SpaceX F9 - 1st 2nd Reuse - SSO-A - SLC-4E

[Bobfitz1]

So less than 8 weeks after a Soyuz had a near catastrophic in-flight failure NASA happily sends up another American astronaut on a Soyuz.

In contrast, Elon puffs on a doobie and NASA investigates SpaceX for “workplace culture” concerns and Bridenstine calls out Mush for being a bad boy.

Chastising Elon and investigating "workplace culture" is just their usual attempts to let everyone know they are still relevant.
What galls me more is green lighting Soyuz after only 8 weeks when they keep delaying commercial crew to meet ever higher safety targets than they ever imposed on themselves for the Shuttle.

 

[ecarfan]

Chastising Elon and investigating "workplace culture" is just their usual attempts to let everyone know they are still relevant.
What galls me more is green lighting Soyuz after only 8 weeks when they keep delaying commercial crew to meet ever higher safety targets than they ever imposed on themselves for the Shuttle.

It is bizarre indeed. It’s as if Bridenstine is in some way beholden to the Russians because of some dark secret that we don’t know about.

Oh wait. That’s his boss I was thinking of...

 

[SMAlset]

Looks like a great day at Vandenberg AFB.

Wonder if Mr. Steven will be catching anything today.

 

[SMAlset]

Lift off

 

[SMAlset]

Great footage today, so clear. MECO.

 

[SMAlset]

Reentry burn successful

 

[SMAlset]

Successful landing on drone ! Great!

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Successful landing on drone ! Great!

Boring!

 

[SMAlset]

SECO achieved and coverage ends. Trajectory good and we wait on news for the delopyment of the 64 small satellites and the news on Mr. Steven.

 

[SMAlset]

Mission update on SpaceX twitter feed at around 11:15ish.

In the meantime Stage 1 standing proud on the drone and nicely within landing circle.

 

[Grendal]

So far, complete success. Waiting on payload deployment and fairing recovery.

Some excellent visuals this time that have never been quite as good before. Seeing the booster fall away with the nitrogen thrusters blasting away. The long distance shot of the booster landing on the ASDS successfully.

Payload deployment successful.

Fairing recovery unsuccessful....again.

A tweet from Elon about the fairing may give them a second life anyway. That tweet is posted in the "fairing recovery and reuse" thread.

 

[SMAlset]

Happy about the payload for Tesla and satellite owners. The little guys have had a hard time getting launch time.

Not surprised about the fairing capture. Took them a while to successfully land stage 1. I'm pretty clueless on the fairing portion. What kind of guidance system does the fairing halves even have? I know they came close in the past to recovering one half.

Now that we've had 3 launches with this booster what happens to it? Assume recycle the metal etc. but haven't been following these aspects.

 

[adiggs]

..

Now that we've had 3 launches with this booster what happens to it? Assume recycle the metal etc. but haven't been following these aspects.

The block 5 boosters are, we think, designed to handle 10 launch and landings, with more serious maintenance at that point to get them another (10?) launch and landings. (That's what I remember Elon saying)

So we think - this booster is going to continue being cycled back to the launch pad, getting matched up with a payload, and sent on its way (and return). And we're all watching especially this booster with baited breath, because it's the most launched and landed of them all so far.

Will it get retired at some point after an inspection and before another launch?
Will it launch at some point and fail spectacularly?
Will it just keep going up and back, over and over, with the regular post landing review indicating that it's aging even better than projected?

We're watching a live stress test of a system, and I find it exciting

 

[ecarfan]

Wow what an awesome launch, and as @Grendal noted we saw some very clear perspectives of the action. I still get emotional watching the ballet the 1st stage performs and seeing a landing right in the bullseye. It doesn’t get old.

 

[Grendal]

This is the first ASDS landing from an on shore camera. As mentioned in the broadcast, SpaceX could have done an RTLS but wasn't allowed to do one because of the military. So they parked JRTI as close as legal just offshore and pointed a really good video camera at it. A very unique view.

Another interesting thing I spotted was that the booster followed almost the same path as the boost phase on the way back. You can see the condensation trail of the launch as the booster is coming back.

Everyday Astronaut giving his play by play of the launch.

