial upgrade to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Falcon 9 Block 5 is designed to be capable of 10 or more flights with very limited refurbishment as SpaceX continues to strive for rapid reusability and extremely high reliability. Following stage separation, SpaceX will attempt to land Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Enter your email address to join: