SpaceX F9 - Starlink 7 - SLC-40

[mongo]

For this mission SpaceX used JRTI to recover the booster instead of OCISLY. I knew that JRTI had been moved to Florida from the West Coast but don’t recall it being used before to recover a booster launched from Florida. Was this the first time for that?

Indeed, first east cost JRTI landing.

Does SpaceX plan to use both drone ships at the same time in an upcoming FH launch? I think I read that somewhere but now can’t find it. Apologies if that question diverts this thread into an off topic area, please move this post to the appropriate thread if that is the case. Thanks.

Yepppers, there will be a high energy FH launch that will require side core to land at sea and center core to be sacrificed.
Reusing Boosters: Launch, Land, and Re-Launch

 

[Pricee2]

Three Florida attempts were made to land on JRTI in 2015 and 2016.

 

[mongo]

Three Florida attempts were made to land on JRTI in 2015 and 2016.

It's complicated:
The first JRTI was scrapped after the CRS-6 landing failure and the parts were used to build the current JRTI which was then deployed to west coast.
Autonomous spaceport drone ship - Wikipedia
https://www.spacexfleet.com/just-read-the-instructions
So this was the first east coast landing for the hull, but not for some of the other parts (assuming there wer not part of the recent retrofit)

 

[Pricee2]

@ mongo thanks for the links. Yep, just two east coast attempts on JRTI

 

[ggr]

Indeed, first east cost JRTI landing.

ITYM first successful east coast JRtI landing. It started off on the east coast, and got crashed on a couple of times IIRC.

 

[mongo]

ITYM first successful east coast JRtI landing. It started off on the east coast, and got crashed on a couple of times IIRC.

That is definitely a true statement regarding JRTI. Still not sure I would say this ship had any failed attempts on the east coast though.
Ship of Theseus - Wikipedia

 

[ggr]

That is definitely a true statement regarding JRTI. Still not sure I would say this ship had any failed attempts on the east coast though.
Ship of Theseus - Wikipedia

Grandpa's axe... three new handles and two new heads but it's still Grandpa's axe. Yes, I'd forgotten that they switched the underlying barge.

 

[mongo]

Grandpa's axe... three new handles and two new heads but it's still Grandpa's axe. Yes, I'd forgotten that they switched the underlying barge.

You're doing better than me. I hadn't known (or forgot and still don't remember) they replaced the hull until today. Just knew it had a hole punched in it (I also forgot it was the original JRTI, so the comments regarding my initial comment were well directed as I was going by the recent headlines calling it the first JRTI landing)

 

[adiggs]

Indeed, first east cost JRTI landing.



Yepppers, there will be a high energy FH launch that will require side core to land at sea and center core to be sacrificed.
Reusing Boosters: Launch, Land, and Re-Launch

Clearly, they need a 3rd drone ship!

 

[mongo]

Clearly, they need a 3rd drone ship!

That's in progress.
A Shortfall of Gravitas
Twitter

 

[Ben W]

Clearly, they need a 3rd drone ship!

Or a Falcon Heavy Heavy!

 

[ecarfan]

The findstarlink.com website showed that last night in my area the new sats would be visible (details below) but neither I nor my wife and neighbor could see them. Skies were clear, I could easily see Ursa Major and Arcturus but there was a full moon so maybe that combined with the new sunshade is the explanation? SpaceX to debut satellite-dimming sunshade on Starlink launch next month – Spaceflight Now

9:35 pm, 4 Jun 2020
Starlink-7,8 NEW, BRIGHT (1.4) for 3 mins
Look from SOUTHWEST (228°) to NORTHEAST (47°)
Elevation (from horizon): start: 11°, max: 85°, end: 10°

 

[mongo]

The findstarlink.com website showed that last night in my area the new sats would be visible (details below) but neither I nor my wife and neighbor could see them. Skies were clear, I could easily see Ursa Major and Arcturus but there was a full moon so maybe that combined with the new sunshade is the explanation? SpaceX to debut satellite-dimming sunshade on Starlink launch next month – Spaceflight Now

9:35 pm, 4 Jun 2020
Starlink-7,8 NEW, BRIGHT (1.4) for 3 mins
Look from SOUTHWEST (228°) to NORTHEAST (47°)
Elevation (from horizon): start: 11°, max: 85°, end: 10°

They were also changing the solar panel angle to reduce glints.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1252872826731655173

Thanks! We are taking some key steps to reduce satellite brightness btw. Should be much less noticeable during orbit raise by changing solar panel angle & all sats get sunshades starting with launch 9.

 

[bxr140]

On to that tension rod.

If you get distracted by a shiny object rotating in and out of view (remember the second stage had a slight barrel roll going at that point to help deployment) you might miss the base of the tension rod slowly moving up and out of its base (in blue):

Good stuff. The shiny object could be debris from releasing of a tension rod/structure at the top You can see a wire harness (white) running up the length of the fore-rod of the tension structure so there's definitely some kind of mechanism up at the top.

After releasing from the top the rod moves up, probably from the angular momentum from the barrel roll, but there's likely some mechanism in there too to restrain the structure, and that mechanism could potentially provide a sort of push type of force. If the shiny debris is actually part of a release system then there's almost definitely some active mechanism creating motion at the bottom (otherwise the two events wouldn't be so temporally separated), but on the flip side from a KISS perspective you'd want the solution to be as passive as possible.

Once the tension structure slides out of its features at the bottom angular momentum really takes over and that's why the structures fall away from the stack.

Its pretty brilliant.

 

[bmah]

Did Ms. Chief and Ms. Tree catch the payload fairings?

Bruce.

 

[ecarfan]

Did Ms. Chief and Ms. Tree catch the payload fairings?

Bruce.

I’m guessing not or SpaceX or Elon would have tweeted about it by now.

 

[e-FTW]

I’m guessing not or SpaceX or Elon would have tweeted about it by now.

Agreed. By now though we typically know even when they fail but pick them up off the water. Maybe the fairing halves were too damaged to be recoverable?

 

[e-FTW]

The findstarlink.com website showed that last night in my area the new sats would be visible (details below) but neither I nor my wife and neighbor could see them. Skies were clear, I could easily see Ursa Major and Arcturus but there was a full moon so maybe that combined with the new sunshade is the explanation? SpaceX to debut satellite-dimming sunshade on Starlink launch

On the webcast they said only one of the sats in this batch had the sun visor.
Good to know I did not miss a great pass!

 

[mongo]

Agreed. By now though we typically know even when they fail but pick them up off the water. Maybe the fairing halves were too damaged to be recoverable?

Both were brought back, one was damaged. No word on whether they were plucked or netted.
Twitter

Edit: both water landings
https://www.spacexfleet.com/fairing-data

 

[Cosmacelf]

I wonder why some fairings are badly damaged and others aren’t? Is it indeed the water and waves that cause damage or is it different re-entry effects?