 

[Bobfitz1]

The block 5 boosters are, we think, designed to handle 10 launch and landings, with more serious maintenance at that point to get them another (10?) launch and landings. (That's what I remember Elon saying)
So we think - this booster is going to continue being cycled back to the launch pad, getting matched up with a payload, and sent on its way (and return). And we're all watching especially this booster with baited breath, because it's the most launched and landed of them all so far.
Will it get retired at some point after an inspection and before another launch?
Will it launch at some point and fail spectacularly?
Will it just keep going up and back, over and over, with the regular post landing review indicating that it's aging even better than projected? We're watching a live stress test of a system, and I find it exciting

Article on Spaceflightnow.com with fascinating comments by Hans Koenigsmann on how powerfully reusability will lead to greater and greater reliability.

Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability, said in October that Falcon 9 rockets will soon begin logging more flights using the same airframe, a step-by-step approach that will take a big leap forward with Sunday’s mission from Vandenberg, a military base around 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.

SpaceX launch Monday will signify a new advance in reusing rockets – Spaceflight Now

 

[bxr140]

So less than 8 weeks after a Soyuz had a near catastrophic in-flight failure NASA happily sends up another American astronaut on a Soyuz.

In contrast, Elon puffs on a doobie and NASA investigates SpaceX for “workplace culture” concerns and Bridenstine calls out Mush for being a bad boy.

Chastising Elon and investigating "workplace culture" is just their usual attempts to let everyone know they are still relevant.
What galls me more is green lighting Soyuz after only 8 weeks when they keep delaying commercial crew to meet ever higher safety targets than they ever imposed on themselves for the Shuttle.

Especially in today's climate of extreme political rhetoric, it is imperative that we attempt to maintain an unbiased perspective on unfavorable information. That there are [most likely] political games in play to the detriment of Elon/Tesla/SpaceX does not justify being dismissive of reality. Of note:

--Elon's behavior (Potcast, Private Funding, Pedos, etc.) is well beyond a standard deviation of abnormal for someone in his position. It is absolutely above board to investigate workplace culture as a result of smoking pot and talking about spaceX, it is absolutely above board for the SEC to come down on him for making, at best, a very very poorly informed financial declaration.
--Near as I know, nobody on the outside really knows the root cause of the Soyuz failure--it could have been an obvious error; there could be a smoking gun photo of a demated connector for all we know. There is zero legitimacy for criticizing the "short" turnaround. (Frustratingly, from the land of reverse double standards, spaceX were touted as heroes for coming back so quickly from Amos)
--The shuttle, which largely consisted of technology many decades old, was 98.5% successful and killed 14 people. There's zero reason we can't do better today.


Anyway, for on topic content, it was a nice launch. I didn't go on base and instead went to Providence Landing with friends and family. I haven't watched from there before--its about as far away as you'd want to watch a launch, but was still good. From our vantage we could see the upper half of the vehicle while still on the pad, so that was nice. Both descent burns were clearly visibile (until the landing burn went over the horizon). I'd recommend it...at least once.

 

[Grendal]

Just to reiterate, SpaceX broke four records today on its 64th mission and 32nd landing:
1. First company booster to fly three times
2. First to launch from all SpaceX pads
3. Now most number of SpaceX launches in a year (19)
4. Highest number of spacecraft flown on a US rocket

Emre Kelly on Twitter

Also note that SpaceX has landed half as many boosters as they have launched.

 

[e-FTW]

Some excellent visuals this time that have never been quite as good before. Seeing the booster fall away with the nitrogen thrusters blasting away. The long distance shot of the booster landing on the ASDS successfully.

Yes, those were so very cool!
The long distance shot was something that had been suggested around here before. Not sure if it was another ship or something flying around the area, but either way that was epic to watch. Helps close the gap to the amazing LZ footage.

[EDIT: I now see your post, it was a land-based camera]

 

[e-FTW]

Just to reiterate, SpaceX broke four records today on its 64th mission and 32nd landing:
1. First company booster to fly three times
2. First to launch from all SpaceX pads
3. Now most number of SpaceX launches in a year (19)
4. Highest number of spacecraft flown on a US rocket

Emre Kelly on Twitter

Also note that SpaceX has landed half as many boosters as they have launched.

Yes, and for those that need a motivation to watch these launches, each one of B1046's launches will be historic.
Unless another block 5 booster passes it for number of launches, this is the one to track. It is blazing the path!