SpaceX Falcon 9 FT - CRS-11 - LC-39A

[Grendal]

Thank you Grendel! Has NASA actually said they'll permit a powered landing of the first manned Dragon 2 versus the water splashdown they've always done prior to Shuttle? I'd think they would want to see as many successful unmanned powered landings as possible before risking astronauts.

The current answer is no. What they did say is that they would consider it and that reusability is also something that they promote. There is no question that NASA would want to see many successful powered landings before they would ever risk astronauts lives.

 

[Nikxice]

That ground camera at LZ-1 supplied the best live video I've seen to date of a booster landing. No lost signal, no frozen images, just beautiful!

Around the lens of the camera, might those have been hornets vs. wasps? I'd vote hornet, a subspecies of wasp. Like SpaceX, getting bigger and more aggressive than the competition. Today celebrating another SpaceX first, reuse of an almost 3 year old Dragon pressure vessel. Stirring up another hornets nest for the rest of the industry!

 

[ecarfan]

You get to see the first stage light the engine for the boostback burn. You can see the first stage boost directly away in the plume of the second stage.

Yes it was wonderful to see a continuous video feed of that process: separation, cold thrusters rotating the 1st stage, boostback burn, more cold thrusters and grid fin deployment, landing burn!

The cloud cover meant we didn't see the final descent from the point of view of the stage. At least I haven't seen it yet.

 

[JeffK]

Yes it was wonderful to see a continuous video feed of that process: separation, cold thrusters rotating the 1st stage, boostback burn, more cold thrusters and grid fin deployment, landing burn!

The cloud cover meant we didn't see the final descent from the point of view of the stage. At least I haven't seen it yet.

We go to see the very last bit of the decent though... pretty cool.

oh, and wasps.... angry, angry, wasps.

 

[Grendal]

There was a wild moment at 6:03 in the launch mission where there was a close call with some debris at 58 km above the Earth. You can see it zing past the booster. It's probably a chunk of ice. It may have come off the rocket itself near the base....

 

[MyJoule]

Everytime they successfully land- it's like something out of a science fiction movie- yet it's real and they are making it look easy now- I hope they don't become complacent - They have really shaken up the launch business with these landings. Very cool

 

[macpacheco]

Any thoughts about when SpaceX will begin using Dragon 2 on unmanned CRS missions? The design and mock up was shown quite some time back and a test of the launch escape is around a year back. It's reasonable to say don't use it on an unmanned mission until there is a need for its capabilities. But I can also see an argument saying, why not exercise all Dragon 2 core functions like docking, etc. in advance of missions where it's powered landing will be used? Has SpaceX said they plan to use a flight proven booster just to test out Dragon 2 in advance of a first mission to ISS? Any timeline for using it yet? Thanks.

One potential issue is Dragon v1 does berthing, which uses a larger port, much easier to move large cargo.
Dragon v2 crew does docking, which has the key advantage for manned flights that it doesn't depend on people inside the ISS opening up hatches and such, but its a smaller port.

I don't expect a Cargo Dragon v2 to be flown before a manned Crew Dragon v2 has flown to the ISS.
The only way this could change is if Crew Dragon program slips by a lot.

 

[e-FTW]

Is it just me, or was that landing the smoothest looking one yet?

 

[e-FTW]

There was a wild moment at 6:03 in the launch mission where there was a close call with some debris at 58 km above the Earth. You can see it zing past the booster. It's probably a chunk of ice. It may have come off the rocket itself near the base....

58 km? Yeah, so not a bird...
Wonder what that was.

 

[JeffK]

58 km? Yeah, so not a bird...
Wonder what that was.

 

[Scott-P]

Another beautiful flight. Outstanding work by all.
on TO MARS!

 

[Grendal]

Is it just me, or was that landing the smoothest looking one yet?

A lot of enthusiasts commented the same thing. Knowledgeable people think they tweaked their landing algorithm even better.

 

[ggr]

There was a wild moment at 6:03 in the launch mission where there was a close call with some debris at 58 km above the Earth. You can see it zing past the booster. It's probably a chunk of ice. It may have come off the rocket itself near the base....

If you could see it go past, it really wasn't going to be a problem... anything that didn't come from the vehicle itself (that is, in a different orbit) would probably be moving at (relative) thousands of km/h.

 

[Electroman]

Is this the first time where they continued to show on the screen the telemetry of the first stage even past MECO all the way upto landing?

I was really looking forward to get that data in every launch because it is lot more interesting than the telemetry of 2nd stage.

Now if they can show the vertical and horizontal vector split in altitude, down range and speed - that would be super cool.

 

[ecarfan]

Is it just me, or was that landing the smoothest looking one yet?

I felt the same. It was almost unreal the way the stage suddenly came into view and rapidly and perfectly decelerated to just kiss the LZ.

 

[thimel]

Is this the first time where they continued to show on the screen the telemetry of the first stage even past MECO all the way upto landing?

I was really looking forward to get that data in every launch because it is lot more interesting than the telemetry of 2nd stage.

Now if they can show the vertical and horizontal vector split in altitude, down range and speed - that would be super cool.

They did it on the NRO launch where they weren't allowed to show the second stage info because the exact orbit was secret.

 

[Electroman]

It is interesting that at T + 04:47 (on the hosted webcast with the camera looking down from Falcon 9) with the first stage at around 58 km altitude, you can see an object with blinking lights flying way way below clouds - almost looks like an airplane.

But I can't imagine it being an airplane with airspace closed and all that ?

 

[Electroman]

Also can someone speculate how much of down range MECO occurs? 20 kms may be?

 

[dhanson865]

Is this the first time where they continued to show on the screen the telemetry of the first stage even past MECO all the way upto landing?

I was really looking forward to get that data in every launch because it is lot more interesting than the telemetry of 2nd stage.

Now if they can show the vertical and horizontal vector split in altitude, down range and speed - that would be super cool.

No, they showed the first stage all the way to landing on the military launch a few weeks before when they did NOT show stage 2 at all. It was just a stage 1 telecast.

also you can edit your posts, you don't have to make multiple posts in a 5-10 minute period, just go back and edit in your additional question.

 

[Grendal]

It is interesting that at T + 04:47 (on the hosted webcast with the camera looking down from Falcon 9) with the first stage at around 58 km altitude, you can see an object with blinking lights flying way way below clouds - almost looks like an airplane.

But I can't imagine it being an airplane with airspace closed and all that ?

I went back and looked at the video closely. To me, it looked like a small piece of ice or shielding that is square shaped that spins away from the rocket as it descends. The light is reflecting at just the right angle which gives it a flashing look. There is something similar that happens just after on the right side. There are lots of icy bits flying off the booster as it descends.

There is an error in the technical video that showed the speed at landing and before that as 18,000 km/s plus what it actually was.

Back for the NROL flight the 1st stage maxed out at 130 km in altitude. This one topped out at 120 km.