SpaceX Updates (Thread 7)

[DocM]

Rocket & night sky porn!

 

http://petapixel.com/2016/05/18/captured-spacex-falcon-9-landing-front-milky-way/

 

How I Accidentally Captured the SpaceX Falcon 9 Landing

 

At 1:21am on May 6, 2016, SpaceX continued its run of aerospace brilliance with a night launch of its Falcon 9 rocket, carrying its Japanese communication satellite payload to geostationary orbit.

 

The most spectacular portion of this event was the first successful night landing of the Falcon 9s first stage onboard their floating platform called Of Course I Still Love You. While this was not the first successful landing for SpaceX, it was the first one at sea at night and also one that they predicted to have a high probability of failure due to the dynamics involved with the much higher energy needed to send the satellite to a higher orbit than previous launches.

 

What does that have to do with me? Well, at the time, I was on Hunting Island in the southern portion of South Carolina doing what I love to do, shooting the Milky Way and I captured the moment!

 

This was very reminiscent of my capture of the International Space Station a couple of years ago. If youve followed me at all you might remember the night I went out to shoot star trails above Weavers Needle in the Superstition Mountains just outside of Phoenix, Arizona, and the ISS photobombed me. Maybe I have a knack for being in the right place at the right time.
>

 

GIF video

 

[DocM]

Follow the Space News link: an NRO (national reconnaissance office) spysat launch ups the game several notches. Probably why SpaceX built an office right down the street from them

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Here is an enhancement to the above tweet. You can also see a satellite at top left 1 o'clock....it's a 3 in 1 capture.

 

gif link

 

good still...

 

image link

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

This video is a year old, but I thought it was worth posting, see what you think.....

 

Untold Stories from the Rocket Ranch: New Kids on the Pad

video is 2:21 min.

 

 

 

[DocM]

Trip Harris is celebrating 9 years with SpaceX today. The video clip he chose to link to this tweet is interesting. Trip is Manager of Falcon landings.

 

Picard: Somehow I doubt this will be the last ship to carry the name Enterprise.

 

 

[DocM]

Lordy!!

 

After all the background  info that the JCSAT-14 stage was too damaged to fly again we get this,

 

Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk
@SchaFFFFFF Flight 24 is def capable of flying again, but it makes sense to apply ground delta qual to rocket w toughest entry conditions.

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

I thought this was neat...

 

 

Higher res image

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Usually we hear and/or see a snippet of a video, an image or paragraph on movement of a first stage, but , myself, don't usually see anything on the second stage.

 

Here are 2 images of a second stage being moved...

second stage image

 

-------------------

 

A lot of work has gone into developing fairing recovery, due to expense and future manufacturing considerations. The last few launches, we have also been able to catch a fairing thruster in an image or two. 

 

It reminded me of this video....

Falling Back to Earth | HD Footage From Space

video 1:54 min.

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

[DocM]

Earlier info about F9 being partially reused from @FLSPACErePORT at SpaceTechExpo has been corrected - Ed misheard the conversation.

@FLSPACErePORT
Correction on Falcon-9 reusable components: entire stage would be reused, not individual components. Eventually the complete system would.

 

and,

Smilodonjack ‏@RokBottomGamers 
@elonmusk What re-usability rate are you going with for falcon? (realistically)

Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk 
@RokBottomGamers 100+ for almost everything 10+ for heat shields and a few other items.

Also,

 

Crew Dragon lead and former astronaut Garrett Reisman reports that the DragonFly vehicle At McGregor has been retired. Milestones met. 

[DocM]

And for good measure,

 

http://tass.ru/en/science/877803
 

Russia has no intention of concluding more contracts for delivering US astronauts to the International Space Station after 2018, the deputy chief of the state-run corporation Roscosmos, Sergey Saveliev, has told the media.

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

Had to giggle today; several articles where space & business reporters just noticed F9 now has a mission capability listing for commercial Mars launches up to 4 tonnes.

[Blue-Vision]

1 hour ago, DocM said:

Had to giggle today; several articles where space & business reporters just noticed F9 now has a mission capability listing for commercial Mars launches up to 4 tonnes.

SpaceX has had Mars listed on the Destination Manifests for a few years now. And they're just now noticing? Ugh.

 

Can do a lot with 8,800 lbs (if we're counting it as Metric Tonnes). We talking Orbital or Lander?  

[DocM]

The previous Mars listing was only for Falcon Heavy, so the Falcon 9 listing is new with F9 FT++.

 

4.02 metric tonnes. The MSL/Curiosity rover stack was 3.893 tonnes.

[Blue-Vision]

Nice. Can do Supply Drops with that, among lots of other really good stuff. Just need a Red Dragon.  

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

[DocM]

Wow....OldSpace is running out of fig leaves. 

If they're at the point of establishing an insurance validation process with customers in the queue things are further along than we thought.

 

Edited May 31, 2016 by DocM

[DocM]

More on the insurers.

 

http://spacenews.com/spacex-to-brief-underwriters-on-the-road-to-falcon-9-reusability/

Falcon 9 is now getting the same rate (% of launch price) as Arians 5, which amounts to $3.72m for F9 and about $6m for Arians 5 because of the price difference. 

Also, they're automating launch prep and are still targeting rollout to vertical and launch in 1 hour.

 

Also,

 

The Thaicom-8 core should arrive at Cape Canaveral between 2000E and 0100E tonight.

Edited May 31, 2016 by DocM

[+John. Subscriber¹]

1 hour ago, DocM said:

More on the insurers.

 

http://spacenews.com/spacex-to-brief-underwriters-on-the-road-to-falcon-9-reusability/

Falcon 9 is now getting the same rate (% of launch price) as Arians 5, which amounts to $3.72m for F9 and about $6m for Arians 5 because of the price difference. 

Also, they're automating launch prep and are still targeting rollout to vertical and launch in 1 hour.

 

Also,

 

The Thaicom-8 core should arrive at Cape Canaveral between 2000E and 0100E tonight.

If I was a competitor I would read the above statements and struggle not to cry. The amount of progress in those three sentences is incredible! 

[DocM]

Yup, and the CRS-8 core having 2 customers in line for it deals the demand case. 

 

And make no mistake: a Raptor powered methane commercial launcher with both stages reusable has to be coming, leveraging (qualifying?) BFR and BFS construction and reuse techs. Most likely capable of both F9 and FH's jobs, simplifying the inventory.

 

That's without doubt the real future, even though it's unannounced. Once it is announced it really puts their competitors in a bind as they're still targeting F9/FH.

[DocM]

ELSBETH III's position was updated with a location bump,  and now its showing about 20 miles offshore. We may have a daylight arrival.

[Blue-Vision]

Glad it's arriving upright and in great shape.  I'd still like to know what that was on the deck of the ASDS though.

[DocM]

ELSBETH III's position (green in box), with the yellow triangles being the Go twins.

 

 

[Blue-Vision]

Enjoy the next Delta-IV launch ... that particular species is not long for this world. The final one being built (in-progress) is going to be put on display in the Air & Space Museum. ULA won't allow it, never mind.

 

Oh, and I saw Falcon Heavy T-Shirts in the camera view during the Thaicomm Launch. I gotta order some shirts, posters, and those double-tall coffee mugs ... wonder if they have any of our guy Marty?  

 

[EDIT] And an Occupy Mars Wall Clock. I must have the Wall Clock.  

Edited May 31, 2016 by Unobscured Vision