SpaceX successfully launches South Korean military satellite
Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched a South Korean military satellite, with its Falcon 9 rocket using the same first stage that launched two American astronauts to ISS less than two months ago.
This was the company’s fastest turnaround yet of a used first stage, 51 days, which also beats the fastest turnaround ever by the shuttle program, 54 days. And as you can see by the screen capture image to the right, they successfully landed it so that it can be used for a third time.
Watching the camera on that first stage after separation (on SpaceX’s live stream) to landing was most fascinating. After separation its tail end points down to the west and its launch site in Florida. As it curves upward and then down towards its landing in the Atlantic, its small thrusters and grid fins very slowly and gracefully swing that tail to instead point east and down to the drone ship. I had not noticed previously the gentleness of that re-positioning. The daylight clear weather today, plus excellent camera access, made it very obvious.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
16 China
11 SpaceX
7 Russia
3 ULA
3 Japan
The U.S. now leads China in the national rankings, 18 to 16.
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
Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched a South Korean military satellite, with its Falcon 9 rocket using the same first stage that launched two American astronauts to ISS less than two months ago.
This was the company’s fastest turnaround yet of a used first stage, 51 days, which also beats the fastest turnaround ever by the shuttle program, 54 days. And as you can see by the screen capture image to the right, they successfully landed it so that it can be used for a third time.
Watching the camera on that first stage after separation (on SpaceX’s live stream) to landing was most fascinating. After separation its tail end points down to the west and its launch site in Florida. As it curves upward and then down towards its landing in the Atlantic, its small thrusters and grid fins very slowly and gracefully swing that tail to instead point east and down to the drone ship. I had not noticed previously the gentleness of that re-positioning. The daylight clear weather today, plus excellent camera access, made it very obvious.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
16 China
11 SpaceX
7 Russia
3 ULA
3 Japan
The U.S. now leads China in the national rankings, 18 to 16.
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
Both fairings caught too.
I didn’t hear that… That’s Great news.
What a successful mission.
And as Robert mentioned to have only a 51 day turnaround for the first stage is phenomenal.
One of these days. Space x will buy a $50.00 camera instead of the $10.00 camera they use for the live booster landing.
John
I suggest you consider the challenge of instrumenting a camera to operate in close proximity (i.e. less then a 100 feet) in the blast zone of an operating rocket engine. Yeah NASA gave us great closeups of the Saturn V lighting off, but only from the side as the exhaust vented out through massive ducts, not IN the exhaust.
If SpaceX landed on a gridded deck With diverter plates underneath or something vs the flat plate they have, it would be easier. But try and imagine standing in the deflected exhaust of a 747 at full throttle and you get a sense of the challenge. This is a VERY high speed and energetic event with extremely high sound pressure levels, and electronics while reliable in general are sensitive to such extremes.
It’s not actually the camera that has issues, they always release the recorded footage later and it’s perfectly clear. It’s the satellite dish trying to maintain lock while the barge gets buffeted by up to 300,000lbs of exhaust thrust that’s the issue. And while it’s a solvable issue if they threw enough money at it, it’s certainly not worth it just to get the footage live, as opposed to a few days later.
And of course, contrast the video presentations we get from SpaceX to what you get from virtually anyone else, and there is no comparison.
StarLink transmitters are supposed to be phased-array in addition to having a physical motor, right? Hopefully that will help fix the issue, once they have enough coverage.
I hear what all of you are saying about the camera, (different answers) but if they can put a man on the moon……….
Has anybody seen video of the Octograbber (?) crawling out from its shelter and locking down the booster?
John pondered: “I hear what all of you are saying about the camera, (different answers) but if they can put a man on the moon……….”
It really depends upon the priorities. It is probably better use of resources to not work too hard on this minor, but annoying, problem.