SpaceX rockets and launches

[50yrsInBrixton]

I'm going to rest here for a moment as the Urban75 junkies hunt me.

 

[2hats]

More here.

 

[2hats]

Just to note - live coverage of the BEAM install on NASA TV around 1030BST on Saturday.

 

[Crispy]

So, they plan to land a Dragon capsule on Mars in 2018. Better get a move on!

SpaceX plans to land Dragon spacecraft on Mars

 

[editor]

Wired seem to think the plan isn't that crazy:

SpaceX’s Plan to Reach Mars by 2018 Is … Actually Not That Crazy

 

[Crispy]

It's not. All the pieces are in place.

 

[Crispy]

Night workers, parents of small children and insomniacs take note!

Tomorrow morning at 06:20 UK time, SpaceX will be launching a geostationary commsat. This means another fireball landing attempt far out to sea.

 

[2hats]

Delayed to 0621BST tomorrow, Friday, due to weather concerns.

 

[Crispy]

Success!
Wasn't expecting that!

 

[MikeMcc]

Cracking result, noticed a bit of a fire around the area of the octoweb for a while after the landing. Different landing profile too, used three engines because of the higher velocities involved. Great precision on the landing, looks like it was within 2m of dead centre. Not bad for a profile that essentially slows it from hypersonic speeds and only fires again to just null out the vertical velocity at the point of contact (which is moving in the sea swell!)

 

[Crispy]

I think the business end of a rocket can cope with a little bit of fire

 

[2hats]

 

[Crispy]

Another launch this evening. Just 3 weeks since the last. This is the sort of pace they need to maintain to clear their backlog now. Another "lively" re-entry and landing attempt following the launch, whose window opens at 22:04 tonight.

 

[Signal 11]

Apparently delayed until 00:36 BST.

Edit: Called off now.

 

[Crispy]

bah. I value my sleep more highly these days

 

[2hats]

Now scrubbed until at least 2240BST Friday. Upper stage engine actuator issue.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Stage 1 on deck, stage 2 delivering payload

 

[Crispy]

They're gonna need a bigger shed, asap!

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

 

[Crispy]

What a view

 

[Crispy]

Just before the entry burn, the booster pitches down. Just afterwards, it pitches up. This is due to the torque from the turbopumps in the engine spinning up and down.

 

[Crispy]

Another launch & landing this afternoon. Window opens 15:29 UK time. Two webcasts as usual:

Hosted (more whooping):



Technical (more comms loop):

 

[MikeMcc]

Primary mission was a success. Unfortunately the landing failed. Looks like they lost thrust on one of the three engines used for landing. Elon Musk has already tweeted that they are working on a fix for that!

 

[MikeMcc]

Nailed it again. CRS-9 was a perfect launch with stage 1 recovery to land.

 

[Crispy]

In the webcast, the landing starts here

 

[editor]

SpaceX has successfully landed another Falcon 9 rocket after launching the vehicle into space this evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Shortly after takeoff, the vehicle touched down at SpaceX’s Landing Complex 1 — a ground-based landing site that the company leases at the Cape. It marks the second time SpaceX has pulled off this type of ground landing, and the fifth time SpaceX has recovered one of its rockets post-launch. The feat was accomplished a few minutes before the rocket's second stage successfully put the company's Dragon spacecraft into orbit, where it will rendezvous with the International Space Station later this week.

It’s also the first time this year SpaceX has attempted to land one of its rockets on land. For the past six launches, each rocket has tried landing on an autonomous drone shipfloating in the ocean. That’s because drone ship landings require a lot less fuel to execute than ground landings (something we explain here). If a rocket has to accelerate super fast during launch — such as those going to high orbits or ones carrying heavy payloads — it uses up a lot of fuel during the initial takeoff. That leaves less fuel for the rocket to land back on Earth, which means a drone ship landing is sometimes the only option. But for this launch, the mission requirements allowed for a successful landing on ground.

SpaceX successfully lands Falcon 9 rocket on solid ground for the second time

 

[Crispy]

A reminder that the SpaceX Mars rocket & spacecraft will be unveiled in September. It will do exactly what this mission just did, except the booster will be MUCH bigger. Here's a mockup based on the details available so far. The little white thing is a person.

 

[Crispy]

This 1st stage landed on an ocean platform in April. Here it is running a full-duration test. Another landed stage will fly again in September/October with a paying customer (almost certainly the SES-10 comsat)

 

[MikeMcc]

Hopefully have a Falcon Heavy launch late this year, then we'll see two simultaneous return to land returns and an ASDS landing for the core stage. That will be awesome!

 

[Crispy]

Returning two boosters will require an upgrade of the range radar equipment at the cape. It currently only tracks one moving object at a time (sensible really - who would want to launch two rockets at once?!). That equipment is US Air Force so will need some negotiation.

PS: JCSAT-16 (sequel to JCSAT-14 as launched on that booster in the re-use tests) launch this Sunday, early in the morning. Launch window opens 06:26 UK time.