NASA Considering Using Pre-flown SpaceX Rockets for Cargo Flights - Space.comhttps://apple.news/AL8bTtgpdOg6Hgm1ELziJ3g'Falcon 9 second stage apparently splashed down softly in the ocean southwest of Australia'Ex-squeeze me, soft landed second stage? Is this poor reporter or the biggest development since landing a first stage?
Quote from: toren on 06/04/2017 03:12 pmQuote from: gongora on 06/04/2017 03:04 pmQuote from: toren on 06/04/2017 03:01 pmI noticed this:QuoteAfter its work was done on Saturday, for example, the Falcon 9 second stage apparently splashed down softly in the ocean southwest of Australia, Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, said during Saturday's press conference.in this article.Anyone know if that's true, or rubbish? I spotted at least one other factual error in the article, so the latter wouldn't surprise me.He said it was deorbited and reentered SW of Australia. He said nothing about it splashing down softly, which is most likely complete rubbish. You can find links to the press conference in the CRS-11 threads.Thanks, I sort of figured. I missed the presser due to hosting an (unrelated) party, but figured NSF crowd would be all over it already if Hans had actually said that.Yeah, Hans said it "deorbited and landed"... but everyone took that to mean it reentered and broke up, not that it actually landed in one piece.
Quote from: gongora on 06/04/2017 03:04 pmQuote from: toren on 06/04/2017 03:01 pmI noticed this:QuoteAfter its work was done on Saturday, for example, the Falcon 9 second stage apparently splashed down softly in the ocean southwest of Australia, Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, said during Saturday's press conference.in this article.Anyone know if that's true, or rubbish? I spotted at least one other factual error in the article, so the latter wouldn't surprise me.He said it was deorbited and reentered SW of Australia. He said nothing about it splashing down softly, which is most likely complete rubbish. You can find links to the press conference in the CRS-11 threads.Thanks, I sort of figured. I missed the presser due to hosting an (unrelated) party, but figured NSF crowd would be all over it already if Hans had actually said that.
Quote from: toren on 06/04/2017 03:01 pmI noticed this:QuoteAfter its work was done on Saturday, for example, the Falcon 9 second stage apparently splashed down softly in the ocean southwest of Australia, Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, said during Saturday's press conference.in this article.Anyone know if that's true, or rubbish? I spotted at least one other factual error in the article, so the latter wouldn't surprise me.He said it was deorbited and reentered SW of Australia. He said nothing about it splashing down softly, which is most likely complete rubbish. You can find links to the press conference in the CRS-11 threads.
I noticed this:QuoteAfter its work was done on Saturday, for example, the Falcon 9 second stage apparently splashed down softly in the ocean southwest of Australia, Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, said during Saturday's press conference.in this article.Anyone know if that's true, or rubbish? I spotted at least one other factual error in the article, so the latter wouldn't surprise me.
After its work was done on Saturday, for example, the Falcon 9 second stage apparently splashed down softly in the ocean southwest of Australia, Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, said during Saturday's press conference.
For US to do soft landing it would need landing engines and heatshield both should be visible.
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 06/04/2017 09:48 pmFor US to do soft landing it would need landing engines and heatshield both should be visible.A incremental first step might just be control surfaces for atmospheric entry, then a heat Shield, then landing engines.LEO missions may have margin for second stage development.
Reusability may work with a FH, but wouldn't the extra weight bring down the F9 capabilities too much?
Then they would end up with a duplicate of tooling for first and second stage. IMO either they remake the whole F9 in carbon (unlikely) or they do nothing.
The article is based on a misinterpretation BUT we don't actually know the full extent of SpaceX's upper stage experiments. Could include some TPS.
If SpaceX uses a lot of carbon fiber in the upgraded 2nd stage, would it not lighten the stage enough to offset some of the 50% drop in payload capability?
That said they might shift to a CF upper stage if they mfg the big ITS LOX tank in house. Otherwise that would put an outside sub contractor in the critical path for all future upper stages. Something I'm pretty sure SX is very unwilling to do.