Well Mr. Steven is still in LA, FWIW.
Quote from: meekGee on 01/15/2018 02:25 amWell Mr. Steven is still in LA, FWIW.How long did he take to cross last time ? We're still a fair way left of launch date. There's also the possibility that they already started to outfit an other ship we don't know about yet, since it seems their fleet is currently being reshufled quite a bit (although I wouldn't bet on that hypothesis. I think it's much better to do 1 ship, test, redo if necessary, and then do the other ships you need using the lessons learned from the first one).
Does anyone know if SpaceX plans to recover the Falcon Heavy fairing ?
Quote from: meekGee on 01/15/2018 02:25 amWell Mr. Steven is still in LA, FWIW.How long did he take to cross last time ?
Quote from: Alastor on 01/15/2018 08:21 amQuote from: meekGee on 01/15/2018 02:25 amWell Mr. Steven is still in LA, FWIW.How long did he take to cross last time ? She. Ships are feminine. Even if given a masculine name. I agree with the idea that only one set of recovery hardware will be built until much closer to the final configuration (there have been mods since the second ASDS was built/rebuilt but they have not been that extensive)
She. Ships are feminine. Even if given a masculine name.
Quote from: Lar on 01/16/2018 03:23 pmShe. Ships are feminine. Even if given a masculine name. True for English, not so much in other languages.
Quote from: Dave G on 01/13/2018 09:49 amDoes anyone know if SpaceX plans to recover the Falcon Heavy fairing ?There should be plenty of space inside that fairing to put additional recovery hardware - and there's certainly spare weight capacity...
An obvious question with fairings is whether you can regard they are a "booster" (13 units of weight growth to cause 1 unit of final payload loss) or an upper stage (1 unit of stage weight growth equals 1 unit of payload lost)?If it's "booster" then you could probably put quite a bit of stuff on it. If it's like the upper stage you are much more constrained. Although it's part of the upper stage it's separation early(ish) in the flight suggests its booster like in its mass growth properties.
Quote from: john smith 19 on 01/21/2018 09:20 amAn obvious question with fairings is whether you can regard they are a "booster" (13 units of weight growth to cause 1 unit of final payload loss) or an upper stage (1 unit of stage weight growth equals 1 unit of payload lost)?If it's "booster" then you could probably put quite a bit of stuff on it. If it's like the upper stage you are much more constrained. Although it's part of the upper stage it's separation early(ish) in the flight suggests its booster like in its mass growth properties.Fairing jettison is around a tenth of the way into the burn, of 49 tons or so, and the stage mass, neglecting fairing is perhaps 55 tons including payload.If the fairing is 5 tons, it's ~20% of the mass at this point, for ~10% of the flight.Naively, you can approximate this as 2% loss.
I had assumed it was more of a hit than the booster but a lot less than the second stage since fairings are shed fairly early. But that it's a variable amount depending on the mission profile. (the earlier it is shed, (the more popup the trajectory), the less of a hit). That's just guesswork.
Quote from: Lar on 01/21/2018 01:14 pmI had assumed it was more of a hit than the booster but a lot less than the second stage since fairings are shed fairly early. But that it's a variable amount depending on the mission profile. (the earlier it is shed, (the more popup the trajectory), the less of a hit). That's just guesswork.Using the rocket equations to give an estimate of about 8.5 for GTO and about 7.8 for a LEO.
If you're wondering why people swoon over SpaceX, it's because they routinely dare crazy shit like this and keep at it until they succeed.
Mr. Steven is headed for the Panama Canal. While the end destination is currently Belize, that's just to refuel. The end destination is likely Port Canaveral. Good chance of a fairing recovery attempt during the GovSat launch.Edit: I don't think it can make the 30th. I did some math. Either the launch date has slipped and we don't know yet, or this is for another launch.
The time track on her way to LA from Florida:Dec 22, 2017, 00:04 UTC LOS ANGELES, USADec 03, 2017, 03:00 UTC MANZANILLO, MEXICONov 28, 2017, 06:00 UTC BALBOA, PANAMASo it takes around a month to get only to Panama.Also on www.vesselfinder.com destination is SAN PEDRO CALI (actually it's the same destination on the marinetraffic site too if you just hover the pointer on the ship).May be this is just a trial run?