SpaceX F9 : Starlink v1.0 L17 : KSC LC-39A : 4 March 2021 (0824 UTC)

[Chris Bergin]

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1367407296465297409

[Jansen]

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1367407265901285381

[FutureSpaceTourist]

SpaceX launch photos from their website (I presume by Ben Cooper)

[steveleach]

As before, no live camera views from Stage 1

The repressed conspiracy theorist inside me is looking at the repeated launch delays and the strange lack of live booster coverage and thinking "there's some national security stuff being tested on that booster".  The only video we see of the booster is from fixed camera angles, with the booster in a known orientation.

[Jansen]

For those keeping track, this flight was delayed a total of 17 times from its original launch date on January 27.

Can't recall another F9 launch postponed that many times.

[EspenU]

As before, no live camera views from Stage 1

The repressed conspiracy theorist inside me is looking at the repeated launch delays and the strange lack of live booster coverage and thinking "there's some national security stuff being tested on that booster".  The only video we see of the booster is from fixed camera angles, with the booster in a known orientation.

Or, one of the technical delays were due to a fault in the camera system (or such a fault was discovered during additional inspections). So they figured it was simpler to turn that system off instead of doing a lengthy repair to a non critical system.

They can fix it during refurbishment after this flight.

[Herb Schaltegger]

As before, no live camera views from Stage 1

The repressed conspiracy theorist inside me is looking at the repeated launch delays and the strange lack of live booster coverage and thinking "there's some national security stuff being tested on that booster".  The only video we see of the booster is from fixed camera angles, with the booster in a known orientation.

Or more reasonably, this is a life-leader in the booster fleet and between ITAR and potentially commercially-sensitive info regarding long-life boosters, they have chosen to be conservative with their preflight testing and abort limits. Quite possibly they have also taken time to add additional sensors and reserve some of the limited downlink bandwidth for telemetry in case they didn’t land the booster.

Take off the tinfoil hat and think like an engineer.

[OneSpeed]

Regular service was resumed last night, when Starlink L17 successfully launched 60 satellites, and landed the booster. The only significant difference from the L18 launch profile was that there was no throttle down during the S2 terminal guidance.

[IntoTheVoid]

As before, no live camera views from Stage 1

The repressed conspiracy theorist inside me is looking at the repeated launch delays and the strange lack of live booster coverage and thinking "there's some national security stuff being tested on that booster".  The only video we see of the booster is from fixed camera angles, with the booster in a known orientation.

Or more reasonably, this is a life-leader in the booster fleet and between ITAR and potentially commercially-sensitive info regarding long-life boosters, they have chosen to be conservative with their preflight testing and abort limits. Quite possibly they have also taken time to add additional sensors and reserve some of the limited downlink bandwidth for telemetry in case they didn’t land the booster.

Take off the tinfoil hat and think like an engineer.

As a (non-rocket) engineer, I am normally inclined to agree with you, but this wasn't just "no live camera views from Stage 1" it was no live camera views of stage 1. Your explanation fails to explain the complete lack of any vehicle tracking after lift-off. Not even tracking the vehicle off the pad is far more suspicious than the lack of on-vehicle views.

[Elthiryel]

Have you seen the cloud cover and how low the cloud base was? Most space photographers trying to capture the launch were reporting that they were unable to see the launch at all. Watch the stream, the rocket is disappearing into the clouds around T+0:14. Afterwards, with no camera on the first stage, how were they supposed to show the rocket?

https://twitter.com/johnkrausphotos/status/1367392114171146241

[Herb Schaltegger]

As before, no live camera views from Stage 1

The repressed conspiracy theorist inside me is looking at the repeated launch delays and the strange lack of live booster coverage and thinking "there's some national security stuff being tested on that booster".  The only video we see of the booster is from fixed camera angles, with the booster in a known orientation.

Or more reasonably, this is a life-leader in the booster fleet and between ITAR and potentially commercially-sensitive info regarding long-life boosters, they have chosen to be conservative with their preflight testing and abort limits. Quite possibly they have also taken time to add additional sensors and reserve some of the limited downlink bandwidth for telemetry in case they didn’t land the booster.

