SpaceX Falcon 9 : PAZ & Microsat 2a/2b : SLC-4E : Feb 22, 2018 : DISCUSSION

[whitelancer64]

She looks quite cheeky floating there; "I don't need no net!"

Wonder if is in good enough shape that they could consider reusing it if they can fish it out safely onto the recovery boat.  Is salt water bad on composites?

I guess we don't even know if they can get it on the boat though...

Saltwater is bad for just about everything. That said, I'd be more worried about the electronics, insulation, etc. inside the fairing than the exterior of the fairing.

[sevenperforce]

did they water land the S1?

Stage 1 was jettison only, no legs, fins (but not deployed), no post sep burns, and no vessel postured to go to the impact location.  Pretty much like a "traditional" expendable mission.

What makes you think the fins weren't deployed? Wouldn't they deploy them, if they had them, to get hot-entry testing if nothing else?

Or was it just a case of "this rocket is sooty and we aren't reusing it and we won't reuse the grid fins either so why bother taking them off"?

[docmordrid]

Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Tintin A & B will attempt to beam "hello world" in about 22 hours when they pass near LA
>
Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Don't tell anyone, but the wifi password is "martians"
11:11 AM - Feb 22, 2018

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/966706924124188672

[LouScheffer]

did they water land the S1?

Stage 1 was jettison only, no legs, fins (but not deployed), no post sep burns, and no vessel postured to go to the impact location.  Pretty much like a "traditional" expendable mission.

The staging was very slow, at 6725 km/hr, or 1868 m/s.   This is way under the values that have been used on boosters that were recovered (2300 m/s or thereabouts).  They could do this since the payload is light and the target is LEO, so the second stage can easily make up the difference.

On one hand, I'm surprised they did not driver the booster closer to depletion.  This would seem to maximize their margins.  On the other hand, by staging low and slow they might maximize their odds of fairing recovery.

My guess is that the margins are already so huge that increasing them makes little sense.  So instead they optimized for fairing recovery.

[jaredgalen]

Would they delay chute opening on one fairing so it reaches the ship first, giving themselves time to reposition and catch the seconds half?

Or what is the approach for catching both halves....?

[litton4]

A second ship, once they nail the technique.......

[AncientU]

Would they delay chute opening on one fairing so it reaches the ship first, giving themselves time to reposition and catch the seconds half?

Or what is the approach for catching both halves....?

Catch the first half, repeat.

[Llian Rhydderch]

The non-recovery of the booster seems most likely, to me anyway, related to it is simply not worth it:  the cost of recovering "yet another" booster (legs, ASDS deployed, etc.) is simply not worth the benefit of recovering one more Block 3 F9 that they will never fly again.

Onward to Block 4 only, in new and reflights.  And soon, to Block 5 only.

[hootowls]

did they water land the S1?

Stage 1 was jettison only, no legs, fins (but not deployed), no post sep burns, and no vessel postured to go to the impact location.  Pretty much like a "traditional" expendable mission.

What makes you think the fins weren't deployed? Wouldn't they deploy them, if they had them, to get hot-entry testing if nothing else?

Or was it just a case of "this rocket is sooty and we aren't reusing it and we won't reuse the grid fins either so why bother taking them off"?

I'm stating facts.  Not touching intent. 

[sevenperforce]

What makes you think the fins weren't deployed? Wouldn't they deploy them, if they had them, to get hot-entry testing if nothing else?

Or was it just a case of "this rocket is sooty and we aren't reusing it and we won't reuse the grid fins either so why bother taking them off"?

I'm stating facts.  Not touching intent.

Did the webcast say they weren't going to deploy the fins?

[speedevil]

Did the webcast say they weren't going to deploy the fins?

I did not hear that, and was listening for it.
They specifically said no burns. No mention I heard of fins.

[John Alan]

They likely put grid fins on to make sure they are not hit by the fairing when it was deployed...
Checking that it misses them on the way by at speed, in other words...
Would not surprise me that was the reason they went along for the ride... IMHO... 

[JonathanD]

I'd love to see the video footage from that recovered fairing!

[Ben the Space Brit]

I'd love to see the video footage from that recovered fairing!

I've no doubt that a video will appear in due course to some suitable background music.

[Star One]

Good deployment of PAZ Congrats SpaceX

Bit early secondary payloads not confirmed deployed yet?

I wouldn't expect much news.  I suspect they are going to continue being low key on anything about Starlink until they are much farther along.

Clearly I don't know what I'm talking about

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/966703261699854336

First two Starlink demo satellites, called Tintin A & B, deployed and communicating to Earth stations

Well clearly nor do I.

That fairing bobbing about on the surface of the ocean looks like a giant coracle.

[jebbo]

That fairing bobbing about on the surface of the ocean looks like a giant coracle.

It's riding high enough that I wonder if they need to bother actually catching the inactive half ... just parafoil onto the sea and pick it up.

--- Tony

[aero]

That fairing bobbing about on the surface of the ocean looks like a giant coracle.

It's riding high enough that I wonder if they need to bother actually catching the inactive half ... just parafoil onto the sea and pick it up.

--- Tony

Well, if they pick this one up and check it out, they should be able to determine the answer to that.

And if it got to wet then there might be ways to waterproof it for minor amounts of dunking. A floatation collar at the big end or a "not too massive" bulkhead at the big end would convert it to a boat. They'd still need to send a retrieval boat out to get it but fishing it out of the water should not be as difficult as catching it on the fly.

[cscott]

Here are a few still shots from Oxnard this morning.  Some nice plumes at staging and later on some steering jets on the fairings.  At 15 minutes before local sunrise, the sky was already bright enough to wash out an attempted time exposure.

That last photo seems to show both fairing halves manuveuring!

EDIT: Helodriver agrees:

Puffing jets could be seen from BOTH fairing halves, but more from one than the other.

[robert_d]

Well, if they pick this one up and check it out, they should be able to determine the answer to that.

And if it got to wet then there might be ways to waterproof it for minor amounts of dunking. A floatation collar at the big end or a "not too massive" bulkhead at the big end would convert it to a boat. They'd still need to send a retrieval boat out to get it but fishing it out of the water should not be as difficult as catching it on the fly.

Reply in the fairing recovery thread (discussion of speculative stuff should go there, I think.)

[John Alan]

From update thread...

Germany's @DLR_de, which is managing early ops for Paz radar sat, said all good after separation from @SpaceX Falcon 9; ground station received telemetry 75 mins after liftoff.

https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/966738328207941632

NOW... with all birds reporting in... Congrats to all parties that make this look easy... well done...