Quote from: mr. mark on 10/15/2013 02:59 pmExactly my point. I am sure the answer is known and has been told to the required parties. There is no reason to inform us. We most likely will be kept in the dark.It does not affect me (as a non US citizen), but considering that so many millions of tax dollars went to Space-X, I would be disappointed if all the return I get is some video with drop outs and some text messages with 140 characters length. But of course, ymmv.Zoe
Exactly my point. I am sure the answer is known and has been told to the required parties. There is no reason to inform us. We most likely will be kept in the dark.
Quote from: Silmfeanor on 10/15/2013 02:25 pmQuoteWhy have there been no details posted, especially video, related to the 1st stage reentry, not-as-hard-as-usual ocean intersection, and parts recovery. L2 has some!Where? Link? I never saw any video.
QuoteWhy have there been no details posted, especially video, related to the 1st stage reentry, not-as-hard-as-usual ocean intersection, and parts recovery. L2 has some!
Why have there been no details posted, especially video, related to the 1st stage reentry, not-as-hard-as-usual ocean intersection, and parts recovery.
I must have overlooked that apparently no single NASA dollar went into the development of the launcher or the infrastructure. My bad.Zoe
Here's some info from an in-the-know site with some details
Quote from: AnjaZoe on 10/15/2013 03:20 pmI must have overlooked that apparently no single NASA dollar went into the development of the launcher or the infrastructure. My bad.ZoeNASA got what they paid for. I don't see how that obliges SpaceX to reveal extensive details about a commercial mission.I'm wondering if Arianspace would do any differently?
Quote from: AnjaZoe on 10/15/2013 03:20 pmI must have overlooked that apparently no single NASA dollar went into the development of the launcher or the infrastructure. My bad.NASA got what they paid for. I don't see how that obliges SpaceX to reveal extensive details about a commercial mission.
I must have overlooked that apparently no single NASA dollar went into the development of the launcher or the infrastructure. My bad.
Quote from: StephenB on 10/15/2013 03:27 pmQuote from: AnjaZoe on 10/15/2013 03:20 pmI must have overlooked that apparently no single NASA dollar went into the development of the launcher or the infrastructure. My bad.NASA got what they paid for. I don't see how that obliges SpaceX to reveal extensive details about a commercial mission.I suspect NASA will get the updates all their future customers will get - enough to convince them their payload will be in good hands.Not sure if they get some additional info as part of NLS II certification?cheers, Martin
IF it was insulation coming off, how come pieces 39277 and 39278 have a semi-major axis that is 50-55 km larger than the F9 upper stage? Where did the energy come from?
As no firm has ever brought back a first stage in an attempted landing before. It would be time to consider patents and all the ramifications of the same. In the USA you can talk and publish about patents not yet granted. In most of the rest of the world you can not.Return video of a landing would contain many patent-able elements and possibly be viewed as publishing methods before a patent was granted let alone applied for. In the USA this is not a problem but the rest of the world it is.No patent lawyer worth the title would approve of publishing that video at this time.Everything needs to be locked down with many successful landings and granted patents before it could be published ... unless hell froze over the rest of the world changed their patent laws.
