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

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They have recovered fairings before, but they have *still* not caught one with the net on Mr Steven. (Mr Steven is still n dock getting the arms repaired)
 
davel said:
They have recovered fairings before, but they have *still* not caught one with the net on Mr Steven. (Mr Steven is still n dock getting the arms repaired)
Click to expand...

Ah. that makes sense. I thought they meant that both fairings had been *caught.*
 
Does anyone else see the similarities between Skylink and Skynet from Terminator. Maybe it's too big of a jump, but it does cause reason for pause.
 
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Possi
aerostadt said:
Possibly Space-X will fly a piloted Dragon capsule by the end of the year.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/05/...-possible-piloted-test-flight-by-end-of-year/
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Possible? Theoretically yes. Likely? No.

I think if there was some "simple easy fix" for the cause of the explosion, SpaceX would have already said something. This is likely to take some time to not just figure out what happened, and how, but what kind of fix is needed, designing the fix, fabricating new hardware, and modifying the existing spacecraft to install that fix. And for NASA to sign off on all of that, to human-rate the spacecraft to carry astronauts.

I take that article's time prediction partly with a grain of salt. And partly to indicate that rather than do NOTHING at all till it's all figured out and fixed, plans are going ahead and fabrication continuing (even if they end up needing to tear parts of it down to implement the fix). Or to simply work on all of the other areas of the spacecraft that are not potentially related to the explosion. And logistically plan as though it will launch in 6-7 months (have the rocket ready, pad ready, crew training, etc).

Also lost in the public attention to the kaboom, is a failed parachute drop test in April. A test was done that intentionally caused one parachute to not deploy, to show the system could handle deployment of just three of the four chutes. Something went wrong, and reportedly the three chutes that should have worked failed or even ripped, with the test capsule smashing into the ground. That's just as serious a roadblock to a crewed flight as the explosion. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/spacex-had-a-problem-during-a-parachute-test-in-april/
 
RCM RADARSAT Constellation mission

Next F-9 launch set for Wednesday morning, 7:17 PDT (10:17 EDT) from Vandenberg. Booster (making its 2nd flight) will do an RTLS landing back to Vandy.

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-readies-falcon-9-radarsat-california-launch/

"SpaceX Falcon 9 and $1B satellite trio set for first California launch in months

After the better part of both half a year of launch delays and launch pad inactivity, SpaceX and Falcon 9 are ready to return the company’s California-based SLC-4 facilities to action with the launch of the $1 billion Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM).

Built by Maxar for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), RCM is a trio of remote-sensing spacecraft designed with large surface-scanning radars as their primary payload. Having suffered years of technical delays during Maxar’s production process, RCM was initially available for launch as early as November 2018. In an unlucky turn of events, issues on the SpaceX side of things took RCM’s assigned Falcon 9 booster out of commission and lead to an additional seven or so months of launch delays. At long last, RCM is just one week away from heading to orbit, scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) no earlier than 7:17 am PDT (14:17 UTC), June 12th......... "

 
Great launch.

Watch the video at 17:04 (half way between faring separation and retry burn) you can see one half of the fairing reentering as viewed from the first stage. Appears on the left side of the booster, moving away from the booster.

 
SpaceManMat said:
Watch the video at 17:04 (half way between faring separation and retry burn) you can see one half of the fairing reentering as viewed from the first stage. Appears on the left side of the booster, moving away from the booster.
Click to expand...
Hmmmm. If you mean the object that is tumbling a lot, I think that is ice from the tail section, shaken loose by one of the RCS thruster firings.

The fairing halves do not tumble on re-entry, they "belly-flop" in a steady stable attitude. Sorta like a model rocket flying saucer falling inverted.

Also......the booster turned around to boost back to Vandenberg, while the second stage kept going, then the fairings were jettisoned a bit later. Those fairings kept moving away from Vandy, in a ballistic trajectory to land hundreds of miles downrange.
 
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As early as next Monday night, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch a cluster of 24 satellites for the US Air Force. Known as the Space Test Program-2 mission, the rocket will deposit its payloads into three different orbits. Perhaps the most intriguing satellite will be dropped off at the second stop—a circular orbit 720km above the Earth's surface. This is the Planetary Society's LightSail 2 spacecraft.

rest of article:

https://arstechnica.com/science/201...y-take-flight-next-week-a-working-solar-sail/
 

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