Author Topic: SpaceX Falcon 9 : Iridium NEXT Flight 3 : Oct 9, 2017: DISCUSSION  (Read 76955 times)

Online matthewkantar

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Ah, got it. Thought it was a glitch.  Thx.

Offline the_other_Doug

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Boy, the center engine ran for about 10 seconds or so after the stage 1 landing, there....
-Doug  (With my shield, not yet upon it)

Offline ehb

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Confirmation of aluminum grid fins due to lower energy trajectory.

I suspect this might have been said due to NSF discussions.
Maybe the answer is they will use titanium when needed and keep both types available ?

Offline lrk

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Boy, the center engine ran for about 10 seconds or so after the stage 1 landing, there....

That was just extra fuel leaking out of the engine and burning off after shutdown - it always happens, but looked brighter this time since it was at night. 

Offline old_sellsword

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The animation is completely false, since it's not a Florida flight... !?

Err, no, that’s just an view of California and Mexico looking east.

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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Landing again looks very close to the bullseye, so SpaceX's amazing run continues - so far so good for BFR to land on launch mounts.

Offline Kaputnik

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Landing burn seemed very 'flashy'- just an effect of it being night time?
"I don't care what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about what it CAN do"- Gene Kranz

Offline kessdawg

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On the webcast someone asked to zoom in on a fire on JTRI.  Hopefully not a big deal.

Offline toruonu

When the second stage lit it looked like th first stage was going through its flip manoeuvre and got the full blast of the S2 engine exhaust for a good many seconds before its own engines lit and it flew out of the exhaust path. Hadn't seen that before, wonder if that brought about some extra crispiness ;)

Offline ugordan

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Nighttime viewing conditions.

Offline rower2000

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Landing burn seemed very 'flashy'- just an effect of it being night time?
Night time plus some gimbal action of the engine, I assume. If the engine gimbals right, it gets brighter on the right hand side and darker on the left hand side, similar for the other gimbal directions.

Offline EspenU

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So far so good. Beautiful launch. Although my heart stopped for a few seconds around Max-Q when the plume dissapeard behind the clouds.

Also; Smoke ring at T-9:55!

Edit: OK, technically a GOX ring..
« Last Edit: 10/09/2017 01:45 pm by EspenU »

Offline woods170

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Boy, the center engine ran for about 10 seconds or so after the stage 1 landing, there....

That was just extra fuel leaking out of the engine and burning off after shutdown - it always happens, but looked brighter this time since it was at night. 
Correct. If the center engine was still running the first stage would have lifted off again.

Offline the_other_Doug

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Boy, the center engine ran for about 10 seconds or so after the stage 1 landing, there....

That was just extra fuel leaking out of the engine and burning off after shutdown - it always happens, but looked brighter this time since it was at night. 
Correct. If the center engine was still running the first stage would have lifted off again.

That's what I thought -- though, maybe because it was night-time still, the fire coming from the engine sure looked like it had a nice, well-formed exhaust flame coming out of the bell.  Left a bright, glowing spot on the deck of JRtI, too...
-Doug  (With my shield, not yet upon it)

Online dawei

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For some reason the liftoff looked "slow" to me.  (I am not saying anything was off nominal - just conveying my impression at the moment of liftoff).  I imagine it had to do with nighttime viewing conditions.  But I really did have several heartbeats where I was thinking "Oh CRUD, it's gonna do a big RUD before liftoff and blow the pad to bits and pieces!"  I was very  happy to see it move up and away.

Offline AncientU

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Lots of vibration seen on second stage throughout burn.  Maybe just camera mounting vibs?
"If we shared everything [we are working on] people would think we are insane!"
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Offline lrk

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For some reason the liftoff looked "slow" to me.  (I am not saying anything was off nominal - just conveying my impression at the moment of liftoff).  I imagine it had to do with nighttime viewing conditions.  But I really did have several heartbeats where I was thinking "Oh CRUD, it's gonna do a big RUD before liftoff and blow the pad to bits and pieces!"  I was very  happy to see it move up and away.

Iridium launches are the heaviest payload F9 has launched, IIRC, so the TWR might be visibly lower than for a GTO mission. 

Offline ehb

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Was concerned about the long apparent leak, but it was cleared up, "solid oxygen", not a concern.

Offline Brovane

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With the barge landing, why was there a boost back burn?  I thought boost back was only for RTLS. 
"Look at that! If anybody ever said, "you'll be sitting in a spacecraft naked with a 134-pound backpack on your knees charging it", I'd have said "Aw, get serious". - John Young - Apollo-16

Offline rpapo

With the barge landing, why was there a boost back burn?  I thought boost back was only for RTLS.
If you've got the fuel to spare, and don't really want to send the barge a few hundred miles further out...
« Last Edit: 10/09/2017 01:42 pm by rpapo »
Following the space program since before Apollo 8.

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