SpaceX F9 : NROL-146 : VSFB SLC-4E : 22 May 2024 (08:00 UTC)

[catdlr]

Falcon looks to have had significantly greater than zero velocity at touchdown. To my eyes the booster is sitting pretty low to the deck. I wonder if it’s too low for Octagrabber.

Let’s see if it returns to Port of Long Beach chained to the deck.

Unfortunately, the local photographer who gets photos for them doesn't want them publish in this forum.

[Comga]

Falcon looks to have had significantly greater than zero velocity at touchdown. To my eyes the booster is sitting pretty low to the deck. I wonder if it’s too low for Octagrabber.

Let’s see if it returns to Port of Long Beach chained to the deck.

I’ve taken to watching the landing videos upside-down when possible.  It gives me a better physical sense of the dynamics, as it appears that the camera is on the side closer to the ocean in terminal flight.

Either way, in this landing there appeared to be an unusually large amount of last minute correction in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the ASDS.
This landing may have been an outlier with more than usual dynamics resulting in a higher than normal vertical velocity at contact.

Falcon landings remain marvels of control systems engineering.

[alugobi]

Waiting for someone to come in call it a failure.

[AlectroSpace]

I was watching the Booster's onboard video of the landing, and to me it looks like it slowed down too quickly and "landed" a few meters above the droneship's deck and then dropped down onto the deck. The telemetry also shows a sudden increase in velocity right before touchdown. It's hard to tell if this is what happened, but there's no denying the landing legs look rather squashed. I wonder if the engine bells touched the deck?

[DanClemmensen]

I was watching the Booster's onboard video of the landing, and to me it looks like it slowed down too quickly and "landed" a few meters above the droneship's deck and then dropped down onto the deck. The telemetry also shows a sudden increase in velocity right before touchdown. It's hard to tell if this is what happened, but there's no denying the landing legs look rather squashed. I wonder if the engine bells touched the deck?

What was the sea state? Was some of the velocity the barge rising? Was some of the position discrepancy the barge offset from its time-averaged local height?

[shiro]

Some reusability stats for this launch (NROL-146):

Booster B1071.16 turnaround time:
50 days 5 hours 30 minutes
(its previous mission was Starlink Group 7-18 on Apr 2, 2024 UTC).

FYI: median turnaround time for Falcon 9 / Heavy boosters is currently 37.48 days *
* – based on the last 30 launches, excluding new first stages.

Launchpad SLC-4E turnaround time:
7 days 13 hours 21 minutes
(the previous launch from this pad was Starlink Group 8-7 on May 14, 2024 UTC).

FYI: median turnaround time for SLC-4E is currently 9.67 days *
* – based on the last 30 launches.

The same type of stats for previous SpaceX launches may be found on this spreadsheet online.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1793286152843325527

Falcon 9 launches the NROL-146 mission from California

[OneSpeed]

Falcon looks to have had significantly greater than zero velocity at touchdown. To my eyes the booster is sitting pretty low to the deck. I wonder if it’s too low for Octagrabber.

Let’s see if it returns to Port of Long Beach chained to the deck.

Here is a plot of the last few seconds of the booster's flight from the webcast telemetry. Perhaps a sticky throttle?

[Targeteer]

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2024/0117.html

Based on a chance detection by Spanish meteor cameras yesterday evening near
23:08 UTC of what I believe is the NROL-146 payload "train", this much lower
orbit seems a much better search elset:

NROL-146 300 x 305 km
1 70006U 24999A   24143.33356481  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    05
2 70006 067.7724 078.0049 0003742 153.4005 322.0000 15.89922779    03

Offsets in time and cross-track are possible, this is a very rough visual match
only to a camera detection, without proper astrometry.
 
Marco Langbroek

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/shorealonefilms/status/1794100278687313924

[daveglo]

https://twitter.com/shorealonefilms/status/1794100278687313924

Image clearly shows octagrabber sitting off to the booster's left (aft).  Definitely riding a bit low.

[realnouns]

Go Beyond returned to PoLB on May 24 @ 8:26am PT / 11:26am ET

[realnouns]

Lindsay C + OCISLY + B1071 returned to PoLB on May 24 @ 12:55pm PT / 3:55pm ET

[zubenelgenubi]

Falcon looks to have had significantly greater than zero velocity at touchdown. To my eyes the booster is sitting pretty low to the deck. I wonder if it’s too low for Octagrabber.

Let’s see if it returns to Port of Long Beach chained to the deck.

Good eye/catch!

Unfortunately, the local photographer who gets photos for them doesn't want them published in this forum.

🤷‍♀️
Ok--his or her loss.

[john57sharp]

Octograbber is not being used as suspected.

John

[Targeteer]

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2024/0140.html

Observed the NROL-146 payloads as very bright objects (mag +2 to +3).

21 objects were counted over a 5 minute period, on average some 10-15 seconds
apart. Data above are for the leading object.

- Marco

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2024/0142.html

> Sounds like a typical Starlink launch out of Vandenberg.

That's because they basically are a military variant of Starlink ("Starshield").

- Marco

[Targeteer]

https://twitter.com/Marco_Langbroek/status/1794518686549868712

The first 10 out of a total of 21 #Starshield objects from the classified #NROL146 launch, filmed this evening by me from Leiden, the Netherlands.
Total pass of all 21 objects took ~5 minutes, this is the first ~2 minutes.
@planet4589 @OrbitalFocus @eelkevisser @cgbassa

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/w00ki33/status/1794596993119277371

A nice little family of recovered space hardware at Port of Long Beach today, with a slightly slanty Falcon 9 back from its NROL-146 mission.

[Targeteer]

https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1794382336731287895

[Targeteer]

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2024/0146.html

Here is a very cautious elset for the leading object in the NROL-146 'train',
based on my observations from last night and a very rough point for the May 22
Spanish observation:

NROL-146 obj A                                           310 x 311 km
1 70006U 24999A   24146.90436495 0.00000000  00000-0  00000+0 0    05
2 70006  69.7199  66.3577 0000678 155.5007 204.6228 15.87074186    05

There is considerable leeway in Mean Motion and inclination, so beware of time
and cross-track differences, the more as the objects are likely raising their
orbits.

A 4-minute video showing all 21 objects from yesterday evening can be seen here:

https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-nrol-146-payloads-observing-train.html

Dr Marco Langbroek