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

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watching nasa tv stream and we are about 30 minutes out from launch... but it's looking awefully cloudy:

cloudy_dscovr.JPG
 
16 minutes out and winds are high. Right at the limit of 30mph for surface winds. And upper winds are currently too high for a safe flight.
 
No go - upper level winds too high. launch scrubbed prior to entering terminal sequence countdown.

will try again tommorrow. 6:03pm ET
 
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BTW - I have updated the thread title to say Tomorrow at 6:03 PM EST (Feb 11th).

But, the forum is acting weird today. It does not list this thread as having any new posts for today, and is not showing the change of the thread name. When strange things like this have happened before, the forum crashed (hopefully not a big one this time).

- George Gassaway
 
georgegassaway said:
BTW - I have updated the thread title to say Tomorrow at 6:03 PM EST (Feb 11th).

But, the forum is acting weird today. It does not list this thread as having any new posts for today, and is not showing the change of the thread name. When strange things like this have happened before, the forum crashed (hopefully not a big one this time).

- George Gassaway
Click to expand...

the forum has problems....see the recent thread TRF broken.....

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?122868-TRF-is-broken
 
Apparently about 90 minutes after the scrub last night the Dragon capsule from the last launch returned from the ISS and splashed down near California.

https://news.yahoo.com/unmanned-spaceship-splashes-down-near-southern-california-005021701.html

It returned a bunch of stuff from the space station. It seems like they can't be too far from being able to shuttle people back and forth. I wonder how many successful unmanned trips the Dragon has to complete before they install chairs and let people take the ride?
 
Mushtang said:
Apparently about 90 minutes after the scrub last night the Dragon capsule from the last launch returned from the ISS and splashed down near California.

https://news.yahoo.com/unmanned-spaceship-splashes-down-near-southern-california-005021701.html

It returned a bunch of stuff from the space station. It seems like they can't be too far from being able to shuttle people back and forth. I wonder how many successful unmanned trips the Dragon has to complete before they install chairs and let people take the ride?
Click to expand...

They are building and certifying one. But a man-rated capsule takes a bit more than just adding seats. It needs escape systems, breathable air, seat belts, steering wheel (so that the pilots feels useful), genuine Corinthian leather, Bose sound system, and other safety stuff.

It's supposed to be ready in 2016 or 2017. If they stay on schedule we might see some test flights this year.
 
Peartree said:
They are building and certifying one. But a man-rated capsule takes a bit more than just adding seats. It needs escape systems, breathable air, seat belts, steering wheel (so that the pilots feels useful), genuine Corinthian leather, Bose sound system, and other safety stuff.

It's supposed to be ready in 2016 or 2017. If they stay on schedule we might see some test flights this year.
Click to expand...

Hahah you lost me at Bose! :puke:
 
I am at Disney World and been trying to watch. Three times nothing but going out tonight for last time. I have a reservation at the California Grill (table on east side) on top of the Contemporary and plan is for rocket viewing and a bison steak, medium rare.

M
 
MClark said:
I am at Disney World and been trying to watch. Three times nothing but going out tonight for last time. I have a reservation at the California Grill (table on east side) on top of the Contemporary and plan is for rocket viewing and a bison steak, medium rare.

M
Click to expand...

Nice
:drool:
 
MClark said:
I am at Disney World and been trying to watch. Three times nothing but going out tonight for last time. I have a reservation at the California Grill (table on east side) on top of the Contemporary and plan is for rocket viewing and a bison steak, medium rare.

M
Click to expand...

Classy! That's how you watch a launch!
 
The link that davel posted, said that SpaceX would not try to land the stage on the ASDS barge due to high seas in the Atlantic ocean (30 foot waves):

https://www.spacex.com/press/2015/02/11/dscovr-launch-update

The Falcon-9 launched successfully, the first stage soft-landed in the ocean.

Musk tweet:

Rocket soft landed in the ocean within 10m of target & nicely vertical! High probability of good droneship landing in non-stormy weather.

It was interesting to see both the NASA TV feed and the SpaceX webcast. Blue skies made things very clear and visible for a long way. Could see the first stage do some RCS thruster firings after staging. One of the NASA cameras could probably have followed the first stage nearly all the way to the horizon, perhaps some of the re-entry…. it if was a NASA-built rocket that NASA would want footage of (for awhile there was a view of the 1st stage, two jettisoned fairings, and a dimmer view of the second stage farther away).

The SpaceX feed had many scenes that were splitscreen with the NASA camera view on one side and onboard TV or other views on the other side. Seeing both is the best way…. even though they are out of sync.

- George Gassaway
 
I was driving home from work heading south on I-95 about 20 miles south of Jacksonville, when the launch took place. SpaceX first appeared to me about 25-30 degrees above the horizon right over the interstate like a super bright evening star. Then I noticed the contrail and saw the rocket slowly rising higher and higher while taking it's mild turn to what looked like east-southeast. Very cool! Got to watch it as I was driving along until it was out of sight.
 
NASA needs to do a little better job with their live feeds. I actually missed the seconds the Merlin engines lit up due to the video feed going crazy. The video didn't clear up until the rocket was a hundred feet off the pad....but commentary didn't miss a beat throughout the launch.
 
Launch and steak were both excellent. Went out on the observation deck, was nice to see about 50 people came out to watch.

M
 
georgegassaway said:
It was interesting to see both the NASA TV feed and the SpaceX webcast. Blue skies made things very clear and visible for a long way. Could see the first stage do some RCS thruster firings after staging. One of the NASA cameras could probably have followed the first stage nearly all the way to the horizon, perhaps some of the re-entry…. it if was a NASA-built rocket that NASA would want footage of (for awhile there was a view of the 1st stage, two jettisoned fairings, and a dimmer view of the second stage farther away).
Click to expand...

It was actually pretty cool--during stage separation, you could see the maneuvering thrusters on stage 1 fire to flip and position the stage.
 
I was watching on the web too, and was very frustrated as the feed kept locking up, cutting out, etc. I was able to see the launch live but only because it happened to launch during a minute or so of clear signal in between 20 seconds of bad that kept repeating every minute or so. I was almost ready to scrub the launch because of the bad webcast.
 
Bleh - stupid all-hands meeting. didn't get to watch the (successful) launch attempt today. I'll have to find a replay.
 
and here: [video=youtube;OvHJSIKP0Hg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvHJSIKP0Hg[/video]
 
Finally, Wednesday the 18th, 8 days after the launch (and waved-off landing attempt), the ASDS Landing barge was brought back to port (Jacksonville, FL). It was damaged by the 20-30 foot seas. Reason for some of the delay getting back, is that something related to the towline broke. Possibly even the towline attachment points. The barge may have been adrift for days before they got a new line attached (and/or new mounts welded on).

A crew member on the tugboat posted some videos. Including this one which shows the damage. Good thing the next landing attempt will not be for about 6 weeks or so, there's a lot to repair, and even more to do if they plan to beef it up (I think it makes more sense to not send it out, or recall it early, when the weather is going to be THAT bad, too rough to land safely anyway).

Included is a link to a facebook video showing the damage (wonder how Musk must feel about that. He has too tight a lid on info about what goes on). I do not think the forum software supports displaying it like it does for youtube.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=847875018602806&set=vb.100001409467445&type=3&theater

- George Gassaway

al1rDOO.jpg
 
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