IR movie of falcon 9 boost back and reentry by NASA

[Jet Black]

Enjoy

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/october/new-commercial-rocket-descent-data-may-help-nasa-with-future-mars-landings/#.VEHbqqakqJI

[malu5531]

I'm quite shocked this actually works, Wow!

[Jet Black]

I really like the boost back at 1:05

[Dalhousie]

What velocity is the F9 1st stage travelling at at different times?

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Very cool video. Elon has tweeted it:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/523290693612367872

@elonmusk: Infrared video of Falcon rocket reentry captured by @NASA tracking cameras http://t.co/GQLCFLlrUC

I believe F9 1st stage separation occurs at about Mach 6.

[sdsds]

 OK, forget the ponies. For Christmas may I please have a 75-channel imaging spectrometer in the 2.0 - 6.4 μm IR bands?

Please?

That's some serious imager!

[Dalhousie]

I believe F9 1st stage separation occurs at about Mach 6.

So strictly speaking this is hypersonic retropropulsion?

[Norm38]

It's evident from that video how the sides of the first stage got blackened on reentry.  (As shown by the clean white areas covered by the legs).  The plume is quite narrow.

But very close to expected.  Not too far off from sci-fi imaginings.

[Herb Schaltegger]

That high-altitude plume imagery is fantastic!

[Comga]

That high-altitude plume imagery is fantastic!

It is, indeed!
The plume looks very turbulent. It would seemime a strong ACS would be needed to keep the stage stable.

[Jcc]

I believe F9 1st stage separation occurs at about Mach 6.

So strictly speaking this is hypersonic retropropulsion?

I think the boost back may have cut some of the velocity, and that happens in vacuum, but yes.

From what we have seen the reentry burn doesn't start until it begins entering the atmosphere, so there is already some drag, and it manages the drag and heating as the stage gets into thicker atmosphere by bringing the velocity down below Mach 3 (my guess).

[Targeteer]

Anyone have more details on the sensor package used? I can't find a likely candidate on the NASA list of WB-57 payloads.

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/WB57/instrumentsandlinks.html

[Dalhousie]

I believe F9 1st stage separation occurs at about Mach 6.

So strictly speaking this is hypersonic retropropulsion?

I think the boost back may have cut some of the velocity, and that happens in vacuum, but yes.

From what we have seen the reentry burn doesn't start until it begins entering the atmosphere, so there is already some drag, and it manages the drag and heating as the stage gets into thicker atmosphere by bringing the velocity down below Mach 3 (my guess).

Thanks.  Is there a velocity-altitude plot available?

[sdsds]

Anyone have more details on the sensor package used?

I'm guessing it's this one:
Airborne Remote Earth Sensing (ARES) Program: an operational airborne MWIR imaging spectrometer and applications

http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1021464

[Jdeshetler]

Repackaged this cool video by NASA:
 - 2X close-up
 - enlarged NASA's time clock
 - video stabilized
 - 3X speed up to match the real-time (close as possible)

www.youtube.com/embed/yaCFNvyNol8

Cheers,

[Proponent]

At 0:24 in the video, the first stage is described as maneuvering out of the 2nd stage's plume, and it looks as though there are multiple pulses from a rocket engine(s).  Does this mean the Merlins are re-ignited many times post-separation (multiple maneuvering pulses, the boost-back burn near apogee, the 70-to-40-km deceleration burn [I presume that's what the "re-entry burn" is], and the landing burn)?

[guckyfan]

At 0:24 in the video, the first stage is described as maneuvering out of the 2nd stage's plume, and it looks as though there are multiple pulses from a rocket engine(s).  Does this mean the Merlins are re-ignited many times post-separation (multiple maneuvering pulses, the boost-back burn near apogee, the 70-to-40-km deceleration burn [I presume that's what the "re-entry burn" is], and the landing burn)?

That looked really weird. The bursts seem much too short for Merlin ignitions. But I already mentioned that I would expect not to see cold gas thruster firings in the infrared imaging. I even wondered if they have replaced cold gas with Draco when they "beefed up" RCS.

[MikeAtkinson]

At 0:24 in the video, the first stage is described as maneuvering out of the 2nd stage's plume, and it looks as though there are multiple pulses from a rocket engine(s).  Does this mean the Merlins are re-ignited many times post-separation (multiple maneuvering pulses, the boost-back burn near apogee, the 70-to-40-km deceleration burn [I presume that's what the "re-entry burn" is], and the landing burn)?

That looked really weird. The bursts seem much too short for Merlin ignitions. But I already mentioned that I would expect not to see cold gas thruster firings in the infrared imaging. I even wondered if they have replaced cold gas with Draco when they "beefed up" RCS.

The cold gas hits the airstream / Merlin Vac exhaust and is heated.

[Llian Rhydderch]

Repackaged this cool video by NASA:
 - 2X close-up
 - enlarged NASA's time clock
 - video stabilized
 - 3X speed up to match the real-time (close as possible)

www.youtube.com/embed/yaCFNvyNol8

Cheers,

Very helpful edits, Jd! 

Nice to have a version with the speed approximated to the many videos we've been looking at recently of the other parts of the controlled-descent flight test profile, and the visible time clock helps tool.

[rockettrey]

This is absolutely incredible!  The boost back burn is amazing and somewhat easy to comprehend, but what is the reentry burn video actually showing?  I thought the boost back burn did its thing way up in the vacuum after separation, and the stage only re-ignighted just before landing. Is there another burn of the Merlins during re-entry, or is that just atmospheric heating searing the entire stage that causes the fireball?