SpaceX Falcon 9 Live Landing Attempt
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 11,322
SpaceX Falcon 9 Live Landing Attempt
SpaceX Falcon 9 cargo launch to the ISS. After payload separation they will attempt to start the motor on re-entry and do a controlled descent and landing onto a barge in the Atlantic. Launch approx 1120 UTC.
Live video here.
Live video here.
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Orstralia
Posts: 297
I think it normally takes a few days. It's to do do with trajectories and velocity. Some fairly precision parking is required, and you don't want to rear end the thing. Recently, though the Russians got up there in about six hours. They must know a short cut.
Is Ladbrokes or someone running a book on this robot ship landing?
Is Ladbrokes or someone running a book on this robot ship landing?
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 11,322
SpaceX update on landing attempt:
Landing Update: Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard.
Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future though.
Landing Update: Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard.
Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future though.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 11,322
Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Follow
Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho.
10:05 AM - 10 Jan 2015
Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Follow
Ship itself is fine. Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced...
10:10 AM - 10 Jan 2015
Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Follow
Didn't get good landing/impact video. Pitch dark and foggy. Will piece it together from telemetry and ... actual pieces.
10:15 AM - 10 Jan 2015
Follow
Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho.
10:05 AM - 10 Jan 2015
Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Follow
Ship itself is fine. Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced...
10:10 AM - 10 Jan 2015
Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Follow
Didn't get good landing/impact video. Pitch dark and foggy. Will piece it together from telemetry and ... actual pieces.
10:15 AM - 10 Jan 2015
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Swindon, Wilts,UK
Posts: 567
Growing up in the sixties all the blurb from NASA and the media showing us that space travel would be a normal everyday occurrence by now. It's taken a bit longer getting there, but things are getting more like Thunderbirds every day. I wonder how long it will take them to get it accurate enough to land through the summer house!
The onboard shots were interesting if a bit smudgy due to the ice. Shame they had no footage from the barge. Be interesting to see the landing from the ground so to speak.
Better luck next time chaps!
The onboard shots were interesting if a bit smudgy due to the ice. Shame they had no footage from the barge. Be interesting to see the landing from the ground so to speak.
Better luck next time chaps!
Guest
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Somewhere between E17487 and F75775
Age: 77
Posts: 724
Approximately how long does it take to get to and dock with the ISS?
As a general rule if you watch the ISS overhead (look at Heavens-Above
You will see a point of light preceeding the ISS in the same orbit* for a few hours, maybe days before docking and a few hours/days after undocking.
* Not really, it's in a slower and higher orbit before docking and a faster and lower orbit when leaving, but you can't tell that with the naked eye.
As a general rule if you watch the ISS overhead (look at Heavens-Above
You will see a point of light preceeding the ISS in the same orbit* for a few hours, maybe days before docking and a few hours/days after undocking.
* Not really, it's in a slower and higher orbit before docking and a faster and lower orbit when leaving, but you can't tell that with the naked eye.
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Somewhere where I can watch you
Posts: 81
As someone who doubted that they would be able to balance a telegraph pole on a rocket exhaust, I was VERY impressed to watch this test flight - and doubt no more.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t15vP1PyoA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t15vP1PyoA
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Somewhere where I can watch you
Posts: 81
Meanwhile, back in the 21st Century - does anyone know how the telegraph pole is kept upright? Presumably extending steerable cruciform fins at the top deployed for the freefall, but is it thrusters or gimballing exhaust for the delicate bit?
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 465
I believe it's cold gas thrusters outside the atmosphere, fins in the atmosphere with the engine off, and engine gimballing when the engine is running.
Landing video is up, didn't see anyone else post it yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3nMsUvakPM
Apparently the fins got stuck at a steep angle when the hydraulic fluid ran out, and the engine gimbal couldn't compensate for it and still decelerate enough to land softly.
Unfortunately, from the video, it looks like there won't be many pieces left that are large enough to determine whether it really will be reusable when they land it in one piece. Hopefully next time it will work.
