Author Topic: SpaceX's Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship Updates and Discussion Thread 3  (Read 1420871 times)

Offline rpapo

Power has been restored at Port Canaveral and the notorious webcam is back online.

OCISLY looks fine and is on her usual berth; and Elsbeth III is back berthed just to the west of the Fishlips restaurant.

According to the AIS data, Go Quest and Go Searcher are still on their holiday up-river from Jacksonville.
Given what has happened, the Go Twins may now be regretting having gone to Jacksonville.  Port Canaveral might have been a better place to stay, in 20/20 hindsight.
Following the space program since before Apollo 8.

Offline vanoord

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AIS data suggests Go Searcher is now in Jacksonville; Go Quest is about halfway from Jacksonville to (presumably) Port Canaveral, sailing with the 'third twin' Go America (which is stated as heading for Port Everglades).

Offline hkultala

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What are the Go Twins?

Offline rpapo

What are the Go Twins?
Go Searcher, Go Quest...

Actually, they're triplets, but the third (Go America) is a wayward child that has shunned SpaceX...

I forget who first started referring to them as the Go Twins.  Wasn't me.
« Last Edit: 09/14/2017 11:50 am by rpapo »
Following the space program since before Apollo 8.

Offline vanoord

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Slightly OT, but anyway...

 Guice Offshore LLC has 5 similar support ships (either owned or chartered):
- Go Quest (170ft)
- Go Searcher (170ft)
- Go America (150ft)
- Go Patriot (170ft)
- Go Pursuit (150ft)*

See - http://www.guiceoffshore.com/vessels.aspx

The first two are chartered regularly / permanently by SpaceX for ASDS operations - one (Go Quest) usually acts as support for the ASDS, the other (Go Searcher) has also been used for fairing (debris) recovery attempts.

Go America is also currently located on the east coast of Florida (making it the 'third twin') and the other two are currently in the Gulf of Mexico.

Where it gets complicated is that the three ships located on the east coast are also listed as available for charter by Eclipse Group - http://www.eclipse.us.com/support_vessels.html

From the looks of it, Guice Offshore owns the ships (hence the names) but Eclipse is the agent which has chartered them to SpaceX - that said, it's a bit difficult to determine confidential business arrangements from a couple of web pages.


*If we were being really pedantic, the 'Go twins' are part of a family of three 170ft triplets and two 150' twins, but that's just going to confuse everyone ;)
« Last Edit: 09/14/2017 12:59 pm by vanoord »

Offline cscott

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Note that "Go" is the name of the company which owns the ships (Guice Offshore), and it's not uncommon for a company's fleet to share the same prefix.
http://www.guiceoffshore.com/VesselInfo.aspx?name=170+ft+DP1+Supply+%E2%80%93+GO+SEARCHER

But Quest and Searcher are identical vessels, not just owned by the same company.  And they go out together on ASDS missions. Hence "twins".

(Although the vessels are identical, they are not outfitted identically.  Searcher has a crane on its aft, IIRC, and Quest has some containers mounted. Speculation is that Searcher is tasked with debris/fairing recovery, and Quest is tasked with telemetry and C&C of the landed stage.)

PS. There's some footage of debris floating in the water in the latest SpaceX crash compilation which seems to confirm that debris recovery operations have taken place in the past.
« Last Edit: 09/14/2017 01:03 pm by cscott »

Offline Lar

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if someone crosslinked some of these posts to the support ship thread, I'd feel like I didn't need to try to twin myself.

(this is the thread, it's been a bit dormant:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=38111

This sort of info is really good)
« Last Edit: 09/14/2017 01:33 pm by Lar »
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline vanoord

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Speaking of the ships... both Go Quest and Go Searcher are now 'home' in Port Canaveral, according to AIS data.

Offline vanoord

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No sign of OCISLY on the usual berth, although it looks like Go Searcher and Go Quest are there.

No sign of Elsbeth III either - and the AIS data suggests that she departed OCISLY's usual berth an hour ago and is now underway (albeit slowly - 3 knots or so) outside the harbour.

One conclusion might be that the drone ship has an appointment to get to?

Offline vanoord

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Go 'twins' are still in Port Canaveral; Elsbeth III is circling just off the port (presumably with OCISLY in tow).

There's a bulk carrier alongside in the port, pretty much on OCISLY's usual berth, so it could just be that Elsbeth III and the drone ship have left early to free up the space.


Offline SmallKing

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Go 'twins' are still in Port Canaveral; Elsbeth III is circling just off the port (presumably with OCISLY in tow).

There's a bulk carrier alongside in the port, pretty much on OCISLY's usual berth, so it could just be that Elsbeth III and the drone ship have left early to free up the space.
Elsbeth III returned to the port, according to the AIS data
Some are bound for happiness, some are bound to glory, some are bound to live with less, who can tell your story?

Offline vanoord

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Go 'twins' are still in Port Canaveral; Elsbeth III is circling just off the port (presumably with OCISLY in tow).

There's a bulk carrier alongside in the port, pretty much on OCISLY's usual berth, so it could just be that Elsbeth III and the drone ship have left early to free up the space.
Elsbeth III returned to the port, according to the AIS data

Indeed. I wonder if this mission is going to fly expendable; or whether that was just a sea trial / needed to free up the berth for the bulk carrier?

Edit: ah no, Elon on Twitter says they’re aiming for two landings this weekend. He’d better tell the Skipper of Elsbeth III to remember where ‘Full Ahead’ is!
« Last Edit: 10/04/2017 06:15 am by vanoord »

Offline SmallKing

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NRC Quest and Betty R Gambarella tugging JRTI arrived at their destination
Some are bound for happiness, some are bound to glory, some are bound to live with less, who can tell your story?

Offline SmallKing

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On the east coast, Elsbeth III has hidden from our AIS data for days
Some are bound for happiness, some are bound to glory, some are bound to live with less, who can tell your story?

Offline John Alan

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On the east coast, Elsbeth III has hidden from our AIS data for days
I noticed...  :-\
Launch is less then 4 days out...
It's thought Launch - 72 hours is the time to leave port time...
SO... She will either go out soon...  8)
OR... ELSBETH III has broken down and another tug may be chartered this round...  :P

Offline Raul

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OCISLY is just leaving the port towed by HAWK Tug, quite quickly arrived from Miami.
Elsbeth III stays at port together with GoQuest. GoSearcher left the port about 4hrs ago.

Edit: GoQuest is just leaving the port too.
« Last Edit: 10/08/2017 04:58 pm by Raul »

Offline John Alan

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HAWK tug looks to be more then capable for the job... 8)
http://www.seabulktowing.com/assets/pdfs/SBLKTowing_TwinSternZ_Hawk.pdf

I wonder what's up with ELSBETH III...?  :(

Offline Johnnyhinbos

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Will the roomba be employed this recovery effort I wonder?
John Hanzl. Author, action / adventure www.johnhanzl.com

Offline vanoord

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HAWK tug looks to be more then capable for the job... 8)
http://www.seabulktowing.com/assets/pdfs/SBLKTowing_TwinSternZ_Hawk.pdf

I wonder what's up with ELSBETH III...?  :(

That's an upgrade!

I wonder if Elsbeth III's strange outing last week had something to do with the change of tug?

It would be interesting to have confirmation of whether or not OCISLY was in tow, although the webcam, speeds and courses suggested that it was - and the timing was about right for the previous launch date.

Offline matthewkantar

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Will the roomba be employed this recovery effort I wonder?

Is there a west coast roomba?

Matthew


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