Falcon Heavy - 7&8 Reuse - Elon's Roadster Demo - LC-39A

[anticitizen13.7]

Center core hit the water at 300mph according to Elon in news conference. I couldn't hear why - something about not being able to slow it enough.

The audio had a lot of interference, but I think Elon said that the center core ran out of propellant at the end and couldn’t maneuver to complete the landing. I also think I heard him say that the crash took out 2 engines on the drone ship.

Elon definitely did say that he thought the footage of the center core crash would be fun, and that they would post it if the drone ship’s cameras haven’t been blown up too.

 

[Grendal]

The problem wasn't the amount of fuel. It was the TEA-TEB hypergolic fuel that relights the engines. So they couldn't relight two out of the three engines they had planned, from what I got.

 

[anticitizen13.7]

Interesting item: Elon mentioned that the center core is essentially a new design and that the side boosters need substantial parts replacements before being connected to the core.

He estimates that FH cost more than 500M to develop.

 

[Kipernicus]

I guess this is why it's good that it's an autonomous drone ship and not a manned ship

 

[NeverFollow]

He mentioned it damaged the barge, and they are hoping that the cameras on the barge survived
so they could add the explosion to the "blooper reel".

Since the camera on the landing barge have difficulty to record the landing because of the vibrations,
I wonder why they don't use a small dinghy boat about 1/4 miles away to record the sea landing?
So they could show a similar picture than the two rockets landing together.

 

[AudubonB]

OF all the exciting, energizing and challenging material we were exposed to in today's launch, this item from Mr Musk's talk may be the biggest standout for me. Paraphrasing here, and happy to hear of any corrections necessary:

"Re-entry from interplanetary travel can involve scaling to the 8th power".

I think I'm gonna need a bigger slide rule.

 

[Grendal]

The second biggest livestream on YouTube ever. 2.3 MILLION viewers. How cool is that?!?!

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch was YouTube’s second biggest live stream ever

 

[rabar10]

Twitter
If you look closely at this (awesome) shot of FH shortly after launch, you can see the two side-cores are “pulling” the center core up — the black cross-members between the cores are being pulled into a slight angle from horizontal.

That’s just cool.

 

[SMAlset]

Love the ice crystals on the car and see them flake off as the car goes into the sun.

Also are those scratches already on Elon's car?! Need space testing for Xpel Extreme!

 

[israndy]

Ice from what? How did water get up there. I am not saying you are wrong, I don't know, I am seeing those things flying off the car.

Those are not scratches, that's the reflection of the camera boom

-Randy

 

[ggr]

Love the ice crystals on the car and see them flake off as the car goes into the sun.

View attachment 278559 View attachment 278560 View attachment 278558

Also are those scratches already on Elon's car?! Need space testing for Xpel Extreme!

Not scratches... reflections of the truss holding the camera.

 

[SMAlset]

Ice from what? How did water get up there. I am not saying you are wrong, I don't know, I am seeing those things flying off the car.

Those are not scratches, that's the reflection of the camera boom

-Randy

Not scratches... reflections of the truss holding the camera.

Yeah, but just like the space highway lane lines in another post (also camera truss but lit slightly), it's kind of fun to see other things. Although I don't think there are pyramids on Mars.

As for the crystals, could they be created from the car's battery heat?? Interested in speculation on their source. The crystals reappear and disappear every cycle I've observed. Think Elon said he thought the battery was good for maybe 12 hours. Was he talking about the car's battery or another source?

 

[EldestOyster]

I think the ice crystals are associated with the cold gas thrusters. We see this sort of thing on second stage engine views.

 

[SMAlset]

What the likely source of that half lit object that just went by? Our moon...waxing gibbous right now. Or would it appear larger?

 

[israndy]

That's the Moon. Oh, and the earlier question, the battery is the car is NOT the original Tesla battery.

Sadly the Starman stream seems to be over. In case you missed it check out the lightning storms during the live stream behind the Roadster:

Oops, the time stamp didn't hold. It's about the -2:27 minute mark. Give it a minute, it builds.

-Randy

 

[SteveG3]

 

[ecarfan]

They were the same feed. Mistake.

The webcast host Michael said those two video feeds were different boosters.

 

[ecarfan]

Center core didn’t make. Quote from Nasaspaceflightnow site:

“
The center, which SpaceX planned to land on its drone ship off the coast in the Atlantic Ocean, didn’t make it, Musk confirmed Tuesday night a press conference with reporters at Kennedy Space Center. Musk said the booster struck the water at 300 miles per hour. The impact took out two engines. It came close though; Musk said the impact scattered debris over the ship. He said they will try to salvage some footage of the hit.

“If the cameras didn’t get blown up as well, then we’ll put that out,” he said.
————————-

Sounds like the landing burn did not go as planned.

 

[S'toon]

Ugh. That channel is being spammed by racists on youtube itself.

 

[macpacheco]

TMI insertion successful:
Tactical Sky Guy on Twitter
Michael Baylor on Twitter
No official confirmation from SpaceX or Elon Musk yet though.