SpaceX Falcon 9 historic landing thread (1st landing attempt & most recent missions)
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About T-10 minutes currently. Another batch of Starlink satellites:
Falcon Heavy launch to visit a metal asteroid.
Side booster separation
Side boosters landed.
Psyche!
Side booster separation
Side boosters landed.
Psyche!
Was too busy to watch live. Glad the mission is off to good start.
Did they bring the center core back on this launch?
According to Space.com the central booster was new and fell into the sea by design.
Makes sense. They probably wanted to give the probe as much delta V as possible from first and second stages to conserve fuel on the probe.
Off the top of my hand I am thinking that the center booster is acting like a second stage and as a consequence it is getting up too high and too fast to be available for recovery.
The recovered booster tipped over in high winds during transport back to port.
From Space X:
"During transport back to Port early this morning, the booster 1058 tipped over on the droneship due to high winds and waves. Newer Falcon boosters have upgraded landing legs with the capability to self-level and mitigate this type of issue.
"
EDIT: Funny, looks like this is a pic of a failed landing.
From Space X:
"During transport back to Port early this morning, the booster 1058 tipped over on the droneship due to high winds and waves. Newer Falcon boosters have upgraded landing legs with the capability to self-level and mitigate this type of issue.
EDIT: Funny, looks like this is a pic of a failed landing.
Last edited:
More on the storied career of Booster 1058:
https://www.americaspace.com/2023/1...guard-19x-flown-falcon-9-booster-lost-at-sea/Sniff
https://www.americaspace.com/2023/1...guard-19x-flown-falcon-9-booster-lost-at-sea/Sniff
They got their money out of that one!
But like you said, the picture of it tipped over shows flame/smoke at the bottom and what looks like cold gas jets at the top. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything, what is the explanation for these observations?
To be clear on my intent: It really looks to my untrained eye like a landing failure rather than during transport, but I'm ignorant on many issues surrounding this so looking for comments by folks more knowledgeable than me.
I'm not actively suggesting we have been given wrong information, just trying to square the observation with what actually happened.
But like you said, the picture of it tipped over shows flame/smoke at the bottom and what looks like cold gas jets at the top. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything, what is the explanation for these observations?
To be clear on my intent: It really looks to my untrained eye like a landing failure rather than during transport, but I'm ignorant on many issues surrounding this so looking for comments by folks more knowledgeable than me.
I'm not actively suggesting we have been given wrong information, just trying to square the observation with what actually happened.
That photo is from 2017. Edit: it may be from an even earlier flight. It was popularized in 2017 when SpaceX released a video of landing failures, in which this failure appears around 49 seconds:
Looks like they put up an old stock photo with their FB post.
Boo.
Boo.
Thanks all.
Sad news. I'll miss seeing the worm-painted fleet leader fly.
Darn! I was looking forward to hearing about its 20th flight. Still, it's not that long ago that we would have said "Nineteen flights on one first stage? Are you out of your mind?"
ThirstyBarbarian
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That’s a pretty remarkable run for a booster — 19 successful flights. WOW!
Too bad it ended on kind of a sad note.
Too bad it ended on kind of a sad note.
Remember when we thought the goal of 10 flights was ambitious?
I remember when the idea of even landing a booster to reuse was science fiction.
I'm an old fart and remember as a kid watching Mercury launches on TV. Then Gemini, Apollo, and the Space Shuttle. Every time SpaceX lands a booster I am amazed. IMHO, it's the best part of the flight.
Here's a screen capture from the video that NASASpaceflight.com just posted:
The full video is about half pictures of the booster in its current state and then a retrospective of all its flights, launches and landings. It looks to me like the interstage went overboard when she fell.
Full video here:
The full video is about half pictures of the booster in its current state and then a retrospective of all its flights, launches and landings. It looks to me like the interstage went overboard when she fell.
Full video here:
Agreed. They've done it over 250 times. I don't think it will ever get old.I remember when the idea of even landing a booster to reuse was science fiction.
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Ahhhh..., that'll buff out! Seriously though, they can still salvage the engines and fly those again. The booster is mostly just an empty tube. My understanding though is that at one point, SpaceX was punching out a merlin engine per day, so they likely already have a warehouse full of them.
A bit overlaid on the video said they were planning to salvage the engines. The other expensive bits (big chunks of titanium carved in the shape of grid fins) look to have been lost overboard.
I also expect they're not making bunches of Merlins any more since they only throw one away per flight (except for Heavy flights). Even at their current flight rate, that's only two or three a month.
I also expect they're not making bunches of Merlins any more since they only throw one away per flight (except for Heavy flights). Even at their current flight rate, that's only two or three a month.
Second stage
Oh! Thought we were talking about one of the booster engines.
Some more background is here:
https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/12/...on-9-booster-topples-over-and-is-lost-at-sea/
https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/12/...on-9-booster-topples-over-and-is-lost-at-sea/
Last I heard (few years back) the octoweb and engines were worth about $30million. They have them back so it is largely a win I think.
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