Video of SpaceX fairing drop test
Capitalism in space: SpaceX today released footage of a drop test of a fairing and the near miss catch by their ship Mr. Steven.
I have embedded the footage below the fold. After they drop the fairing from a helicopter, the ship comes within mere feet of catching the fairing in its giant net. Quite spectacular.
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX today released footage of a drop test of a fairing and the near miss catch by their ship Mr. Steven.
I have embedded the footage below the fold. After they drop the fairing from a helicopter, the ship comes within mere feet of catching the fairing in its giant net. Quite spectacular.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
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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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Bob – “ship comes within mere feet of catching the fairing in its giant net”
Doesn’t matter if it misses by feet or the width of the Pacific Ocean, it’s still a failure. You either catch it or you don’t – and they don’t. You wouldn’t call an airliner “almost” making the runway, “successful” (and I know, “Any landing you can walk away from is successful”). Matter of fact, there would be an FAA investigation and lawsuits.
To my mind, the parasail needs active control. Maybe it homes in on a radio beacon in the center of the net. It can’t hurt that both vehicles are trying to reach the same spot at the same time
Col Beausabre: Your comparison to an airliner is inappropriate. That is operational. This was an engineering drop test, where failure is often expected but useful in figuring out how to eventually make this system operational.
I personally have doubts about this system for recovering the fairing, but I am certainly not an expert. I admire the daring engineering, which seems to be getting them closer and closer to success.
Back in the fiftys and the sixtys when spy sats had cameras that ejected they caught the camera in the air. They had a special plane with poles on the front that acted like a funnel and when they caught the parachute they winched the camera onboard. With the speed of the faring, in the film, they could snare the chute by hovering and lowering a hook and then either lower it to the ground or hook it to a winch and pull it aboard or keep it close for landing.
“Missed it by that much!”