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Skylon

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Think its part of the fairing ejection system, and yes I guess it uses cold gas both for unlocking and to propel away from rocket.
They plan to recover fairings but that would require adding an small parachute and a transmitter who make it easier to locate.
Might also add some flotation device even if it it floats. 
Control will be simple fairing eject works as today except that it activates the beacon and release the parachute at set attitude. 
So simple it would not be hard to make water proof, they would have to waterproof the release and eject system too. They are likely to develop an lighter fairing if they can recover it as cost become less important. 

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I never thought about how to get rid of the shell. It seems to be a complex process.

I can't see any gas release in the video, though they say a pneumatic system pushes the fairings open. Maybe that means that pressure (out of something the blue cylinders ?) drives a series of bolts but nothing is released ?

http://www.spacex.com/news/2013/05/27/spacex-fairing-separation-test

http://www.spacex.com/news/2013/04/12/fairing

Pressure in the Proton fairings is equalized as the rocket climbs, so it is not the overpressure that pushes the eggshells apart. Proton seems to use some directed pyro to release the locks and "pushers" to open them. Acceleration then leaves them behind, i think (?).

http://www.ilslaunch.com/node/3307

Apparently Orion uses a similar thing, explosive bolts and springs to get rid of the overweight:

https://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/november/nasas-orion-sees-flawless-fairing-separation-in-second-test/

 

But that was just a quick search ...

 

Edited by Green Baron
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Huh, no technical webcast for this launch either. I guess it's just simpler to have one. 

I liked the technical one, though. I could concentrate on launch proceedings without listening to the commentators rambling on about things I've heard a million times before... :( 

Edited by TheEpicSquared
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Actually I'm kinda hoping that we'll see at least some Heavies launching as disposables. Because that implies a requirement for some beefy payloads on orbit, which implies some interesting mission variety. :) 

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14 minutes ago, KSK said:

Actually I'm kinda hoping that we'll see at least some Heavies launching as disposables. Because that implies a requirement for some beefy payloads on orbit, which implies some interesting mission variety. :) 

 

Hopefully not too many of those though :)

But yes, that would be awesome; to the Moon, Mars, and beyond!

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Dumb news coverage:

Quote

After a streak of successful launches, SpaceX is looking damn spiffy. While the best part of watching a SpaceX launch is arguably the last leg of the trip, when the Falcon 9 first stage attempts to land softly back on Earth, tonight, SpaceX will be doing something a little more complicated than its typical launch routine—and as a result, it won’t be trying to land at all.

At around 7:21 p.m. EDT this evening, the aerospace company will launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It’ll be carrying a 13,400-pound communications satellite from a London-based corporation called Inmarsat-5 F4 into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) some 22,300 miles above Earth’s equator. To a ground observer, a satellite placed in GTO appears stationary, which is useful because it allows any ground-based antennae to remain pointed at a single spot in the sky. GTO is a lot higher and tricker to reach than Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where most of SpaceX’s missions to date have taken place.

Uh, no. Most of SpaceX's missions have gone to GTO, not LEO. And a satellite in GTO does not appear stationary; a satellite in GEO appears stationary. The reason the launch is expendable is because they are sending a particularly heavy bird to GTO.

But what do you expect?

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This is why you can pretty much ignore reporting on almost anything at all. We all know this stuff, so the space reporting looks like it is written by an idiot. When my wife reads medical stories, she says the same thing. A friend is an attorney, he says a lot of legal reporting is pretty clueless (though there are so many lawyers some work in the media). If reporters could do something useful, they'd not be reporters.

(my apologies to any reporters here harmed by this post)

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17 minutes ago, Scotius said:

Welp, at least they used proper terms. Although i wouldn't call this mission more complicated than the mission including landing :P

Well they got GTO and GEO confused. GTO is a Hohmann Transfer to GEO.

Edited by sevenperforce
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1 minute ago, Scotius said:

As usual - comment section on YT channel is full of eye-watering stupidity, ignorance and immaturity. Why rocket launches always bring kooks out of the woods?

 

There's no chat, what're you talkin' about?

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2 minutes ago, Scotius said:

As usual - comment section on YT channel is full of eye-watering stupidity, ignorance and immaturity. Why rocket launches always bring kooks out of the woods?

I just see "chat is disabled for this livestream"

am I lucky for that?

oh, and I'm home alone, so I get to watch the launch on a big TV

THANK YOU APPLE!!!

Edited by StupidAndy
BIG TV!!
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7 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

Saw some comments zip by

nah

I'm going to stick to the official one.

its better because we cant share our opinions!! so the idiots cant too!! :D

EDIT: and its started! and it isn't the last guy!

Edited by StupidAndy
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