Falcon 9 booster returns to port
The competition heats up: The third first stage recovered by SpaceX, and the second in a row, has returned to port.
The link has several nice pictures of the booster, one at sea as it approaches port, and the second on the drone, showing the scorching on the stage’s upper body.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The competition heats up: The third first stage recovered by SpaceX, and the second in a row, has returned to port.
The link has several nice pictures of the booster, one at sea as it approaches port, and the second on the drone, showing the scorching on the stage’s upper body.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
In the landing video posted by SpaceX I noticed what looked like a stream of water directed at the rocket’s base coming from a fire suppression system. A flame continued for some time after the engines shut off as the water stream was moved around to find its target, but it doesn’t look like the suppression was effective, at least while the camera was running.
I wondered if 1) the flame seen was normal or 2) if there was any damage. I also wonder if SpaceX used saltwater in the stream of water that could be seen, and if so, what potential for damage that could cause to the rocket.
From these most recent images, the landing at sea looks like it introduces some clean-up and reuse challenges for SpaceX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHqLz9ni0Bo
It looks to me that one of the legs caught fire at the moment of landing, but the flames seemed to extinguish themselves. I suspect that this is not normal.
The flame that continues to come from the rocket engine is called “residual.” My understanding is that at engine shutdown, there is still some fuel and oxidizer in the plumbing from the turbopump to the combustion chamber, and it takes a few seconds to burn off.
In these three views, I did not see a stream of water, though, Frank. Could you please reply with the link you have? I would like to see what you saw. However, a barge of that size could easily carry a water supply that would be less corrosive than salt water.
Edward, it’s in the original spaceX broadcast at http://www.spacex.com/webcast
The water comes in at the 30:52 mark.
Thank you, Frank. It looks like I missed an interesting development the first time I watched. It is hard to say what the purpose of that was, but fire suppression is a good guess. It may also be an attempt to make the barge safe for a crew to come on board to secure the rocket to the deck (if that is a distinction).
Fire suppression on a pad can be important. A few years back, I saw a video of a small hopper of a rocket catch fire on landing, and remotely controlled nozzles sprayed foam onto the pad. I think this was Armadillo Aerospace.
I remember that couple of decades ago a test hybrid rocket tipped over and lay there burning for a while as the engineers figured out how to put out the fire in the solid fuel section.
And, of course, SpaceX has had a few opportunities to test their own fire suppression system on their barges.
Edward, you refer to AMROC’s large hybrid rocket launch attempt in 1989. I forgot the name of the rocket. The iced LOX valve did open only partly, which prevent vehicle’s lift-off, so that the vehicle burned down at the pad, however without any explosion.
Alex–
We probably don’t agree on politics to a huge degree, but I for one enjoy your input on Space, Rockets, Science, etc. indeed, “everything.”
(I try, to pay attention to smart people, even if we don’t vote alike.)
:)
Alex,
Thanks for the company name and the date. I didn’t remember it being in the 1980s, and I was too lazy, yesterday, to look up either event. I remember that it didn’t explode, but I didn’t remember that it “burned to the waterline.”