Brotoro Posted June 3, 2021 Share Posted June 3, 2021 The camera on that Falcon 9 booster had a considerably wider-angle view than normal. And it was interesting that they did a boostback burn to the drone ship. Nice view of the boostback starting from stage two (until the switched to the camera on the other side of the stage). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted June 3, 2021 Share Posted June 3, 2021 28 minutes ago, Brotoro said: The camera on that Falcon 9 booster had a considerably wider-angle view than normal. And it was interesting that they did a boostback burn to the drone ship. Nice view of the boostback starting from stage two (until the switched to the camera on the other side of the stage). Methinks that they upgraded the camera equipment on this booster, as it is a new booster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 3, 2021 Share Posted June 3, 2021 41 minutes ago, Brotoro said: The camera on that Falcon 9 booster had a considerably wider-angle view than normal. And it was interesting that they did a boostback burn to the drone ship. Nice view of the boostback starting from stage two (until the switched to the camera on the other side of the stage). I imagine it has to do with cadence, because they have to send an ASDS to LA to support VAFB launches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccab Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 Correct me if this is wrong, but with this landing SpaceX has now recovered a Falcon 9 the same number of times an atlas 5 has flown Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 1 hour ago, Beccab said: Correct me if this is wrong, but with this landing SpaceX has now recovered a Falcon 9 the same number of times an atlas 5 has flown Atlas V has flown 87 times. This was the 86th successful recovery. Equaling Atlas V launches will have to wait until... Sunday. LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 Moved a couple pages of discussion off to their own thread. Please make new threads when you're going off on tangents. It greatly inconveniences user who comes to this thread to read about SpaceX, when you have to search through off-topic posts, because there's less than 2 actual SpaceX related posts per page. It's acceptable to make an off-topic comment as part of your post, but it shouldn't be the point of the post, and if you feel you have to quote or comment on another users off-topic comment, make a new thread for it or do it in an existing that covers that topic. If you have questions or concerns about this post, PM me or Report it and we'll discuss it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 The above is Phobos, being worked on in MI. It is being entirely stripped, presumably to a large landing pad configuration. since Deimos has kept the derrick/gantry part intact. at least up to now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 Are those expected to go and return from Port every launch / recovery? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 (edited) 3 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said: Are those expected to go and return from Port every launch / recovery? No, they get moved and stay there. Musk said that the booster would initially go to a sea launch platform itself (as a hop). Edited June 4, 2021 by tater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 4 minutes ago, tater said: No, they get moved and stay there. Musk said that the booster would initially go to a sea launch platform itself (as a hop). With expensive cargo? Or does expensive cargo get cabled up from the tossing seas into the bay? Also, do they land SS next to the booster or on the booster? So many questions I can see this working as a landing platform - but launching with cargo is starting to seem a fraught enterprise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 2 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said: With expensive cargo? Or does expensive cargo get cabled up from the tossing seas into the bay? Also, do they land SS next to the booster or on the booster? So many questions I can see this working as a landing platform - but launching with cargo is starting to seem a fraught enterprise Presumably via ship for cargo? One platform might just be for landing. Launch pad on the other one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 3 minutes ago, tater said: Presumably via ship for cargo? One platform might just be for landing. Launch pad on the other one? That is what I am trying to imagine. Unless they tie up to one another - and one has a tower to lift SS onto the booster. I see them as recovery platforms, no sweat. Launching is nice b/c less oversight & paperwork - but logistical nightmare from what I can see Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 Just now, JoeSchmuckatelli said: Launching is nice b/c less oversight & paperwork - but logistical nightmare from what I can see Yeah, unsure about how they could do cargo integration. Before they had shown sea launch for crew missions (something I don't see being a thing for a long time). People load themselves. Cargo is trickier. I suppose they could create a standard cargo pod, and load that on land, move to site, then load? