SpaceX F9 Dragon CRS SPX 16

[Unobscured Vision]

3 hours ago, Skiver said:

Am I right in saying that it;s default path down is always to land in the water, It then makes the decision closer to the ground as to whether it can safely land or not and then corrects to go to the LZ?

Yessir. Default landing point is, indeed, offshore, and then changes to either the droneship or LZ-1 as programmed on-the-fly. There are abort points built in at key milestones of the descent in case of something going wrong so that it can change direction; at which case it'll attempt to land anyway but at a safe distance from anything & anyone so that Engineers can do a post-mortem to find out what happened and why.

 

It's a fantastic way to do things. Even though the rocket is doomed (and knows it), it'll still try to protect everyone and everything from bad stuff.

 

A classmate of mine who has since gone on to work for SpaceX has said they internally call it "Oh $#!% mode". 

[+rdlenk Subscriber²]

1 hour ago, Unobscured Vision said:

... SpaceX has said they internally call it "Oh $#!% mode". 

We also have BattleShark Mode for some of our systems.

[Skiver Veteran]

3 minutes ago, rdlenk said:

We also have BattleShark Mode for some of our systems.

Can you elaborate more on what that translates to?

[DocM]

The move from offshore to onshore is called a divert, and according to SpaceX"s Hans Koenigsmann Falcon 9 also knows not just where the pad is but where the surrounding structures are so that it can attempt to avoid them in case of a late failure.

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

IN PORT !!

 

 

[Jim K Global Moderator]

 

 

Pretty cool. You can see the shafts for the grid fins in the slightly jacked up interstage 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

I go away for a bit....and you guys are doing barrel rolls...

 

Showtime tonight/early morning....

 

 

 

 

 

Practice for DM-1 on Jan 17th ?

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

This will make it easier...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Beittil]

For me it is a split between the first and second images.

 

The first because I am just a mountain/snow type of person, absolutely stunning photo. But then comes the second image, Dragon flying of a remote desert, no interference of mankind in sight (other than Dragon itself of course) 😛 If you were to show this image to they layman and told him/her that it is Dragon flying over the planet Mars am convinced they would straight up believe you and that is what makes it so frigging awesome!

 

Yeah I think i am going to roll with photo #2  

[Draggendrop Veteran]

I'll go for #2 as well...

 

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NASA social media

 

 

 

closer inspection reveals...

 

 

Dragon on screen...and Thor's hammer....by THOR...THermal Operations and Resource (THOR) officer.

 

No issues for Stark....Elon's ride and the spare suit are on the way.

[FloatingFatMan]

Interesting video analysis of the CRS-16 booster for you guys...

 

 

 

[DocM]

AIUI - no signals from shore to depressurize the tanks - it's part of the automatic  post-landing safing sequence.

 

Much of the roll reduction was likely due to the legs deploying.  Think of a spinning figure skater; arms in = spin fast, arms out = spin slow/stop. If nothing else it made it easier for the reaction control system and gambling Merlin to stabilize the vehicle.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Engage "Tesla marine autopilot"...find closest path to port...and start leg kicks and fin flutter for propulsion...

[DocM]