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I believe they do a little horizontal kick just before landing when they validate things are look good. Potentially something wasn’t right and it just crashed i

by xt00 7y ago

I believe they do a little horizontal kick just before landing when they validate things are look good. Potentially something wasn’t right and it just crashed into the ocean like 100 yards from the drone ship.. the good thing is that spaceX seems to learn from all of these issues and compensates, so will be interesting to here what happened.

clutchingstraws 7y ago
This is accurate. More good examples of this passive-safety landing procedure in action were in the Heavy demo flight and the CRS-16 mission. The Heavy demo center core failed to relight two of the three engines needed for landing, and plunged right into the water off the side of the landing barge (https://youtu.be/A0FZIwabctw?t=72 https://youtu.be/A0FZIwabctw?t=72). CRS-16's booster had a hydraulic failure of the grid fins but still had engine and RCS control, so it was able to make a soft water splashdown at the last second (dramatic video from the booster's perspective is here: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1070399755526656000 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1070399755526656000).
- Denvercoder9 7y ago
  If I remember correctly this procedure was implemented after SES-9, which came in too hot and broke straight through the deck of the droneship.
  - greglindahl 7y ago
    I'm pretty sure it pre-dates the first landing, it's an important safety feature when aiming the booster at land.
  - clutchingstraws 7y ago
    I didn't know that. Thanks for the detail. Better to lose a booster than both lose a booster and cripple a droneship. On that topic, I've always been impressed at how tough those droneships are. They've taken a lot of punishment but they've never lost one at sea yet. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall of the first meeting between reps from SpaceX and McDonough Marine. "So, you folks make big rockets. I'm guessing you're going to need these barges to transport them around to avoid roads. And there's likely some insurance implications here." "In that order: yes, technically yes, and definitely yes."
Faark 7y ago
You're right with it not targeting the droneship directly from afar, but today's webcast [0] said "soft-landing on the water right next to the droneship". In other words not the full speed missile impact scenario. I'm eager to get news/details as well. [0] https://youtu.be/8xeX62mLcf8?t=1531 https://youtu.be/8xeX62mLcf8?t=1531
- xt00 7y ago
  Ah thanks for that.. I mean, come on spaceX, give us a pan-scan camera controlled by the internet so we can help look for the rocket when it crash lands!! we can have it hooked up to a discord server and people can type "LEFT" "RIGHT".. etc.. :-) totally would work..

by xt00 7y ago

clutchingstraws 7y ago

This is accurate. More good examples of this passive-safety landing procedure in action were in the Heavy demo flight and the CRS-16 mission. The Heavy demo center core failed to relight two of the three engines needed for landing, and plunged right into the water off the side of the landing barge (https://youtu.be/A0FZIwabctw?t=72 https://youtu.be/A0FZIwabctw?t=72). CRS-16's booster had a hydraulic failure of the grid fins but still had engine and RCS control, so it was able to make a soft water splashdown at the last second (dramatic video from the booster's perspective is here: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1070399755526656000 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1070399755526656000).

Denvercoder9 7y ago
If I remember correctly this procedure was implemented after SES-9, which came in too hot and broke straight through the deck of the droneship.
- greglindahl 7y ago
  I'm pretty sure it pre-dates the first landing, it's an important safety feature when aiming the booster at land.
- clutchingstraws 7y ago
  I didn't know that. Thanks for the detail. Better to lose a booster than both lose a booster and cripple a droneship. On that topic, I've always been impressed at how tough those droneships are. They've taken a lot of punishment but they've never lost one at sea yet. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall of the first meeting between reps from SpaceX and McDonough Marine. "So, you folks make big rockets. I'm guessing you're going to need these barges to transport them around to avoid roads. And there's likely some insurance implications here." "In that order: yes, technically yes, and definitely yes."

Faark 7y ago

You're right with it not targeting the droneship directly from afar, but today's webcast [0] said "soft-landing on the water right next to the droneship". In other words not the full speed missile impact scenario. I'm eager to get news/details as well. [0] https://youtu.be/8xeX62mLcf8?t=1531 https://youtu.be/8xeX62mLcf8?t=1531

xt00 7y ago
Ah thanks for that.. I mean, come on spaceX, give us a pan-scan camera controlled by the internet so we can help look for the rocket when it crash lands!! we can have it hooked up to a discord server and people can type "LEFT" "RIGHT".. etc.. :-) totally would work..