StrandedonEarth

With those two stand-downs, I'm sure they have lots of completed vehicles sitting around waiting for their turn on the launch pad. At one point they were being held up by fairing production, which led Elon to look into ways to recover those ($6-$7million per). At least fairing production should have had a chance to get ahead.

Futurama? I only know the Marvin the Martian version: Congrats SpaceX on frustrating Marvin yet again! (assuming the rest of the mission goes as planned) Edit: All ten Iridiums deployed, Complete success! Woohoo!

That was an awesome view from F9 for the landing! They caught it! She's down and standing tall!

Wow! That's fantastic! Well worth the wait.

Nice save. Did you get it back into space on the first try?

It's just butterflies....

Oh i bet, that'll be a tough one

Oh right, thanks for the reminder and clarification. I was sort of right as they did land it, but couldn't recover the booster as the leg didn't lock due to ice buildup from foggy launch conditions.

IIRC they did a barge landing from Vandenberg. I think environmentally sensitive areas are making it difficult to get permission to return to dry land.

Good point, I thought that was what Dextre was for. Then again, they did say the procedure was started with tele-operated robotics from the ground.

A very recent article stated that SpaceX has a customer lined up for an experienced booster, which was previously announced as SES. So not this time. According to http://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/, SES 10 is slated for February (exact date TBD). That should be an experienced booster, although it doesn't specifically say so.

Trying to stand on the exact north pole of the Mün seems to be, uh, problematic as well

Extra tip: you can go through your assembled conglomeration and name any segments that will be undocked, and then name the main station core last. So your station will have and keep the name it should, and as you undock any taxis, crew return vehicles, and probes, they will take the name you gave that probe core/command module.

I would be tempted to trot out all the kerbal cliches, starting with the on-pad checklist revealing no chutes, followed by an in-flight abort when strap-on separation triggers a RUD, then a kraken attack, followed by the usual rescue mission for the rescue mission. At the end they have to "get out and push" to get home

As a guess, less load on the cooling systems? Also, probably bulky. If it doesn't need to be presssurized, then save the space for something that does

Also, are the magnets engaging?

it broke

Because it can fit in the back of a station wagon!

You're welcome, happy to help and glad it worked!

Out of curiosity what worked? Fins / RCS? Or booster redesign?

Ah, but "Science around/on X" missions don't care if there is any new science to be found. You can transmit a thermometer report worth zero science points and the contract still completes and pays out.

How high are you when dropping the boosters? Probably all you need are some big fins at the back of your core. If it's too high for fins to be useful, add some vernors and engage RCS as you stage. Another approach would be to make bigger side boosters and a smaller core stage, so that you drop the boosters higher where there are less aerodynamics in play. That's my quick answer without looking at the craft file My large station launches generally look like this:

Paper beats rock (I expect fire next)

I went to visit Jeb around nün, but the sign on his door said "Out to Launch"