3 ms·
The video of the stage maneuvering is great (1 minute): https://twitter.com/RogerCraigSmith/status/1049130456157810689 https://twitter.com/RogerCraigSmith/stat
by wolf550e 8y ago
The video of the stage maneuvering is great (1 minute):
https://twitter.com/RogerCraigSmith/status/1049130456157810689 https://twitter.com/RogerCraigSmith/status/10491304561578106...
Another longer video (8 minutes):
https://youtu.be/TVHAoxyHO9c https://youtu.be/TVHAoxyHO9c
Official livestream with views from the rocket and some views from the ground (at the time the interesting things happen):
https://youtu.be/vr_C6LQ7mHc?t=1148 https://youtu.be/vr_C6LQ7mHc?t=1148
What we see is the shutdown of the 9 engines of the first stage, separation of the the first stage from the second stage, ignition of the engine on the second stage, turn of the first stage to point engines-back, ignition of 3 engines on the first stage to boost back toward the launch site, separation of the two halves of the payload fairing from the second stage and them falling, the first stage maneuvering using cold gas thrusters to navigate to the launch site. The first stage eventually lands ~1400 feet (~420 meters) from the launch site. The second stage reaches 600x600km polar orbit [1], separates from the satellite payload and usually for LEO de-orbits to sink in the ocean. There was no attempt to recover the payload fairings this time because of waves, apparently.
1 - https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1049167565904388096 https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1049167565904388096
- flippyhead 8y agoI do not understand what's happening here but man it looks like an alien spacecraft doing something.