SpaceX Tuesday...

[RobDickinson]

Incredible

[menguin]

Einion Yrth said:

I'd be surprised if the launch wasn't successful, I'd be absolutely bloody gobsmacked if the recovery was anything more than another dent in OCISLY that needs patching up.

Prepare your gob!

Great landing - almost dead centre of the drone ship too! Amazing work these guys are doing. I can't wait to watch the attempted landing of the Falcon heavy - not to mention the take off!

[Einion Yrth]

Officially gobsmacked, very impressive.

[MartG]

Successful payload separation

[p1stonhead]

MartG said:

They did it again

Bloody hell. There was just a bright flash and then it was sitting there!

Video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lYZLxr3L4E&sns...

Landing at 38mins.

[Eric Mc]

They certainly seem to be getting the hang of this. Well done SpaceX.

[p1stonhead]

Hopefully from now on we will be gobsmacked when they DONT land.

[RobDickinson]

Can't wait to watch the f9h flight

[Caruso]

Fantastic achievement, a faster re-entry I understand compared to the previous landing.

[RobDickinson]

Landed with a 10 second 3 engine burn from near supersonic speeds..

[MartG]

[Beati Dogu]

Right on the bullseye as well.

Looked like the heatshield above the engines was smouldering there for a while. Caused by some blowback from the rocket landing. They had to damp it down with a water spray.


The ships are pretty far down range, about 400 miles, so it'll take 3 days to come back to port.


BTW Check this out:

https://vimeo.com/125746164

[Gandahar]

What was the payload weight and height?

[Beati Dogu]

4,682 kg at launch (2,180kg unfueled). That's close to the maximum for a Falcon 9 launch to geostationary orbit.

Not sure of the satellite's exact dimensions, but you could probably estimate it from the photo below.

https://imgur.com/84V25dt


The black bell shaped object at the base of the satellite is the payload attach fitting (PAF), which connects it to the rocket. That'll be the beefier of the two models they have available, based on this payload.

The nose cone fairing is 13.1m (43 ft) in height & 5.2m (17.1 ft) in diameter. Page 36 of this user guide shows the internal dimensions:

http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/falcon_9_...


The Falcon Heavy will use the same fairing.

[Sylvaforever]

missed this live due to the delights of shift work...

Must say WOW they nailed that one but lets see what the damage to the bottom end is first re reuse but despite that..

...SpaceX rocks!

[MartG]

[Sylvaforever]

MartG said:

Toasty, but did the job.

[Beati Dogu]

MartG said:

I'm on a boat motherfker take a look at me
Straight flowin on a boat on the deep blue sea
Bustin five knots, wind whippin out my coat
You can't stop me motherfker cause I'm on a boat!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSx4DGBstYA

[RobDickinson]

The scale always amazes me, we didnt rteally get the experience in the dark but it looks like a toothpick landing.

And this.

[Beati Dogu]

The unmanned Dragon capsule that was sent up to the ISS in April is due to be sent home next week. This'll probably be on Wednesday, but that depends on the weather as they plan to have it splash down on parachutes into the Pacific.


http://spaceref.com/international-space-station/na...