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOXBLOX Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 Why would they bother launching from the sea? Does the inclination help that much? If it's not so beneficial, then maybe they should just recover the boosters at sea and hop them back to land. Or do they plan to use a barge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 8 minutes ago, SOXBLOX said: Why would they bother launching from the sea? Does the inclination help that much? If it's not so beneficial, then maybe they should just recover the boosters at sea and hop them back to land. Or do they plan to use a barge? Presumably once in international waters they can do whatever they want - even register the whole thing as a Bahamas enterprise and pay nothing in taxes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 I got terribly laughed at on a certain discord server for proposing this idea, and it is pretty absurd, but I don't see anything inherently wrong with it, so I figure I'd ask here too. If the time comes where we need a lot of starship launch sites and a lot of payload to orbit (eg large mars missions or something) would it make sense to position a few dozen launch/landing platforms in a circle around the Earth, and then land each super heavy booster on the next platform over after each launch? This would make essentially every launch an ASDS launch and permit more payload, but avoids the long boat trip back to the launch site because each booster is already at another launch site. Of course you would have to make each site big enough to hold multiple super heavies, or else you would have to launch every single one at once, which would be ridiculously cool but also not s good idea. Again, this is only practical with a high launch rate, but if we assume those conditions, are there any showstoppers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOXBLOX Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 Just now, Ultimate Steve said: Again, this is only practical with a high launch rate, but if we assume those conditions, are there any showstoppers? Well, you have to get the cargo to the launch sites... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 (edited) Seems reasonable, but the downrange distances are actually sorta short, several hundred km. As you move east, you run out of shallow water for platforms. You end up with the boosters moving east, until you run out of platforms, and no way to move them west except empty. Edited June 4, 2021 by tater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 Just now, tater said: You end up with the boosters moving east, and no way to move them west except empty. Good point. Keep forgetting that oil rig =/= boat. What if instead you had a line of launch sites? Or really it would work with just two. Launch some of the stuff prograde, and some of the stuff retrograde. Boosters hop back and forth along the line, always ASDSing. Of course you need retrograde payloads, which are rare, but if you are, say, launching a Mars fleet, no reason you can't launch half the fleet retrograde besides losing the equatorial boost and maybe added collision danger. I would imagine the average added payload from always ASDSing would be more than the average loss from launching retrograde half of the time (averages out to no equatorial boost at all) but I am not completely sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 If you had P2P, then maybe you can get around retrograde launches, but there is little reason for this to orbit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FleshJeb Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 7 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said: Good point. Keep forgetting that oil rig =/= boat. Deep water oil rigs are often semi-submersible and use dynamic positioning to stay in place. Still, I think towing it back would be a very slow process. These may be better suited to your idea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drillship Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 Any logistical costs of a series of platforms would have to be worth the ~20% payload improvement (using F9 RTLS/ASDS/expended payload differences as a guide)/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 5 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said: I got terribly laughed at on a certain discord server for proposing this idea, and it is pretty absurd, but I don't see anything inherently wrong with it, so I figure I'd ask here too. If the time comes where we need a lot of starship launch sites and a lot of payload to orbit (eg large mars missions or something) would it make sense to position a few dozen launch/landing platforms in a circle around the Earth, and then land each super heavy booster on the next platform over after each launch? This would make essentially every launch an ASDS launch and permit more payload, but avoids the long boat trip back to the launch site because each booster is already at another launch site. Of course you would have to make each site big enough to hold multiple super heavies, or else you would have to launch every single one at once, which would be ridiculously cool but also not s good idea. Again, this is only practical with a high launch rate, but if we assume those conditions, are there any showstoppers? You could always fly superheavy back to the first pad. You probably want to add an nose cone to it but they could be stacked. However this would require more operations. Now the thing missing is the tank farm needed to support this, do they plan to use LNG tankers for this? Look of the size of starship superheavy stack and realize its mostly an tank, now say you want to run refueling missions for multiple starships during an mars window. Now add launch safety issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceFace545 Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 Do y'all think that starship or superheavy could be laid down horizontally for transport or storage? Cause moving these will get very cumbersome if they just collapse on their sides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman.Spiff Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 6 minutes ago, SpaceFace545 said: Do y'all think that starship or superheavy could be laid down horizontally for transport or storage? Cause moving these will get very cumbersome if they just collapse on their sides. If P2P works out then moving it further than a few miles would make more sense through flight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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