Spacex complete's historic launch by putting first stage back on land

[Sammael]

As someone who watches space launches regularly (did any of you actually see the expedition 46 launch last week?), and while I understand this was SpaceX's return to operation since months, I was surprised at the amount of hype generated for this event. The "experimental landing" (exact quote) wasn't even the primary focus of the mission, but judging by the crowd noise, you'd think that humans landed on Mars or something. Where was all this hoopla during their first 2 attempts on the barge landings? Was this simply a big PR push to prove the recent Jeff Bezos wrong?

 

Do we even know if the 1st stage is anywhere near space-worthy, without major re-fitting? Will space launch insurance (yes, that's a "thing") premiums go up for commercial operators who opt to use "used" 1st stages in their launches for obvious reasons? Serious questions needs to be answered before all this celebration can really be taken seriously. Methinks the SpaceX interns had "one too many" holiday drinks for this kind of night-time party, outside of work hours. Kool-Aid is a holiday drink right?

 

 

I think they were much more confident this time around.  In the video of the event posted they talked about some of the changes that took place in a review after the previous rocket failure.  They did not just fix the faulty piece that failed, they zeroed in on other potential points of failure and shored those up.  For these reasons I suspect they were just much more sure they could succeed this time around.  They were able to load the rocket with more fuel by setting the liquid oxygen to a colder temperature, the engines were more efficient.  etc etc

[ZetZet]

As someone who watches space launches regularly (did any of you actually see the expedition 46 launch last week?), and while I understand this was SpaceX's return to operation since months, I was surprised at the amount of hype generated for this event. The "experimental landing" (exact quote) wasn't even the primary focus of the mission, but judging by the crowd noise, you'd think that humans landed on Mars or something. Where was all this hoopla during their first 2 attempts on the barge landings? Was this simply a big PR push to prove the recent Jeff Bezos wrong?

 

Do we even know if the 1st stage is anywhere near space-worthy, without major re-fitting? Will space launch insurance (yes, that's a "thing") premiums go up for commercial operators who opt to use "used" 1st stages in their launches for obvious reasons? Serious questions needs to be answered before all this celebration can really be taken seriously. Methinks the SpaceX interns had "one too many" holiday drinks for this kind of night-time party, outside of work hours. Kool-Aid is a holiday drink right?

What do you mean where was all this hoopla during their first 2 attempts? They all reached 1st page on reddit. The thing is, this time it actually landed intact.

[FireJack]

 

Do we even know if the 1st stage is anywhere near space-worthy, without major re-fitting? Will space launch insurance (yes, that's a "thing") premiums go up for commercial operators who opt to use "used" 1st stages in their launches for obvious reasons?

 

I'm betting the first stage is in good shape, and I bet other launchers are worried about what spacex can do now if they can consistently offer cheap launches on reused rockets. Not sure about insurance, but with 80+ million in savings per launch I don't think people are worried.

[Miguel Batista]

That doesn't make any sense, this just means that the public is the investor and it still doesn't change the fact that they have a rocket no one will want to use. Spacex can do what they can do only much cheaper, potentially at a quarter of the price. This includes putting satellites to GTO which they will do in January.

Of course it makes sense. It is how you get money for top tech experimental projects. And if no one uses the arianne because there are cheaper and better options, then we will research the next thing. Plus, rocketiering is part of esa but not the single thing esa does. The money from patenting the new quad cores for satellites will prpbably return mire than that.

Anyway, your original post made no sense in ESA's way of operation.

[FireJack]

 

Plus, rocketiering is part of esa but not the single thing esa does. The money from patenting the new quad cores for satellites will prpbably return mire than that.

 

Sorry I don't know anything about the ESA other than what I've read about their rockets. I thought they were like the united launch alliance given the they way they bid for commercial launches, but looking at their wiki page they do lots of stuff outside launching rockets. I should have done more research before saying they would have no reason to exist.

 

I do hope people recognize how Elon Musk and the people at spacex are revolutionizing space launch industry. That first stage landing is humanities cheap ticket to space, that stuff everyone imagined would be happening by now but just didn't seem to happen.  In May spacex will hopefully put us in the next stage of this revolution with the falcon heavy, putting up to 50 metric tons into space for around 100 million, and that's assuming non-reused rockets. I don't think anyone knows what the price could be with reused rocket, but we should find out soon.

 

This also means that organizatons like NASA and the ESA can launch bigger and more expensive science projects as the cost of launching them will be hundreds of millions of dollars cheaper, or simply possible as the delta heavy can only lift about half as much as the falcon heavy (and at about 500 million vs falcon heavy's 90 million or less). The bigelow expandable space station will soon begin to launch and thanks to spacex's cheap launches can now put space tourism in many peoples reach.

 

The Nautilus X

 

These things are now possible thanks to spacex. They have proven they can do this and for a price that makes it economical, things are going to start moving faster and faster.

[captain cactus]

As someone who watches space launches regularly (did any of you actually see the expedition 46 launch last week?), and while I understand this was SpaceX's return to operation since months, I was surprised at the amount of hype generated for this event. The "experimental landing" (exact quote) wasn't even the primary focus of the mission, but judging by the crowd noise, you'd think that humans landed on Mars or something. Where was all this hoopla during their first 2 attempts on the barge landings? Was this simply a big PR push to prove the recent Jeff Bezos wrong?

