Expect SpaceX will try to docked their ASDS early in the morning to have more daylight time to disembarked the F9 cores and transferring them to the transporter afterwards.
Falcon 9 fairing half with people for scale. Imagine piloting a ship to get under this as it parafoils down towards you. There is guidance involved, yes, but sometimes things don't go as planned and the Captain has to be ready for abort and scoop.
https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/1292811705857249281
twitter.com/kyle_m_photo/status/1292836015577726977
They are still working at the legs, but they haven't made too much progress that I can tell. They're also doing a few things I've never seen done before like that panel in the center of the leg well is open. #SpaceXFleet #SpaceX
https://twitter.com/kyle_m_photo/status/1292836022322114562I've also never seen white lines like that before either.
Starlink V1.0 L4 - L8 all inserted into their coast phase at around 216km altitude. L1 - L3 however inserted at around 168km. Starlink V1.0 L9 marks a return to the earlier insertion altitude, at a slightly higher velocity, but with only 57 Starlink satellites on board.
Why? The 60 L3 satellites were deployed at an altitude of 302km, close to a circular orbit. The 57 L9 satellites were deployed at about 400km, also roughly circular, because that is the required orbit for the BlackSky rideshare satellites. Achieving this orbit required a small reduction in overall payload to 57 Starlink satellites.
Are you sure the orbit is the reason for reduction to 57 Starlinks? The delta-V between 302 km circular and 400 km circular is about 56 m/s. Getting rid of 2 starlinks (at 260 kg each), then adding 2 BlackSky (55 kg each) should increase second stage performance by about this amount using the usual assumptions (total payload about 15.6t, ISP=348, burnout mass=5.5t, including residuals), plus another 5 m/s from the first stage.
Aha - I see what I missed. The above calculation estimates that the F9 could have inserted into the higher orbit with 58 satellites. I think this is correct. But SpaceX also needed to de-orbit the second stage from the higher orbit as well. It's not much (about an extra 30 m/s is needed, and the stage is 4 times lighter after the payload is separated), but it's enough to require three Starlinks less, not two.