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#1
Yazata Offline
The two SpaceX fairing catchers, Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief have had their catching nets and the arms that support them removed. Isn't clear if that means the end of the fairing catching experiment. Word is that the fairings have been modified to be more salt-water resistant so that they can be fished out of the ocean without damage. Unclear whether SpaceX will continue to use these boats or whether they will be returned to the company they are leased from.

Then to add intrigue, this sailed into Port Canaveral and parked at SpaceX-land. It's the much larger Sheila Bordelon, designed to be an ocean going tug and support vessel for off-shore oil platforms. It belongs to a Louisiana company called Bordelon Marine that specializes in servicing the Gulf offshore oil industry. That and the recent acquision of Phobos and Deimos have people going 'hummm...'. Has SpaceX leased this beautiful new ship to service its offshore launch/landing platforms? (People immediately picked up on 'Bored Elon', but Bordelon Marine is an established company.)


[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcflymarine.com%2Fwp-cont...f=1&nofb=1]
[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcflymarine.com%2Fwp-cont...f=1&nofb=1]



https://twitter.com/spacecoast_stve/stat...0761723904

Chris Bergin has obtained a photo of Ms Tree and Ms Chief reacting to the sudden appearance of Sheila.

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/stat...28/photo/1
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#2
C C Offline
(Mar 18, 2021 08:22 PM)Yazata Wrote: The two SpaceX fairing catchers, Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief have had their catching nets and the arms that support them removed. Isn't clear if that means the end of the fairing catching experiment. Word is that the fairings have been modified to be more salt-water resistant so that they can be fished out of the ocean without damage. Unclear whether SpaceX will continue to use these boats or whether they will be returned to the company they are leased from.

[...] Chris Bergin has obtained a photo of Ms Tree and Ms Chief reacting to the appearance of Sheila.

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/stat...28/photo/1

Sad to develop a new, remarkable acrobatic skill and then have it prematurely become passé.

If other upstarts can perform the remaining grunt task more cheaply, then once supporting-role stars of the stage even potentially get taken out to pasture or hauled away to the glue factory.
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#3
Yazata Offline
This morning I didn't see Sheila on fleetcam and was afraid Ms. Chief and Ms. Tree had run her off their turf. But it turns out that her real name is Shelia and she eventually returned this afternoon with a fairing prominently displayed on her deck after fairing recovery trials verifying that SpaceX has eyes for her. She's young (built 2015) and hot, check out her sexy dance moves as she oozes into port with directional thrusters!

https://twitter.com/SpaceXFleet/status/1...4109487104

Shelia's the talk of the town!

Chris Bergin again:


[Image: Ew4SBBvXAAQ3Trr?format=jpg&name=medium]
[Image: Ew4SBBvXAAQ3Trr?format=jpg&name=medium]



And here's her Enterprise-style bridge, almost as cool as the bridge of one of Elon's Mars-bound Starships! (More power Scotty! I'm giv'in ya all she's got, Capt'n!)

Photo by Gavin Cornwell


[Image: EwzNAPYWYAoiKWW?format=jpg&name=medium]
[Image: EwzNAPYWYAoiKWW?format=jpg&name=medium]

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#4
Yazata Offline
Today Ms. Tree is losing her last two fairing catching arms while Ms. Chief is losing her communications dishes.

https://twitter.com/SpaceXFleet/status/1...9029870592

Meanwhile newly arrived sexy bombshell Shelia Bordelon was out dishing fairings out of the ocean this morning for today's latest Starlink launch. (A success, booster B1060's 6th successful landing.)

Ms Tree and Ms Chief won't be forgotten. They were kind of iconic.


[Image: 16984888-7331077-image-a-14_1565163124912.jpg]
[Image: 16984888-7331077-image-a-14_1565163124912.jpg]

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#5
Yazata Offline
Today Ms Tree set her destination as Louisiana, where the company that she was leased from is based. She has been returned to her original configuration and the day marks the end of her SpaceX service.

Her departure and the end of the fairing catching saga are a little piece of spaceflight history.

Meanwhile Shelia is already out at sea ready to gather up the fairings for tomorrow's Starlink launch. From out of the ocean not from the sky. And not with a giant net that looks like one of Elon's crazy late night brainstorms.

Here Ms Tree is, leaving Port Canaveral for the last time.


[Image: EyUrnPQXIAgzo-y?format=jpg&name=large]
[Image: EyUrnPQXIAgzo-y?format=jpg&name=large]



Ms Tree back in her glory days


[Image: EyUr689XAAEnmJ_?format=jpg&name=900x900]
[Image: EyUr689XAAEnmJ_?format=jpg&name=900x900]

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#6
Yazata Offline
It looks like SpaceX has dumped that sexy Shelia Bordelon! (Or maybe she dumped them. Love is fleeting...)

