Fairing Recovery and Reuse

[Watts_Up]

Yes. It landed in the ocean nearby and Ms. Tree picked it up. It was not supposed to get caught. Only one fairing was planned to be caught. Now that it has been done and they have a decent idea of how to do it, then SpaceX will compare the differences between the two and decide whether to get another ship to catch the second fairing.

Thank you for the information.
- Do you think SpaceX/Go will have boats both in the Pacific and the Atlantic, so a total of four boats?
- I read that Ms.Tree ("Mystery") got a third set of arms and net?
Do you know if the the second set was damaged, or it it was replaced by a smaller or a larger set?

 

[destructure00]

Thank you for the information.
- Do you think SpaceX/Go will have boats both in the Pacific and the Atlantic, so a total of four boats?
- I read that Ms.Tree ("Mystery") got a third set of arms and net?
Do you know if the the second set was damaged, or it it was replaced by a smaller or a larger set?

Second set was presumably damaged in rough water. Ship returned to port back in February from an attempted catch with only 2 arms.

SpaceXFleet Updates on Twitter

 

[Electroman]

How did they manage to spot and recover from pitch darkness at night? Does this have some kind of light or radio beacon?

 

[mongo]

How did they manage to spot and recover from pitch darkness at night? Does this have some kind of light or radio beacon?

GPS (required for guidance) plus radio link.

 

[sailorjohn]

My son is the guy who gets the fairing half out of the ocean. He was out on Go Searcher. They were 5 days out and haven't got in yet, but I understand that everything went as planned. Go Searcher is the ship designed for recovery of the Dragon Crew Capsule but it has been doing fairing recovery too. M.Tree caught one in the net ant Go Searcher retrieved the one in the ocean.

 

[Electroman]

My son is the guy who gets the fairing half out of the ocean. He was out on Go Searcher. They were 5 days out and haven't got in yet, but I understand that everything went as planned. Go Searcher is the ship designed for recovery of the Dragon Crew Capsule but it has been doing fairing recovery too. M.Tree caught one in the net ant Go Searcher retrieved the one in the ocean.

Cool.

How do they know so accurately where will the fairing drift and fall? Unlike propulsive landing, with wind and so many parameters, the thing could land several miles away.

 

[sailorjohn]

Cool.

How do they know so accurately where will the fairing drift and fall? Unlike propulsive landing, with wind and so many parameters, the thing could land several miles away.

The fairings have guidance and the ships know where they are landing.

 

[Nikxice]

From SpaceX's Twitter account. Falcon Heavy STP-2 mission, fairing separation and partial reentry footage.
SpaceX on Twitter

From Elon's Twitter account. Not quite a bulls-eye, but check out the falling leaf maneuver into the left limb of Ms. Tree.
Elon Musk on Twitter

 

[Grendal]

That is just incredible.

 

[ecarfan]

Mind blowing video! Beautiful science.

At the end of the fairing re-entry video there is a blue circle in the center of the frame; what is that?

 

[Grendal]

Mind blowing video! Beautiful science.

At the end of the fairing re-entry video there is a blue circle in the center of the frame; what is that?

I'm almost certain that had to do with the camera and an optical effect.

 

[bxr140]

From SpaceX's Twitter account. Falcon Heavy STP-2 mission, fairing separation and partial reentry footage.
SpaceX on Twitter

Super interesting to see the flow coming 'backward' through the two center fairing vents as the falling velocity increases. It looks like there's even shock diamonds forming and diffusing.

 

[Grendal]

2nd official fairing recovery with Ms. Tree:
Elon Musk on Twitter
They're getting good at this. The weather wasn't good today.

 

[Cosmacelf]

2nd official fairing recovery with Ms. Tree:
Elon Musk on Twitter
They're getting good at this. The weather wasn't good today.

I wonder if the fairing parachute is controlled autonomously or if it has a fly by wire human pilot?

Is Ms Tree autonomous?

If yes to both, what an elegant and awesome software system!

 

[mongo]

I wonder if the fairing parachute is controlled autonomously or if it has a fly by wire human pilot?

Is Ms Tree autonomous?

If yes to both, what an elegant and awesome software system!

My understanding is the fairing is self guided and the recovery ship is too when the fairing is in range (fairing feeds projected landing point based on trajectory and may attempt to steer toward ship)

 

[Grendal]

SpaceX just acquired Ms. Tree's sister ship renamed Ms. Chief! Now they'll be capturing both fairing halves.

 

[Nikxice]

Clever names! Mystery and now Mischief. Oops.....sorry for the Ms. Spell.

 

[e-FTW]

So, Starlink 1 on 11/11/2019 will see the first fairing re-use. From the Arabsat-6A mission, where they landed in water. Starlink launches allow SpaceX to push all of the envelopes.
SpaceX on Twitter

This led me to find this resource: https://www.spacexfleet.com/fairing-data

 

[e-FTW]

And this appears to be a decent write-up on fairings: Fairing Recovery Compendium – ElonX.net

 

[Grendal]

And this appears to be a decent write-up on fairings: Fairing Recovery Compendium – ElonX.net

Nice finds! First official fairing reuse! Very cool.

Eric Berger article on the upcoming launch and fairing recovery:
SpaceX goes for two big reuse milestones with next launch