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I don't know which mission it was exactly, but I think it was the first one where they tried to recover two booster stages (I hope that's what they are called).

I don't know which mission it was exactly, but I think it was the first one where they tried to recover two booster stages (I hope that's what they are called). Watching the live stream of both of them landing simultaneously back on the pad gave me goosebumps and sent shivers down my spine, in a good way.

Klathmon 8y ago
Not to diminish that feeling, but there was a kind of funny mistake made in the livestream for the Falcon Heavy launch (which was actually attempting to land 3 stages at around the same time, but one of them had an issue and suicided into the ocean as designed). Turns out, both of the video streams for the 2 side rockets were actually of the same rocket! You can go back and watch the corrected footage of both landing at once, but it was funny when many watching along (myself included) were like "wow they are so identical" only to find that it was the same footage!
- dEnigma 8y ago
  Haha, no worries, I was aware of that while watching. What impressed me was the footage from the ground based (or helicopter?) camera that showed them landing side by side. Edit: I didn't know that three boosters were supposed to land. That probably would've blown my mind if it had succeeded ^^
  - Klathmon 8y ago
    Yeah they were attempting to land all 3, but the center booster (which would have landed on a barge at sea) had issues relighting it's engines during the landing burn. They setup the landings so that they are on a trajectory to hit the ocean, and only if everything goes right do they then adjust course to the landing pads. This gives them an additional failsafe which the center booster took advantage of here. Instead of crashing into an expensive barge in the ocean, it just splashed down into the ocean purposely missing the barge. [1] is a diagram that kind of shows what this looks like for land based landings, but it's very similar for barge landings too. And don't worry, they are going to be flying Falcon Heavy again soon-ish, so there's another chance to land all 3! [1] http://i.imgur.com/D9BdO86.png http://i.imgur.com/D9BdO86.png
  - gpm 8y ago
    > or helicopter? Probably a quad/octocopter - I know they've used one before for footage. Third booster was supposed to land on a droneship - it was a near miss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXd5UHFuZVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXd5UHFuZVI It needed to relight three engines, it ran out of igniter before lighting more than one.
gdpgreg 8y ago
That was the falcon heavy test launch. The two rockets that landed were side boosters which so happened to be two other falcon 9s.
the_duke 8y ago
That was the Falcon Heavy test launch that also brought a Tesla to orbit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c
- dEnigma 8y ago
  Oh yeah, there was something else to that launch too. Thanks for reminding me of that! I'll have to rewatch it at some point.
mcv 8y ago
That shot was epic. Rocket ballet. Seeing those two boosters land together was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. They may have lost the third booster, but as a demonstration of what SpaceX does, it was brilliantly done.

Klathmon 8y ago

Not to diminish that feeling, but there was a kind of funny mistake made in the livestream for the Falcon Heavy launch (which was actually attempting to land 3 stages at around the same time, but one of them had an issue and suicided into the ocean as designed). Turns out, both of the video streams for the 2 side rockets were actually of the same rocket! You can go back and watch the corrected footage of both landing at once, but it was funny when many watching along (myself included) were like "wow they are so identical" only to find that it was the same footage!

dEnigma 8y ago
Haha, no worries, I was aware of that while watching. What impressed me was the footage from the ground based (or helicopter?) camera that showed them landing side by side. Edit: I didn't know that three boosters were supposed to land. That probably would've blown my mind if it had succeeded ^^
- Klathmon 8y ago
  Yeah they were attempting to land all 3, but the center booster (which would have landed on a barge at sea) had issues relighting it's engines during the landing burn. They setup the landings so that they are on a trajectory to hit the ocean, and only if everything goes right do they then adjust course to the landing pads. This gives them an additional failsafe which the center booster took advantage of here. Instead of crashing into an expensive barge in the ocean, it just splashed down into the ocean purposely missing the barge. [1] is a diagram that kind of shows what this looks like for land based landings, but it's very similar for barge landings too. And don't worry, they are going to be flying Falcon Heavy again soon-ish, so there's another chance to land all 3! [1] http://i.imgur.com/D9BdO86.png http://i.imgur.com/D9BdO86.png
- gpm 8y ago
  > or helicopter? Probably a quad/octocopter - I know they've used one before for footage. Third booster was supposed to land on a droneship - it was a near miss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXd5UHFuZVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXd5UHFuZVI It needed to relight three engines, it ran out of igniter before lighting more than one.

gdpgreg 8y ago

That was the falcon heavy test launch. The two rockets that landed were side boosters which so happened to be two other falcon 9s.

the_duke 8y ago

That was the Falcon Heavy test launch that also brought a Tesla to orbit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c

dEnigma 8y ago
Oh yeah, there was something else to that launch too. Thanks for reminding me of that! I'll have to rewatch it at some point.

mcv 8y ago

That shot was epic. Rocket ballet. Seeing those two boosters land together was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. They may have lost the third booster, but as a demonstration of what SpaceX does, it was brilliantly done.