The newest fairing catcher appears to be another offshore oil platform service ship named HOS Briarwood. Roughly the same size and design as Shelia, but with what may be a bigger crane (Elon loves big cranes), a three storey deckhouse midships and a helicopter landing pad over the bow.

https://hornbeckoffshore.com/fleet/featu...-briarwood

I have no idea why they switched. My speculative impulse makes me want to think that they are looking for ships to work with Phobos and Deimos in the future. But I don't actually know that...


[Image: E4lIbYYWYAQZ5ZO?format=jpg&name=large]
[Image: E4lIbYYWYAQZ5ZO?format=jpg&name=large]



Edit - And HOS Briarwood has left Port Canaveral to scoop up the fairings from the upcoming Transporter 2 mission. That rocket (B1060.8) will be returning to Cape Canaveral, but the payload fairings will still fall far out at sea.
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#7
Yazata Offline
Just like the sisters Ms Tree and Ms Chief, and the bombshell Shelia Bordelon, it looks like SpaceX has kicked HOS Briarwood out on its ear as well (if ships had ears). Two fairing recoveries, 100% success, and all it gets is maybe we'll run into each other again some time! HOS Briarwood is returning to its homeport in Louisiana.

Makes me think that this isn't just about catching fairings but is an audition for something else, Phobos and Deimos support ship perhaps. Both HOS and Shelia seemed like a lot of ship just for fishing fairings out of the Atlantic. Both are newly constructed fairly large ships designed to service off-shore ocean platforms.

So I don't know what the problem was. Maybe the companies couldn't come to mutually agreeable terms for leasing the ships. Maybe the owners didn't want them tied up continually, unable to take other work. Maybe SpaceX wanted to modify them extensively. I don't know.
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#8
Yazata Offline
Elon has given us our first views of ASOG (A Shortfall of Gravitas), the newest SpaceX booster-catching "drone-ship". It was out on a sea trial from its shipyard at Fourchon Louisiana today.

It seems to have a different, wider and more circular deck design. It doesn't have equipment in a bunch of shipping containers like OCISLY and JRTI, but looks like it has a custom deckhouse. It appears to have Starlink antennas pre-installed. And most important, it was moving energetically under its own power, suggesting very powerful station-keeping thrusters.

I have to admit that it looks really cool and futuristic. JRTI and OCISLY were kind of test prototypes of a rocket-landing landing barge, sort of testing out the concept. But ASOG is finally the finished product, the real-deal.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1413598670331711493

And on the west coast, OCISLY has been unloaded from Mighty Servant 1.

This is a very interesting process as Mighty Servant 1 is semi-submersible.

Here is is in Long Beach harbor with OCISLY atop it (photo by Jack Beyer of nasaspaceflight.com).


[Image: E53pxwAVgAA6VWm?format=jpg&name=large]
[Image: E53pxwAVgAA6VWm?format=jpg&name=large]



It's designed to carry other ships or big things like floating oil platforms. The way it loads and unloads is by pumping water into its ballast tanks so that it sinks lower in the water so that the sea covers its cargo deck. Then the object to be loaded or unloaded is floated on or off the cargo deck. Once the ship to be carried is above Mighty Servant 1's deck, the ballast tanks are pumped out and Mighty Servant's deck surfaces.

Here's a photo of Mighty Servant 1 semi-submerged in Long Beach with OCISLY being floated off, again by Jack Beyer.


[Image: E5yEvuKUcAQhAMQ?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]
[Image: E5yEvuKUcAQhAMQ?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]



And here's Mighty Servant 1 in a different paint job (it's gone through more than one owner) carrying a much larger object, a floating oil platform. (Photo by D. seeruttun from Wikipedia commons)


[Image: MV_Mighty_Servant_1.jpg]
[Image: MV_Mighty_Servant_1.jpg]

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#10
Yazata Offline
Ok, the secret is out... why Ms Tree, Ms Chief and Shelia all got dumped and Hos Briarwood lasted such a short time. It's because SpaceX already had two new ships of their own under construction. Shelia and Hos were just temporary fill-in's. The first of them just showed up and it's apparently named Doug. The second will be Bob. They are obviously named for the famous Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley that were the first human beings to ride SpaceX into space.

Here's Doug arriving in Port Canaveral last night (photo by Steven Marr 'Spacecoast Steve')


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[Image: E-FLOeXXEAAmXzj?format=jpg&name=large]

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