SpaceX Falcon 9 FT - ORBCOMM-2 - Dec. 21, 2015 (Return To Flight) DISCUSSION

[Brick_top]

elon on twitter

11 satellites deployed to target orbit and Falcon has landed back at Cape Canaveral. Headed to LZ-1. Welcome back, baby!

[AncientU]

Happy belated birthday, Elon.
And Merry Christmas, too.

[the_other_Doug]

So, OK, getting back to discussion -- a couple of quick questions:

First, since this is the first time the landing has actually worked, we've never seen what a Falcon 9 first stage looks like as it goes through its post-landing safing events.  I was rather concerned by two or three vents, near the base of the octoweb, which looked rectangular, shooting out rather large tongues of flame.  Nothing like the exhaust from the Merlins, but pretty large for a vent.  Anyone know what was on fire coming out of those vents, and if what we saw was a normal part of the post-landing sequence?

Second, I couldn't see any indication of the push-rod sticking out of the top of the receding first stage as the second stage moved away and started up.  The dynamics looked nice and stable, but of course with a night launch, we couldn't see the Earth below, so it was hard to say by eye if the separation had any attitude excursions. 

Beyond that -- WAY TO FREAKIN' GO, SPACEX!!!!!

[luinil]

What are those ?

I don't remember seing that on the bottom of previouses F9

[abaddon]

It's really interesting looking at that photo and imagining the trajectory of the booster as it comes back to land.

[Tuts36]

elon on twitter

11 satellites deployed to target orbit and Falcon has landed back at Cape Canaveral. Headed to LZ-1. Welcome back, baby!

Yep, he's going to go look at it up close.  I hope everybody who works there gets a chance to see it on the pad before they move it.  What a great moment for SpaceX!

[abaddon]

What are those ?

I don't remember seing that on the bottom of previouses F9

That's the third leg.  Well, a leg?  Actually, trying to figure it out, I am not so sure.

[EDIT] Right, two of four legs.  Duh

[raketa]

Watching today Interstellar to celebrate this success.

[Lee Jay]

What are those ?

I don't remember seing that on the bottom of previouses F9

Two of the four landing legs.

[luinil]

What are those ?

I don't remember seing that on the bottom of previouses F9

That's the third leg.

oh yes you're right that the front and back legs ^^'
Excitations + low light

[OxCartMark]

What are those ?

I don't remember seing that on the bottom of previouses F9

You're looking at the end of a leg which has two toes and an inverted v gap between them.  The leg is pointed straight at the camera.

[Colman]

kept looking for Elon

Bet he's at the Cape...

And you were right..Check out Elon's twitter feed...and the above posts...

[BigDustyman]

i shure hope they put out onboard footage soon

[gommtu]

I see bezos got in a dig about the first stage only being suborbital

Bezos is such a twerp. This was about 1000 times more impressive than his recent effort.

[OxCartMark]

I just looked at the order of the headlines in Google News.  I don't think I've given Google any biases that affect the ranking(?).

- Deadly attack on U.S. forces shows the Afghan war is far from over

- Hillary Clinton camp to Donald Trump: 'Hell no' on apology

- Elon Musk's SpaceX returns to flight and pulls off dramatic, historic landing

- Oregon woman held in Las Vegas Strip sidewalk rampage drove with license suspended

[Ludus]

I just looked at the order of the headlines in Google News.  I don't think I've given Google any biases that affect the ranking(?).

- Deadly attack on U.S. forces shows the Afghan war is far from over

- Hillary Clinton camp to Donald Trump: 'Hell no' on apology

- Elon Musk's SpaceX returns to flight and pulls off dramatic, historic landing

- Oregon woman held in Las Vegas Strip sidewalk rampage drove with license suspended

In a hundred years only one of those headlines will be remembered.

[meekGee]

I saw this infographic (not from SpaceX) : http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=38148.msg1461581#msg1461581

I know this has been discussed before with different opinion, but I very much doubt that there is a final divert manuever. If the engine fails to light, it will crash on the pad. There is no better spot for it to happen, this is where all pieces can be recovered for investigation should it be necessary. Environmental cleanup is also much easier there.

There is no such thing as falling "harmlessly into the ocean", if it is just by the beach. So I don't see them aiming there, but I've certainly been wrong before.   

If you look at the "double streak" long exposure picture, it seems to show such a maneuver.  The return streak looks shallower, as if it's walking the IIP from off shore to the pad.

[AncientU]

I just looked at the order of the headlines in Google News.  I don't think I've given Google any biases that affect the ranking(?).

- Deadly attack on U.S. forces shows the Afghan war is far from over

- Hillary Clinton camp to Donald Trump: 'Hell no' on apology

- Elon Musk's SpaceX returns to flight and pulls off dramatic, historic landing

- Oregon woman held in Las Vegas Strip sidewalk rampage drove with license suspended

In a hundred years only one of those headlines will be remembered.

100 hours more like

[Lars-J]

I saw this infographic (not from SpaceX) : http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=38148.msg1461581#msg1461581

I know this has been discussed before with different opinion, but I very much doubt that there is a final divert manuever. If the engine fails to light, it will crash on the pad. There is no better spot for it to happen, this is where all pieces can be recovered for investigation should it be necessary. Environmental cleanup is also much easier there.

There is no such thing as falling "harmlessly into the ocean", if it is just by the beach. So I don't see them aiming there, but I've certainly been wrong before.   

If you look at the "double streak" long exposure picture, it seems to show such a maneuver.  The return streak looks shallower, as if it's walking the IIP from off shore to the pad.

Yes, but don't forget the rectilinear distortion in the wide angle lens. Something in the corner of such an image can look quite crooked and still be vertical in reality.

[Kabloona]

I saw this infographic (not from SpaceX) : http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=38148.msg1461581#msg1461581

I know this has been discussed before with different opinion, but I very much doubt that there is a final divert manuever. If the engine fails to light, it will crash on the pad. There is no better spot for it to happen, this is where all pieces can be recovered for investigation should it be necessary. Environmental cleanup is also much easier there.

There is no such thing as falling "harmlessly into the ocean", if it is just by the beach. So I don't see them aiming there, but I've certainly been wrong before.   

If you look at the "double streak" long exposure picture, it seems to show such a maneuver.  The return streak looks shallower, as if it's walking the IIP from off shore to the pad.

Also the "pencil landing" graphic that SpaceX showed in their webcast seemed to have a "dogleg" in it near ground consistent with the idea that the IIP was offshore before being diverted by the grid fins and/or landing burn.

This can be seen at T+9:13 in the webcast.