Take off the tinfoil hat and think like an engineer.

As a (non-rocket) engineer, I am normally inclined to agree with you, but this wasn't just "no live camera views from Stage 1" it was no live camera views of stage 1. Your explanation fails to explain the complete lack of any vehicle tracking after lift-off. Not even tracking the vehicle off the pad is far more suspicious than the lack of on-vehicle views.

Then look to simpler likely explanations: the multiple possible launch windows made scheduling staff to run the webcast challenging, especially a webcast for a very routine Falcon 9 flight; tracking cameras non-functional; someone made an error configuring the equipment for the webcast … etc.

You can’t disguise or hide a rocket launch into a dark sky from a populous part of the planet. There’s absolutely no reason to see some conspiracy in the lack of camera coverage from SpaceX.

EDIT: Or yeah, low clouds prevented visual tracking.

[cscott]

Worth noting that John Insprucker explicitly stated that he was not doing this launch because he'd already done two (!) Starship webcasts on the same "day".  So in addition to everything else, it's possible the announcer was a last-minute-ish substitute for John.

https://twitter.com/jinsprucker/status/1367350152080461827?s=19

[RocketLover0119]

Have you seen the cloud cover and how low the cloud base was? Most space photographers trying to capture the launch were reporting that they were unable to see the launch at all. Watch the stream, the rocket is disappearing into the clouds around T+0:14. Afterwards, with no camera on the first stage, how were they supposed to show the rocket?

https://twitter.com/johnkrausphotos/status/1367392114171146241

Yes I have actually, and experienced the misery of it over the summer watching the OTV-7 atlas mission. Couldn’t see the rocket even from port and only ended up hearing a rumble.

[hektor]

Interesting... John Insprucker is a Doctor Who fan. 

[Comga]

For those keeping track, this flight was delayed a total of 17 times from its original launch date on January 27.

Can't recall another F9 launch postponed that many times.

Apparently, we are in the midst of a Launchscrubapalooza!

And as for the clouds and lack of visibility, been there, done that, have the teeshirt.
CRS-10. Between the derelict Shuttle Rotating Support Structure blocking the on-pad and ignition view and the cloud deck under 1000 feet it seemed we saw very little of the launch or RTLS landing.
Bummer!

[ChrisC]

As before, no live camera views from Stage 1

The cloud cover certainly made the absence of the usual Stage 1 video feed more stark.

LOL the conspiracy theories here, especially the national-security payload one [rolls eyes].  My own theory is that they decided to take the (limited) telemetry bandwidth and assign it to either A) a LOT more non-video instrumentation channels or B) a camera aimed at the engine bay (and not shown to us).  I'm guessing that the recent engine failure on B1059.6 had them wanting to pay extra close to this flight, especially as one of the two life leaders, and hence the desire for extra data.

Note also that this was discussed ad nauseum after the first launch attempt, so go back in this thread to see that discussion.

[wannamoonbase]

I'm not so concerned about the lack of first stage video.  The fact that this one got off the ground finally after so many delays, (not all delays were vehicle or SpaceX) is great.

get the booster and pad back into circulation for the next flight. 

6 launches in just over 2 months, is a pace for 35-ish launches this year.  That is a big manifest for the number of boosters available. 

I remember driving home early to catch the Falcon 1 launches and it being months or years between each launch.  so this is really exciting to see a flight every 7-10 days.

[SPKirsch]

https://twitter.com/SpaceXFleet/status/1367637425778999296

B1049 has been secured and OCISLY droneship is en-route to Port Canaveral! ETA Sun/Mon (Roughly)

GO Searcher and Navigator are also en-route to Florida after conducting fairing recovery work.

[Jansen]

https://twitter.com/SpaceXFleet/status/1367997781995106306

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/spacecoast_stve/status/1368199590420307982

GO Searcher has returned with an intact fairing half from Thursday’s Starlink mission.

The crew, hangin’ on the helipad, seems happy to be home. But my guess is they won’t be here long before they head out for the next mission.

Watch live on Fleetcam: youtu.be/gnt2wZBg89g