Fairing Recovery and Reuse

[Grendal]

There is no Florida-based boat that is the equivalent of Mr. Steven, is there? I have not seen any reports of a boat like that being used for the KSC launches.

So for the TESS fairing was SpaceX likely using the same parasail/thrusters system they’ve used for Vandenburg launches just for practice?

There is no East Coast Mr. Steven yet. I think SpaceX will only convert one of their East Coast ships if they know that Mr. Steven is the right way to go for fairing recovery. In the meantime, SpaceX is continuing to experiment with fairing recovery at every opportunity they can.

 

[RDoc]

If I were doing this, I'd look VERY hard at what it would take to make the fairing sea water proof. It's got to be pretty tough and pretty waterproof already. The interior obviously isn't normally exposed to the weather and likely would need serious work, but I still think this scheme is pretty fraught.

 

[Doug_G]

Anything they do to protect the fairing from salt water would add a lot of weight, which takes away from payload. Then you'd have to carefully inspect the whole thing to make sure the protection didn't leak anywhere and weaken part of the fairing.

 

[Doug_G]

...and as was pointed out in the NEAF video, contamination is also a major issue. The satellites are built in clean rooms and the fairing needs to be similarly clean.

 

[Grendal]

Contamination must be a significant problem. If you look at both fairings recovered from the TESS launch in this video, they are in fantastic shape.

 

[bxr140]

Contamination must be a significant problem.

It has serious downsides. While FOD requirements for space products aren’t quite medically sterile from a molecular standpoint, they’re typically equivalent or better when it comes to particulate from a particulate standpoint. There’s no way dropping out of the sky passes the sniff test in that one.

I suspect reused fairings will have to go through a certified prescision cleaning, which is above and beyond the typical IPA wipe and black light inspection that many get now.

 

[Grendal]

It has serious downsides. While FOD requirements for space products aren’t quite medically sterile from a molecular standpoint, they’re typically equivalent or better when it comes to particulate from a particulate standpoint. There’s no way dropping out of the sky passes the sniff test in that one.

I suspect reused fairings will have to go through a certified prescision cleaning, which is above and beyond the typical IPA wipe and black light inspection that many get now.

Good point. However, since these fairings have a cost of approximately $3 million per half then you'd think they could drop a million to do whatever is needed to refurbish, super clean, and purify a ocean dipped fairing that is in spectacular shape.

Note: the second fairing under the tarp was seen and filmed being pulled off the ship. It was severely damaged and not in great shape like the visible one.

 

[bxr140]

...you'd think they could drop a million to do whatever is needed to refurbish, super clean, and purify a ocean dipped fairing that is in spectacular shape

Yeah, for sure...especially if it’s not actually ocean dipped. Whatever refurb process is necessary will be way more economical than throwing them away. Even if they have to replace all the sensors and harnessing it will still be cheaper and faster to reuse. Anyone know the scope of a main stage refurb?

 

[malcolm]

New photo: Elon Musk on Instagram: “Falcon 9 fairing opens its parafoil after reentering the atmosphere”

 

[ecarfan]

Wow! How cool is that. And a beautifully composed image, of course.

 

[PhantomX]

Good point. However, since these fairings have a cost of approximately $3 million per half then you'd think they could drop a million to do whatever is needed to refurbish, super clean, and purify a ocean dipped fairing that is in spectacular shape.

That may not necessary be true though. They likely have to set up a new clean room facility to process these fairings after they are recovered, so that's going to cause quite a bit of money. In addition, the inspection afterward to ensure the condition of fairing is adequate may be fairly labor intensive and expensive as well. And there is no guarantee that every fairing will be usable without additional re-furb work. Some times it is cheaper to build a new part instead of re-use, as crazy as that may sound.

 

[Grendal]

Mr Steven in action.

 

[Grendal]

Narrow miss on the fairing recovery attempt today.
Twitter

 

[ecarfan]

 

[Grendal]

Amazing pictures.

Falcon 9 fairing halves deployed their parafoils and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean last week after the launch of Iridium-6/GRACE-FO. Closest half was ~50m from SpaceX’s recovery ship, Mr. Steven

SpaceX on Twitter

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Amazing pictures.

SpaceX on Twitter

Softly, softly, catchy fairing.

 

[jkirkebo]

Hmm, wouldn't it be easier to use two helicopters to snag the parafoil in mid-air? It seems this Mr.Steven-approach has a lot of things that can go wrong and will be hard to get righ every time, even after the firs success.

 

[RDoc]

I certainly wish SpaceX good luck with this, but remain totally doubtful. As jkirkebo says, there's a whole lot that can go wrong and I don't see any way to make this repeatable. Every try will be a toss of the dice.

 

[Matias]

Amazing pictures.

SpaceX on Twitter

What are those boxes inside the fairing?

 

[Grendal]

What are those boxes inside the fairing?

I think they are pieces of foam. I think they are used to dampen vibration on the payload during launch. You see the same sort of things in a music studio. There are great pictures of the interior of the fairing from Falcon Heavy when they were showing off Elon's Roadster in front of the fairings. You can see those at SpaceX's Flickr 1st page.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/page1