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

The simultaneous booster landings were amazing. Don't Panic!


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That was f$&)ing awesome.


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AMAZEBALLS!

Any confirmation on the core landing?

Wow. Don't Panic was a nice touch. I thought the feeds from the two side boosters were duplicates at first since they were firing the cold gas thrusters at the same time. Maybe the control algorithms have set times for firing the thrusters with control coming from the force and/or time instead of firing a given force when it needs it. I also hadn't seen what looked like ballistic trajectory lines on the recovery map feed before.

Farewell Starman, where no humanoid object has gone before.

That was AWESOME!

Go Starman!

So long and thanks for all the fish.


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I thought the view of the 2 side boosters landing almost simultaneously was awesome. They have really come a long way since Apollo 17. Too bad the camera's/antenna's got shook off line for the main booster landing.
Something that I'm a little concerned about though...
How in the world did Elan get authorization to put a car in orbit around Mars? Seams like that it might get in the way in the future.
And when it's orbit decays and crashes on Mars, wouldn't there be contamination of the planet?
Wasn't that a huge concern for the rovers?
I just can't see it being positive in any way. Not even if it misses Mars and keeps going.
What will the Alien life forms think of humans if they find it?
Jokes aside, I wonder how much he spent in payoffs to let him put a car in space...?

Woody, it's not going anywhere near Mars. It's supposed to enter an orbit that crosses Mars' orbit, that's all. Mars and the Roadster won't be in the same place at the same time - ever.

(and I'm not sure about the inclination, it might be very different from the inclination of Mars...?)

Car won't orbit Mars. Car's orbit goes out as far as Mars' orbit but it won't actually go to Mars.

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Marc_G said:

Car won't orbit Mars. Car's orbit goes out as far as Mars' orbit but it won't actually go to Mars.

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Well, at least until a random comet tweaks the orbit just a TEENY bit. Seriously though, they did mention getting approval from FAA (?) to put the Roadster out there. Contamination and risk to rovers is probably no worse than if it had been a block of concrete and steel.

That was a beautiful launch.


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Watching Musk's Twitter feed - nothing yet about central core landing status...

https://twitter.com/elonmusk

America, hell ya! What a show. Congrats SpaceX.

I'm curious about the central core as well, but even if it went sploosh, it's still an amazing test flight!

ThirstyBarbarian said:

I'm curious about the central core as well, but even if it went sploosh, it's still an amazing test flight!

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Oh absolutely! There was clearly exhaust impinging on the droneship when the signal got lost. Any failure at that point in the return cycle is a solvable problem.

What a show! A whole lot more venting in the pre-launch phases then I recall from previous fights. The fact that we have heard nothing, probably indicates that the center core did not make it. Is there going to be coverage of the solar orbit insertion burn?

This is coolness. No matter what is found to have happened with the center core booster, this is coolness of the highest order.
And how about that Buzz Aldrin is alive to tweet about it!
twitter.com - Buzz Aldrin on Twitter
Tesla driver is a hoopy frood, I presume?

I was relieved when it cleared the pad and was a few KM away, knowing that 39A was safe. Then max-Q was a bonus. But the simultaneous landings were right out of a Sci-Fi movie. If the center core didn't make it I hope OCISLY is okay and it would be a bonus if they could recover something of the core for post analyses.

Live stream of star man
[video=youtube;aBr2kKAHN6M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M[/video]

The announcers said that the booster cams were different, but I think they made an oops. You could see the other booster make its burns - pretty cool. And both cameras landed on the same pad.


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Charles_McG said:

The announcers said that the booster cams were different, but I think they made an oops. You could see the other booster make its burns - pretty cool. And both cameras landed on the same pad.

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I agree, somehow we saw one side booster twice instead of the 2 different side boosters.

You're right both land at the same pad. I think they got out of time step a little. For example, at 37:38, they show slightly different amounts of lake off to the right side.

The son of a workmate works at SpaceX and was in Florida for the launch. He reports the core went splash.

Still, the boosters coming back in such unison was absolutely beautiful.

I did wonder if the car was destined to travel space with it's left blinker on
Rex

Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, has congratulated Space X on today's launch.

https://mailchi.mp/marssociety/anou...ciety-convention-banquet-1102201?e=480d62ce58