C CNov 7, 2019 03:57 PM (This post was last modified: Nov 7, 2019 07:10 PM by C C.)
(Nov 7, 2019 03:02 AM)Yazata Wrote: Map of Starlink launch area. It looks like the rocket will take an unusual northeastward direction from Cape Canaveral (most rockets head southeast) in order to get the Starlinks in the desired orbit. The map shows both where the booster recovery barge will be stationed (the blue marker) and the fairing catcher ships (green). The orange outline shows where temporary aircraft flight restrictions will be in effect. (They don't want brave booster B1048 coming down on top of an airliner.)
After that first successful recovery of a fairing by SpaceX, it'll be interesting to see if they learned anything that will enable a repeat success. Not sure what that would be though, apart from the ships getting better in tune with telemetry data and somehow hustling faster to the spot in time (as if they weren't already stretching that to the lilmit).
EDIT: Ah, they already repeated and demonstrated an increment in perfecting the catching method. I've been quasi-amnesia suspended in late July and missed or forgot about that over recent months (maybe others).
Scheduled to go from Cape Canaveral at 9:56 AM EST Monday November 11. That's 6:56 PST, 14:56 UTC for you Brits) Pretty early my time, but I'll probably be watching. I'm not all that interested in the Starlinks, but I do want to see if never-say-die B1048 can make it back to Earth successfully for the fourth time.
They say that the stream will start about 15 minutes before the scheduled launch time. (~9:40 AM EST, 6:40 AM PST, 14:40 UTC)
YazataNov 11, 2019 05:36 PM (This post was last modified: Nov 11, 2019 09:35 PM by Yazata.)
Everything went perfectly - apart from loss of the video downlink from the booster as it descended. But cameras on OCISLY (the landing barge) showed B1048 landing smoothly and precisely in the center of the SpaceX 'X'. (It's Veterans' Day and B1048 is a 4-time veteran and already knows the drill.)
I still don't know whether they caught the fairings.
Edit: The fairing recovery was aborted and the catcher ships turned back to port, apparently because of bad weather where the fairings were supposed to come down. (Weather looked fine where B1048 landed on OCISLY.)
Reportedly Go Quest, the recovery support ship where all the human beings were standing off a safe distance has joined up with OCISLY (OCISLY is unmanned when there's a missile bearing down on it). The Octagrabber has grabbed B1048 and the ocean-going tug Hawk is preparing to take OCISLY in tow back to Port Canaveral.
YazataNov 16, 2019 07:51 AM (This post was last modified: Nov 16, 2019 05:42 PM by Yazata.)
Something new (at least new to me) on this Nov 11 Starlink flight was a rather cryptic view that the SpaceX live-feed cut to several times.
Somebody asked Elon what we were seeing and his reply was "liquid oxygen". So they seem to have put cameras (and lights) inside the (second stage?) LOX tanks for some reason unknown to me.
Apparently the SpaceX engineers want to see what's happening in there. This particular photo shows the tank almost empty. Presumably the engines are still running and acceleration is making the LOX pool at the bottom. I assume that if the vehicle is weightless in coast phase, it wouldn't do that. (Or maybe the tank pressurization would still make it happen, I don't know.) In the Starship, abrupt changes in attitude (belly first, tail first...) would cause sloshing problems in mostly empty tanks that would interrupt flow, something that the headers are designed to combat. I don't know if Falcon 9 stages contain headers. .
Edit: I asked the engineers on NSF what's up with this.
The reply that I got was that the cameras are a normal part of the tank. They are cheap IR cameras and don't need additional illumination. The blue color is false color. (LOX is naturally blue in visible light, so they apparently alter the IR image to look like a visible light image. Cameras are in there to spot some of the common problems such as buildup of crystal ices.
So Elon or somebody apparently decided to add these images to the live-feed because they look cool or something. But the SpaceX and other aerospace engineers with access are familiar with these images. The individual who replied to me says that the RP-1 (rocket-grade kerosine) looks blue on the SpaceX monitors too, just like the LOX, despite it not being the same color in visible light.
Regarding the behavior of small amounts of propellant in a mostly empty tank during weightlessness, the engineers say that they use the cold gas nitrogen thrusters to settle the propellant at the bottom of the tank as well as for attitude control.
