SpaceX (general discussion)

fredymac said:
I missed that. It seems odd to have moved like that. I get the impression it is related to that spurt of thrust you see after the landing. I wonder if they vent/purge any leftover fuel that is already reaching the engines and with 3 engines they got more lift than anticipated.
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They certainly purge the LOX, the TEA/TEB hypergolics, the cold-gas thrusters, and I think the left-over helium. Not sure about the kerosone. They pumped it into a tanker after the landing on land, but they might dump it in a barge landing. Everything they can get out of the tanks improves the stage's stability (free surface effect is the enemy). They also want to reduce the amount of energetic and/or toxic stuff in the stage when the crew boards the barge.
 
sferrin said:
cluttonfred said:
Almost six minutes of a rocket sitting on a barge...really?
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Did somebody force you to watch it?
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I loved it! I'm a professional model builder -- weathering techniques a specialty. This was a wealth of information as to how the bumps and conduits channeled the carbon-black during the reentry and motor burns.

Great, lingering shots, and from subtle time and position references.

And the engine bay access plates were removed -- priceless!

And I got a good idea how they push out those legs during the initial deploy position from this 'boring' footage -- they kick 'em out with gas pistons (as there's no mechanical advantage between telescoping struts and the legs themselves when folded-for-flight). Good stuff!

More!

David
 
That channel has more of those kinds of videos as well. I like the one where they take it down and load it on the truck. :eek:
 
sferrin said:
That channel has more of those kinds of videos as well. I like the one where they take it down and load it on the truck. :eek:
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The Scaldis Gulliver self propelled barge being built right now will be able to do that at sea... Might be necessary once they start having to land 3 boosters at a time on 3 landing barges every week (one can dream).
It might make sense load them on a cargo there and then and leave the barges on station.
gulliver-edited-resized-0_126916.jpg

http://scaldis-smc.com/en-GB/gulliver/32/
 
Here the size and volume
CiimTqJVEAAmyf6.jpg



What a view
a launch rocket stage coming back to it's Launch site

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xMPKHhJSQU
 
Well, considering S1 alone is 160 feet (48,77m) including the interstage as it is always attached, and without the height from legs, those numbers are very wrong.
 
flanker said:
Well, considering S1 alone is 160 feet (48,77m) including the interstage as it is always attached, and without the height from legs, those numbers are very wrong.
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I have continually underestimated the size of that thing. First time I saw them testing Grasshopper I was like, "meh, DC-X did it better years ago". Up until a week or so ago I thought it was roughly in the Delta IV single-core class. Apparently the latest has more lifting capability than a Titan IVB or Proton. :eek:
 
Yup, note that the numbers on their site are future numbers, current F9 is able to lift slightly less than that and Proton-M still. But the amazing thing is that they have been through 3 major versions of same vehicle (and one million subversions) in just 5 years. And between those - they have doubled their performance within the same vehicle. That is their true strength over anyone else currently, their rapid development cycle.
 
I thought the numbers on the SpaceX site now (22,800 kg to LEO, 8,300 kg to GEO) refer to Falcon 9 FT (Full Thrust) using densified fuel. I think that's the current flying version.
 
Yes, it is a bit confusing on first look but look at the thrust figures, they are not matching the current ones. M1D is currently able to do 170k lbf while those are 190k lbf. They plan to fly it with 190k later this year; https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/726650591359819776

And if one orders a flight today, one doesnt get a flight tomorrow. As their site says, it is assuming 2018;

http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities

By which time SpaceX is clearly planning on another upgrade, and those numbers assume the upgraded version. F9 Fullestest Thrust or F9 v1.3. :p
 
flanker said:
Yes, it is a bit confusing on first look but look at the thrust figures, they are not matching the current ones. M1D is currently able to do 170k lbf while those are 190k lbf. They plan to fly it with 190k later this year; https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/726650591359819776

And if one orders a flight today, one doesnt get a flight tomorrow. As their site says, it is assuming 2018;

http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities

By which time SpaceX is clearly planning on another upgrade, and those numbers assume the upgraded version. F9 Fullestest Thrust or F9 v1.3. :p
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Musk Twitter
F9 thrust at liftoff will be raised to 1.71M lbf later this year. It is capable of 1.9M lbf in flight.
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Musk means engine Sea level thrust and vacuum thrust what is higher
That's because the Merlin 1D has to work in Atmosphere so Thrust is lower 171k lbf, but in vacuum the Merlin get full potential of 195k lbf.
 
...Wat?

1.71mil / 9 = 190k per engine, SL.
1.9mil / 9 = 211k per engine, vacuum.

Currently it is 170k per engine, SL, 1.53mil at SL. This isnt exactly complex math. 30h or so remaining until next flight, GTO again.
 
flanker said:
This isnt exactly complex math. 30h or so remaining until next flight, GTO again.
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Where'd you get the info? I can't find anything online. ???
 
