I may have been the only one - which I very much doubt - so focused over the last 999 launches on whether a clothesline could catch a falling fairing that it is only now I’m wondering: Can it make sense even to try to snag a second fairing half? Aren’t the risks associated with #2 whacking #1 greater than the costs associated with seawater damage and so forth? Apologies if I’ve missed any prior discussions re same.
Based on the history I think they've sorted that one. They still miss the 'clothesline" quite often but they've been catching at least one more often, as they did today, and they're recovering both quite often now. I've no clue how they do it.
Thank you for reminding me of that, of course that is the explanation. I suspect that is the first time both drone ships have been in the Atlantic booster recovery zone at the same time.
Out of curiosity, does anyone know why SpaceX went with droneships that can station keep, but don't have enough engine power? Fuel? To position themselves and need a tug?
"Checking in with the recovery fleet... Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief are resupplying at the Port of Morehead City, NC. The droneship team is slowly sailing back towards the Starlink booster LZ ahead of liftoff (hopefully...) at 7:41am ET on Oct 5th." https://twitter.com/SpaceXFleet/status/1312519229636141057 Ok, GPSIII and Starlink LZs are that close...
The velocity of The Gulf Stream: 3-5 mph Towing speed: ~10 mph "Current was too strong for droneship to hold station. Thrusters to be upgraded for future missions." https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1306778373314826240
You need to ask that from SpaceX. My guess is both cost and time. Adding station keeping thrusters to a barge is fast and cheep; building full autonomous ship capable of navigating is not. Everything SpX does seem to be iterative, and droneships are not exception -> Octagrapper + bigger thrusters and so on. Example whatever Blue Origin is doing with ex. Stena Freighter, doesn't look cheep or fast.
You're probably right - simply cost and efficiency. Holy cow, look at the picture of the Stena Freighter! Not only is it expensive to purchase and operate, but what's going to happen when the first rocket lands on that cabin control tower? Blue Origin landing platform ship - Wikipedia
This article contains a stunning launch image by Trevor Mahlmann for Ars, see SpaceX gets back on track with a stunning Starlink launch near sunrise I don’t want to copy the image into this post, as that would be a copyright violation that I’m not comfortable with.
Different photo, Trevor Mahlmann vs John Kraus. Trevor's is centered slightly better. Edit: and Falcon is higher.
My apologies. It just looked familiar and I didn't pay attention to the credits. Artistically, I like Kraus' better.
SpaceX pictures are published with Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0) "You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes" Ars Technica's and John Kraus photos are different deal, but if you link back to articles and Tweets I don't see any down fall of that...
Agreed, and that is what I did; linked to the article with the image instead of showing the image in my post. I thought that the Ars image showed the rocket’s shockwaves more clearly. The Kraus image is stunning, he does incredible work.
Too late for me. I flew into Florida on the 29th and left on the 4th. My wife and I got to watch all the scrubs. It went from four possible launches and even a possible booster arrival at the port to no launches at all. Scrubtober got me. I would have been very happy with just one. Oh well... Lots of good restaurants in Cocoa Beach.