The photos show that it's pretty dirty, all sooty and blackened. It needs a bath.
As sort of a mark of distinction, SpaceX adds the number of trips that a particular booster has made to space to the booster's numerical "name" (identification number)
So B1048 is officially B1048.4 (It was B1048.3 before this recent Starlink flight.)
YazataJan 3, 2020 06:29 AM (This post was last modified: Jan 3, 2020 06:59 AM by Yazata.)
More Starlinks set to launch from Cape Canaveral on Monday January 6 at 9:20 PM EST (6:20 PM PST, 2:20 AM Jan 7 UTC), weather permitting. The booster this time will be trusty B 1049, with three flights under its belt and going for its fourth. Recovery will be at sea on OCISLY.
This was supposed to go earlier, but the date slipped due to bad weather. OCISLY is already at sea being towed to the Landing Zone by Hawk, but has had to deviate northwards, swerving to a position off Charleston to avoid the Atlantic storm that's holding things up. Go Quest, OCISLY's support ship is following along behind, in the vicinity of Savannah. For some unknown reason, Go Navigator, the Crew Dragon/astronaut recovery ship is reportedly accompanying Go Quest and is at the same location. The fairing catcher ships are still down by Cape Canaveral. I don't know if they will attempt a fairing recovery for this one.
Edit: Word is that Go Navigator is accompanying Go Quest to fish one or both of the fairing halves from the ocean. Its normal job is fishing Crew Dragon capsules and the astronauts in them from the water, so its good practice. The normal fairing catchers Ms Tree and Ms Chief are undergoing some kind of maintenance and aren't available.
The Air Force/Space Force weather people say that the weather front is clearing out and weather should be ok for Monday evening launch. Biggest concern seems to be high altitude winds.
It looks like one of the two fairing catcher ships, Go Ms Tree, departed Port Canaveral over the weekend headed for the recovery zone. It will presumably try to catch one of the fairing halves in the air while Go Navigator fishes the other half out of the ocean.
The launch is from Cape Canaveral. Cape Canaveral is actually two different installations located side by side, that operate as one. There's NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and there's the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
SpaceX has leased two pads at the Cape. One is the historic Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. This is where the Saturn Moon rockets launched from and the Shuttles after that. Now its next big thing will be SpaceX's Crew Dragons. In addition, SpaceX has already started early phases of construction of a new pad adjacent to 39A (39B?) that is intended to host Superheavy/Starship launches. (Elon feels very honored that NASA entrusted 39A to SpaceX, knowing what a big deal 39A is inside NASA.)
But today's Starlinks will launch from from SpaceX's other pad, Pad 40 at next door CCAFS, overseen by the former USAF 45th Space Wing, now the US Space Force's 45th Space Wing.
So this launch will be historic in its own way, since it will be the first overseen by the brand new US Space Force.
It's assumed that Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (and its parent Patrick AFB will become Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Patrick SFB, but that hasn't been officially announced yet. I think that they are still drawing up a list of bases to be transferred.
Launch went great. B 1049.4 returned and nailed its 4th landing, on OCISLY. They just announced good orbital insertion of the newest clump of 60 Starlinks.
F9 & FH launches, 2019: Shotwell declared in May 2019 that SpaceX might conduct up to 21 launches in 2019, not counting Starlink missions. but by September she declared that there will be at most 18 total launches. SpaceX ended up launching only 13 rockets throughout 2019, significantly fewer than in 2017 and 2018, and third most launches of vehicle class behind China's Long March and Russia's R-7 rockets.
Nov 7, 2019 03:57 PM
(This post was last modified: Nov 7, 2019 07:10 PM by C C.)
![[Image: EIuIFnPWkAA6kDG?format=jpg&name=small]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EIuIFnPWkAA6kDG?format=jpg&name=small)
![[Image: 1594463.jpg]](https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/assets/49421.0/1594463.jpg)
![[Image: ENT908kW4AAqc5k?format=jpg&name=large]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ENT908kW4AAqc5k?format=jpg&name=large)
![[Image: ENc9yPpXsAAgE15?format=jpg&name=small]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ENc9yPpXsAAgE15?format=jpg&name=small)