Thaicom 8, they just did SF 12h ago; https://vine.co/v/i9bHDtOgmFi

5:40PM EDT
 
flanker said:
Thaicom 8, they just did SF 12h ago; https://vine.co/v/i9bHDtOgmFi

5:40PM EDT
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Thanks! Can't wait. Are they still planning on launching a Heavy in 2016?
 
Kinda, but not really. :p https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/735188896682774529
 
Grey Havoc said:
SpaceX Is Running Out of Room for Its Landed Rockets (Gizmodo)
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Interesting that the one that endured the higher stress levels is unusable. I wonder if they're just going to beef up the required areas on all rockets, if it's something they can add insulation too for just those flights, or if they're just not going to reuse rockets that go on those flights. ???
 
sferrin; https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/734274360588926976
 
flanker said:
sferrin; https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/734274360588926976
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Cool. Sounds like they're taking the one that was stressed the most and seeing how that fared. If it's good to go that means the other two should be as well. (Obviously they'll check those too.)
 
T-20min; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBYC4f79iXc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPYOtCFSLKw
 
Nice! I was hoping we'd get to ride it all the way down. ;D
 
Did you see the 'glow' at the center of the grid-fin just before the crap fogged the lens?

Wow! Two-for-two!

And what was that at the foot of the landed first-stage? Barge FOD or did something come off the vehicle?

David
 
Nice S1 view, that is a first. And congrats for another landing SpaceX! Statistically speaking, the harder 3 engine landings are better now. :D
 
fourth landing of first stage
they need to extend there Hangar at Launch Pad 39A now...

Congratulation SpaceX
 
merriman said:
Did you see the 'glow' at the center of the grid-fin just before the crap fogged the lens?

Wow! Two-for-two!

And what was that at the foot of the landed first-stage? Barge FOD or did something come off the vehicle?

David
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http://i.imgur.com/J7kK3W8.gif

It is just something that is closer to the camera than it is to the landing space of course. It is not some crap laying around.
 
flanker said:
merriman said:
Did you see the 'glow' at the center of the grid-fin just before the crap fogged the lens?

Wow! Two-for-two!

And what was that at the foot of the landed first-stage? Barge FOD or did something come off the vehicle?

David
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http://i.imgur.com/J7kK3W8.gif

It is just something that is closer to the camera than it is to the landing space of course. It is not some crap laying around.
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The glow / material coming from the fin could very well have been hydraulic fluid, seeing as it isn't recirculated.

As for the barge FOD, do you mean the hose-looking thing? If so, that's a fire suppression system of the barge; they were shown in the previous landing as hosing down the rocket ~10 seconds after it had landed. This time around though the video froze soon after it landed, so we didn't see it happen (if it was meant to). Anything else was likely the water droplets that landed on the camera aperture.
 
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/736328917317910528

Rocket landing speed was close to design max & used up contingency crush core, hence back & forth motion. Prob ok, but some risk of tipping.
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Crush core is aluminum honeycomb for energy absorption in the telescoping actuator. Easy to replace (if Falcon makes it back to port).
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Also, amazing footage here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jEz03Z8azc
 
I am about 99% sure that the glow has nothing to do with hydrailic fluid or anything but just good old air pressure. The actual grids are large enough to let the air pass through but in that area it is tighter so the air is trapped.

And that landing footage is honestly the most amazing thing i have seen in my life.
 
flanker said:
I am about 99% sure that the glow has nothing to do with hydrailic fluid or anything but just good old air pressure. The actual grids are large enough to let the air pass through but in that area it is tighter so the air is trapped.

And that landing footage is honestly the most amazing thing i have seen in my life.
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Somebody needs to sacrifice their first born to the god Elon Musk so they'll release that footage, realtime and with sound, in 4k. You just know somebody has been watching that on a loop for hours already. Lucky bastids.
 
And another launch Wednesday morning around 10:30am EST. Drone ship is positioned about 400 miles east of Canaveral. Looks like low prices are driving a lot of commercial launch business. If Spacex can eventually amortize hardware costs over 10-20 launches, it will drive down prices to where launch service labor and consumables (fuel) make up the major portion of the bill. Of course that would require re-use of the second stage as well but it is difficult to see how single use/throwaway rockets stay competitive in the long run.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/06/13/spacex-conducts-static-fire-test-for-wednesdays-falcon-9-flight/
The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket completed the static fire test Sunday at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad, throttling up its main engines to 1.5 million pounds of thrust for a few seconds to verify the vehicle’s readiness for flight.
Liftoff on Wednesday is set for 10:29 a.m. EDT (1429 GMT) at the opening of a 44-minute launch window.
Like all Falcon 9 flights so far this year, SpaceX will attempt to recover the rocket’s first stage booster on a barge positioned downrange from the launch site. For this mission, the drone ship will hold position about 420 miles (680 kilometers) east of Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean.
 

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