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

[rc dude]

"Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho." Elon Musk Twitter

Edit: next tweet "Ship itself is fine. Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced..."

 

[mpitfield]

Anyone have any video on the booster reentry event?

 

[rc dude]

Anyone have any video on the booster reentry event?

I don't think they released video of it yet

edit: Elon Musk twitter: "Didn't get good landing/impact video. Pitch dark and foggy. Will piece it together from telemetry and ... actual pieces."

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

It was great seeing the launch. I can't believe I woke up this early on a Saturday morning! I'm going back to sleep now. Hopefully, there will be video of the stage 1 fly back and landing when I wake up again...

 

[mpitfield]

I don't think they released video of it yet

edit: Elon Musk twitter: "Didn't get good landing/impact video. Pitch dark and foggy. Will piece it together from telemetry and ... actual pieces."

I get that they don't want the focuss to be on the booster recovery due to the high degree of probable failure but this is arguably a historical event so it's disappointing to see the obvious level of media blackout. I am pretty sure that barge would of had at least 4 cameras, one on each corner filming the event...there's a big elephant in the room Elon!

 

[jmattingly13]

I don't think they released video of it yet

edit: Elon Musk twitter: "Didn't get good landing/impact video. Pitch dark and foggy. Will piece it together from telemetry and ... actual pieces."

Shoulda put a GoPro on the boat.

 

[billspad]

I get that they don't want the focuss to be on the booster recovery due to the high degree of probable failure but this is arguably a historical event so it's disappointing to see the obvious level of media blackout. I am pretty sure that barge would of had at least 4 cameras, one on each corner filming the event...there's a big elephant in the room Elon!

In the press conference before the first scrub they said there wouldn't be any live video of the landing because the barge was over the horizon from land and the telemetry was going to be handled by support ships. It seems to me that was a problem that could be solved but I guess they chose not to. It was before sunrise so, unless they had some floodlights on the barge, the video is not going to be very good. However, there was some cool video from inside the fuel or oxidizer tank on the second stage.

 

[tim cubbedge]

I read that the landing was rather "hard", or as the article stated, "close but no cigar".

 

[Fontana]

Although it would be great to a live stream from the spaceport drone, I feel SpaceX are right to not make this too public while still in the research stage.
They are a commercial company with some very large and wealthy competitors. The reuse of the first stage would dramatically reduce to cost of commercial space deliveries, so why would they allow the public and their competitors see detailed research information.

I'm sure they will release some video in the next few days.

There was only a 50% chance of a successful landing and to have actually returned from space and hit the spaceport drone was a massive achievement in its own right. Even if it was a bit too hard

They will try again on the next F9 launch which is scheduled for 29 Jan

L

 

[FastCargo]

Got to catch it livestream not being anywhere near a TV...awesome! I love living in the 21st century.

I am encouraged that they got it to the barge at least...honestly, better than I expected!

FC

 

[mpitfield]

...there was some cool video from inside the fuel or oxidizer tank on the second stage.

That was interesting to watch live, to see it moving down then in the end the droplets floating around. Anyone know how do they deal with using liquid propellents in micro G?

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Although it would be great to a live stream from the spaceport drone, I feel SpaceX are right to not make this too public while still in the research stage.
They are a commercial company with some very large and wealthy competitors. The reuse of the first stage would dramatically reduce to cost of commercial space deliveries, so why would they allow the public and their competitors see detailed research information.

I'm sure they will release some video in the next few days.

There was only a 50% chance of a successful landing and to have actually returned from space and hit the spaceport drone was a massive achievement in its own right. Even if it was a bit too hard

They will try again on the next F9 launch which is scheduled for 29 Jan

L

I agree. Not only are they a commercial company, they are a privately held company, not publicly traded. So there is even less reason to share the info. I'm actually impressed with how open they are.

The service they are selling is delivering the payload successfully to ISS for NASA, a government agency funded by taxpayers. So it makes sense that they be as transparent as possible about that part of the flight. But after stage 1 has successfully completed its job for that contract and separated, landing and reuse of that stage is purely a SpaceX R&D project, not part of the NASA project.

Im looking forward to seeing whatever they release.

 

[CarVac]

There was only a 50% chance of a successful landing and to have actually returned from space and hit the spaceport drone was a massive achievement in its own right. Even if it was a bit too hard

Musk said in his Reddit AMA that that number was completely made-up.

 

[marcusSRG]

I read 20-30% chance success in (IIRC) a Spaceflight Now article.

I definitely see why they don't want to put the focus on the first stage landing when it's in these early research/development phases. But once they get it right it's going to be revolutionary!

Congrats to Elon and the SpaceX team on another successful launch and another step towards reusable boosters! I know the ISS crew was patiently awaiting this delivery...apparently they are low on condiments and were waiting for some yellow mustard to spice up their food. Article said they ran out a month ago!

 

[Fontana]

I shouldn't have used a percentage!

