SpaceX Tuesday...

[RobDickinson]

MartG said:

There are also two Dragonlab flights pencilled in this year. Dragonlab is a free-flying science mission, similar to the recent one flown by China, with a flight duration of up to 2 years

http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/pdf/Drago...

Ah cool didnt realise they offered that.

[MartG]

RobDickinson said:

MartG said:

There are also two Dragonlab flights pencilled in this year. Dragonlab is a free-flying science mission, similar to the recent one flown by China, with a flight duration of up to 2 years

http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/pdf/Drago...

Ah cool didnt realise they offered that.

Must admit I didn't either until I checked their flight manifest an hour ago

http://www.spacex.com/missions

[scubadude]

Eric Mc said:

You can see why the first stage looks a bit scorched when it gets back.
Impressive footage too. Amazing what those old WB-57s can do.

Impressive footage both the taking of it and the content.

Given the media savvy SpaceX I wonder if they will fully film from onboard a boost back and descent/landing at some point?

[Beati Dogu]

They certainly could do, they have little Go-Pro derived cameras all over it, including inside the tanks and on the nose cone fairings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u656se4e34M

[MartG]

Seems the neighbours are moaning about the noise

http://www.kwtx.com/content/news/McGregor--City-mo...

I suspect SpaceX will gradually move that work to their new centre near Brownsville

[Beati Dogu]

From what I hear, SpaceX have been taking the piss a bit with the times they test. Obviously they have a lot of work to do and some of it runs quite late.

[MartG]

Beati Dogu said:

From what I hear, SpaceX have been taking the piss a bit with the times they test. Obviously they have a lot of work to do and some of it runs quite late.

With the planned increase in launch frequency it can only get worse - hence why I think SpaceX will move testing of new engines/stages elsewhere

[hidetheelephants]

MartG said:

Beati Dogu said:

From what I hear, SpaceX have been taking the piss a bit with the times they test. Obviously they have a lot of work to do and some of it runs quite late.

With the planned increase in launch frequency it can only get worse - hence why I think SpaceX will move testing of new engines/stages elsewhere

There are spare test stands at Sandown on the IoW or Spadeadam in Cumbria; they'd probably sell tickets to view it never mind complain about the noise.

[Sylvaforever]

hidetheelephants said:

MartG said:

Beati Dogu said:

From what I hear, SpaceX have been taking the piss a bit with the times they test. Obviously they have a lot of work to do and some of it runs quite late.

With the planned increase in launch frequency it can only get worse - hence why I think SpaceX will move testing of new engines/stages elsewhere

There are spare test stands at Sandown on the IoW or Spadeadam in Cumbria; they'd probably sell tickets to view it never mind complain about the noise.

[Beati Dogu]

Here's some drone footage of the returned landing ship and offloaded rocket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86CZQKOY7lw

Looks like they welded this one down too. A sensible precaution.

[MartG]

The next Dragon to fly has left the factory for Florida

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFXcK_Cl8cO/

[Sylvaforever]

Chect this vid out...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=299s&v=3yuq8nUSd...


the sequence is launch, main burn up the side of some clouds [visually] meco behind cloud, rocket u!!owered flight, seperation then second stage fires, first stage close by then at 3:57 you se the thrusters fire on stage 1 to pitch it up & fairing sep and more rcs shots!!!!

amazing footage.

Edited by Sylvaforever on Saturday 14th May 21:20

[Eric Mc]

Nice footage. I think some of the amateur filming of these launches is pretty good.

[Sylvaforever]

Actually Eric it turns out there could be more to it.

Musk, at the previous launch debrief aluded to recovering the shroud sections "as that'd be a few million saved"

Their is now speculation that they are in the process of developing just this and there is evidence re the rcs puffs seen in the video along with the positioning of the shroud sections this was an experiment along these lines....

[Beati Dogu]

Good footage that. Nice that you can see the payload shrouds being ejected as well. I guess that once they're out of the atmosphere, they've done their job and are just dead weight. They flutter down to the ocean at the moment, but presumably they'll try bringing them down more gently on parachutes.

Incidentally, the 2 booster rockets on the Falcon Heavy will have their own nose cones. Presumably they'll keep these attached throughout their entire flight.

[MartG]

Three landed rockets

[RobDickinson]

This gives you a sense of scale you dont get with the landing videos..

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

[Beati Dogu]

"The Verge" article on SpaceX with some more photos of the 3 rockets in the hanger.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/15/11676080/spacex-...

[MartG]

It seems the most recently landed Falcon may not be reuseable, due to damage incurred during re-entry and landing. I suspect SpaceX will modify future vehicles using similar high-energy trajectories to better withstand the return flight

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2016...

[RobDickinson]

Yeah it came in hot. I guess for those missions they can look at adding more heat shield etc. Landing an unusable rocket probably not worth the effort otherwise, although they can cannibalise engines etc if they are good.

The first f9 looks like the guinea pig for a relaunch.