SpaceX, Starlink and World Cup footballs in space

[FutureSpaceTourist]

twitter.com/spacex/status/1602376185845104640

Thanks to @FIFAWorldCup and @QatarAirways for entrusting SpaceX and the Starlink team to fly two World Cup balls to space and back! Learn more →

https://worldcup.starlink.com/

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1602376208104071168

For those attending the semifinals or finals, stop by our spot on Lusail Boulevard to demo Starlink for yourself

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1602393616625827846

That's three World Cup footballs that have been to space! These two... and Harry Kane's penalty (groan).

They don't show it, but this container would have ridden inside the Booster's interstage.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

From the Hotbird13F launch thread:

Based on the video of the booster landing, I believe these 2 World Cup balls were launched on this mission:

Thanks to @FIFAWorldCup and @QatarAirways for entrusting SpaceX and the Starlink team to fly two World Cup balls to space and back! Learn more → http://worldcup.starlink.com

twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1602376185845104640

From space to the football pitch. We brought the official football for FIFA World Cup Qatar™️, becoming part of this historical out of the world journey together with @SpaceX and @FIFAcom.

twitter.com/qatarairways/status/1601955504913268736

The Hotbird launch was on 15 October.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/sciguyspace/status/1602717932341149697

The match balls are the first known example of SpaceX using its Falcon 9's first stage to fly a commercial payload on a suborbital flight.

[Comga]

Where and how did these two regulation soccer balls fly on a Falcon 9?

I’ve built flight hardware and that box with the lid is not flight hardware.  That’s not how they traveled.

If I had to guess where they could fit in the pictured booster, I would say that the balls were deflated, flattened, put in aluminum boxes, and bolted inside the base of the stage separation pusher’s tripod structure.  As such they would be riding inside the bell of the Merlin Vacuum engine.

We all know that they didn’t go to orbit in a first stage, despite the implication of the video.
However, they could have been mounted in a CRS capsule, where they would total less than one kilogram.  That’s probably within the margins of the flight of both mass and volume, something SpaceX could put in a volume not accessed on orbit, without detracting from the contracted upmass.

Occams-razor says the latter.
Yes to orbit. No to a booster landing.

[GmP]

Where and how did these two regulation soccer balls fly on a Falcon 9?

I’ve built flight hardware and that box with the lid is not flight hardware.  That’s not how they traveled.

If I had to guess where they could fit in the pictured booster, I would say that the balls were deflated, flattened, put in aluminum boxes, and bolted inside the base of the stage separation pusher’s tripod structure.  As such they would be riding inside the bell of the Merlin Vacuum engine.

We all know that they didn’t go to orbit in a first stage, despite the implication of the video.
However, they could have been mounted in a CRS capsule, where they would total less than one kilogram.  That’s probably within the margins of the flight of both mass and volume, something SpaceX could put in a volume not accessed on orbit, without detracting from the contracted upmass.

Occams-razor says the latter.
Yes to orbit. No to a booster landing.

Your last line confuses me.
Yes to space,  not to orbit (the two balls)
And they must have landed in a booster, how else could theynget back to Quatar? Or you don’t believe that part?
Or am I confused what you mean?

[Chinakpradhan]

Where and how did these two regulation soccer balls fly on a Falcon 9?

I’ve built flight hardware and that box with the lid is not flight hardware.  That’s not how they traveled.

If I had to guess where they could fit in the pictured booster, I would say that the balls were deflated, flattened, put in aluminum boxes, and bolted inside the base of the stage separation pusher’s tripod structure.  As such they would be riding inside the bell of the Merlin Vacuum engine.

We all know that they didn’t go to orbit in a first stage, despite the implication of the video.
However, they could have been mounted in a CRS capsule, where they would total less than one kilogram.  That’s probably within the margins of the flight of both mass and volume, something SpaceX could put in a volume not accessed on orbit, without detracting from the contracted upmass.

Occams-razor says the latter.
Yes to orbit. No to a booster landing.

Your last line confuses me.
Yes to space,  not to orbit (the two balls)
And they must have landed in a booster, how else could theynget back to Quatar? Or you don’t believe that part?
Or am I confused what you mean?

world cup Starlink page showed the suborbital launch parameters. Mic drop.

[Comga]

Where and how did these two regulation soccer balls fly on a Falcon 9?

I’ve built flight hardware and that box with the lid is not flight hardware.  That’s not how they traveled.

If I had to guess where they could fit in the pictured booster, I would say that the balls were deflated, flattened, put in aluminum boxes, and bolted inside the base of the stage separation pusher’s tripod structure.  As such they would be riding inside the bell of the Merlin Vacuum engine.

We all know that they didn’t go to orbit in a first stage, despite the implication of the video.
However, they could have been mounted in a CRS capsule, where they would total less than one kilogram.  That’s probably within the margins of the flight of both mass and volume, something SpaceX could put in a volume not accessed on orbit, without detracting from the contracted upmass.

Occams-razor says the latter.
Yes to orbit. No to a booster landing.

Your last line confuses me.
Yes to space,  not to orbit (the two balls)
And they must have landed in a booster, how else could theynget back to Quatar? Or you don’t believe that part?
Or am I confused what you mean?

world cup Starlink page showed the suborbital launch parameters. Mic drop.

What I meant was that the simplest explanation is that the soccer balls rode to orbit in a dragon, not “to space” in a booster.

Go ahead and prove it to be otherwise, including where two soccer balls fit and survive  in a booster

“Mic drop” is a puerile substitute for including a useful reference, like a link, a downloaded document, or a screenshot.  As a post it doesn’t help or prove anything.  The “world cup” stuff has contradictions and confusion.

[GmP]

Ah, thanks for your reply. I “missed” that CRS meant a Dragon. Explanation makes sense, to me at least now.