SpaceX's Grasshopper VTVL takes a 40 meter hop

_Tombstone_

"Tankland"

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDgfxVeF8TW/


"Rockets from the rafters"

https://www.instagram.com/p/BC0sQL7F8YG/

_Tombstone_

Friday for next launch back to the Barge

SpaceX hopes to sell used Falcon 9 boosters for as low as $40 million


SpaceX pressures rocket man with perfect record

_Tombstone_

Petition to award Musk Nobel Prize in Economic Science

nokia69

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Petition to award Musk Nobel Prize in Economic Science

I suppose if they can give Barry Obama a peace prize then why not give Musk an economic prize

_Tombstone_

Shes ready to roll

https://www.instagram.com/p/BD4KybCl8fp/


Looking abit windy though...

Knifey Spoony

So, assuming clear skies tonight, could we see Dragon passing over shortly after launch?

With the ISS being visible tomorrow night, there's probably a good chance of seeing Dragon chasing it then. But, I would love to see it just after launch.

Westernyelp

Weather looks good for launch

Westernyelp

Wow!!!

They did it.

nokia69

Westernyelp wrote: »

Wow!!!

They did it.

It was only a matter of time, they were very unlucky with that broken leg a while back

Westernyelp

nokia69 wrote: »

It was only a matter of time, they were very unlucky with that broken leg a while back

Still afraid it's gonna fall of the boat though! hope the seas are calm :pac:

nokia69

Westernyelp wrote: »

Still afraid it's gonna fall of the boat though! hope the seas are calm :pac:

Yeah I was too, it looked a little choppy, but most of the weight is at the bottom so it should be stable enough

https://gfycat.com/UnfitFixedCony

Ghost Train

Looks a bit choppy, great they finally did it
https://twitter.com/StephEvz43/status/718543437956395008

_Tombstone_

Good week for musk, 14 Billion in Tesla pre orders, an offer from the French to set up shop in an old nuke plant in the area he wanted and now the elusive landing.

Two thirds of landings will be at sea so they'll...I assume build some platform out there somewhere and get rid of that Barge yoke.

nokia69

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Two thirds of landings will be at sea so they'll...I assume build some platform out there somewhere and get rid of that Barge yoke.

I don't know, is that possible, is it not a bit far out and too deep, and they may build a bigger barge, one of the legs was very close to the edge, well maybe future landings will be closer to the bulls eye

Westernyelp

nokia69 wrote: »

I don't know, is that possible, is it not a bit far out and too deep, and they may build a bigger barge, one of the legs was very close to the edge, well maybe future landings will be closer to the bulls eye

Not every mission will be on the same flightpath either

nokia69

Westernyelp wrote: »

Not every mission will be on the same flightpath either

yeah true, and Musk has just said they long term only maybe 25% will be sea landings

_Tombstone_

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/8/11395348/spacex-falcon-landing-reusable

^^Two thirds...anyway

Capt'n Midnight

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Two thirds of landings will be at sea so they'll...I assume build some platform out there somewhere and get rid of that Barge yoke.

I'd doubt it. Barges are cheap and flexible. Platforms are neither. Especially in deep water.

Depending on the destination orbit or parking orbit the first stage could start off on different trajectories, and depending on the payload it could come down at different distances.

One of the things that made the Shuttle such a turkey was having to provide way too much cross range to placate the Air Force. Otherwise it could have had much smaller wings, which would have meant a lot less tiles and less refurb costs between flights. It's possible that the oversized wings were a factor in Columbia's loss.

nokia69

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

^^Two thirds...anyway

I think he said more on land than at sea, thats what I heard

Its early days yet, they still have work to do

Hmmzis

So they'll hotfire this stage 10 times and then'll put a second stage and payload on top and launch it again, in June supposedly. Fair play to them if they can pull than one off! Congrats on the landing, that's some achievement on its own already.

_Tombstone_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pUAydjne5M

27.20 if ya haven't seen it yet.

Hmmzis wrote: »

So they'll hotfire this stage 10 times and then'll put a second stage and payload on top and launch it again, in June supposedly. Fair play to them if they can pull than one off! Congrats on the landing, that's some achievement on its own already.

SES have called dibs on getting up on a reusable since last summer.


SpaceX rocket booster makes breakthrough landing at sea
SpaceX lands rocket on ocean-going drone ship


They're gonna look at trying to save the payload fairing next. No plans for stage 2 as it'd need a heat shield.


22.04 for ISS Tonight, Dragon due to dock Sunday Morning at 11am so it should be following shortly after tonight if no cloulds. App on phone says it's looking good.

Ghost Train

Can see the moon at the moment, so hopefully clear enough to iss and spacex crs in few minutes

Edit: nice clear sky in south west, so great pass of ISS with dragon a bit fainter and about a minute behind

_Tombstone_

Without NASA there would be no SpaceX and its brilliant boat landing

Capt'n Midnight

Just an aside. SpaceX use three landing legs. Blue origin use four.

Reminded me of the LEM design. One set of engineers wanted three legs because that was lighter. The other group wanted five because that gave redundancy in case a leg was damaged.

So management compromised on four. Heavier than three legs and no redundancy.

thecommander

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Just an aside. SpaceX use three landing legs. Blue origin use four.

Reminded me of the LEM design. One set of engineers wanted three legs because that was lighter. The other group wanted five because that gave redundancy in case a leg was damaged.

So management compromised on four. Heavier than three legs and no redundancy.

SpaceX use 4 legs not 3.
Pic

josip

Was the 5 legs preference for the LEM for stability rather than redundancy?
The more legs you have the the greater an off-centre angle you can tolerate without falling over.
4 legs for the tall Falcon 9 makes more sense than 3, even if most of the mass is towards to the bottom.

Hmmzis

Stage is on dry land in port Canaveral. The webcam guy is doing a great job paning and zooming to show the activity around the stage.

_Tombstone_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU1b1H2EWU4

Hmmzis

CRS-8 stage goes horizontal (again).

linky

live feed

Hmmzis

Both returned bosters now in HIF at pad 39A. Looks like the OG-2 core is missing a few engines, probably for inspection.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/722598287396605953?s=09