SpaceX Falcon 9 : Formosat-5 : SLC-4E Vandenberg : Aug 24, 2017 : DISCUSSION

[M.E.T.]

The expendable F9 B5 is supposed to be a bit over 8 tonnes to GTO, as per SpaceX's own website.

Ah, sorry. I think I mixed it up with the FH payload to Mars. That explains it.

[BackflipFromOrbit]

Any word on faring recovery?

[gospacex]

Even if SpaceX will have no more successful launches this year, they launched more than Arianespace this year: Ariane only has 11 launches (8 done, 3 yet to perform).

1. Ariane can do two missions in one launch with the Ariane 5 dual payload capability.

Except that 4 out of 8 "Ariane" missions this year were Soyuz and Vega...

[Lars-J]

Nice lunch time rocket launch but it sounds like its been done from the cafeteria.

It literally is. Their webcast studio is located on the 2nd floor just above the cafeteria, overlooking the control room.

[Herb Schaltegger]

Do we know why it looks like they've gone back to the coated AL grid fins?

From what little we got to see.. it looked like Landing with the new Ti ones had some issues... too much drag?  Don't think they ever released video for that one.

Any idea when and if they resurface?

What in the world gives you that idea?

[Kansan52]

What's wrong with the idea that these fins were in stock and could do the job?

[Lar]

What's wrong with the idea that these fins were in stock and could do the job?

Absolutely nothing. Unless there was some other overriding cost factor, why would SpaceX NOT be frugal about this??? Cost is the mantra. Coolness and efficiency and high launch cadence and reusability are all side effects.

[mongo]

Is the reason that TV coverage always seems to flake out on the barge upon stage approach, the same reason that the Saturn V 1st/2nd stages always lost data and relied on tape recorders during staging?  Due to flame effect and signal degradation?

[cppetrie]

Is the reason that TV coverage always seems to flake out on the barge upon stage approach, the same reason that the Saturn V 1st/2nd stages always lost data and relied on tape recorders during staging?  Due to flame effect and signal degradation?

Vibration knocks the sat uplink out of alignment causing the feed interrupt.

[gospacex]

Is the reason that TV coverage always seems to flake out on the barge upon stage approach, the same reason that the Saturn V 1st/2nd stages always lost data and relied on tape recorders during staging?  Due to flame effect and signal degradation?

Vibration knocks the sat uplink out of alignment causing the feed interrupt.

Also, Bezos engineers do not really need to get a free engineering data on how exactly their competitor nails the landing.

[Herb Schaltegger]

Is the reason that TV coverage always seems to flake out on the barge upon stage approach, the same reason that the Saturn V 1st/2nd stages always lost data and relied on tape recorders during staging?  Due to flame effect and signal degradation?

Vibration knocks the sat uplink out of alignment causing the feed interrupt.

Also, Bezos engineers do not really need to get a free engineering data on how exactly their competitor nails the landing.

That's supposed to be a joke, right? (See, c.f., the CRS-12 landing - first stage video from stage sep all the way to the 'X').

[cppetrie]

Do we know why it looks like they've gone back to the coated AL grid fins?

From what little we got to see.. it looked like Landing with the new Ti ones had some issues... too much drag?  Don't think they ever released video for that one.

Any idea when and if they resurface?

The probably have a backlog of old fins and are using them on low-energy missions instead of throwing them away.

They need the Titanium fins for FH, we’ll definitely see them again.

This isn’t so much them “going back” to the old fins, it’s more that they introduced the new ones before they were out of old ones.

I was thinking they may also be doing some non-destructive testing post-landing on the first Ti set. Checking to see if there are any concerning areas or modifications that need to be made before they go into production with any more Ti sets. Since they have stock of the Al ones, they might as well use them while they test and tweak the Ti ones for final production run.

[BrightLight]

Is it just me or is there something to this - I have noticed in the last few flights that the first stage rocket plumes are much more "neater" and self-contained - they look more controlled?

[Prettz]

Do we know why it looks like they've gone back to the coated AL grid fins?

From what little we got to see.. it looked like Landing with the new Ti ones had some issues... too much drag?  Don't think they ever released video for that one.

Any idea when and if they resurface?

They will probably use / reuse the AL fins on low energy flights until they're all too worn out, then move to all Titanium fins.
Given the fairly low % of LEO flights, this could go on until 2019.

We could see Block IV and Block V launches with old grid thins for a while.

That makes no sense. If aluminum grid fins cost money to refurbish and the titanium ones cost zero, there's no reason to drag it out that long. They could just use up whatever few sets they had left until redundant sets of titanium ones are available.

[wannamoonbase]

Gents, the Ti grid fins May also require different actuators.  They maybe using up what they have previously made in fins and actuators. 

Also they may only have the 1 full set at this time. He did say they were the largest Ti forging.  They likely wanted to fly them, and see if they needed to make any tweaks before making more. 

It's no big thing they'll be routine soon enough. 

[Prettz]

Of course they only have one set at the moment, or did when they last flew. But they probably had more in the pipeline at that time. And possibly more aluminum fins in the pipeline that it made sense to pay to finish building. They'll want to have additional sets to avoid having none if a booster is lost. But I find it hard to believe they have enough aluminum fins stockpiled to last into 2018 (one flight each), much less 2019.

[catdlr]

SpaceX Will Lose Millions on Its Taiwanese Satellite Launch

https://www.yahoo.com/news/spacex-lose-millions-taiwanese-satellite-140000663.html

[wannamoonbase]

SpaceX Will Lose Millions on Its Taiwanese Satellite Launch

https://www.yahoo.com/news/spacex-lose-millions-taiwanese-satellite-140000663.html

However, if they can reuse the core…

[drnscr]

SpaceX Will Lose Millions on Its Taiwanese Satellite Launch

https://www.yahoo.com/news/spacex-lose-millions-taiwanese-satellite-140000663.html

There are some glaring errors in the article and some very apparent biases against SpaceX...

[ChrisGebhardt]

SpaceX Will Lose Millions on Its Taiwanese Satellite Launch

https://www.yahoo.com/news/spacex-lose-millions-taiwanese-satellite-140000663.html

There are some glaring errors in the article and some very apparent biases against SpaceX...

What are the "glaring errors"?  And where is the "apparent biases against SpaceX"?  Please explain.

I read the article.  It's a look at the understood economics of this launch that are nowhere near the economics of other launches.

Let's be careful about accusing other reporters/sites of bias because they do a hard report on the financial loss Formosat-5's launch very much was for SpaceX.