SpaceX RTF

[partlyscot]

It's been a while since SpaceX had an incident on the launch pad in September, but today they had a fabulous and fully successful Return to Flight. The only hitch was there was an issue with one of the ground stations and there was no video of the 10 iridium satellites being deployed. This was more than made up for (to me) by an almost continuous shots from the first stage directly, as it guided itself back from orbit and landed on the autonomous barge "just read the Instructions"

http://www.spacex.com/webcast

It gets particularly interesting at the 31 minute mark, then really good from 33 minutes on as they follow the first stage down. They make it look so easy!

[crfriend]

That was spectacularly wonderful, PartlyScot. Thank you. It gives a body hope that there may be positive things in the world instead of the mess shown on the evening news.

[dillon]

That, for the week, is, perhaps, the single bright spot in a national field of BLACK.

[Pdxfashionpioneer]

What I see encouraging is that people are stepping up and speaking out about the outlandish and unethical things our President-elect is doing.

Let's not lose sight of the fact the majority of voters voted against him. Maybe this time the talk about reforming the Electoral College will gain traction.

[Sinned]

Did I miss something in the webcast by fast-forwarding over parts of the first fly-by or has Dave got his threads mixed up? Did I miss a political statement or two in the commentary? LOL?

[partlyscot]

Please no.

Please do not make any further political comments on this thread, whichever side you are on. Don't even respond to this comment.

If you would like to make a comment on the SpaceX successful launch and recovery of the booster, then please do, otherwise, no. I don't even want any apology you might wish to make. Just forget it even happened please.

[crfriend]

Did I miss something in the webcast by fast-forwarding over parts of the first fly-by [...]

No, skipping over the "dead periods" caused you to miss nothing. The music was decent, though, but likely not to everyone's individual taste.

[Sinned]

I found it amazing that they were able to return stage 1 - not like in the old throwaway days.

[crfriend]

I found it amazing that they were able to return stage 1 - not like in the old throwaway days.

This is very new technology, and the usual rules apply when one is trying to master new things. Recall that the first few attempts "did not go well".

Any time you hear anybody who is even remotely connected with engineering comment, "My there's a lot of moving parts in there." take heed. Probabilities for failure do not sum with the addition of more complexity -- they multiply. Falcon 9 has a lot of moving parts. I'm glad they're back in the game.

[partlyscot]

I found it amazing that they were able to return stage 1 - not like in the old throwaway days.

This is very new technology, and the usual rules apply when one is trying to master new things. Recall that the first few attempts "did not go well".

I find it amazing how few things actually went wrong in those first few attempts. Fist one, not enough hydraulic fluid. Second one, sticky valves in the thrusters. Third never got to try and land, a tank strut failed during launch and the whole rocket was lost. It was the next flight, on the 2015 RTF, and their first attempt at a ground site landing, that they got it down in one piece. Fifth one actually landed dead centre of the barge, but a landing leg failed to lock, and it toppled over. Number 6 was not expected to succeed, as the lift requirements did not leave enough reserve, and sure enough, came in just a bit too hot and landed, "a little too firmly" . Number 7 was the first successful barge landing, despite high winds. For this list, I'm counting the flights where they actually made an attempt to get it back. Since then, every landing attempt has succeeded, it now looks almost routine!

Have you seen the video of the proposed Mars lander? Or the ITS, Interplanetary Transport System as it is now called? I warn you, if anybody else had come out with this production, I'd be laughing along with their detractors, talk about science fiction! After they showed this film, they put pictures up of the first piece of hardware for it, the LOX tank for the Mars craft, which they had already produced, and gave details of the initial tests of the new rocket engine, also already built. The rendering of the craft is from actual blueprints. I so want to see this thing take off!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qo78R_yYFA

[crfriend]

This is very new technology, and the usual rules apply when one is trying to master new things. Recall that the first few attempts "did not go well".

I find it amazing how few things actually went wrong in those first few attempts.

The quotes were there as a wry comment. This is entirely untried technology -- usually boosters go into the drink. That so few things went wrong is amazing and even wonderful -- but the attempts to recover the booster were thwarted.

I am entirely confident that after the next few launches the operation will become routine -- just the way flights to the moon became "routine" in the 1970s before we tossed the technology and gave up. Contemplate a Saturn V "coming home" in one piece to be refurbished and flown again; the imagination boggles.

Have you seen the video of the proposed Mars lander? Or the ITS, Interplanetary Transport System as it is now called?

I have not, and will need to check those out.

[partlyscot]

Contemplate a Saturn V "coming home" in one piece to be refurbished and flown again; the imagination boggles.

Look at these

http://i.imgur.com/YxQiWqk.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_hea ... arison.svg

The ITS booster has 4 times the lift capacity of the Saturn V, my imagination is completely boggled visualizing something the size of Big Ben tower landing!

[crfriend]

Only one word.... Dang!

I recall the press commentary regarding the first Saturn V launch: "It wasn't so much a question as to whether the Saturn V rose, but whether Florida sank." -- and that was a piddly little 7.5 million pounds of thrust. If 30 million pounds won't make the place sink, nothing will. That's going to be one heck of a launch setup! I hope I live to see it.

[Uncle Al]

Will the Cape need to build a heavier duty launch pad?
I'm not sure the existing launch facilities could handle
the "Pressure" from the rocket blast.
Just sayin' - - - -

Uncle Al


(Where can I get a ticket for the trip )

[partlyscot]

Will the Cape need to build a heavier duty launch pad?
I'm not sure the existing launch facilities could handle
the "Pressure" from the rocket blast.
Just sayin' - - - -

Uncle Al


(Where can I get a ticket for the trip )

There are some modifications underway for the Falcon Heavy, which isn't even in the same league as the ICT monster. Mods for that have not been discussed, but there will be some for the return to launch pad anyway. The return to launch pad is going to be somewhat more tricky to perform, and will involve some "guide slots" or equivalent. It will be made a little easier than you might think, in comparison, because 1. Empty weight ratio will be less. 2. There is a much larger balance of weight vs throttle control of the Raptor engines. The Merlin engine on the Falcon rockets is also controllable, but by a lesser ratio, and for the landings so far achieved, they have to time the engine cut off precisely, or the rocket will "bounce back up" or hit hard. They call it a "hover slam"

No announcements have made concerning where to buy tickets, but they are talking about a price of $200,000 to Mars.