 

Do we even know if the 1st stage is anywhere near space-worthy, without major re-fitting? Will space launch insurance (yes, that's a "thing") premiums go up for commercial operators who opt to use "used" 1st stages in their launches for obvious reasons? Serious questions needs to be answered before all this celebration can really be taken seriously. Methinks the SpaceX interns had "one too many" holiday drinks for this kind of night-time party, outside of work hours. Kool-Aid is a holiday drink right?

 

The reason for the happy crowd is simple. It's the first time in history that an orbit-capable rocket has its first stage land back safely on the first try (landing on land that is). Whether the stage is in good shape or not, only time can tell. SpaceX will take the whole first stage apart down to every nut and bolt they have in it and compare it to the new nuts and bolts they make for the next Falcon 9 to see what can be reused and what can't. This is their first successful landing ever so I expect this first stage to not return to space at all. It'll be used to find the potential weak spots and then put back together and put on display in the factory like their first Dragon capsule that paid the ISS a visit.

 

For a return-to-flight flight this was a huge success. Both the primary and secondary missions were a total success and that's nice to have after one of your rockets blows to smithereens. That's also why the crowd is happy.

[FireJack]

From https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LASaDGJ2871fBc9YA7WjCOk7WSvIP3V5g_yz6nks4XQ/edit

 

 

The plan is to take the booster over to LC-39A, the Apollo 11 launch site that we leased from NASA at the Cape and do a static fire on the launch pad there to confirm that all systems are good and that we’re able to do a full-thrust hold-down firing of the rocket. And then I think we’ll probably keep this one on the ground because it's quite unique, it's the first one we brought back. So I think we’ll probably keep this one on the ground and just confirm through tests that it could fly again and then put it somewhere to display, because it's quite unique. I think we’ll end up re-flying one of the subsequent boosters. We have quite a big flight manifest and should be doing well over a dozen flights next year. I think sometime next year we would aim to refly one the rocket boosters.

 

Seems Elon Musk is going to make a big exciting announcement in the next week or so. Likely consisting of 3 things: the condition of the rocket booster, information on the Mars Colonial Transport system, the new spacesuits they've been designing. Should be pretty cool.

[FireJack]

Well according to the latest tweet from Elon the first stage made it back undamaged and ready to fire again.

@ElonMusk

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/_-d28bQEc9/

 

(not sure how to embed the instagram photo)

 

Not sure if this means the refuel and re-fly dream has been realized (assuming the test fire goes well, which I imagine it will) but this looks like a very exciting year for spacex. 

[Counter-Strike Player]

For those of you who may still be interested in this whole "space thingy," SpaceX will be attempting another landing later today (17-Jan) at 1:42 p.m. EST (18:42 UTC) on its "Jason-3" mission. This time, it'll be on the infamous drone ship...so my guess is that cameras won't be streaming the landing (which happens ~9 minutes after launch) so keep an eye on Musk's twitter account as he'll likely be the first one to inform if it happened or not.

Here's a convenient countdown livestream link for the launch:

Hopefully SpaceX can get back on track because all these satellite and CRS missions have been backlogged since their launch failure last June.

 

And a mandatory summon of @TaranLMG because...science.

[Counter-Strike Player]

the infamous drone ship

 

Looks like another crash boys. That brings the total to 3 drone ship crashes and 1 terra firma success. Primary satellite mission still on-track.

[captain cactus]

Actually it did land. It just broke one of the legs, but so far the rockets seems to be standing upright.

[Xorbot]

Actually it did land. It just broke one of the legs, but so far the rockets seems to be standing upright.

 

So, like this:

 

[captain cactus]

I'll take that back. One of the legs apparently failed stay extended due to a broken latching mechanism so the rocket tipped over after an otherwise good touchdown.

[FireJack]

 

Really is too bad about that. It was the last of the 1.1 design and not sure what they were going to do with it. 3 weeks till next launch which I believe is also going to be a barge landing.

 

Never did say what the results borescope test were on the returned falcon rocket. I'm interested what the reason for the "engine fluctuations" were. 

[RagnarokDel]

Well according to the latest tweet from Elon the first stage made it back undamaged and ready to fire again.

@ElonMusk

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/_-d28bQEc9/

 

(not sure how to embed the instagram photo)

 

Not sure if this means the refuel and re-fly dream has been realized (assuming the test fire goes well, which I imagine it will) but this looks like a very exciting year for spacex.

even if this time it's good enough, I suspect it will take dozens of tests before humans actually ride thoses.

[captain cactus]

Elon put a video on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BAqirNbwEc0/

 

 

"Falcon lands on droneship, but the lockout collet doesn't latch on one the four legs, causing it to tip over post landing. Root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff."

 

 

So a good landing, but landing leg failed to latch due to ice buildup. So in other words, if the leg didn't crumple the rocket would still be upright. Rocket was about 1.5 meters off-center. 1.5 meters off-center on a rocking barge in the ocean while coming down from SPACE at mach 5. That's a success.