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#120
by
ddeflyer
on 11 Oct, 2017 23:23
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The sight as the video cut out really looked at first like things were going wrong, but I just watched the BulgariaSat-1 launch and it did about the same thing (lots of glowing and then video cutout) though with much much more lighting so it didn't look at absurdly crazy.
Imagine what it would look like on a pre-dawn launch; you could write a poem about "landing by plasma light"!
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#121
by
rockets4life97
on 11 Oct, 2017 23:58
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SES is one of SpaceX's most important commercial customers. They also seem fully on board the reused booster bandwagon. I expect SpaceX will be winning a large share of most future SES launches and most (if not all) will be un re-used boosters.
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#122
by
skyguy
on 12 Oct, 2017 00:01
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#123
by
Norm38
on 12 Oct, 2017 00:08
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No, that's orbital sunset. The second stage popped up into sunlight but then the sun fell back down below the horizon.
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#124
by
vaporcobra
on 12 Oct, 2017 00:18
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An absolutely exceptional landing, IMHO. The plasma and white-hot grid fins were hard to believe.
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#125
by
ulm_atms
on 12 Oct, 2017 00:32
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On the bright side...this one doesn't seem to be leaning...
Looks like another stage that won't fly again.
Would be interesting if one of these 2x cores were used for the abort test of the dragon 2. If i remember right, only three engines are needed for the test. I think this core might make a good core for the abort test....and show a "sort of" third reuse.
Edit: Typo
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#126
by
ddeflyer
on 12 Oct, 2017 00:41
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If you think about it, the control algorithms must be awfully impressive to deal with the rapidly changing flight dynamics! They deal with essentially no atmosphere, supersonic thin through thicker atmosphere, transonic, and subsonic with three different control methods of varying power all of which substantially change over time. I mean, the rocket flies beautifully with the grid fins vaporizing during flight! Imagine how the system must deal with some fins producing more drag (but not predictable before hand) from worse and worse flow properties (due to some parts no longer being there). I mean, adaptive controls have been in flight systems for ages but its still amazing just how controlled these flights are with so much changing!
(Edited because autocorrect was having too much fun)
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#127
by
Chris_Pi
on 12 Oct, 2017 00:50
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That looked awfully toasty. Was wondering for a bit if the stage could handle losing a gridfin, But apparently either it didn't or can - It got back to the barge fine. Will definitely be interesting when it's back in port to see closer-up photos of the stage, Gridfins in particular.
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#128
by
punder
on 12 Oct, 2017 00:56
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Correct me if i'm wrong but the deployment of the fins was rather early not?
Seemed that way to me too.
Sorry, I know you all see this question way too much
but were these fins aluminum or titanium? I'm having a hard time believing aluminum would glow like a klieg light without utterly disintegrating.
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#129
by
ulm_atms
on 12 Oct, 2017 01:02
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Correct me if i'm wrong but the deployment of the fins was rather early not?
Seemed that way to me too.
Sorry, I know you all see this question way too much but were these fins aluminum or titanium? I'm having a hard time believing aluminum would glow like a klieg light without utterly disintegrating.
Aluminum 100%
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#130
by
Chris_Pi
on 12 Oct, 2017 01:15
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The titanium fins are slightly longer and cover the bottom-of-fin attach point protrusion on the body completely, Have a scalloped front face, And for the moment are unpainted and dark grayish instead of white.
As far as the glow, I'm halfway surprised I never saw big chunks blowing by the camera. Whatever ablative coating is used on them earned it's pay today.
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#131
by
Rocket Science
on 12 Oct, 2017 01:37
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I must say when I saw chunks flying off and then losing the down-link I thought we lost the stage but the tough old bird came through...
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#132
by
rickl
on 12 Oct, 2017 02:00
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Yes, when I saw the grid fins glowing so bright and then they lost telemetry, I thought they might have lost the stage.
It seems like they are experimenting with various entry and landing profiles to learn what they can get away with, and why not? They have plenty of stages to work with. It makes sense to me.
As an aside, on their webcasts, I wish they would show the Stage 1 telemetry on the left side of the screen and the Stage 2 telemetry on the right.
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#133
by
meekGee
on 12 Oct, 2017 02:28
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Correct me if i'm wrong but the deployment of the fins was rather early not?
