Update on Falcon Heavy core stage landing failure
Link here. According to Musk, the reason the core stage hit the water so fast is that some engines did not fire as intended.
He said engineers believed only one of three engines fired during a final burn designed to slow the rocket’s descent before touchdown. The stage only missed the boat by about the length of a football field, but the force of its water impact was enough to “take out” two engines on the nearby drone ship and spray it with debris.
This is proper engineering procedure. They flew a test, and learned something. They now need to figure out why it happened, and fix it.
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Link here. According to Musk, the reason the core stage hit the water so fast is that some engines did not fire as intended.
He said engineers believed only one of three engines fired during a final burn designed to slow the rocket’s descent before touchdown. The stage only missed the boat by about the length of a football field, but the force of its water impact was enough to “take out” two engines on the nearby drone ship and spray it with debris.
This is proper engineering procedure. They flew a test, and learned something. They now need to figure out why it happened, and fix it.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
In his press conference Elon says the final landing burn was intended to be three engines. However only the center engine lit, and the outer two did not. This was because the stage ran out of TEA-TEB, the hypergolic fuel mixture used to start and restart the engines. The stage hit the water at 300mph and the resulting explosion took out two of the engines on the barge.
He promised to release any video footage if they can recover the cameras.
Steve-
Good stuff.
(love the hen-cam link at your site, btw!)
[https://hencam.com/]
How could a near miss have damaged the drone ship more than the actual crash landings on the drone ships that SpaceX has demonstrated?
Wernher von Braun turned in his grave coffin when he heard that those first Falcon 9 land impact events didn’t sink the ship even when it was a bulls eye hit! Hopeless. Terrible. Grueling. Won’t win the war this way.
This is interesting: Air Force Strike Takes Out SpaceX’s Floating GovSat Booster
i imagine the wave of 80,000 lbs hitting the water at 300 kph 100-300 feet away was enough to damage the thrustmasters?
I would love to hear how people who run the Thrustmaster phone support line react when they see a SpaceX phone number come in on a call.
“OK, how did you destroy the unit this time? Explosion? High speed impact? Burned it?” Each time, a new method of destruction.
I do think the video, if they got any, should be epic.
It is interesting that they literally JUST tested this landing profile with GovSat (that Kirk notes the Air Force had to blow up for them… How awesome is that? ).
And another two launches in Feb planned. Woo Hoo! fun times!
OCISLY has just arrived at Port Canaveral. Photos tweeted here: https://twitter.com/TechSpatiales
All four thrusters are raised out of the water and stored in their towing position, and the barge doesn’t look particularly damaged. Musk’s “So the information I received was that we hit the water at about 300 miles an hour, roughly 500 kilometers an hour. So that’s hard. And about 100 meters away from the ship. Which was enough to take out two thrusters and shower the deck with shrapnel.” was based on initial reports and might have implied more damage than actually occurred. It is possible that “take out two thrusters” could mean as little as stalling their diesel engines.
Curious if the stage is programmed to avoid the ship if it malfunctions.
Blair-
Good stuff.
It’s amazing, the questions that never get asked.
Will they be able to build a new center stage for May, as planned for the next launch? I doubt they have another one lying around, if they had planned to reuse this one.
Localfluff , Elon said they were not planning to reuse any of these cores. So they must have one in the works for the next FH launch.
He also said if he could pick a core to lose, it would be the center core; all he REALLY wanted to recover was the titanium grid fins on the side cores because “wow, those are expensive”! Center core has the old-style grid fins.
Localfluff asked: “How could a near miss have damaged the drone ship more than the actual crash landings on the drone ships that SpaceX has demonstrated?”
The damage may not be as extensive as when the rocket crash on the ship, but it is in a different location, such as below the waterline rather than to the deck and the structures on/above the deck.
Localfluff asked: “Will they be able to build a new center stage for May, as planned for the next launch?”
My understanding is that the next Falcon Heavy rockets will be of the Block 5 variety. I am beginning to think that SpaceX is not confident enough that the previous variety(s) is as capable of three flights as they had believed, because they seem too willing to expend them rather than fly them a third time.