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SpaceX returns to flight with Falcon 9 rocket launch
- nixarn 10y agoAnd what a beutiful launch & landing it was! I gotta admin, I was a bit nervous after their last explosion. Great everything went smoothly!
- generj 10y agoI don't know what they did on the camera and transmission side, but having the sub-orbital view on the 1st stage all the way down to the barge was super impressive.
- 51Cards 10y agoThis. I found that so satisfying to watch. I was also pleased that the broadcast team made an on-air comment congratulating their colleagues that got that working.
- generj 10y agoIt helps that the broadcast team is comprised of the more photogenic engineers. I'm curious to find out what they changed. One of the problems they previously had was that the vibration from the rocket landing was too much for a satellite connection on the barge (or it's nearby support ship); there were other issues on the rocket. Maybe being right next to the coast the whole time helps on a polar launch?
- ygra 10y agoWell, vibration of the barge wouldn't have been a problem this time as there was no view from the barge during the landing (only after). But I had the same thought regarding the launch profile to be much easier to track. GTO launches from the East coast are about 600 km off the coast. This time the drone ship was about 370 km away from the launch site, and also much closer to land in general. We'll see how it'll be for the Echostar 23 launch (and landing).
- estel 10y ago> Well, vibration of the barge wouldn't have been a problem this time as there was no view from the barge during the landing (only after). There was a live view from the barge on the technical stream through descent.
- mabbo 10y ago> It helps that the broadcast team is comprised of the more photogenic engineers John Insprucker is far more of what you'd expect of a typical engineer. Reddit r/SpaceX went wild for a few minutes when they saw he was back doing the live broadcasts. People like his authenticity.
- JesseObrien 10y agoThe issue with the last few was that the barge was over the horizon from the high bandwidth stations receiving the data from it. The vibration is certainly a factor, but it causes more of what you saw on this launch, artifacting, rather than a full disconnection of the feed.
- TrevorJ 10y agoThe engine exhaust ionizes the air as well, which can be a problem from what I've heard.
- spectrum1234 10y agoYes!!!!
- sctb 10y agoRecent discussion on the webcast: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13399119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13399119
- tankenmate 10y agoFor those wondering, they successfully deployed all 10 satellites, after the second SECO, into their correct orbit.
- jessriedel 10y agoThey said they might have video of the deployment, but this was interupped by the loss of ground tracking. Anyone know if that video will ever be available?
- jccooper 10y agoSpaceX is inconsistent about what videos they provide after a flight. They'll usually pick one or two that are good from a marketing perspective. (New and/or impressive.) I wouldn't be surprised to see an edited Vine of the satellite deployments, though.
- jpatokal 10y agoI actually would be pretty surprised, since Twitter axed Vine a few months back...
- vermontdevil 10y agoThey have released videos of RTS crashing etc. so they have been pretty up front about everything
- vermontdevil 10y agoThey have released videos of RTS crashing etc. so they have been pretty up front about everything
- nrjdhsbsid 10y agoThat might not be totally true. The US govt likes to sneak secret things into comm satellites. For example gps satellites also contain hardware to detect nuclear detonations and track missile launches. Just speculation, but there could easily be earth viewing spy telescopes, wide band radio capture, or space weapons tacked on these
- joeblau 10y agoThis was freaking amazing. These are the types of technology launches that truly get me excited.
- bluejekyll 10y agoWhat's awesome is watching the commentators trying to hold back their excitement a bit. Awesome job SpaceX!
- monk_e_boy 10y agoAny videos of the landing?
- lazaroclapp 10y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTmbSur4fcs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTmbSur4fcs , around minute 35 to 39.
- InclinedPlane 10y agohttps://youtu.be/7WimRhydggo?t=2145 https://youtu.be/7WimRhydggo?t=2145
- david-given 10y agoThanks --- this one's the technical webcast and not only gives you a much better view (mostly side-by-side streams of the video feeds from the two vehicles), but there's no commentary and the audio feed's from mission control. No onboard ascent footage or fuel tank footage this time, alas.
- mikeyouse 10y agoI read a while ago that they were restricting the fuel tank footage going forward for ITAR concerns.. Can't seem to find my source but it feels like it's been a long time since we saw the inside of the tanks.
- hsavit1 10y agoWe're all going to Mars, yay! Wait. actually...
- ethbro 10y agoIt's almost like the path to Mars can be divided into a series of small achievements -- like some sort of small steps before a giant leap, if you will.
