SpaceX doing fairing landing tests with its ship, Mr. Steven
Link here. Apparently they are using a helicopter to drop the fairing from an altitude of 11,000 feet to simulate a launch return, and the ship is then attempting to catch it.
It is unclear however whether the ship has been successful with its catching attempts.
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Link here. Apparently they are using a helicopter to drop the fairing from an altitude of 11,000 feet to simulate a launch return, and the ship is then attempting to catch it.
It is unclear however whether the ship has been successful with its catching attempts.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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 Mr Steven is named for Steven Miguez , chief executive of Iberia Marine and father of Blake Miguez, Iberia Marine’s President and CEO of SeaTran, which owns the vessel and its sister Mr Blake.
More about the ship (a modified drilling rig support craft) launched in 2014
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/mr-steven-fairing-catcher-boat/
Technical specifications from SeaTran’s site
http://www.seatranmarine.com/vessels-1/mr-steven
Local paper chimes in about “bizarre ship”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/22/whats-that-spacex-ship-with-the-massive-claw-arms-on-the-los-angeles-waterfront/
One last article
https://www.space.com/41614-spacex-mr-steven-catcher-boat-up-close.html
One might suppose that drop tests would have been done first, but I understand that if you have pieces of rocket falling out of the sky anyway, you may as well use that as a live test.
Blair Ivey wrote: “if you have pieces of rocket falling out of the sky anyway, you may as well use that as a live test.”
Doing a live test before the helicopter test gives an idea of the problems that actually need to be solved. Modelling can only go so far, but reality teaches better lessons. Once you know where the big problems are, helicopter drop tests can help solve the ones at the final approach phase.
Involving the ship, Mr. Stevens, in early tests likely tested the limits of the ship with respect to the behavior of the falling fairing. An early question to answer: can the trajectory/flight of a fairing be known well enough for a ship to get close to its splashdown site?
In retrospect, the creation of the following video may have come not from a desire to display the beauty and grace of spaceflight but from an early study of the behavior of fairings as they reenter the atmosphere (and you thought that engineering is dry and boring rather than beautiful and graceful):
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/the-evening-pause/spacex-the-blue-danube/
Neat stuff, Col. Thanks.