We've been over the mid-air recovery options before. It seems you are missing Gwynne's major hint: "land". What are the possible options that she might call "landing"?
Any idea of the timing? I.E. Which lands first, the rocket or the fairing?
ASDS isn't occupied for Echostar 23. So they might well start with the large unmanned barge before trying something smaller.Someone thought the fairings might have enough cross range to make Bermuda?
The fairings are basically flying wings. I wouldn't be surprised if they were aiming to fly them all the way back to the launch site.
How far downrange will they be when they hit the atmosphere?And does anyone know the airspeed velocity of an unladen payload fairing?
Quote from: Kaputnik on 02/23/2017 01:18 amHow far downrange will they be when they hit the atmosphere?And does anyone know the airspeed velocity of an unladen payload fairing?Considering the fairings are made by RUAG Space, we need to use the data tables for unladen European payload fairings.
Quote from: Stan-1967 on 02/23/2017 04:11 amQuote from: Kaputnik on 02/23/2017 01:18 amHow far downrange will they be when they hit the atmosphere?And does anyone know the airspeed velocity of an unladen payload fairing?Considering the fairings are made by RUAG Space, we need to use the data tables for unladen European payload fairings. SpaceX makes their own fairings, but a goog joke nonetheless. (RUAG makes the Atlas V and Ariane V fairings)
Also, the SpaceX fairings are considerably more heavy than their RUAG counterparts given that the SpaceX fairings are structurally carrying the payload while the Atlas V and Ariane V fairings are not.
I think woods170 may be referring to loads during horizontal integration.
Quote from: woods170 on 02/23/2017 07:06 amAlso, the SpaceX fairings are considerably more heavy than their RUAG counterparts given that the SpaceX fairings are structurally carrying the payload while the Atlas V and Ariane V fairings are not.Is it even possible? In this case I assume payload will have to separate from second stage together with fairing
as far as I know, SpaceX use an interface ring on top of the second stage as the load-bearing element for the payload, just like everybody else?
And does anyone know the airspeed velocity of an unladen payload fairing?