SpaceX sticks the landing perfectly!

[Uwe]

Falcon 9 `booster landings on the drone-ship fleet have become routine. But I was impressed by last night's landing:



That looks like it's no more than 1 meter off target in any direction!

-Uwe-

 

[vreihen]

More impressive is that SpaceX did TWO launches in a single day on Saturday, launching another Starlink batch from Vandenberg at 7:41 AM EST and then Turksat 5B at 10:58 PM EST from Cape Canaveral. The booster used at Vandenberg has flown/landed a record 11 times now, starting with Dragon’s first crew demonstration mission, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, SXM-7, and now 8 Starlink missions.....

 

[Uwe]

The booster used at Vandenberg has flown/landed a record 11 times now

I was not aware of that. I recall they were looking to do ten flights between major refurbishments. It sounds like they're exceeded that goal?

-Uwe-

 

[vreihen]

That was the design goal for the latest block 5 boosters, with a lifetime of 100 launches with refurbishments. Of note is that Musk has been riding this particular booster hard for his own Starlink launches, and I'm thinking that he may be trying to push it to failure to re-write the refurb schedule.....

 

[Uwe]

I'm thinking that he may be trying to push it to failure to re-write the refurb schedule.....

I'm sure he'd like to know how many launches he can get before a RUD, but I wonder if he really plans to do full refurb on any Falcon 9 boosters once the fully reusable Starship is flying reliably.

-Uwe-

 

[vreihen]

Really great ground camera shots and booster landing at LZ-1 from this evening's SpaceX launch, which was just after sunset to enhance the view from the ground.....

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[Uwe]

Really great ground camera shots

Wow! I wonder what the 35mm equivalent focal length is on the ground camera they shot that footage with.

-Uwe-

 

[vreihen]

Decent daylight booster landing video feeds at Vandenberg LZ-4 a few minutes ago.....

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[Uwe]

Decent Magnificent daylight booster landing video feeds at Vandenberg LZ-4 a few minutes ago.....

Fixed that for you.

I started that vid at T-10 and was like, whoa! Is that a brand-new booster or has SpaceX started cleaning the soot off them before re-flying?

At landing the announcer answered my question. It was a brand-new one. Now it's "flight proven".

-Uwe-

 

[vreihen]

I started that vid at T-10 and was like, whoa! Is that a brand-new booster or has SpaceX started cleaning the soot off to them before re-flying?

When Uncle Sam's spying branch is writing the check for a launch, they get a nice, shiny new booster!

Speaking of using discounted flight hardware, SpaceX is scheduled launch another batch of StarLink satellites from KSC Pad 39A tomorrow (Thursday) at 1:13 PM EST in case anyone wants to tune in.....

 

[Uwe]

When Uncle Sam's spying branch is writing the check for a launch, they get a nice, shiny new booster!

And there I though that only NASA's manned crew-dragon flights rated brand-new boosters...

-Uwe-

 

[vreihen]

And there I though that only NASA's manned crew-dragon flights rated brand-new boosters...

Actually, I believe that NASA is flying "flight-proven" boosters for manned missions at this point.

For some reason, I vaguely recall the NRO requiring shiny new boosters in their 2020 SpaceX contract, possibly added as political FUD pressure by congress-critters from the home states of their single-use launch competitors. This one appears slated for two more NRO launches, so maybe it was built as a dedicated NRO booster?????

 

[jyoung8607]

For some reason, I vaguely recall the NRO requiring shiny new boosters in their 2020 SpaceX contract, possibly added as political FUD pressure by congress-critters from the home states of their single-use launch competitors. This one appears slated for two more NRO launches, so maybe it was built as a dedicated NRO booster?????

Could be. Could also be NRO doesn't want any non-ITAR people around "their" booster. SpaceX puts up a lot of payloads for a lot of customers, many from other countries, some of them interesting in terms of foreign relations. Customer payloads can contain or leave behind interesting devices. Also, customer payload engineers probably spend a lot of time around the booster during integration. It's not inconceivable that someone could leave an inconspicuous, innocuous looking device in the interstage hidden in plain sight among all the other complexity. A tracking device, small concussive charge, small EMP device, something that would fog/etch optical glass, etc. If I'm NRO, I'm willing to pay extra for a booster nobody else gets to touch.

 

[vreihen]

There is some logic to that. Remember the Zuma failure four years ago? Northrup Grumman built a classified spy satellite for the military, and insisted on providing the payload adapter that mated it to the Falcon 9 second stage. The payload supposedly failed to separate when they reached orbit, and SpaceX quickly deflected blame because they didn't provide the release mechanism:

https://www.teslarati.com/space-president-breaks-silence-zuma-mission-failure-rumor/

 

[jyoung8607]

There is some logic to that. Remember the Zuma failure four years ago? Northrup Grumman built a classified spy satellite for the military, and insisted on providing the payload adapter that mated it to the Falcon 9 second stage. The payload supposedly failed to separate when they reached orbit, and SpaceX quickly deflected blame because they didn't provide the release mechanism:

https://www.teslarati.com/space-president-breaks-silence-zuma-mission-failure-rumor/

I do remember that, the entire affair was weird AF. So weird that I don't think it could be conclusively established that whatever happened was definitely a mission failure.

 

[vreihen]

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/elon-musk-spacex-starship-update-latest-mars-b2007682.html

 

[vreihen]

I just received a SpaceWeather alert. A minor solar geomagnetic storm has whacked as many as 40 of the new Starlink satellites that SpaceX launched a week ago!

Video of one or more burning up over Puerto Rico:

 

[Uwe]

A minor solar geomagnetic storm has whacked as many as 40 of the new Starlink satellites that SpaceX launched a week ago!

Scott Manley explains it in detail:

-Uwe-

 

[vreihen]

Astra's first launch from Florida didn't go so well this afternoon. It seemed from the video that something jammed up during stage separation, and the second stage was in a serious end-over-end spin when the second stage engine ignited. Watch the left window (from inside booster) at the 1:02 (hour) mark:

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[vreihen]

From today's Starlink Launch Director, at T-0:54. "Time to let the American broomstick fly, and hear the sounds of freedom. LD is go for launch."

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