Author Topic: Fairing reuse (Read 1092997 times)

wannamoonbase · « **Reply #2300 on:** 04/23/2025 03:31 pm »

Quote from: nicp on 04/23/2025 02:29 pm

In the cases where fairing halves are not reused, do we know why?
Sure, there are pictures of damaged fairing halves but what was the cause(s)?
A hard impact with the ocean? A partial parachute deployment? Getting hit by the ship doing the retrieval?

Cheers,
Nic

I don't know anything about the actual practices, but I've assumed they subject recovered fairings to some strength tests. Maybe when they see them fail for some reasons they are retired.

catdlr · « **Reply #2301 on:** 04/29/2025 04:48 am »

https://twitter.com/_rykllan/status/1917045899613577255

randomname · « **Reply #2302 on:** 04/30/2025 07:02 pm »

Starlink 12-23
SN203-17 and SN198-16 supported this launch. Someone posted a picture they took from the side of the road of a fairing rollout with the 198 serial number visible on one half, and the other half can be identified as SN203 due to "circle" shapes on the fairing to the side of the vents, a feature unique to SN203 and SN202 (and as this fairing was an active half, it had to be SN203). At the time, the mission assignment was unknown, but SN203 was later visually identified on 12-23, and the port photos afterward also confirm that this fairing rollout was for 12-23.

https://twitter.com/ZycharyS/status/1915462039167795538

Starlink 12-10
SN155-24 and SN220-2 supported this launch. This fairing rollout was noticed, but not in time for SCL cameras to zoom in and capture the fairings' serial numbers. Based on the webcast, we were pretty certain it was SN155 and SN220 supporting the launch, which was confirmed by port photos a few hours ago from NSF Space Coast Live.

I'm interested to see if SN220 rejoins SN221 for both halves' 3rd flight to support GPS III SV08, or if SpaceX will debut another set of new halves on that mission. So far, the only GPS mission to reuse fairings was SV07, which reused the Europa Clipper halves (218 & 215) on each fairing's 2nd flight.

randomname · « **Reply #2303 on:** 05/07/2025 09:44 pm »

Starlink 6-75
Starlink 6-75 used SN152 and SN188. Two photos of the fairings post-flight in the port from NSF Space Coast Live are attached.

Starlink 6-84
The fairings used on this launch are SN212-10 and (99% sure) SN221-3. Both SN221 and SN212 were matched visually during the webcast, and when Doug returned to port, SN212's serial number was visible, but the active half was hiding behind SN212, and there weren't SCL operators online when the fairings were unloaded off the ship, so I can't be 100% sure that it was SN221. That said, it would be very surprising to me if it isn't SN221.

Starlink 6-93
This launch is... the most interesting launch from the perspective of fairing tracking in quite a while. I, rykllan, and others have not been able to visually match the active fairing half visible in the webcast to any other fairing in the fleet, something that hasn't happened in a long time. At this point, I'm thinking this is probably a Vandenberg active half that's been moved over to the Cape, perhaps the active half that launched Starlink 9-10. Bob's highly anticipated return with 6-93's fairing halves will be tomorrow.

Starlink 6-91
To be clear, the fairing for 6-91 hasn't even rolled out to the pad yet. This is fully speculation. But if ignoring SN163, a fairing that has been skipped a few times, the next active half up for flight is SN185, which would be the first 30th flight of a fairing half. If they do use SN185 for this flight (should be pretty clear visually from the webcast if that happens or not), SpaceX should hopefully announce the major milestone of the first fairing to 30 flights in a tweet, like they did when the first fairings reached 10, 11, 20, and 21 flights. Exciting times!

randomname · « **Reply #2304 on:** 05/08/2025 12:44 pm »

Starlink 6-93
The mystery fairing on 6-93 returned to port a few minutes ago. It turns out to be SN191, a serial number we indeed have never seen before. The passive fairing supporting the mission was SN200-20.

Starlink 6-91/6-83
The fairing supporting 6-91 (or 6-83, I don't know which pad it went to) did end up rolling to the pad yesterday, and Space Coast Live got a shot of the passive's serial number, SN168-26, but wasn't quick enough to catch the active's serial number. That said, comparing with the previous SN185 rollout makes it pretty clear that this fairing is almost certainly SN185-30. This mission uses the top two fairing halves in total flights.

randomname · « **Reply #2305 on:** 05/10/2025 06:36 am »

Quote from: randomname on 05/08/2025 12:44 pm

That said, comparing with the previous SN185 rollout makes it pretty clear that this fairing is almost certainly SN185-30.

