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

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It's going to be very late at night.

11:30 p.m.-3:30 a.m. EDT

I'll catch it if it's at 11:30, but if it's closer to 2am or 3am I'll have to watch the YouTube video the next day.
 
The night launch and landings should be pretty cool. It’s only 8:30 PM Pacific, so not too late for us on the west coast.
 
Mr. Steven is gone!

Well, the ship that's been trying to catch fairings, has been sold, and has a new name. The company that owned it before filed for bankruptcy. Now it seems to be owned by Guice Offshore (who use "GO" as the prefix for all their ship names), owner of several ships used by SpaceX, including GO Searcher.

The new name for the ship is Ms. Tree, full name: GO Ms. Tree. And it has been repaired, after damage at sea a few months ago in rough weather. It may be ready to try to catch a fairing from Falcon Heavy next week.

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/s...VgtNinexCqqzs2r6mQMYaewMv0ihcTtZ3ONudDrO07-AM
 
What is interesting is the core is landing 1200 KM downrange when it was originally scheduled for 30. No word on why the change. My guess is they added some payload, (perhaps the ashes) or they are using the extra fuel to try some test maneuvers?
 
Falcon Heavy (#3) Launch TONIGHT, window opens at at 11:30 EDT.

"NET June 24, 2019 on Falcon Heavy from LC-39A at Cape Canaveral at 23:30 EDT (03:30 UTC on the next day). Side boosters 1052.2 and 1053.2 will RTLS and land at LZ-1. Center booster 1057.1 will land on the ASDS."

STP-2 Mission page: https://www.spacex.com/stp-2


Webcast:
 
Busy flight. Can someone define "propulsive passivation" for me?
Space Exploration Stack Exchange has several different answers, but mostly address the correct English interpretation, not what they are actually doing. Venting all remaining propellant?
 
looks like it pushed back towards the end of the window- so much for watching from the house, Im going to bed.
 
Andy Greene said:
looks like it pushed back towards the end of the window- so much for watching from the house, Im going to bed.
Click to expand...
?? YouTube still has it starting around 11:30 unless I misunderstand. I'm on the west coast today so I can deal with a bit of a delay but I'm headed to bed by 10:30 Pacific time. Fingers crossed.

EDIT: never mind, 2:30 AM ET. I will be asleep then, hopefully.
 
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Launching in a few seconds.

Made orbit. 2 side boosters safe.

Center core landed slowly but apparently missed the ASDS and went into the ocean near it, with a fireball (camera on ASDS). Looked like exhaust plume gases were RIGHT above the deck, then when the exhaust itself was visible it was moving away and looked tilted.

Could it be that it blew the landing parameters ( such as reached zero velocity some distance above the deck, lowest throttle is still greater than its mass) and went into a programmed "ditch away from the ASDS" mode? I always said they should have that kind of thing built into the software rather than ever Kamikaze crash into the ASDS again in a hopeless situation.
 
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Looked like the center core missed the ship by a bit, tough to tell in the dark. Plus that drone ship appeared to be heaving quite a lot in pretty rough seas, from what could be seen in the background.
 
They caught one of the nose cone fairings with Mr. Tree, that was pretty cool to see. I was happy they pushed the launch back, I was able to sleep a few hours and wake up to watch the stream.
 
georgegassaway said:
Could it be that it blew the landing parameters ( such as reached zero velocity some distance above the deck, lowest throttle is still greater than its mass) and went into a programmed "ditch away from the ASDS" mode? I always said they should have that kind of thing built into the software rather than ever Kamikaze crash into the ASDS again in a hopeless situation.
Click to expand...

Very interesting idea.

RocketGeekInFL said:
What is interesting is the core is landing 1200 KM downrange when it was originally scheduled for 30. No word on why the change.
Click to expand...

Could this be related to the landing problem?

The last minute trajectory change blows my mind, BTW. Does it prove a last minute manifest change? And if so, does that prove they can swap payloads in on the pad, without rolling back?

If so... that's pretty cool.
 
cvanc said:
Very interesting idea.



Could this be related to the landing problem?

The last minute trajectory change blows my mind, BTW. Does it prove a last minute manifest change? And if so, does that prove they can swap payloads in on the pad, without rolling back?

If so... that's pretty cool.
Click to expand...

I hope Elon Tweets about the change, I'd be very curious to know why. And it was late and I was tired and don't recall if it was covered during the feed last night.
 
RocketGeekInFL said:
What is interesting is the core is landing 1200 KM downrange when it was originally scheduled for 30. No word on why the change. My guess is they added some payload, (perhaps the ashes) or they are using the extra fuel to try some test maneuvers?
Click to expand...
In the feed they said that the additional velocity that the center core gave the second stage required the long range landing. The second stage needed that extra speed from the core so it could save some of it's fuel for changing it's orbit, it needed to do so 3 or 4 times to deploy the satellites where they needed to be.

The hosts of the video said it was a very risky landing, it would be coming at the barge faster than ever before, burning 3 engines on the decent, and they made it sound like they wouldn't be surprised if the core didn't make it - although they never said it like that.
 
cvanc said:
Very interesting idea.



Could this be related to the landing problem?

The last minute trajectory change blows my mind, BTW. Does it prove a last minute manifest change? And if so, does that prove they can swap payloads in on the pad, without rolling back?

If so... that's pretty cool.
Click to expand...

Not really last minute. GO Ms Tree was moved out by the Hollywood tug days before. The Reddit SpaceX sub is a good place to hear news like that, as folks were tracking the maritime movements as they happened.
 
"caught one of the nose cone fairings with Mr. Tree". Can't find video, anyone point me to it?
 
John Beans said:
Not really last minute. GO Ms Tree was moved out by the Hollywood tug days before. The Reddit SpaceX sub is a good place to hear news like that, as folks were tracking the maritime movements as they happened.
Click to expand...

Apparently there was error in the published notice, the plan was always to land way down range.
 
Here's a clip from the webcast, announcing that GO Ms Tree caught a fairing, with an after-the-catch live view from the deck. But no video (yet) of the actual catch happening.
 
This tweet by Elon Musk about the center core landing problem:
ZtwHKPY.jpg


TVC = Thrust Vector Control (engine gimbal system).

They did a 3-engine landing burn. The outer two shut down at a few hundred feet up (maybe as low as 100 feet). The outer two may have steered it fine, right over the ASDS. Then when they shut down, the center engine was "stuck" without the ability to steer, not perfectly centered, so it veered away literally out of control.
 
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Does anyone have any info on the Falcon 9 / Amos-17 launch? Spaceflightnow.com just says July 2019, but the SpaceLaunchNow app says August 5. But it also says the launch is No-Go.

I’m really hoping for the August date, since I’ll be on vacation at Cape Canaveral that week.
 
My favorite source for SpaceX launch dates is this manifest thread in NASA SpaceFlight Forum (NSF). The first message is always updated.
"SpaceX Manifest Updates and Discussion Thread 5"
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=43418.0

Shows AMOS-17 as NET (No Earlier Than) late July. They show CRS-SpX-18 before then, on July 21st. I interpret that as the possibility of a launch in late July, but until SpaceX says otherwise there is not even a calendar date set yet. My educated guess is it won't be in July. Also, I've seen SpaceX launch dates slip so often with no reasons given (I don't mean simple stuff like weather), that I won't be surprised if it slips later into August than the 5th.
 
Thanks, George. That's what I was suspected too. But there's always hope!
 

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