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Gwynne Shotwell (CEO of SpaceX) stated near the end of this video[1] that the reason they had such good video coverage is that they usually follow the second st
by njarboe 9y ago
Gwynne Shotwell (CEO of SpaceX) stated near the end of this video[1] that the reason they had such good video coverage is that they usually follow the second stage, but in this case it was a classified mission and were forbidden to do so. The cameras followed the first stage return instead.
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjTHJzWPTnU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjTHJzWPTnU
- ChuckMcM 9y agoThose are great videos, in this case I was talking about the launch of GovSat-1 (non classified) which was a launch to GEO so a high delta-v launch. SpaceX has generally defined these as 'unrecoverable' for at least two reasons; the first stage is going too fast making reentry quite 'hot', and they have used all the fuel to boost mass rather than save some for landing. So when they stood up the rocket and it had landing feet attached I was curious (why waste the weight of those feet if you aren't going to land it?). My guesses were that either it was too much work to remove them (it was a pre-flown booster) or some other experiment. It turns out they were experimenting with a different return profile that could allow them to land this type of mission's booster.
- njarboe 9y agoYour "following the first stage" made me think of the Zuma launch footage and I forgot this was about GovSat-1. Nice there are so many going on that it is easy to mix them up.
- njarboe 9y agoOn further research I think it was the NROL-76 launch with a classified payload in spring 2017 that she was talking about.