SpaceX F9 : Bangabandhu-1 : KSC 39A : May 11, 2018 : Discussion

[Bargemanos]

Love'd the view of the pusher system on stage sep 

[Lars-J]

I was impressed by how very little ice fell off a liftoff... Looks either improved insulation or a more hydrophobic paint material - or both. (But perhaps this was also favorable weather with less humidity?)

And a super sweet drone view of the liftoff!     

[Star One]

I wonder if the first stage camera succumbed to all the condensation that seemed to be building up on it.

[leetdan]

This is the first time Ti grid fins have been recovered from a GTO launch, correct?  Not even a hint of ablation during or after the entry burn that I could see.

[abaddon]

I was impressed by how very little ice fell off a liftoff... Looks either improved insulation or a more hydrophobic paint material - or both. (But perhaps this was also favorable weather with less humidity?)

Elon stated this in the Q&A yesterday.  I think.

[Ben the Space Brit]

I wonder if the first stage camera succumbed to all the condensation that seemed to be building up on it.

The picture was rocking noticeably every time the RCS fired. It isn't impossible that the camera was loose inside its housing and, with the much greater vibrations of the entry burn, took damage. Maybe the data cabling shook loose or something.

[Lars-J]

I was impressed by how very little ice fell off a liftoff... Looks either improved insulation or a more hydrophobic paint material - or both. (But perhaps this was also favorable weather with less humidity?)

Elon stated this in the Q&A yesterday.  I think.

Yes, for the black material. I was mostly referring to the white tank surface.

[Kabloona]

This is the first time Ti grid fins have been recovered from a GTO launch, correct?  Not even a hint of ablation during or after the entry burn that I could see.

The Ti grid fins don't need the SPAM coating like the aluminum did, so there's nothing to ablate.

[hartspace]

Maybe it was the lighting, but it seemed like the on-board cameras were providing much-better-than-usual video quality.  New cams to go with Block 5, maybe?  Loved the drone view of the launch as well.  And, as noted above, they probably need to tighten the bracket holding the 1st stage camera.  Otherwise, everything looked great so far.

[ZachS09]

Maybe it was the lighting, but it seemed like the on-board cameras were providing much-better-than-usual video quality.  New cams to go with Block 5, maybe?  Loved the drone view of the launch as well.  And, as noted above, they probably need to tighten the bracket holding the 1st stage camera.  Otherwise, everything looked great so far.

Good point. For some reason, I thought the Stage 1 aft-facing camera was about to fall off during reentry.

[ZachF]

I wonder if the first stage camera succumbed to all the condensation that seemed to be building up on it.

Consequence of the "semi-active" water cooling system?

[deruch]

Some new camera views so far during this launch. 

-Drone footage.
-Extended footage from behind the pusher system and from Stage 2 looking down in the interstage prior to separation.
-Footage from inside the interstage well after separation.  Not just of Stage 2 igniting and flying away, but after the start of stage 1 reorientation.
-More views looking up at the payload and forward during Stage 2 burn.  Usually we only see those during fairing sep and the rest of the time we're looking back at the engine/nozzle. 

[SciNews]

Falcon 9 Block 5 first launch & landing

[Star One]

I wonder if the first stage camera succumbed to all the condensation that seemed to be building up on it.

The picture was rocking noticeably every time the RCS fired. It isn't impossible that the camera was loose inside its housing and, with the much greater vibrations of the entry burn, took damage. Maybe the data cabling shook loose or something.

Good point. I am sure that’s something the engineers will be looking into post flight.

[whitelancer64]

Elon’s press call earlier:

Transcript of the call:
https://gist.github.com/theinternetftw/5ba82bd5f4099934fa0556b9d09c123e

I just wanted to call out theinternetftw with extra thanks for providing this transcript.  I listened to the telecon audio, AND then read the transcript, and really got a lot of detail out of the latter that I'd missed the first time through.  And reading it, even with the finer detail, goes a little faster than listening to it.  I'm sure you're using some speech-to-text software there but there's still a lot of human effort involved and I wanted to thank you for it, more than just clicking the little "like" button.

There's a LOT of very interesting things in there.

Nice transcript.

[akfish]

The shaking of on-board cameras seems excessive to me. Even the 2nd stage cameras started shaking after staging. I hope it's just the camera mounts became loose, not the rocket body having vibration problems.

[Star One]

Can I ask why Bangladesh is having to lease an orbital slot from Russia for this satellite?

[Kabloona]

Camera shake may or may not be related to the vibration concern Elon mentioned in the call, saying that engine chamber pressures would be reduced as engine burns progressed, for reasons related to vibration.

[Oersted]

Wauw, that was really a quite ...unique video from the Bangladeshi side.... Interesting insight into how that country works.

[whitelancer64]

I was impressed by how very little ice fell off a liftoff... Looks either improved insulation or a more hydrophobic paint material - or both. (But perhaps this was also favorable weather with less humidity?)

Elon stated this in the Q&A yesterday.  I think.

The paint is not hydrophobic, the new black TPS is.