Wasn't this also the first time they did a boostback manoeuvre where it turns around and heads back toward Florida? I think the previous attempts just fell into the sea wherever it was heading.
Edit: here you go, this is how it's supposed to work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfMuvsC9k2U
Landing video is up, didn't see anyone else post it yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3nMsUvakPM
Apparently the fins got stuck at a steep angle when the hydraulic fluid ran out, and the engine gimbal couldn't compensate for it and still decelerate enough to land softly.
Unfortunately, from the video, it looks like there won't be many pieces left that are large enough to determine whether it really will be reusable when they land it in one piece. Hopefully next time it will work.
Wasn't this also the first time they did a boostback manoeuvre where it turns around and heads back toward Florida? I think the previous attempts just fell into the sea wherever it was heading.
Edit: here you go, this is how it's supposed to work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfMuvsC9k2U
Last edited by MG23; 17th Jan 2015 at 04:14.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 11,322
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 11,322
SpaceX, Air Force sign deal for landing pad at Cape
SpaceX and the Air Force have reached an agreement to use a former Atlas launch pad on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as a landing site for returning Falcon rocket boosters.
"The way we see it, this is a classic combination of a highly successful launch past morphing into an equally promising future," Brig. Gen. Nina Armagno, commander of the 45th Space Wing, said in a statement........
Located on "Missile Row," Launch Complex 13 first supported a test of an Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile in 1958, and later launches of unmanned planetary probes for NASA and classified Air Force missions. It was deactivated in 1978 after more than 50 launches and designated part of a National Historic Landmark, according to Air Force records.
"For decades, we have been refining our procedures for getting successful launches skyward here on the Eastern Range. Now we're looking at processes on how to bring first-stage rockets back to earth at the first landing pad at the Cape," Armagno said. "We live in exciting times here on the Space Coast."
SpaceX and the Air Force have reached an agreement to use a former Atlas launch pad on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as a landing site for returning Falcon rocket boosters.
"The way we see it, this is a classic combination of a highly successful launch past morphing into an equally promising future," Brig. Gen. Nina Armagno, commander of the 45th Space Wing, said in a statement........
Located on "Missile Row," Launch Complex 13 first supported a test of an Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile in 1958, and later launches of unmanned planetary probes for NASA and classified Air Force missions. It was deactivated in 1978 after more than 50 launches and designated part of a National Historic Landmark, according to Air Force records.
"For decades, we have been refining our procedures for getting successful launches skyward here on the Eastern Range. Now we're looking at processes on how to bring first-stage rockets back to earth at the first landing pad at the Cape," Armagno said. "We live in exciting times here on the Space Coast."
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Austin, Texas, USA
Posts: 54
Yesterday's Falcon 9 launch of the DSCOVR spacecraft to the L-1 point was picture perfect.
According to Elon Musk, the booster fly-back was successful, landing vertically within ten meters of the target.
Sadly, due to 10 meter wave conditions, Just Read The Instructions was recalled prior to what became a water landing of the Falcon 9 stage one.
According to Elon Musk, the booster fly-back was successful, landing vertically within ten meters of the target.
Sadly, due to 10 meter wave conditions, Just Read The Instructions was recalled prior to what became a water landing of the Falcon 9 stage one.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 11,322
SpaceX will try again to make history during the launch of its robotic Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station on Monday (April 13).
The company aims to bring the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket back to Earth for a soft touchdown on an unmanned "spaceport drone ship" in the Atlantic Ocean after the booster sends Dragon on its way toward the orbiting lab. Liftoff is scheduled for 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT) Monday from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station; you can watch all the action live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.
WATCH LIVE NOW: HD Views from the International Space Station
The company aims to bring the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket back to Earth for a soft touchdown on an unmanned "spaceport drone ship" in the Atlantic Ocean after the booster sends Dragon on its way toward the orbiting lab. Liftoff is scheduled for 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT) Monday from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station; you can watch all the action live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.
WATCH LIVE NOW: HD Views from the International Space Station