SpaceX confirms first fairing to reach 30 launches:
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1921091226541191342

catdlr · « **Reply #2306 on:** 05/14/2025 04:58 pm »

https://twitter.com/_rykllan/status/1922697237731176790

randomname · « **Reply #2307 on:** 05/14/2025 05:37 pm »

Starlink 6-91
6-91 used SN185-30 and SN168-26. The fairings were seen during pad rollout (albeit only 168's serial number could be directly seen), then SpaceX confirmed the suspected use of SN185-30 in the post above. Both fairings were recovered and returned to port.

Starlink 15-4
The passive fairing can be matched to the same that flew 11-11 and 11-10. The active fairing can be best matched as the fairing that last flew on Transporter 13 and debuted on USSF-52, but the match to 15-4 isn't amazing.

Starlink 6-83
6-83 used SN203-18 and SN202-16. Space Coast Live identified the fairings and each half's serial numbers during pad rollout, and they should return to port within the next few hours.

Starlink 6-67
6-67 used SN155-25 and SN218-7. Similar to 6-83, Space Coast Live caught the fairings during rollout to the pad. Rykllan did some more digging, and we now likely have the full flight history of SN155. The flight history indicates that SN155 was the first fairing to 8, 9, 10, and 11 launches (and previously known as first to 18, 19, 20, and 21), and SN163 was very likely the first fairing to reach 12, 13, and 14 launches.

randomname · « **Reply #2308 on:** **Today** at 05:38 am »

Starlink 6-83
SN203 and SN202 returned to port after this launch; photos from Space Coast Live are attached.

Starlink 6-67
SN155 and SN218 returned to port after this launch, albeit in the middle of the night. Low-quality nighttime photo from Space Coast Live attached.

Starlink 15-5
The launch was foggy, so unfortunately, there wasn't any usable ground camera footage for us to look at. However, fortunately, this launch used one of only two remaining passive fairing halves with 4 round access covers, and this specific passive fairing has a unique "silvery" rectangular patch on the fairing visible during the stage separation shot, so we were able to identify this as the passive's 18th flight. The active fairing is not very visible in stage separation shots, but we were able to note that it's a v2.4 fairing, so likely SN217, SN229, or a fairing we've so far called 'C' as a placeholder until its serial number is found.

Starlink 12-15
This launch is even more confusing than 6-93 was with its mystery fairing. 12-15's active fairing also has no matches with any other fairing in the current fleet, and has a white rectangle around its serial number, indicating that this fairing hasn't flown since the serial number was added to the fairing, or at most one time since.

We've been able to match virtually every active fairing that's launched from the Cape since at least the start of 2024 together, even extending through most of 2023, and this fairing does not look anywhere near any of them. I've similarly compared this fairing with every active fairing used in Vandy launches since the start of 2023 and have also come up with nothing that looks like this fairing, although it can be difficult with foggy missions carrying unknown fairings.

As the launch was aborted, we only know that this fairing is either a v2.3 or a v2.4 fairing (we'll be able to tell which it is when we see a stage separation shot, which will tell us if this fairing is above or below the 190s in serial number), and we know that this fairing doesn't feature an extra row in the bottom of the exterior structure seen in fairings that debuted on EarthCARE, NG-20, GOES-U, Psyche, USSF-124, and PACE (possibly serial number range 196-207, the serial numbers of the fairings on some of those launches are unknown). I am very curious to learn this fairing's serial number when it eventually launches and returns to Port Canaveral. The passive fairing is probably SN198.

Later Missions
GPS III SV08, at the end of May, is expected to use new fairing halves. So far, the only GPS launch to reuse fairings was SV07 with the 2nd launch of the fairings that supported Europa Clipper. A local saw a wrapped and cage-protected fairing half on the road heading in the direction of Astrotech around 12 days ago, which is where GPS satellites have been integrated into Falcon in the past.

If there are no Starlink launches from SLC-40 between 12-22 and GPS III SV08, similarly none between GPS III SV08 and SXM-10, if there's one more Starlink launch from 39A before Ax-4, and if GPS uses new fairing halves, then the fairings next in line for use on SXM-10 would be SN191 and SN188, two of the few remaining fairing halves in the fleet which we currently do not know the flight totals of. Customer webcasts usually give the flight totals of both fairings, so if we're lucky, we might learn the flight totals of SN191 and/or SN188 on SXM-10.