SpaceX Tuesday...

[Beati Dogu]

That's pretty cool that is has SpaceX rockets, but you need to use a park or field to see them full size. They're huuuge.

I had a play last year with the "ULA Anywhere AR" app, which is free and does the same with some of ULA's rockets. As seen with a Vulcan rocket in this thread:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...


"Backyard Apollo AR" is also free and goes one better, allowing you to launch a virtual Saturn V with commentary and sound effects as well.

[GTO-3R]

RobDickinson said:

That fence is about 30 meters high right?

Yes and you should see the size of the pigeons that sit on it

[Beati Dogu]

Nice launch, deployment and booster landing for the ANASIS-II mission. The 57th Falcon 9 landing.

Plus, with a turn around since its last flight of 51 days, SpaceX finally beat space shuttle Atlantis' record of 54 days, set in 1985.



Update: "Both fairing halves caught from space by SpaceX ships!" - Elon

Perfect. Another first.

Edited by Beati Dogu on Monday 20th July 23:28

[Beati Dogu]

What looks like launch tower foundations are being constructed at Boca Chica on top of earlier pilings:




Here is a flyover of the launch and test site:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&...

The square landing area can also be seen, although they use it as a car park as well.

[Flooble]

Beati Dogu said:

What looks like launch tower foundations are being constructed at Boca Chica on top of earlier pilings:


Here is a flyover of the launch and test site:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&...

The square landing area can also be seen, although they use it as a car park as well.

That could be unfortunate.


Reason for claim: "I was out of the office and a spaceship landed on my car"

[Beati Dogu]

Pretty sure even a single Raptor is quite good at clearing a landing pad before it gets a chance to squish it.







Here's the side by side footage of the Falcon 9 fairing recoveries:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69sZkYp4xEY

Funny to think that rescuing just one fairing half probably covers the crews and boat operations for an entire year.

[annodomini2]

Beati Dogu said:

What looks like launch tower foundations are being constructed at Boca Chica on top of earlier pilings:




Here is a flyover of the launch and test site:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&...

The square landing area can also be seen, although they use it as a car park as well.

Musk's fight club arena...


Shh!

[Beati Dogu]

Maybe Musk is branching out into MMA. Nothing would surprise me about him.



NASA is expecting the Demo-2 capsule with Bob & Doug to return to Earth on Sunday 2nd August.

Specifically at 2:35 pm. ET (7:35 pm UK time).

They have a total of 7 splashdown areas to choose from - on both sides of the Florida peninsula.

Edit: And here are those areas, courtesy of Gavin at SpaceXFleet.com



Which site they choose will depend on the wind and weather forecasts near the day. During the launch they sent one of the two recovery boats round to wait in Pensacola, Florida, in case the capsule had to abort into the sea nearby.

Edited by Beati Dogu on Friday 24th July 02:08

[Beati Dogu]

South Padre Island to the north of Boca Chica is getting hammered by Hurricane Hanna currently, with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph. That figure is from the National Hurricane Center. It's bringing lots of rain to a large area too, so flooding from that is expected.

So unsurprisingly, testing if off for now.


Edit: This is Hurricane Hanna photographed by Doug Hurley on the ISS:

Edited by Beati Dogu on Sunday 26th July 01:26

[GTO-3R]

Hope they’ve strapped the high bay down properly! If all 4 sides aren’t on then it will be susceptible to the wind surely

[Beati Dogu]

It'll probably be fine; It's quite an open structure currently as they haven't put the infill panels in yet. It's only 2 sections high so far as well. They've lowered the nose of the huge crane's gib to the ground to make it a more stable.

The weather looks to be mostly rainy there, with winds about 20-30 mph. Temperatures in the low 80s F with high humidity of course. There's always the risk of tornados with such disturbed weather, but they should escape the worst of the hurricane.


Meanwhile in Florida, Dragon recovery ship GO Navigator has left Port Canaveral and is heading round to the Gulf of Mexico ready for the return of Demo-2 next weekend. She will cover the 4 designated splashdown areas on the west side of Florida. She'll probably go up to Pensacola for now. That was the port they used for this purpose during the launch in May.

Whichever recovery ship gets the job, they have medical facilities on board for the astronauts. Once they've been checked out and given the OK, they'll be flown off by helicopter to the mainland soon after. That is unless they use the splashdown area off Cape Canaveral itself, in which case the other recovery ship, GO Searcher, will take them back to port herself. From there, they'll be flown to Houston, Texas.

NASA boss Jim Bridenstine is at the Cape at the moment. Here taking a selfie with the booster that launched Demo-2 and has just come back from a second flight. It's still sporting the NASA logos.

[MartG]

NASA has announced the crew for the next Crew Dragon flight to the ISS - including the wife of one of the current ones

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-announces-...

[Beati Dogu]

It's a small world. Both Bob & Doug are married to other astronauts.

They're supposed to come back down on Sunday, but Tropical Storm Isaias is heading towards the tip of Florida currently. Looks like it will arrive by Saturday and then curve up the east coast according to current predictions. They'll probably delay the capsule's return by a couple of days as a result. Or they may opt to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico instead. It should be OK over there.

Here's the track:

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.0354073,-74.365833...

Apparently the heat shield on Crew Dragons are built for a reentry from lunar orbit, which is approximately 50% faster than from low Earth orbit. So there's plenty of margin there.

This will be the first (deliberate at least) manned splashdown since Apollo, 45 years ago. That was for the Apollo–Soyuz mission in July 1975. A year later the Soyuz 23 capsule landed on a frozen lake in Kazakhstan by accident. The recovery of which was quite fraught.

[MartG]

SN5 test fire - jump to about 3:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=720cYnsfM0I

[anonymous-user]

I thought that was scrubbed today because of the rogue boat!

[Beati Dogu]

Test fire from the SpaceX drone camera:

[RobDickinson]

Space Dads have left the ISS and will be splashing down in about 15 hours.

also look at this monster base...

[MiniMan64]

Question: Am I misremembering this or have Space X said they could land the Dragon capsule back on the ground like the boosters?

But NASA vetoed it on safety grounds?

[RobDickinson]

MiniMan64 said:

Question: Am I misremembering this or have Space X said they could land the Dragon capsule back on the ground like the boosters?

But NASA vetoed it on safety grounds?

yes thats right, the super draco engines used for the emergency escape could also propulsive land, but SpaceX plan had legs extending out of the heat shield and NASA didnt like that at all. Might have eventually worked out but ditching into the sea was much faster to certify

[Flooble]

RobDickinson said:

yes thats right, the super draco engines used for the emergency escape could also propulsive land, but SpaceX plan had legs extending out of the heat shield and NASA didnt like that at all. Might have eventually worked out but ditching into the sea was much faster to certify

Which I find rather ironic when you think about all the risks of plunging into the ocean and then bobbing around waiting for recovery. Still, I suppose NASA's attitude was that to risk sinking, you must first survive re-entry ...