SpaceX Tuesday...
Discussion
Beati Dogu said:
In other news, it seem that "Spider Boat" AKA fairing catcher Mr Steven has left the port of Los Angeles, headed for the Panama Canal.
Fake news. Mr Steven is back home in LA. There's a Falcon 9 due off from Vandenberg on 10th Feb, so it'll likely be doing whatever a spider boat can for that. Seeing footage of it catching a fairing at sea, on the run, will be almost as amazing as seeing a rocket land.Beati Dogu said:
Beati Dogu said:
In other news, it seem that "Spider Boat" AKA fairing catcher Mr Steven has left the port of Los Angeles, headed for the Panama Canal.
Fake news. Mr Steven is back home in LA. There's a Falcon 9 due off from Vandenberg on 10th Feb, so it'll likely be doing whatever a spider boat can for that. Seeing footage of it catching a fairing at sea, on the run, will be almost as amazing as seeing a rocket land.
Beati Dogu said:
Fake news. Mr Steven is back home in LA. There's a Falcon 9 due off from Vandenberg on 10th Feb, so it'll likely be doing whatever a spider boat can for that. Seeing footage of it catching a fairing at sea, on the run, will be almost as amazing as seeing a rocket land.
How are they getting the fairings to the ship? Surely boosters would be too heavy, after all, a fairing should just be a light cover to protect the payload during launch. I'm surprised the fairings are so expensive that designing and building the recovery capability into them and the ship is financially viable to be honest, the ship itself must have cost a fortune, even just to operate.AshVX220 said:
Beati Dogu said:
Fake news. Mr Steven is back home in LA. There's a Falcon 9 due off from Vandenberg on 10th Feb, so it'll likely be doing whatever a spider boat can for that. Seeing footage of it catching a fairing at sea, on the run, will be almost as amazing as seeing a rocket land.
How are they getting the fairings to the ship? Surely boosters would be too heavy, after all, a fairing should just be a light cover to protect the payload during launch. I'm surprised the fairings are so expensive that designing and building the recovery capability into them and the ship is financially viable to be honest, the ship itself must have cost a fortune, even just to operate.And at £6million a pop they are worth recovering
RobDickinson said:
4 million dollars of carbon fibre and tech.. Well worth saving.
They will have thrusters and a parachute/wing .
Coordinating the position of Mr Steven so it's roughly in the right place and calculating where the fairing is going to 'land' so the two coincide is mind-boggling really.They will have thrusters and a parachute/wing .
The last few hundred metres of it's descent is going to be very interesting to watch.
MartG said:
Launching in a week or so! 
Can’t bloody wait to see this.
Video of test;
https://twitter.com/spacex/status/9562363012750540...
Edited by p1stonhead on Wednesday 24th January 18:53
Eric Mc said:
That's impressive - considering they only fired the engines for three seconds.
They also seem to be deflecting the exhaust in just one direction. I expected that the exhaust plumes would be split, like on the Space Shuttle.
I timed it at about 12 seconds long. The SpaceX footage they tweeted is edited.They also seem to be deflecting the exhaust in just one direction. I expected that the exhaust plumes would be split, like on the Space Shuttle.
The south exhaust was blocked off, or it would mess up SpaceX's Horizontal Integration Facility at the bottom of the ramp.
A better view:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU7DmNp7vYk&fe...
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