SpaceX Tuesday...
Discussion
JCSAT-18 launch youtube link - live in 2hrs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbXgZg9JmkI
The launch, landing & satellite deployment went great.
No word on the fairing recovery yet, but they take a while to come back down.
Seeing the two ships together was pretty cool:
Update from SpaceX:
"Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief narrowly missed catching the fairing halves—team is working to recover them for potential use on a future flight"
No word on the fairing recovery yet, but they take a while to come back down.
Seeing the two ships together was pretty cool:
Update from SpaceX:
"Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief narrowly missed catching the fairing halves—team is working to recover them for potential use on a future flight"
Edited by Beati Dogu on Tuesday 17th December 01:07
GTO-3R said:
Is helicopter not a better way of catching them? I'm sure this has been discussed at length but if Rocket Lab think they can grab a booster by helicopter then surely a fairing falling slower will be an easier catch?
Could be down to cost.The fairings come down a long way from land, so not only would you have the costs of operating a couple of big helicopters, you'd also need a ship for them to fly from.
Depending on launch azimuth, I think the Electron's first stage comes down closer to land
Eric Mc said:
They are pretty enormous. Is there a helicopter (or any aircraft) capable of grabbing objects of that size in mid-air?
If it were to be done, I think it would have to be a helicopter - attempting to snag one of those things at fixed-wing speeds would just invite it to trail behind creating an absolutely huge speed-brake (or more likely break the cable to tear the back of the aircraft off). I think the fairings halves weigh about 2000kg each, so well within the capacity of larger helicopters, but having that thing plus a deflated parachute flapping around in the breeze underneath likely to be a real headache - and by the sound of it SpaceX are exploring the re-use of fairings which have splashed down anyway, making the whole airborne capture thing moot.It'll be interesting to see how Rocket Lab get on with recovering boosters by helicopter at night!
ULA are planning to use in-flight helicopter recovery of their forthcoming Vulcan rocket's engine section. This from 2015:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfaSosikFxA
I'll believe it when I see it though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfaSosikFxA
I'll believe it when I see it though.
Are those fairings really worth $6m ? If so I would suggest rather than catching them just make them dirt cheap and toss them away, rather than having sailors out and about in the Atlantic in all weathers trying to catch them.
I know SpaceX wants to make it all reusable but at some point you are spending more trying to prove a point I know what you will say, well the boosters now have hit a fantastic return to ship/shore rate ( very true! ... excellent work now again, it's almost expected they land dead central! ) but why not just make the fairings dirt cheap and forget about them, and if you can't make them dirt cheap then just throw them away anyhow, as SpaceX is still a very cheap way to orbit.
there is also the cost future wise of a re-used fairing not working as expected and causing an entire satellite deployment failure scenario.
That would be uncomfortable and upset the bean counters......
I know SpaceX wants to make it all reusable but at some point you are spending more trying to prove a point I know what you will say, well the boosters now have hit a fantastic return to ship/shore rate ( very true! ... excellent work now again, it's almost expected they land dead central! ) but why not just make the fairings dirt cheap and forget about them, and if you can't make them dirt cheap then just throw them away anyhow, as SpaceX is still a very cheap way to orbit.
there is also the cost future wise of a re-used fairing not working as expected and causing an entire satellite deployment failure scenario.
That would be uncomfortable and upset the bean counters......
RobDickinson said:
Yeah custom composite structures the size of a buss that have to handle high stress, be as low weight as possible wide range of temps and work first time every time otherwise your expensive sat is useless couldn't possibly be expensive....
And how many have they caught so far considering the cost of 2 ships and 2 lots of crew and insurance and fuel?As I mentioned if they use a 2nd hand one and it fails that has to be taken into account too.
I just don't think it is worth it apart from the ideal of making everything resusable. I think the ideal is outstripping the actual cost benefit. It certainly is currently, they are net $$ down on the operation so far in recovering fairings and spending time and money refurbishing them.
Edited by Gandahar on Wednesday 18th December 00:42
RobDickinson said:
They lease the ships, they are planning 26 starlink launches in 2020 alone, $156 million in fairings they can reuse.
AFIk its not even just the cost, they cant produce that many because they take so long to do.
Well in that case they better get the recovery sorted out pronto then if they want to make a profit and do quick turnarounds !AFIk its not even just the cost, they cant produce that many because they take so long to do.
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