In the article I read, he said it was 50/50, in terms of might work/might not

I wasn't trying to give accurate figures, just my point of view on the topic

It's been a big step forward to this research and I'm sure SpaceX have gain loads of really useful data

I predict the next try will be 27.874567% more successful than this attempt

L

 

[tab28682]

That was interesting to watch live, to see it moving down then in the end the droplets floating around. Anyone know how do they deal with using liquid propellents in micro G?

Liquid fueled rockets that need to start in microgravity typically have small motors called ullage motors that gently burn and settle all the propellants to the bottom of the tanks before ignition.

 

[marcusSRG]

Well, Spaceflight Now's most recent article quotes the 50% success rate. Either way, it was still quite an accomplishment.

 

[Mushtang]

I wonder why they don't utilize a set of large parachutes to slow it down prior to the third burn, that would leave more fuel for either maneuvering to the barge or for the first stage burn? The parachutes could be disconnected and allowed to fly away into the ocean before the third burn begins.

I'm sure there's a reason, I just wonder what it is?

 

[Tanarin]

@marcus: Funny enough, Elon actually said he BSed that number in his recent AMA:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk_ceocto_of_a_rocket_company_ama/cnfprcf

Also, take the time to read the entire AMA, it's a good one.

 

[marcusSRG]

I wonder why they don't utilize a set of large parachutes to slow it down prior to the third burn, that would leave more fuel for either maneuvering to the barge or for the first stage burn? The parachutes could be disconnected and allowed to fly away into the ocean before the third burn begins.

I'm sure there's a reason, I just wonder what it is?

Except for missions that require the full propellant load of the Falcon 9, I don't think running out of propellant has been an issue. If parachutes are deployed then they would loose control of the decent as the wind is going to blow them whatever direction it is going. Plus you have to add in the cost of engineering and producing the parachutes...not to mention recovering them if they detach.

 

[marcusSRG]

@marcus: Funny enough, Elon actually said he BSed that number in his recent AMA:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk_ceocto_of_a_rocket_company_ama/cnfprcf

Also, take the time to read the entire AMA, it's a good one.

Ha, yeah, I saw that on here. I skimmed the thread...some funny stuff in there.

 

[rocketguy101]

Anyone have any video on the booster reentry event?

A sharp-eyed viewer on nasaspaceflight posted this...

[video=youtube_share;BCoDwGTpYQs]https://youtu.be/BCoDwGTpYQs[/video]

At 7:42 in that video, you can see a deployed grid fin on the monitor at upper left.

 

[cecil]

In case you missed this diagram, as I did.

 

[Fontana]

Anyone have any video on the booster reentry event?

Just found this

It's the entire flight but just at the end is the first stage coming home

L

 

[dward]

To quote the Matrix: "Nobody makes the jump the first time." And we know how that ends. Awesome.

 

[BLKKROW]

Elon Musk tweeted and said the hydraulic fluid in the grid fins depleted right before touchdown. He also mentioned the next flight would have 50% more fluid.

 

[Fontana]

The latest report on SFN and the FB update stating the landing was "Botched" has wound me up (and others) so much I have asked Steven to edit it and tweeted Elon and SpaceX suggesting they also ask Steven to edit it

Botched???? I don't think so!!!

Grrrrrr!

L

 

[stealth6]

Disclaimer: this idea is coming from someone (that would be me) who has next to NO real understanding about the technology involved with this whole endeavor, and may appear to be silly, or even laughable, to someone with a clue. But with that said:

Why not dispense with the whole platform/barge/soft landing thing and just drop it in the water - with huge floats that inflate/engage on impact to keep it from sinking? Then just come along with a ship and a crane, scoop the thing out of the water, towel it off and you're good to go for another flight? Seems a WHOLE lot easier to accomplish, cheaper, less risk of things going wrong, etc. Heck, I bet we could modify a Rouse-Tech CD3 system with a couple extra cartridges to do the job.

OK, I'm obviously being just a bit tongue-in-cheek here, but is something along these lines at all possible? I would think that corrosion due to salt water immersion would be a big problem (and one that could not be overcome?), but I would also think that salt air and salt spray would then already be an issue with the current scheme. ANYTHING that sits outside on a ship/barge at sea gets a whole lot of salt on it without ever touching the water, but there are hundreds of years of marine experience/know-how to deal with this in both high and low tech ways. If Elon can build something that survives space flight, I'm sure he could figure out a way do deal with a bit of salt water.

s6

 

[nute]

The latest report on SFN and the FB update stating the landing was "Botched" has wound me up (and others) so much I have asked Steven to edit it and tweeted Elon and SpaceX suggesting they also ask Steven to edit it

Botched???? I don't think so!!!

Grrrrrr!

L

I feel the same way. CNN among others have deemed the landing a "failure" failure?! I think not! Perfect? No. But incredible? Yes, absolutely.

Nate

 

[marcusSRG]

The media is going to report whatever gets the most attention, not necessarily what is the whole truth. Sad but true.