SpaceX Tuesday...

[Eric Mc]

And they've done it again - fantastic.

[Beati Dogu]

And suddenly a rocket appears!

[Eric Mc]

They are beginning to make this barge landing stuff easy - which, of course, it isn't.

[MartG]

Nice to see onboard video from the separated 1st stage

[Beati Dogu]

Yes, that was very interesting.

You could see a grid fin smouldering a little as the rocket descended through its own exhaust plume. You can see why it gets so filthy as well.

[Eric Mc]

Satellite deployed and on its way to geostationary orbit. What happens to the discarded 2nd stage? Does it go on to its own geostationary position as a piece of space junk?

[RobDickinson]

Eric Mc said:

Satellite deployed and on its way to geostationary orbit. What happens to the discarded 2nd stage? Does it go on to its own geostationary position as a piece of space junk?

No, it'll be de orbited and burn up

[MartG]

Hope they manage to get it welded down before it tips !

[hidetheelephants]

Eric Mc said:

Satellite deployed and on its way to geostationary orbit. What happens to the discarded 2nd stage? Does it go on to its own geostationary position as a piece of space junk?

It won't have escape velocity so will just re-enter, slow down and burn up.

[RobDickinson]

Yep apparently no boost for deorbit, just takes 2-6 months to burn up

[MartG]

1st stage onboard at several times normal speed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jEz03Z8azc

[p1stonhead]

They need to come up with something new. All of these perfect landings are getting boring

This video however is fking mind blowing.

https://youtu.be/4jEz03Z8azc

Edited by p1stonhead on Saturday 28th May 07:30

[Beati Dogu]

Wow. Amazing. That's about 7x the real speed apparently.

This was the 5th Falcon 9 launch this year and the 2nd mission in May.


Only 19 days to the next launch on 16th June from Cape Canaveral. A Falcon 9 will take up 2 communications satellites (Eutelsat 117W B and ABS-2A for Asia Broadcast Satellite). The first stage has recently arrived at the Cape, covered in a serious amount of shrink wrap. The static electricity from unwrapping that must be something else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajpsfxdvP34

[Eric Mc]

If you watch the footage at 1/4 speed you get a better idea of what is going on.

Impressive stuff.

[Sylvaforever]

MartG said:

Hope they manage to get it welded down before it tips !

and there was me thinking it was my wonky old eyesight! I thought those legs looked more splayed than we've seen before..

[Flooble]

RobDickinson said:

Yep apparently no boost for deorbit, just takes 2-6 months to burn up

I wonder if there is any mileage in making a "tug" to boost it into a parking orbit for re-use. Would need docking systems, and not totally sure what use an old second stage is other than as raw materials. I wasn't necessarily thinking of a chemical booster, but one of those electrodynamic tether types. Gradually claw your way out of the gravity well.

[Eric Mc]

Hard to see what use it would be.

There are a few SIVB stages from the Apollo missions still stooging about the Solar System even today.

A quick check reveals there are four - from Apollos 8,10, 11 and 12.

[Flooble]

Yes, I did wonder what you could use it for, similarly to the Saturn stages. Seems like such a waste to spend £5000 per kg getting stuff up there and then doing nothing with it. But doing something with it would cost even more I suppose. Unless you had a recycling plant complete with smelter!

[MartG]

Flooble said:

Yes, I did wonder what you could use it for, similarly to the Saturn stages. Seems like such a waste to spend £5000 per kg getting stuff up there and then doing nothing with it. But doing something with it would cost even more I suppose. Unless you had a recycling plant complete with smelter!

You could strap them to an asteroid....

[Eric Mc]

Not altogether silly. I think, in the future, there could be "booster recycling centres" on asteroids. You could send the booster on a course to rendezvous with the asteroid where the scrappies could get to work. Indeed, the scrappies would more than likely be robots