On Sunday, Sept. 29th, SpaceX successfully completed the demonstration mission of its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, delivering the CASSIOPE, CUSat, DANDE and POPACS satellites to their targeted orbits. All of the satellite owners are in contact with their spacecraft and are reporting nominal operations. This was the first Falcon 9 launch using SpaceX’s new 17 foot diameter fairing, designed and built in house by SpaceX. The fairing separates using pneumatic pushers instead of explosives and is large enough to fit a city bus. This was also the first launch from SpaceX’s newly refurbished launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, and the first demonstration of a number of technologies on the upgraded vehicle. On this mission, Falcon 9 lifted off with nine Merlin 1D engines, generating 1.3 million pounds of thrust at liftoff and increasing to 1.5 million pounds of thrust as it approached the vacuum of space—nearly twice the thrust than when previously powered by the Merlin 1C. The engines were configured in a more robust engine support structure called the Octaweb, which is easier to manufacture and improves the vehicles reliability. To fuel the more powerful engines, SpaceX extended the propellant tanks by approximately 60%. The upgraded vehicle featured a triple-redundant avionics system similar to that used on Dragon, providing a single-fault tolerant architecture. A new stage separation system reduced the number of connection points from 12 to 3, and the vehicle also flew with a stronger heat shield that allows the rocket to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and eventually land propulsively. The flight proceeded according to plan, with a nominal first-stage flight and shutdown 2 minutes and 41 seconds after launch. Stage separation occurred at 2 minutes and 45 seconds, with MVac ignition following 7 seconds later. SpaceX's new fairing separated at approximately 3 minutes 32 seconds into launch. Nine minutes and 2 seconds into flight, the upper stage engine shut down. Approximately 14 minutes into flight, CASSIOPE was deployed directly at its target orbit of 325x1500km, 81 deg inclination. Each system performed as expected and all payloads were delivered to their intended destinations. View from the onboard rocket cam looking down the first stage.First stage separates 2 minutes and 45 seconds into the flight, prepares to reenter the Earth's atmosphereMerlin Vacuum engine on the second stage ignites 7 seconds after stage separationSpaceX's new fairing separates approximately 3 minutes and 32 seconds into launch, preparing for payload deploymentNine minutes and 2 seconds into flight, the upper stage engine shuts down in preparation for payload deploymentFollowing separation of the last payload, SpaceX attempted an internal milestone of relighting the second stage. Conditions appeared satisfactory for relight of the upper stage engine as the stage flew over Antarctica. The engine initiated ignition, with pressure rising in the thrust chamber to about 400 psi, but the flight computer sensed conditions did not meet criteria and it aborted the ignition. SpaceX believes it understands the issue which didn’t involve anything fundamental, rather a need to iron out some of the differences between operating the engine on the ground versus in a vacuum. SpaceX has actually relit the Merlin engine in ground testing a dozen times in some cases and SpaceX is confident it can make the necessary adjustments before the next flight. Despite reports to the contrary, the Falcon 9 second stage remained intact and healthy following spacecraft separation. It takes a few days to get the data from the Air Force Satellite Control Network into the SpaceX data system for review, but the data confirms the stage passed over Hawaii from approximately 1748 to 1754 Universal Time (10:48-10:54 PDT), roughly 1 hr 48 minutes after launch, starting into our second orbit. SpaceX still had power on the second stage, and the transmitters were left on to drain the batteries (standard procedure).Though not a primary mission objective, SpaceX was also able to initiate two engine relights on the first stage. For the first restart burn, we lit three engines to do a supersonic retro propulsion, which we believe may be the first attempt by any rocket stage. The first restart burn was completed well and enabled the stage to survive reentering the atmosphere in a controlled fashion. SpaceX then lit the center engine for a single engine burn. That relight also went well, however we exceeded the roll control authority of the attitude control thrusters. This particular stage was not equipped with landing gear which could have helped stabilize the stage like fins would on an aircraft. The stage ended up spinning to a degree that was greater than we could control with the gas thrusters on board and ultimately we hit the water relatively hard. However, SpaceX recovered portions of the stage and now, along with the Grasshopper tests, we believe we have all the pieces to achieve a full recovery of the boost stage.This launch also marked the first of three certification flights needed to certify Falcon 9 to fly missions for the U.S. Air Force under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. When Falcon 9 is certified, SpaceX will be eligible to compete for all National Security Space (NSS) missions.The next few months remain busy for SpaceX and the upgraded Falcon 9. We are currently preparing to launch our first geosynchronous transfer orbit mission out of Cape Canaveral with SES-8 followed by Thaicom and our next trip to the space station in the early part of next year.