Author Topic: SpaceX's Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship Updates and Discussion Thread 3  (Read 1424199 times)

Offline Kabloona

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Getting back to the upcoming launch: Elsbeth III AIS has been off for 2 days on MarineTraffic. Hasn't left port yet? If not, they're cutting it close. Transit to LZ takes 4 days. They have only 12 or so hours left for departure or risk being late to the party. This is cutting it closer than usual.

Or are they already gone and we just didn't see it?
« Last Edit: 06/10/2016 12:47 am by Kabloona »

Offline Lar

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we don't have as many on the ground resources as in some past times...
"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 e of pi

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It was in port around 3 PM yesterday, I can say--I'm on vacation down here. Sadly, no Delta...my vacation to sunny Florida appears to have brought incessant drizzle since we pulled out of my garage.

Offline Kabloona

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If Elsbeth III's AIS is still turned off Friday morning, can someone try to get a visual? Because if she's still in port by mid-morning, something is wrong. Should have left ~12 hours ago.

Hoping they haven't been shut down by this Coast Guard drydock inspection thing.
« Last Edit: 06/10/2016 02:46 am by Kabloona »

Offline CJ

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If Elsbeth III's AIS is still turned off Friday morning, can someone try to get a visual? Because if she's still in port by mid-morning, something is wrong. Should have left ~12 hours ago.

Hoping they haven't been shut down by this Coast Guard drydock inspection thing.

If I remember correctly (a very big if) we've always seen some activity with the support ships a few hours or more before a sortie. I've checked on two sites, and both Elsbeth III and Go Quest haven't sent an AIS signal since the 7th.

My guess; either there's a launch delay they haven't announced yet, or OCISLY is mired in paperwork and won't be going out this time. If the latter, and the ABS inspection due dates I posted earlier are accurate, then it's not a scheduled inspection that's the problem, and an inspection has been required for some other reason. 

Edit to add; I get a distance of 370 nautical miles to the recovery location from Port Canaveral. At a speed of advance of 5 knots, that's 74 hours. Call it 75 due to having to exit the port, and maybe add 5 for setting up and getting OCISLY in position? That's 80 hours.  The launch is scheduled (so far as we know) for 10:32 AM EDT, Tuesday, June 14th. It is currently 1:05 AM, June 10th, there right now. I make that as as 105 1/2 hours from now. So, I'll start getting worried if they're still in port this time tomorrow. (or, I messed up the math).

 
« Last Edit: 06/10/2016 05:09 am by CJ »

Offline dorkmo

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wonder if in the future they could create a loop hole by making the thrustmasters detachable lego elements that get installed at the landing site and removed before they tow back in.

Offline Kabloona

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If Elsbeth III's AIS is still turned off Friday morning, can someone try to get a visual? Because if she's still in port by mid-morning, something is wrong. Should have left ~12 hours ago.

Hoping they haven't been shut down by this Coast Guard drydock inspection thing.

If I remember correctly (a very big if) we've always seen some activity with the support ships a few hours or more before a sortie. I've checked on two sites, and both Elsbeth III and Go Quest haven't sent an AIS signal since the 7th.

My guess; either there's a launch delay they haven't announced yet, or OCISLY is mired in paperwork and won't be going out this time. If the latter, and the ABS inspection due dates I posted earlier are accurate, then it's not a scheduled inspection that's the problem, and an inspection has been required for some other reason. 

Edit to add; I get a distance of 370 nautical miles to the recovery location from Port Canaveral. At a speed of advance of 5 knots, that's 74 hours. Call it 75 due to having to exit the port, and maybe add 5 for setting up and getting OCISLY in position? That's 80 hours.  The launch is scheduled (so far as we know) for 10:32 AM EDT, Tuesday, June 14th. It is currently 1:05 AM, June 10th, there right now. I make that as as 105 1/2 hours from now. So, I'll start getting worried if they're still in port this time tomorrow. (or, I messed up the math).

For SES-9, someone on Reddit had satellite AIS and tracked them the whole way out. It took them almost exactly 4 days, close to 100 hours to reach the LZ. They had left port around 120 hours in advance, so they had almost a full day at the LZ to set up.

Maybe they are planning go go faster this time; we'll see.
« Last Edit: 06/10/2016 09:24 am by Kabloona »

Offline CJ

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If Elsbeth III's AIS is still turned off Friday morning, can someone try to get a visual? Because if she's still in port by mid-morning, something is wrong. Should have left ~12 hours ago.

Hoping they haven't been shut down by this Coast Guard drydock inspection thing.

If I remember correctly (a very big if) we've always seen some activity with the support ships a few hours or more before a sortie. I've checked on two sites, and both Elsbeth III and Go Quest haven't sent an AIS signal since the 7th.

My guess; either there's a launch delay they haven't announced yet, or OCISLY is mired in paperwork and won't be going out this time. If the latter, and the ABS inspection due dates I posted earlier are accurate, then it's not a scheduled inspection that's the problem, and an inspection has been required for some other reason. 

Edit to add; I get a distance of 370 nautical miles to the recovery location from Port Canaveral. At a speed of advance of 5 knots, that's 74 hours. Call it 75 due to having to exit the port, and maybe add 5 for setting up and getting OCISLY in position? That's 80 hours.  The launch is scheduled (so far as we know) for 10:32 AM EDT, Tuesday, June 14th. It is currently 1:05 AM, June 10th, there right now. I make that as as 105 1/2 hours from now. So, I'll start getting worried if they're still in port this time tomorrow. (or, I messed up the math).