- fillskills 10y ago"A few minutes later, the first stage of the rocket landed successfully on a platform in the Pacific Ocean." - They have made this so normal. Its not even news title worthy now. Exciting times we live in!!
- mstade 10y agoI came here to write exactly this! Just mentioned in passing, like it's the most natural thing in the world – amazing!
- agumonkey 10y agoHell, SpaceX wasn't a trending topic on twitter less than 2 hours after the landing. Humanity holds the record for the fastest awe to yawn delta.
- robryk 10y ago> Humanity holds the record for the fastest awe to yawn delta. Among what species?
- agumonkey 10y agoI'm sure aliens appreciated the effort longer.
- BurningFrog 10y agoCats are still deeply awed by the laser pointer.
- zcdziura 10y agoPretty sure it's just a joke.
- madeofpalk 10y agoJust because something is amazing doesn't mean we need to constantly be screaming about it.
- nrjdhsbsid 10y agoDoes anyone else feel like the COPV problem was not truly solved? This is the second mission loss caused by the same exploding COPV's. They need to be redesigned and SpaceX is twiddling around the issue to avoid the r&d cost. If I was NASA I would be very hesitant to use their rockets for people at this point
- knorker 10y agoMission loss?
- troutaway123 10y agoI think they're referring to the incident that caused this RTF to be necessary, but yes, confusing.
- nialv7 10y agoClearly NASA & FAA know a lot more than you and most of us do. If they choose to let SpaceX continue launching their rockets, there must be a good reason behind it.
- taf2 10y agoTrue it'd be rather nice to not have to read another article like: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/25/466555217/your-letters-helped-challenger-shuttle-engineer-shed-30-years-of-guilt http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/25/466555217/... in 30 years
- mikeash 10y agoUnlike the Shuttle, SpaceX's manned vehicle will have the ability to escape an exploding launcher. It's best avoided, obviously, but a repeat of Challenger should end with everybody safe and sound, just not in orbit.
- agildehaus 10y ago
- Shivetya 10y agoWhy does Space X land on barges while blue origin land, well on land. Also does anyone have a pictures of iterations of Space X's landing methods and strut setup?
- cududa 10y agoTwo issues I remember hearing - there's a much larger launch window for landing on the ocean barge and something regarding approval/ regulations being more stringent for a land launch. Blue Origin's test flight didn't go too high so it didn't face the same issues. I may be completely wrong here but I'm fairly certain that's what I remember reading.
- spacetourist 10y agoYeah you're wrong, it's to do with the speed they are travelling to get the launch trajectory, they lack the fuel required to make it back to land
- JshWright 10y agoIt has nothing to do with the height. Both rockets go 'up' a similar amount. The difference is how far sideways Falcon 9 has to go (since it is launching a payload to orbit). https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/
- pricechild 10y agoHave Blue Origin gone 'up' further than ~100km ?
- JshWright 10y agoThey're in that ballpark. I know the capsule exceeded 100km. I don't know if the first stage technically broke that or not, but it was closer if it didn't.
- 10y ago
- smoyer 10y agoIt would have been cool to see an animation of how these seven satellites move in their orbits (as well as the final completed constellation).
- JoeDaDude 10y agoWell, the final completed constellation would look something like the video in [1] which is available at the Iridium website [2] [1] https://youtu.be/sXUmBJmf_DI https://youtu.be/sXUmBJmf_DI [2] https://www.iridium.com/network/iridiumnext https://www.iridium.com/network/iridiumnext
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- harshaw 10y agoThe video says a one engine burn on the return of the first stage. The descent seemed a bit slower than the last landing and thus less of a dramatic suicide burn. This time the descent video seemed more "real". On the last barge landing it was so quick that it seemed magical.
- JshWright 10y agoThe descent _was_ slower. This was a launch to low earth orbit, as opposed to the geosynchronous launches we've seen recently. Geosynchronous launches require the first stage to be going a lot faster by the time it separates (thus requiring the three-engine landing burn).
- Klathmon 10y agoIf you are thinking of the same landing I think you are, the broadcast glitches caused some of that "magic" feeling. The broadcast glitched out and when it came back the rocket had landed. The timing made it seem like it really slammed down, but if you look at a simulation of how fast it was really going, it looks a lot less "magic" (although still crazy impressive!)
- thenewwazoo 10y agoWatching the broadcast, it appeared that they launched _westward_ off the coast of California. That seems very weird to me, since my understanding is that you can use the not-insignificant rotation of the earth as "free energy" to achieve orbital speed. Did they launch westward? Why?
