SpaceX Tuesday...
Discussion
It's like anything - the more often you do it, the better you get at it.
I remember Kelly Johnson (or maybe Ben Rich, his successor) bemoaning the extended project lengths these days (30 years from thinking about a new fighter aircraft to delivering it). He said that he saw engineers making stupid design decisions such as running hydraulic lines next to electric cables (bad idea - fire) because in their entire career they might only work on a single aircraft, so they had no opportunity to learn from experience.
I remember Kelly Johnson (or maybe Ben Rich, his successor) bemoaning the extended project lengths these days (30 years from thinking about a new fighter aircraft to delivering it). He said that he saw engineers making stupid design decisions such as running hydraulic lines next to electric cables (bad idea - fire) because in their entire career they might only work on a single aircraft, so they had no opportunity to learn from experience.
SpaceX do seem to have taken a lot of the Skunk Works philosophy on board. Plus some Silicon Valley hothousing for good measure.
https://imgur.com/gallery/scviZon
The Falcon Heavy launch has been officially set for Tuesday 6th Feb at a convenient 13.30-16.30 EST (18.30-21.30 UK time).
The backup will be the same window, next day. The weather forecast looks more favourable for the 7th, so they may go for that anyway.
So a daylight launch & landings hopefully.
"landings"
Some clever bugger has put the flight profile (from what is known so far) here:
https://www.flightclub.io/result?code=FHD1&tab...
You can hold down Ctrl and move the view around with your mouse. Zoom in and out with the scroll wheel.
The red lines indicate the various burn stages.
https://imgur.com/gallery/scviZon
The Falcon Heavy launch has been officially set for Tuesday 6th Feb at a convenient 13.30-16.30 EST (18.30-21.30 UK time).
The backup will be the same window, next day. The weather forecast looks more favourable for the 7th, so they may go for that anyway.
So a daylight launch & landings hopefully.
"landings"
Some clever bugger has put the flight profile (from what is known so far) here:
https://www.flightclub.io/result?code=FHD1&tab...
You can hold down Ctrl and move the view around with your mouse. Zoom in and out with the scroll wheel.
The red lines indicate the various burn stages.
Edited by Beati Dogu on Sunday 28th January 23:38
p1stonhead said:
Only time I’ve ever wished to live in Florida....
Tickets to FH launch on sale
For anyone who is out there - get on this!
Tickets ordered this morning for me and a mate, couldn't justify the $195 ones (which luckily for me they'd sold out of pretty quick anyway), but will be watching from KSC Visitor Complex, might be able to get the bus out to the Saturn V hall and watch from there, which is where the expensive grandstand is, I'll just be standing on the grass is all. Will see when I get there.Tickets to FH launch on sale
For anyone who is out there - get on this!
The word is Harrison Ford will be there for the FH launch too. The rocket being named after his old ship of course.
No Falcon 9 launch tonight though.
Put back 24 hours to change a transducer and probably also for a better weather outlook too. Same time tomorrow.
Pictures show it has legs as well as grid fins, but they're still going to dunk it in the Atlantic. They're supposed to be doing some testing with it on the way down and may be doing some more work with fairing recovery too.
No Falcon 9 launch tonight though.
Put back 24 hours to change a transducer and probably also for a better weather outlook too. Same time tomorrow.
Pictures show it has legs as well as grid fins, but they're still going to dunk it in the Atlantic. They're supposed to be doing some testing with it on the way down and may be doing some more work with fairing recovery too.
A note for guys who want to attend a launch at KSC in future (EricMc), the tickets you get are for the launch, not the day at KSC, so if the launch is delayed, your tickets are still good for whatever day the launch finally takes place. Also, they are for two days, so you can go back to KSC on another day to look around the visitor complex and see anything you didn't get round to on launch day.
Beati Dogu said:
Pictures show it has legs as well as grid fins, but they're still going to dunk it in the Atlantic. They're supposed to be doing some testing with it on the way down and may be doing some more work with fairing recovery too.
I wonder...if they opened the legs earlier could it produce more drag and reduce braking fuel requirements 
Of course it would adversely affect stability...MartG said:
Beati Dogu said:
Pictures show it has legs as well as grid fins, but they're still going to dunk it in the Atlantic. They're supposed to be doing some testing with it on the way down and may be doing some more work with fairing recovery too.
I wonder...if they opened the legs earlier could it produce more drag and reduce braking fuel requirements Of course it would adversely affect stability...
Well that went well I think.
I love how at the very end of all that cutting edge technology, the satellite is pushed away with a simple spring.
Update:
"This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn’t hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived. We will try to tow it back to shore."
- Elon Musk
You'd think a 150 ft long and rather hot alloy pipe would break up when it toppled over.
I love how at the very end of all that cutting edge technology, the satellite is pushed away with a simple spring.
Update:
"This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn’t hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived. We will try to tow it back to shore."
- Elon Musk
You'd think a 150 ft long and rather hot alloy pipe would break up when it toppled over.
Edited by Beati Dogu on Wednesday 31st January 23:58
Today's mission a failure. The expected rud of the first stage didn't happen...
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/95884781858358...
High retro thrust test actually survived...
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/95884781858358...
High retro thrust test actually survived...
Edited by RobDickinson on Thursday 1st February 00:53
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