Talk-Polywell.org

It looks like they might be trying to solve this problem with an onboard robotic system: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/2 ... ing_barge/
Be interesting to see if they use it with the upcoming launch.
I'm looking forward to it either way, if they can pull of the booster reuse that will be something

paperburn1 wrote:The last rocket that landed slid almost to the edge of the barge before they were able to get aboard and secure the landing pads. It takes almost an hour to get the crew onboard the barge after landing.

Any ideas for cheap, lightweight and automatic way to secure?

Perhaps robotic system on the barge.
Or a grid of switched pressure sensitive electromagnetic pads that turn on when a landing leg presses down on it. Hmm.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/2 ... ing_barge/

confirmed this is for securing the rocket after landing,This gadget appears to "live" in a blastproof garage at one end of the barge . The booster lands and this then scuttles out and stops it walking across the deck in rolling seas (instead of people having to board the barge and secure a large explosive tube).
It takes about an hour for the people to get from the support ship to the barge to secure the booster. This could do it in minutes.

The window for a lift-off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center opens at 18:27 EDT (22:27 GMT; 23:27 BST).
The satellite passenger is the property of the Luxembourg operator SES.
Designated SES-10, this 5.3-tonne spacecraft, which was manufactured in the UK and France by Airbus, is booked to deliver a range of TV and telecom services to the Caribbean, Central and South America.

This is a watershed moment in rocketry. This is the extension of relaunch-able hobby rockets to the full size arena.
The exception being that the engine is reusable, vice a cardboard tube throwaway.
When will the first hobby builder re-create a Falcon 9 series, self landing, with a reusable engine? Soon I think...

I really hope it works, and have a good amount of faith it will <knocks self on head reciting "wood" mantra>.

Go SpaceX!!!

Awesome work by SpaceX. History was made today!

Skipjack wrote:Awesome work by SpaceX. History was made today!

These fellows certainly seem to be the ones to watch.

And I forgot about it until an hour after launch. *sigh* Oh, well. Looks like the geosynchronous transfer orbit was achieved, and the first stage successfully landed for a second time. I'd call that something worth watching.

Soooo... now the question is when will they fly it the third time?

This really does fundamentally change things. The other boost companies may be entering denial mode.
Beating this cost model is going to be really hard.

Go SpaceX!!!

Such a fantastic day for it too. The weather was awesome.

Aaaaand, then just because you are supposed to "do at least two impossible things every day", Musk just announced that they also successfully landed and recovered the payload fairing... another 6 million USD savings per launch and another thing that was supposed to be "impossible".
Aaaand because that is still not enough yet, Musk said that they will attempt a "hail Mary" recovery of the second stage on one of the upcoming flights (of which several will be with reused first stages).

Annnnnd, that is some real shit.

Go SpaceX!

ladajo wrote:Soooo... now the question is when will they fly it the third time?

Musk wants to donate this booster as a historic exhibit. They have " a whole forest of recovered boosters" sitting at the cape right now waiting to be relaunched. Musk said that they will need a bigger hangar if they keep recovering them like that. So I guess, they can give them away like that.
Plus, the next version of Falcon 9 will be better and can be refurbished quicker and more economically anyway.
So I guess, they might just as well get rid of these boosters quickly.

SpaceX definitely seems to be doing well on Musk's plan to make a fully reusable rocket, even if it has taken a number of years longer than he originally envisioned.

krenshala wrote:SpaceX definitely seems to be doing well on Musk's plan to make a fully reusable rocket, even if it has taken a number of years longer than he originally envisioned.

Never bet against Musk doing something. Never bet on him doing it on time

Yes, indeed, this is a watershed moment in the space business. The birth of the used rocket business!

Think about it ... for years now these things have been throwaways. How can that possibly be considered a mature technology?

Now when you pick a rocket, you're making an investment, and you have to consider resale value.

And, of course, it helps if you have more than one brand to choose from. As was pointed out at a Cheap Access To Space (CATS) conference years ago, one industry analyst was critical of those who claimed that satellite entertainment was a "market". He said that having two companies (Sirius and XM) does not constitute a market, and indeed, not long after that, one company ate the other.

We now have two companies working on reusable rockets and a couple of other choices for launch vehicles that won't be able to ignore this. OSC pushed the reusable concept with their Pegasus boosters (the L-1011 launch platform was highly reuseable). Plus you have those foreign jobs competing. So maybe we can now say there is a competitive market. Including used boosters.