Fairing Recovery and Reuse

[e-FTW]

I was thinking that today’s performance (successful Starlink-1 launch) is certainly huge for re-use of course. All of the mechanical bits worked.
But is the main concern not about contamination of the payload by a non-clean-room fairing? And to evaluate how successful that part of this re-use would take a long time, deducted from satellite performance/longevity?

 

[e-FTW]

First “full fairing” catch unsuccessful, but confidence remains high! They will probably try again in two weeks.
SpaceX updates status of record-breaking Falcon 9 fairing recovery attempt

 

[e-FTW]

Mᛟnika Wojdasᛟva on Twitter
Totally does look like a boat.

 

[SageBrush]

The current approach seems to have plateaued at 'real close' with lots of misses.
I wonder if the boat could have a small and fast aircraft or perhaps a helicopter that is released about a minute before the fairings come down that grabs the parachute with a hook on a cable and brings its prize to the ship.

 

[Watts_Up]

The current approach seems to have plateaued at 'real close' with lots of misses.
I wonder if the boat could have a small and fast aircraft or perhaps a helicopter that is released about a minute before the fairings come down that grabs the parachute with a hook on a cable and brings its prize to the ship.

You have to imagine that each fearing is about the size of a school bus, so this is not an easy task.

Here is a demonstration of such helicopter recuperation

Small satellite launcher Rocket Lab unveils plans to recover its rockets midair with helicopters

Mid-Air Retrieval of Heavy, Earth-Returning Space Systems​

 

[e-FTW]

Another one for scale: a closeup video of Go Ms. Tree and Go Ms. Chief. See that thread for a bit of history of this fleet:
Gavin - SpaceXFleet.com on Twitter

Yup, those are some massive structures! And look at the intricate rigging and pulleys and winches...

 

[Grendal]

First complete success in recovering both fairing halves. It has it's own thread with link to video of the action:
Watch SpaceX Catch Both Fairing Halves for the First Time

 

[Grendal]

 

[e-FTW]

SpaceX autopilot at work! Both the fairing and ship are automated in the “catch” phase.

 

[ecarfan]

SpaceX autopilot at work! Both the fairing and ship are automated in the “catch” phase.

So Ms Tree got the “feature complete” Full Self Driving option before Tesla released it to their vehicle fleet. I’m envious.

 

[e-FTW]

Let us not forget that some fairing halves have flown 3 times!
SpaceX sets reuse records in 2020, looks ahead to even more ambitous 2021 - NASASpaceFlight.com

 

[Grendal]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1372218863597846530

 

[petit_bateau]

What is interesting about the ship itself ? That looks like a fairly standard offshore supply vessel with a typical lightweight subsea fitout MV SHELIA BORDELON The interesting aspect surely is why the normal fairing recovery vessels are both unavailable ? Am I missing something ?

 

[Grendal]

What is interesting about the ship itself ? That looks like a fairly standard offshore supply vessel with a typical lightweight subsea fitout MV SHELIA BORDELON The interesting aspect surely is why the normal fairing recovery vessels are both unavailable ? Am I missing something ?

Both Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief are being re-outfitted for recovery operations with the upcoming Commercial Crew launches and recoveries: Crew 2 is going up and Crew 1 is coming back.

 

[Grendal]

SpaceX is not renewing the lease on Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief. SpaceX has dropped the idea of catching the fairings and is moving forward with the new ship and water recovery.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1379556102489190401

 

[e-FTW]

That makes me a little sad.
But it makes sense: the majority of launches are Starlink, and they have no qualms about re-using sea-soaked fairings on those (since they don’t appear to need clean-room condition fairing halves for Starlink). That leaves only a handful of customer missions a year that would be open to re-used fairings but that would also require ones that were caught in a net.
They made it happen, more than once. We got cool footage, thanks SpaceX!

 

[scaesare]

Same... that one video of the fairing half gliding in to the net was cool...

 

[SwTslaGrl]

A new recovery ship went out an hour ago for training with two fairing halves.

 

[SwTslaGrl]

The new ship "Doug"

https://twitter.com/x/status/1432508874289029126

 

[Electroman]

Does it have a huge net? or are they letting it fall to water and then pick it up?

why such a huge (meaning less nimble) ship to pick up stuff from water, when a smaller faster boat with just about enough size to hold the fairings should do?