- tamcap 10y agoIridium sats are in polar orbits. Launches for those inclinations are done from the west coast due to geographical constraints. Also, I believe it makes them travel "backwards" to other (most?) sats.
- Klathmon 10y agoWell not so much "backwards" as perpendicular.
- ygra 10y agoThe target orbit is a polar one. For those you actually have to cancel that "free energy".
- secabeen 10y agoClose. In this case, they launched mostly south. Vandenberg was created to give the US a polar launch capability. You can't launch southbound from Florida, as the launch would pass right over Miami.
- thenewwazoo 10y agoNeat! Thanks! It was an artifact of the rendering that made it look westward, but I can absolutely see how it could have been South. Makes sense!
- walrus01 10y agoWell you could, if you were reckless, like China... Have you seen the videos of a failed first stage that fell on a village about 10+ years ago?
- jonah 10y agoHere's a photo I took of the ascent from about 50 miles east. http://imgur.com/a/RlJUR http://imgur.com/a/RlJUR (Nikon D7000, 300mm, handheld. Cropped and adjusted for contrast.)
- david-given 10y agoNice picture; could you hear it from that distance? (I'm very jealous; I'd love to see a launch, but neither Switzerland nor the UK have functioning space programs, and French Guiana is a bit far too walk...)
- jonah 10y agoThanks. I've been able to catch a few launches over the years. (I even heard the Shuttle's sonic boom once.) I didn't hear it going up but there was a loud rumble on the return. (Which I couldn't see from my vantage point.)
- dtparr 10y agoAre you accounting for the speed of sound? The distance to the launch site of 50mi would be about 4 minutes of delay (getting longer as it flies South) Hearing the landing over 400km away (or even boost back burns which started about 4.5 minutes and several hundred km down range, plus whatever altitude it attained) seems odd if you didn't hear all 9 engines going up.
- jonah 10y agoOh, yeah. You're likely right. I wasn't keeping close watch on the time as I had my hands full with a radio, live stream on my phone, and the camera.
- power78 10y agoIsm not the original person, but I live in Santa Barbara (about 60 miles away). You can definitely hear the rumble, delayed by several minutes. The launches at the middle of the night are the best since it's so quiet.
- ufmace 10y agoGood for them! I'm impressed with how quickly they were able to conclude their accident investigation and get approved for return to flight. Brings to mind all of the multi-year Shuttle accident investigations.
- 464192002d7fe1c 10y agoIn fairness, if there had been loss-of-life it probably would have been a much harder process. I suspect the reason for the swift return to flight is half that fact, and half that SpaceX is more bureaucratically efficient.
- will_hughes 10y agoTo be fair, there was no loss of life in this incident. If it were to have happened on a manned flight, even with nobody was on-board during the test, then I doubt we'd be seeing return to flight so quickly.
- general_ai 10y agoAnd the beauty of this is, launching these Iridium satellites is just a beta test for what they're going to do next: launch _four thousand_ of their own satellites which will blanket the planet with gigabit broadband.
- Tepix 10y agoI wouldn't call it a beta test. These launches provide crucial income for the company.
- general_ai 10y agoOne does not preclude another.
- sidcool 10y agoTheir turn around time is super fast. I can't imagine this happening even with NASA. Here's a lot of good luck to SpaceX in 2017.
- grkvlt 10y agoSadly, with these new Iridium satellites, the 'Iridium Flare' phenomenon of a bright flash visible in the sky when the old satellites passed through sunlight and reflected it downwards when overhead, will no longer occur. I liked the quote from the Iridium CEO explaining why it won't happen: "[...] we weren't going to spend money just to make angular shiny things on our satellites [...]"
- hazeii 10y agoThat's news to me, and a real disappointment. Just before Christmas I saw there was going to be a mag -8 flare close to where the ISS would be- watched it with my 4yo, spinning a tale the ISS was Santa and the flare was a reindeer re-entry. The flare predictor[1] on the Heavens Above website will presumably shut down when the last of the old satellites goes. [1] http://www.heavens-above.com/IridiumFlares.aspx http://www.heavens-above.com/IridiumFlares.aspx
- srigi 10y agoIt would be really cool if there will be a recording of "arriving to Antarctica" from stage2 https://youtu.be/7WimRhydggo?t=3012 https://youtu.be/7WimRhydggo?t=3012