Quote from: photonic on 12/21/2015 08:30 pmQuote from: Lars-J on 12/21/2015 08:14 pmSpaceX tweeted a close-up of the stretched interstage, stretched upper stage, and fairing: https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/679039057180024832(note the grid fins now lack a fairing, as we were told by a source earlier)Is it the lighting, or does the inter-stage really look so dirty? Almost looks like someone painted it over hastily. Just curious, what matters is obviously that it launches and lands in one piece ...That's been driving me nuts too. It's more than just dirt. It fully looks patched. There has to be a better reason than cryo cooling. Look at the attached pic (credit Jeff Seibert). That area above the SpaceX logo looks like they peeled off duct tape and left a clean spot behind...
Quote from: Lars-J on 12/21/2015 08:14 pmSpaceX tweeted a close-up of the stretched interstage, stretched upper stage, and fairing: https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/679039057180024832(note the grid fins now lack a fairing, as we were told by a source earlier)Is it the lighting, or does the inter-stage really look so dirty? Almost looks like someone painted it over hastily. Just curious, what matters is obviously that it launches and lands in one piece ...
SpaceX tweeted a close-up of the stretched interstage, stretched upper stage, and fairing: https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/679039057180024832(note the grid fins now lack a fairing, as we were told by a source earlier)
Wondered about the patches, scuffs and varying paint. Then wondered if they are trying to make new and used look cosmetically about the same. Likely time and priorities for this particular launch.
Has anyone posted this yet? This is the first picture i saw of the X1 pad. Was on reddit, and that landing pad looks awesome and huge! Edit: Found that the original pic is from SpaceX website: (snip)(all the credit to reddit spacex irc)
Are those water cannon on the stands just off the pad? I'm wondering about the location of any remote cameras too.
Landing Weather Looks good
From the update thread:Quote from: mrhuggy on 12/21/2015 10:00 pmLanding Weather Looks goodThat image shows a landing wind limit of 50 mph! Wind force scales as the square of velocity so this suggests that landing winds were not the cause of the mysterious 24 hour delay of this launch.
00:02:35 2nd stage engine starts00:03 Fairing deployment00:04 1st stage boostback burn
Doesn't reaching back to the atmospheric interface perform the fuel settling function? Since the vehicle flips end-to-end after separation, and is above any sensible atmosphere, the small amount of fuel remaining must fully dispersed in the tanks. Hitting the upper atmosphere would begin deceleration and collect the fuel at the plumbing end.
Quote from: SpaceX Press Kit v200:02:35 2nd stage engine starts00:03 Fairing deployment00:04 1st stage boostback burnAny idea why there's a roughly 2 minute delay between second stage engine start and the boostback burn? That'll put them a few hundred km further down-range than if they boosted back immediately. Maybe they have plenty of margin and want to make sure that even if the first stage's control system messes up and points its engines at the second stage, or the stage explodes, the second stage will be safe?
Looking at the landing limits status window posted over on the update thread. "Landing Winds Below 160 feet (<50 mph)". A 50 mph wind limit? That sounds a bit... 'sporting'.