Yes, it appears a “toasty” landing might be successful. It seems SpaceX wishes to expend this booster. The reasons seem obvious, they are running out of room for stored boosters and have block 5s on the way. Why stick on the landing legs? Why are they cleaned? We are curious about the answer.
SpeculateThey had already had the mission patches made up and then it was decided to ditch the bird...Well... clean up a set of used legs and throw em on...Problem solved... (They likely clean them checking for cracks post flight anyway)
Quote from: John Alan on 01/31/2018 04:37 pmSpeculateThey had already had the mission patches made up and then it was decided to ditch the bird...Well... clean up a set of used legs and throw em on...Problem solved... (They likely clean them checking for cracks post flight anyway)The last Iridium flight had legs on the patch but no legs on the booster, so obviously this doesn't bother SpaceX.
Why stick on the landing legs? Why are they cleaned? We are curious about the answer.
Quote from: envy887 on 01/31/2018 04:58 pmQuote from: John Alan on 01/31/2018 04:37 pmSpeculateThey had already had the mission patches made up and then it was decided to ditch the bird...Well... clean up a set of used legs and throw em on...Problem solved... (They likely clean them checking for cracks post flight anyway)The last Iridium flight had legs on the patch but no legs on the booster, so obviously this doesn't bother SpaceX.This is not true, there are no legs on the Iridium-4 patch. Anyway, I don't think this is the reason.
Someone posted a picture of both Falcon 9 and FH on the pads. I had an old picture saved that I combined with the new one. These aren't my pictures - I just put them together.
Quote from: joertexas on 01/31/2018 07:56 pmSomeone posted a picture of both Falcon 9 and FH on the pads. I had an old picture saved that I combined with the new one. These aren't my pictures - I just put them together.The double shuttle picture was obviously a photoshop job. Not much meaning to compare these two pictures.
Quote from: ChrisGebhardt on 01/30/2018 03:53 pmQuote from: Prettz on 01/30/2018 03:17 pmQuote from: RocketLover0119 on 01/30/2018 02:59 pmEither the expended booster came on such short notice so they left the legs on for more testing, or they want to burn the old legs in advance of block V along with the fins.In the latter case, why not just sell them for scrap?A few things on the configuration of B1032.2 for today's launch:1. This was planned to be expendable for some time.2. FH's pending need for the ASDS has nothing to do with B1032.2 being expendable.3. It has landing legs and grid fins because, while they are expending it, they don't want to just throw a perfectly good test article away without gathering data.4. This is being treated as a landing to continue to gather data and refine the landing algorithms the F9 computer systems use to land the boosters.Why do you need to speculate?I'd even count the post above as an update.
Quote from: Prettz on 01/30/2018 03:17 pmQuote from: RocketLover0119 on 01/30/2018 02:59 pmEither the expended booster came on such short notice so they left the legs on for more testing, or they want to burn the old legs in advance of block V along with the fins.In the latter case, why not just sell them for scrap?A few things on the configuration of B1032.2 for today's launch:1. This was planned to be expendable for some time.2. FH's pending need for the ASDS has nothing to do with B1032.2 being expendable.3. It has landing legs and grid fins because, while they are expending it, they don't want to just throw a perfectly good test article away without gathering data.4. This is being treated as a landing to continue to gather data and refine the landing algorithms the F9 computer systems use to land the boosters.
Quote from: RocketLover0119 on 01/30/2018 02:59 pmEither the expended booster came on such short notice so they left the legs on for more testing, or they want to burn the old legs in advance of block V along with the fins.In the latter case, why not just sell them for scrap?
Either the expended booster came on such short notice so they left the legs on for more testing, or they want to burn the old legs in advance of block V along with the fins.
Quote from: joertexas on 01/31/2018 07:56 pmSomeone posted a picture of both Falcon 9 and FH on the pads. I had an old picture saved that I combined with the new one. These aren't my pictures - I just put them together.Were there ever 2 shuttles and a third rocket rolled out at once? Maybe a Titan, Atlas, or Delta?
Note that the call "Recovery vessel has AOS" was made over the net shortly before stage separation. No first stage recovery on this one, so this is either a dry run or something else.
