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Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2018 11:16 pm
by Maui
Per tweet today from Musk, there are new radical changes to BFR; BFR is being accelerated in place of Falcon 9 stage 2 reusability.

Guesses anybody? (Hint: Musk says the changes are “counter intuitive”)

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 12:54 am
by paperburn1
Image

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:13 am
by Giorgio
Duplicate post.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:14 am
by Giorgio
paperburn1 wrote:Sorry guys , no little green men or super secret squirrel satellite. It is oxygen ice from inside the nozzle on stage two when the turbo pump runs a pre-chill cycle before startup, hence the blueish hue to it. :mrgreen: It falls on top of stage one then falls off. Also stage one pre cools before firing as well on its way back to landing unfortunately all the camera views are not available to the public and vary for each launch. The numbers varys from "a whole lot and even more than that" there are even event cameras in the lox / fuel tanks and everyplace else in a 360 degree coverage.
I don't think anyone here ever implied that it could be a satellite or a stable altitude object. What I am trying to figure out is if there was actually a close call with a space debris or if that could have been a piece of ice.

Personally I think that it is not ice at all.
Firstly, its' dimensions right after it enters the camera field, compared to the scale of the S1 dimensions, make it look quite big, and not "a chunk" of something.
Secondly, the vector it has is quite steep in respect of the vector the S1 was keeping during its descent, and with practically no drag at that altitude I have to wonder how a detached piece of ice got the instant impulse to allow it to assume such an escape vector "WITHOUT" assuming any apparent rotational momentum. You can clearly see in slow motion between T=+6:02 and T=+6:04 that it goes straight without any tumbling nor rotation.
Thirdly, if it was actually O2 ice I would have expected before and during the passage of the object to see also some gaseous O2 plum from nearby the engine to indicate that there was actually an O2 venting/purging going on.

For sure a camera frame at same "T" would clarify the issue but I doubt people at SpaceX will release them.[/quote]

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 1:25 pm
by paperburn1
It has been "seen" before in several launches , people are just talking about it now. CRS10 the tesla launch, Here is a good example from the feb 2017 launch It just looks big because of the wide lens and angle. Camera level also determines what a viewer is able to see in a video. Lines would appear to converge (or not) and objects would seem smaller or larger depending on their relationship to the rest of the scene. This camera has a wide lens and is very close to the main body enabling it to give a view of both grid fins. It is literally only a few feet above the fins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBEk9n3kOZ8
If you give the objects a vertical velocity that's nearly matching the first stage, then they could be quite small. In fact, they could be small bits of debris from the rocket that are dislodged by the sudden acceleration due to the engine starting, but they could have fallen off slightly earlier as well.
If so, then why would they come floating back up? Drag. The rocket is aligned roughly along the direction of relative motion with respect to the air, and it's very heavy. The objects are randomly shaped, have no attitude control, and probably have a much lower mass per unit area. Even at a half-percent of standard pressure, they can start loosing meters second of velocity quickly, and since the atmospheric pressure is doubling about every four seconds, it's going to happen quickly.
Note I was joking about LGM or spy satellites but the daily mail had an article about it. :lol:

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:13 pm
by Skipjack
As pieces of ice can been seen falling off the stage over all the time and several times during the same video, Occam's razor says that it is just more of the same. And again, there is no orbital debris at this altitude. Plus any orbital debris would be zipping past the stage so quickly, you would not be able to see it.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 12:37 am
by jnaujok
Oh yeah, by the way, SpaceX launched and landed a booster for the third time today. That's one booster that's flown three times. Also broke the record for most flights by one rocket in a year (19), the record for a rocket launched from the most launch sites, 3, and the U.S. record for most satellites deployed on a single launch (64).

Perfect landing on a drone ship at sea, as well, and they recovered the fairings after a brief dip, which apparently (Fairing 2.0) is no big deal now, and they'll be reused.

Just another boring old Monday at SpaceX.

Another launch to the space station tomorrow. 24 hours and 2 minutes after this one. Yawn.

I see a trend among Elon companies:
SpaceX: making space be boring.
The Boring company: making space by boring.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 2:00 am
by ladajo
I can't believe I let work get in the way of SpaceX boring me today. Poop.
I look forward to being bored tomorrow if I can break away from work.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 11:03 am
by Giorgio
jnaujok wrote: I see a trend among Elon companies:
SpaceX: making space be boring.
The Boring company: making space by boring.
LMAO :D

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 1:15 pm
by ladajo
Sadly, we are not going to be bored today. The resupply mission has been delayed until tomorrow.
On a side note, this mission includes 40 live mice. This is one of the single largest efforts to lift multiple complex organic carbon based lifeforms out of our gravity well. Years ago (1960 - Sputnik 5), the Soviets boosted two dogs, a rabbit, 42 mice, 2 rats, and fruit flies. In 2013, the Russian's again fell under the spell of the mice, and boosted 45 mice on Bion-11, along with some companion critters. I sense nefarious intent on the mice's part. It makes me wonder if they really are pan-dimensional super intelligent beings as posited by the great mind of world renowned science expert Douglas Adams (RIP).

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 2:20 pm
by Skipjack
SpaceX really is on the way towards making spaceflight routine. The great advantage that they have is that they can tear down re- flown boosters and see where the margins need improvement (or where they are too high). Despite the fact that they have shifted focus towards Starship (formerly BFR), Falcon 9 will continue to improve in small details with every new booster they build. Would not be surprised to see further (small) performance improvements coming for Merlin 1D as well. Plus every time they land a booster, they learn something that allows them to further tweak the flight profile. Fairings will also get better over time, I am sure. With fairings and boosters reused, cost will continue to go down. Just the fairing costs 6 million to build every time.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:25 pm
by Maui
Spoke a little too soon skipjack...

EDIT: Made original comment as the booster was spiraling out of control and was picturing a fireball on impact (was hoping not in a bad place).

Pretty phenomenal that it apparently actually kept enough control to make a controlled water landing-- can't wait to see footage.

Not boring today!

EDIT2: Landing video:
https://clips.twitch.tv/CleverSpineyEggPrimeMe

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 8:41 pm
by jnaujok
Finally, a landing that wasn't boring!

So bummed that they cut the live feed as soon as the grid-fins jammed and it started spinning.

Good to see Elon has already tweeted out the video of the whole landing from the top of the first stage, even if it is a bit motion-sickness triggering.

I guess they have a great candidate booster for the in-flight-abort test in a few months. Won't hurt as much to see the scratch&dent first stage go boom on a MaxQ abort separation.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 1:53 am
by ladajo
Well, it was kind of a slow motion not boring. A regular hmmm moment and all. :)

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:50 pm
by ladajo
GPS 3-1 goes up today courtesy of a one way Block 5. I wonder if they will try a landing sequence at sea for data collection. Apparently this one is going up hot due to the delivery energy requirement, and thus is deemed not landable. Interesting given it is going to a HEO profile.