SpaceX Tuesday...

[MartG]

"We think this one has some historic value, so we are thinking the Cape might like to have it as something to remember the moment. We are going to present it as a gift to the Cape." — Elon Musk

Looks like it will be on display at the KSC visitor centre

[Beati Dogu]

Tweets from Elon Musk today‏:

"Considering trying to bring upper stage back on Falcon Heavy demo flight for full reusability. Odds of success low, but maybe worth a shot."

"Falcon Heavy test flight currently scheduled for late summer"


Ooooh.

[Toaster]

ninja-lewis said:

The next goal is a 24 hour turnaround so presumably they will have to leave them uncleaned at that point.

Yup thats the plan according to Elon, at the moment this one was a little bit like triggers broom as most of the components were changed for this 'reusable' unit

[Beati Dogu]

Here's some great photos of the launch:

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/04/01/photos-space...

[MartG]

Apparently Musk says six more launches of recovered first stages are planned for this year.

Whether that includes 2 ( or 3 ) for Falcon Heavy....

[Buzz84]

Beati Dogu said:

Tweets from Elon Musk today?:

"Considering trying to bring upper stage back on Falcon Heavy demo flight for full reusability. Odds of success low, but maybe worth a shot."

That's the beauty of SpaceX and Elon, in order to do that, the second stage will need to be upgraded to include all the parts needed to allow recovery (landing struts, grid fins etc depending on how they intend to do it)

Any other company, wouldn't be spending that sort of money unnecessarily

SpaceX are more like, "meh, why not" and that's the way to make progress

[p1stonhead]

Buzz84 said:

Beati Dogu said:

Tweets from Elon Musk today?:

"Considering trying to bring upper stage back on Falcon Heavy demo flight for full reusability. Odds of success low, but maybe worth a shot."

That's the beauty of SpaceX and Elon, in order to do that, the second stage will need to be upgraded to include all the parts needed to allow recovery (landing struts, grid fins etc depending on how they intend to do it)

Any other company, wouldn't be spending that sort of money unnecessarily

SpaceX are more like, "meh, why not" and that's the way to make progress

His employees just gave a collective groan knowing that they now can't sleep for the next 6 months.

[annodomini2]

Buzz84 said:

Beati Dogu said:

Tweets from Elon Musk today?:

"Considering trying to bring upper stage back on Falcon Heavy demo flight for full reusability. Odds of success low, but maybe worth a shot."

That's the beauty of SpaceX and Elon, in order to do that, the second stage will need to be upgraded to include all the parts needed to allow recovery (landing struts, grid fins etc depending on how they intend to do it)

Any other company, wouldn't be spending that sort of money unnecessarily

SpaceX are more like, "meh, why not" and that's the way to make progress

The real issue is re-entry, the 2nd stage is travelling at orbital velocity, so needs a heat shield

[RobDickinson]

which makes it heavy, where every kilo counts.

Perhaps some 2nd stages on a heavy..

[Eric Mc]

Post launch press conference -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlF3fmndtY0

[MartG]

Looks like some damage around the grid fin area

[FurtiveFreddy]

MartG said:

Looks like some damage around the grid fin area

Isn't that why they're going to forge them from titanium in the future?

[Brother D]

FurtiveFreddy said:

MartG said:

Looks like some damage around the grid fin area

Isn't that why they're going to forge them from titanium in the future?

They are - from the reentry video they don't look big, but they are 4ft by 5ft in size!

[Eric Mc]

You can get compression hypersonic shock waves coming off protuberances which are extremely hot at the shock front. That's what melted off the lower ventral and dummy ramjet on the X-15 Mach 6.7 flight in 1967.

I wouldn't be surprised if that is what we are seeing here.

[Einion Yrth]

The first stage re-entry video from SES-10 clearly showed a grid-fin on fire, hence the titanium decision.

[MartG]

A couple of closeups ( pics by Kevin Frack )

[Beati Dogu]

Here's one next to a man for scale:



He's fitting anti-bird spikes to it because this is the rocket outside the SpaceX factory in LA.

They show the grid fins deployed on that rocket, although in reality they fold them in after landing.

[callmedave]

All (as far as I'm aware) previous 1st stage landings have to involved a boost back burn, I.e. The rocket turns around and heads back towards KSC (but lands on the barge off the coast.
The first stage of the SES-10 would not have been able to do that without running out of fuel, (due to a higher orbit requirement for the satellite) so it just followed it sub-orbital trajectory, and landed further out, I'm guessing this would mean that it's atmospheric reentry speed would be increased, possibly causing the paint on the grid fin to ignite/melt

-this is just my observation, not backed up by any info from Space X.

[Eric Mc]

I think it was the actual metal that started to burn. Aluminium starts to melt at around 400 degrees C.

[MartG]

SpaceX have revised their quoted payload for Falcon Heavy from 54,200kg up to 64,000kg into LEO