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SpaceX Prepared for 'Most Difficult Launch Ever' - STP-2 FH launch

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OMG they captured a fairing half! First time ever. It works as crazy as it seemed improbable. Woo Hoo. :eek::D:D Damn that would have been fascinating to see land.

A0BAEC9A-C52C-4EE9-BCF7-6D12129B6521.png


And they are in designated orbit getting ready for more deployments. What a night.
 
Thanks for all the screen caps, I just finished watching the first 15 minutes of the webcast replay. I didn’t spoil the suspense by reading this thread first. ;) It was hard for me to figure out what happened with the center core, though I realized it did not land successfully. So it plunged into the ocean near OCISLY?
Core booster attempting to land.
View attachment 423018
 
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@ecarfan I’m not quite sure what exactly happened with center core either but definitely went in the drink. The grabs I posted of this are in order and initially I thought it was going to land successfully. Notice the speed/altitude differences in the first photo compared to the remaining 3. Was the core coming down and not looking in proper alignment so guided off the drone over the sea where it slipped into the water vertically and then tip on its side as it was coming down there? Trying to make sense of the images. I was wondering what part of the core we were seeing the flames coming from. In any event still amazed to see the images at all. Hoping someone here can add more color to what happened.

As for Ms Tree, good question. The commentary for the video of it was that they only planned one attempt to catch a half. Once the were successful they would review data and add a second vessel. As @Grendal mentioned they still planned to fish out the other half. Don’t think they indicated the distance, but they said Ms Tree was further out in the Atlantic than the drone ship so impressive area of SpaceX coverage. These guys must have been celebrating all night.
 
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@ecarfan I’m not quite sure what exactly happened with center core either but definitely went in the drink. The grabs I posted of this are in order and initially I thought it was going to land successfully. Notice the speed/altitude differences in the first photo compared to the remaining 3. Was the core coming down and not looking in proper alignment so guided off the drone over the sea where it slipped into the water vertically and then tip on its side as it was coming down there? Trying to make sense of the images. I was wondering what part of the core we were seeing the flames coming from. In any event still amazed to see the images at all. Hoping someone here can add more color to what happened.

As for Ms Tree, good question. The commentary for the video of it was that they only planned one attempt to catch a half. Once the were successful they would review data and add a second vessel. As @Grendal mentioned they still planned to fish out the other half. Don’t think they indicated the distance, but they said Ms Tree was further out in the Atlantic than the drone ship so impressive area of SpaceX coverage. These guys must have been celebrating all night.

As I understand it, all cores to land on a drone ship set up their coordinates slightly off and only adjust last minute if all looks good. It is likely that there was some malfunction - an engine error or footing not deployed, etc. - that caused the core to simply dive into the drink instead of damaging the drone ship. Musk only gave this core a 50/50 chance at a proper landing as the Air Force forced it to expend itself so much in the latest mission. Better a single core destroyed than a drone ship along with it.

The mission was a complete success - which was the priority. Landing cores is simply icing on the cake to make future lift-offs less expensive. Getting 2 out of the 3 back in working order is fantastic and I'd expect the next Falcon Heavy not to strain the central core as much as this one did so we may finally get one to land properly on the drone ship the next time around.
 
Answer of what went wrong with the center core:
Elon Musk on Twitter
Elon: High entry force & heat breached engine bay & center engine TVC failed

TVC = Thrust Vector Control = Engine Gimbal

The 3 engine landing burn happens as 1 engine, then 3 engines, and back to one for the landing.
Here is the best explanation I read on what was seen in the video derived from what Elon tweeted:

(Quote from George Gassaway on SpaceX Facebook agreeing with Moderator Bill Carton)
3-engine landing burn, center engine not steering but the outer two steering, presuming enough control authority to get over the ASDS. Then as planned, the outer two engines shut down a few hundred feet above the ASDS. Leaving an unsteerable center engine still thrusting, and presumably not perfectly centered, so it began to veer away. Lucky for video viewing purposes, veering into the right direction to see it flying away from the ASDS and Ka-Boom-anomaly-ing itself into the ocean.
 
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