For SES-9, someone on Reddit had satellite AIS and tracked them the whole way out. It took them almost exactly 4 days, close to 100 hours to reach the LZ. They had left port around 120 hours in advance, so they had almost a full day at the LZ to set up.

Maybe they are planning go go faster this time; we'll see.

Thanks for the info.
IMHO, it'd make sense to not cut it too close, just in case they have problems when setting up at the LZ. If they have the time, why not use it for a safety margin? That makes the current lack of motion even more ominous. 

I just noticed something on vesslefinder; Go Quest and Go Searcher haven't moved, but their AIS, which had been silent since the 7th, went active - both at the same time, about 15 minutes ago. Still nothing from EIII. The Go ships would probably go out even without OCISLY (fairing recovery experiments is my guess), so I am very much not liking seeing them powering up while EIII isn't doing anything. I guess we'll know in a few hours.


Offline gadgetmind

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I'm told by a reliable source that USCG is requesting *drydock* inspections of both barges for permitting.

Can I safely assume that in this context the word "requesting" has very much the same meaning as "demanding"?

Offline Kabloona

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Quote
IMHO, it'd make sense to not cut it too close, just in case they have problems when setting up at the LZ. If they have the time, why not use it for a safety margin? That makes the current lack of motion even more ominous. 

My thoughts exactly. Trying to save a day of towing time and leaving little margin makes no sense when you're trying to catch a $20M stage.

Quote
I just noticed something on vesslefinder; Go Quest and Go Searcher haven't moved, but their AIS, which had been silent since the 7th, went active - both at the same time, about 15 minutes ago. Still nothing from EIII.

GQ and GS have shown up on MarineTraffic for the last few days, so their AIS has been on the whole time.  Vesselfinder may not have been picking up their signal for some reason.

Quote
Can I safely assume that in this context the word "requesting" has very much the same meaning as "demanding"?

Let's call it an offer they can't refuse.  :(
« Last Edit: 06/10/2016 10:20 am by Kabloona »

Offline Kabloona

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Elsbeth III back on AIS, now showing up at OCISLY berth. Game on!

Don't know why they're leaving a day later this time. Maybe they've gotten enough experience to know they can tow a little faster. Or the captain had a schedule conflict.  ;)

Offline Alastor

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For SES-9, someone on Reddit had satellite AIS and tracked them the whole way out. It took them almost exactly 4 days, close to 100 hours to reach the LZ. They had left port around 120 hours in advance, so they had almost a full day at the LZ to set up.

Maybe they are planning go go faster this time; we'll see.

Hey, maybe we missheard the "Gas&Go" objective and it was in fact "Catch&Go" ! ;D
Imagine the sight of the ASDS coming full speed ahead to catch the stage right on the spot !

This would make for some pretty awesome videos. ;D

Online meekGee

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For SES-9, someone on Reddit had satellite AIS and tracked them the whole way out. It took them almost exactly 4 days, close to 100 hours to reach the LZ. They had left port around 120 hours in advance, so they had almost a full day at the LZ to set up.

Maybe they are planning go go faster this time; we'll see.

Hey, maybe we missheard the "Gas&Go" objective and it was in fact "Catch&Go" ! ;D
Imagine the sight of the ASDS coming full speed ahead to catch the stage right on the spot !

This would make for some pretty awesome videos. ;D
You'll need to program the stage for a couple of knots of horizontal velocity at touch down...
ABCD - Always Be Counting Down

Offline Jim

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we don't have as many on the ground resources as in some past times...

I am out of state

Offline cscott

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Elsbeth III back on AIS, now showing up at OCISLY berth. Game on!

Don't know why they're leaving a day later this time. Maybe they've gotten enough experience to know they can tow a little faster. Or the captain had a schedule conflict.  ;)
Or there's a day slip in the launch schedule.  They moved the launch up two days, taking back one of them (especially if the long range weather forecast is iffy---Delta heavy is having troubles right now) might be simple prudence.

Offline cscott

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wonder if in the future they could create a loop hole by making the thrustmasters detachable lego elements that get installed at the landing site and removed before they tow back in.
In my reading, the inspection requirement becomes active as soon as the change in status is made, and the dates are retroactive to the build date of the ship (not the conversion date) so the ASDS certificate of inspection becomes invalid as soon as the thrustmasters are fitted. 

There is probably some language in the regs that prevents your previous certificate of inspection from being automatically valid again after you take off the thrustmasters.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/46/91.01-20 ("expiration at sea") only applies if the destination port is a foreign country.  So I wouldn't count on this loophole being effective, unless you planned to never return to the US after fitting the thrustmasters.
« Last Edit: 06/10/2016 02:19 pm by cscott »

Offline cscott

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According to ABS records, JRTI (Marmac 303) has a drydock survey due date of June 10th, 2016
https://www.eagle.org/safenet/record/record_vesselclassurveystatus?ReferrerApplication=PUBLIC&Service=1

For OCISLY (Marmac 304) the due date for the drydock survey is September 15th, 2016
https://www.eagle.org/safenet/record/record_vesselclassurveystatus?ReferrerApplication=PUBLIC&Service=1

IMHO, both of those dates are uncomfortably close, but worse for JRTI (tomorrow!).
Can we get eyes on JRtI?  That one ought to be visible to a west coast passerby, we could see of its sitting in its usual berth.

Offline flyright

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ASDS and support ships are still at dock as of 10:00 AM EDT

Offline Johnnyhinbos

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But Elsbeth III is at the ASDS' stern. Good sign
John Hanzl. Author, action / adventure www.johnhanzl.com

Offline MarekCyzio

we don't have as many on the ground resources as in some past times...

I am out of state

The same issue here :(

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