Seemed that way to me too.
Sorry, I know you all see this question way too much but were these fins aluminum or titanium? I'm having a hard time believing aluminum would glow like a klieg light without utterly disintegrating.
The grid fins were not "White hot", since Aluminum, even when "red hot", is already without any strength.
There are two options:
A very over-exposed image show with a filter-less camera that picks up near infra-red, and so even the slightest glow in human-invisible wavelengths shows up as "white hot".
A thermal coating ablating while protecting the Aluminum underneath.
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#134
by
Norm38
on 12 Oct, 2017 02:29
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So when do they start introducing Inconel heat shields on these R&D flights? Like the titanium grid fins?
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#135
by
meekGee
on 12 Oct, 2017 02:41
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Looks like another stage that won't fly again. There have been 12 first stage recovery flights this year, but only three of them were GTO missions and all three were first stage reflights (using "used" first stages). My guess is that these are R&D flights on the reuse side that won't see their stages used again (the SES-10 and Bulgariasat stages have been retired or mothballed). They would have been expendable flights otherwise. The other three GTO missions this year were expendable missions.
A bit of a weenie roast after this landing!
- Ed Kyle
People have been saying that on every core that comes down a little stressed.
Remember Thaicom 8?
Not sure what the point is, but it's a popular refrain.
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#136
by
yokem55
on 12 Oct, 2017 02:45
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Looks like another stage that won't fly again. There have been 12 first stage recovery flights this year, but only three of them were GTO missions and all three were first stage reflights (using "used" first stages). My guess is that these are R&D flights on the reuse side that won't see their stages used again (the SES-10 and Bulgariasat stages have been retired or mothballed). They would have been expendable flights otherwise. The other three GTO missions this year were expendable missions.
A bit of a weenie roast after this landing!
- Ed Kyle
People have been saying that on every core that comes down a little stressed.
Remember Thaicom 8?
Not sure what the point is, but it's a popular refrain.
Regardless of if it can be reflown, they won't do any 3rd flights for anything as long as they have single flight cores hanging around everywhere or it makes more sense to fly/refly block 5 cores.
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#137
by
ZachS09
on 12 Oct, 2017 03:12
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Having arrived at one of Embry Riddle University's observation decks at 5:40 PM, I stayed there for over an hour while the Falcon 9 rocket launched the SES-11/EchoStar 105 satellite from 48 miles away.
Below this post is a video I made based on the footage I shot, using two royalty-free songs from incompetech, audio made from a mixture of previous SpaceX technical webcasts, footage from the SES-11/EchoStar 105 webcast, and stock footage from the JCSat 14 landing in May 2016.
Also took a few photos of the sunlit contrail afterwards.
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#138
by
georgegassaway
on 12 Oct, 2017 03:27
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Grid fins seemed to be extra-bright due to the camera exposure having adjusted for the very low ambient light levels (launched near sunset, coming down into mostly darkness).
And not "white hot" either. Overexposure of what in previous launches (re-entries) like this, looked to be red-hot to orange-hot when there was lots of background lighting of the sun-illuminated Earth.
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#139
by
meekGee
on 12 Oct, 2017 03:36
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Looks like another stage that won't fly again. There have been 12 first stage recovery flights this year, but only three of them were GTO missions and all three were first stage reflights (using "used" first stages). My guess is that these are R&D flights on the reuse side that won't see their stages used again (the SES-10 and Bulgariasat stages have been retired or mothballed). They would have been expendable flights otherwise. The other three GTO missions this year were expendable missions.
A bit of a weenie roast after this landing!
- Ed Kyle
People have been saying that on every core that comes down a little stressed.
Remember Thaicom 8?
Not sure what the point is, but it's a popular refrain.
Regardless of if it can be reflown, they won't do any 3rd flights for anything as long as they have single flight cores hanging around everywhere or it makes more sense to fly/refly block 5 cores.
With that I agree. Just got tired of all the internet experts declaring with such confidence (and no evidence) that "this landing was so rough, clearly the stage will never fly again".
These are the same people that also claim how uneconomical the whole endevour is.
So, you know, had to point out the obvious.
but were these fins aluminum or titanium? I'm having a hard time believing aluminum would glow like a klieg light without utterly disintegrating.
